Julie Zhuo is the principal designer behind the Facebook Platform and Facebook Connect experiences, and has contributed to the last two major site redesigns. She sat down to chat with our Jared Spool.
read full article | hide summary
Tagging has been around for more than 8 years. The technique, also called folksonomy, is simple: users apply their own words or phrases to content they uncover, leaving a trail back for themselves and for future content seekers. Each tag conveys meaning, giving a path to discovering new content that traditional navigation can’t.
Since their inception, [...]
read full article | hide summary
When folksonomies showed up almost 10 years ago, they promised to make information on our sites easier to use. After all, if users apply their own tags to every piece of content, everything will be easier to find, right? Maybe yes, maybe no.
Our favorite taxonomy and category expert, Stephanie Lemieux, has spent the last few [...]
read full article | hide summary
Bill Scott chats with Jared Spool about rich interactions, his new book about them, and his deep history with them at Sabre, Yahoo! and now Netflix. Bill is one of the stellar presenters scheduled for all four cities on the UIE Web App Masters Tour.
read full article | hide summary
When our applications grow large and complex, how do we help users find the right commands and functions? If we were talking about large data sets, we’d build in a search capability. Would search also work for finding commands?
Our good friend, Hagan Rivers, explores that question in this issue of UIEtips. Inspired by our recent [...]
read full article | hide summary
Robert Hoekman, Jr and I are teaming forces once again, to do our best to answer your UX questions.
If you’re not familiar with it, Robert and I do a little podcast show we call Userability. You ask us a question. We give you an answer. Occasionally, we give you a good answer. Sometimes, we (and [...]
read full article | hide summary
Personas have been part of the UX toolbox for a while. Yet we’ve always wondered why teams don’t use them more often. A few years back, we set off to answer that question.
We discovered a variety of ways to create personas — each valuable in their own right. With our clients, we’ve been using a [...]
read full article | hide summary
The world's foremost authority on web forms is Luke Wroblewski, author of the heralded book, Web Form Design. It's no coincidence that we lean on Luke often to join us at events like our upcoming Web App Masters Tour. Jared Spool sat down with Luke to discuss what's been happening with web forms since his book came out. It winds up there have been some interesting developments recently.
read full article | hide summary
Over at Harvard Business Review, Tammy Erickson observes most tweets are not very interesting:
Frankly, most people’s tweets are neither interesting nor fun to read — certainly not on a daily or hourly basis. Many, not at all. I say this with no condemnation, since I admit mine are pretty lousy, too. And I have [...]
read full article | hide summary
Since my blog has been broken a lot recently I missed this excellent overview of Five User Experience trends by Gene Smith.
I can’t help but agree with all of them:
Services as Software – Gene is one of the first people in the UX industry to admit that good enough, fast and cheap tools [...]
read full article | hide summary
A fascinating post by Googler Gavin Doolan:
If you are considering making changes to your website design, take a moment to consider the potential revenue impact of your redesign. (This graph) shows a theoretical overview of the ROI impact of various parts of your website.
I love that: “theoretical overview”. In other words, they really have no [...]
read full article | hide summary
I recently posted this quote on the 52weeksofUX site, but I like it so much I’m going to post it here as well:
“All men dream; but not equally.
Those who dream by night in the dusty
recesses of their minds
Awake to find that it was vanity;
But the dreamers of day are dangerous men.
That they [...]
read full article | hide summary
As I sit looking at Tweetdeck this morning, scanning over 40 avatars of people I know and don't know, I wonder how much of my interaction is influenced by what a particular avatar looks like. Am I more willing to converse with someone who has a realistic avatar? A smiling avatar? Does the offbeat, non-human, text-based avatar inspire better communication or worse?
read full article | hide summary
I've set up a new Flickr group with the express intent of aggregating examples of microcopy, that tiny copy (often shorter than a sentence) that helps clarify, explain, reduce commitment, or otherwise assuage someone performing (or considering) a task. You can find the group here:
Flickr: Microcopy read full article | hide summary
Trust me, no one likes filling in forms —especially on mobile devices where one-handed, on-the-go data input and slow connections are common place. As a result, designing forms that make mobile input faster, easier, and less error-prone is crucial. Here's a few ways it can be done.
Expedia's mobile Web site has made several modifications to the desktop version of their hotel booking form: the layout has been optimized for slender mobile screens; the "search near" set of options has been listed out; and the room count input uses a set of "+" and "-" buttons instead of a drop-down menu for input. Yet, there's still room for improvement.
The form uses a free-form text input field that requires users to provide clarifying information on another screen if a mistake is made. And in many mobile contexts (fat fingers, one-handed typing, on the go) —mistakes do happen.
The date selection field makes use of a calendar pop-up that requires people to tap a small ">>" target to advance to the previous or next month.
The set of inputs for guest count uses (up to) three drop-down select menus for input, which require manipulating a list of options in a pop-up list.
Kayak's mobile iPhone application also allows people to book hotels but it features a few additional mobile optimizations.
Current location is available as a single click input in addition to a free-form text input. This allows people to search for hotels where they are now without typing.
The free-form text entry field provides inline suggestions as you type. This not only reduces the amount of typing required (it only took me 3 characters to see Monterrey, CA), but it reduces errors as well. On the Kayak form, there's little need for the clarification screen Expedia requires.
The date selection calendar allows people to use a simple scroll gesture to move between months instead of tapping a small target to change months. Users can just flick the calendar itself up or down through direct manipulation instead of having to use the ">>" control Expedia requires.
The Kayak form doesn't use any drop-down menus, opting instead for "+" and "-" buttons that are easily tapped on a touch screen. (I'm not sure why Expedia uses these for room count but not guest count as both inputs only need to support a small number of possible values.)
In aggregate, these small enhancements go a long way to making forms on mobile devices faster and easier for people to complete.
Since that last time I outlined the growth of social networking on mobile devices (in November 2009), things have only accelerated. Here's a few recent statistics on the growth of social activity on mobile devices.
In January 2010, 11.1% of all mobile phone users accessed a social networking site via mobile browser, an increase of 4.6% points from the previous year. (source)
30.8% of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January 2010, up 8.3 points from 22.5 percent one year ago. (source)
Access to Facebook via mobile browser grew 112% in the past year to 25.1 million users in January 2010. (source)
Access to Twitter via mobile browser experienced a 347% jump to 4.7 million users in January 2010. (source)
Facebook’s iPhone usage jumped 20% in under a week at the start of March 2010 (source)
More than 100 million people actively using Facebook from their mobile devices every month. This comes less than six months after Facebook announced 65 million people on Facebook Mobile. (source)
On March 16th I’ll be speaking at Microsoft's MIX10 conference in Las Vegas, NV on Modern Web Form Design. I'll be building on my presentation at last year's MIX conference with a deeper dive into the usability and interaction design of today's Web forms including: inline validation, accordion forms, mobile Web forms, and more.
Official Description
The web has been transformed by the recent proliferation of rich interactions and applications. But the workhorses of the online world, web forms, have been slow to evolve with these changes. As brokers of crucial online interactions like e-commerce checkout and registration, forms bridge the gap between people, their information, and your product or service. As a result, web form design matters. But web forms aren't keeping up.
Come see a walk-through of the latest applications of rich web form interactions (made possible by dynamic technologies like AJAX) including: dynamic help systems, inline validation, selection dependent inputs, and more. Also get an outline of how gradual engagement approaches to form design can create compelling new user experiences for a wide variety of web applications and services. Learn how these modern approaches to web form design can enhance your websites and applications.
On March 24th 2010 I’ll be speaking at the UIE Web App Masters Tour in San Diego, CA about Input: Moving Beyond Static Web Forms. I'll discuss several ways Web applications can collect user input, through both mobile devices and desktop software, without forcing users to complete a lengthy sequential forms.
If you are interested in going, feel free to use the discount code: LUKE for $100 savings on the event cost.
Official Description
A web app can't exist without the user's input. We need the data, but do we need the form? Traditional web forms, made up from text fields, radio buttons, check boxes, and a submit button, have been the mainstay of application design. In e-commerce, social applications, and productivity tools, web forms continue to define crucial web interactions. Thankfully, new approaches for input now give designers more to work with and create better user experiences.
Today's interaction techniques, powered by technologies like Ajax, move us beyond the static submit-and-refresh page model, delivering users real-time feedback and providing lightweight interactions. With these tools, we increase the quality and accuracy of user inputs, encourage further contributions, and reduce the users' pain. What was a static form now becomes an engaging conversation.
Luke will explore several novel ways web applications can collect user input, through both mobile devices and desktop software, without forcing users to complete a lengthy sequential forms. He’ll provide detailed research-based solutions that articulate not only the “how” but the “why” as well. You'll walk away with practical web form design solutions you'll immediately put to use.
Luke's pioneering approach to web design has always made us think about how to create great user experiences. His best-selling book, Web Form Design, is a treasure we reference frequently. We easily understand why Yahoo! appointed him as their Chief Design Architect, where he's contributed to major design improvements across the entire company. We know you'll be blown away by his session.
In his presentation about Designing Firefox, Alex Faaborg outlined two distinct approaches to design:
Focus on user-research to find out what people need/want. The downside of this “user testing” model is that users can lead you astray. For example, if you ask everyone what their favorite color is the average will be gray.
Bring a specific vision to life through an impression of the user you want to have. The downside of this “strong designer” model is if designers don’t know what they are doing, it could be a disaster.
Author of Designing Web Interfaces, Bill Scott, contacted me recently to suggest a third model of doing design: quantitative analysis driven mostly through rigorous A/B testing (exemplified by Amazon and Netflix). My first response was "I don't think Alex considers that doing design" but the actual situation is a bit more nuanced.
In fact, I believe there are actually three main ways to make software user interface decisions: Designing, Optimizing, and Managing. Each of these models can “move pixels” on the screen but not all are explicitly design-driven. Depending on the model a product team is most comfortable using, expectations of design professionals and their output can vary. As a result, it may be useful for interface designers (be they visual, interaction, or information focused) to consider the prevalent model on their team and act accordingly to either shift or meet expectations.
Designing: decisions are evaluated by how well they contribute to an integrated “human-centric” experience. This is the model most designers crave because it leverages their ability to empathize with their target audience and think holistically.
Optimizing: decisions are made based on explicit testing of isolated variables to drive very specific behaviors. Designers create variations of a control that are evaluated systematically. The elements that perform best likely become part of the user interface.
Managing: decisions are reached through discussion or debate. In this model, designers represent the collective decisions of groups within the product by laying out what everyone agreed to.
While all of these models may be in use at the same organization, perhaps even on the same product, I think it is useful for designers to be aware of the distinction so they know how to operate effectively. Most organizations skew pretty strongly to one style of decision making or the other. However, a healthy integration is where the magic happens.
As sharing controls continue to pop up across the Web, it's worth understanding how people are using them. To that end, here's a compilation of the sharing behavior seen across several of these in recent months.
Gigya sharing activity from February 2010: Facebook 44%, Twitter 29% Yahoo 18%, MySpace 9% (source)
AddThis sharing activity from February 2010: Facebook 33%, Email 13%, Twitter 9%, Google 6%, MySpace 6% (source)
Tell-A-Friend sharing activity from November 2009: 59% of all shares on the widget were done via email, 25% via instant messenger and just 14% were passed along on networks like Facebook (11%) and Twitter (1%). (source)
ShareThis sharing activity from October 2009: 46.4% of all shares on the widget were done via email, 33.32% via Facebook and 5.82% through Twitter. (source)
AddToAny sharing activity from July 2009: Facebook has 24% of shares using their widget, Email has 11.1% and Twitter has 10.8% (source)
In his presentation at the ZURBsoapbox today, Firefox principal designer, Alex Faaborg, discussed the process of designing the Firefox Web browser. Firefox is used by 120 million people daily and is the second most popular browser in the World.
There are two distinct approaches to design
One focuses on user-research to find out what people need/want. This approach is exemplified by Microsoft and is used mostly to mitigate risk. The downside of this “user testing” model is that users can lead you astray. For example, if you ask everyone what their favorite color is the average will be gray.
The second tries to bring a specific vision to life and an impression of the user they want to have. This approach is exemplified by Apple and can result in huge success or failure. The downside of this “strong designer” model is if designers don’t know what they are doing, it could be a disaster.
Mozilla’s design team has a specific vision they want to bring to life but they do so in the open.
In open source design, everyone has an opinion that needs to be heard so they stay engaged.
The design team deals with all these opinions with this by focusing on core principles to make decisions and giving contributors freedom to explore.
“That would make a great extension”. The extension model gets people out of debates –they can always build an extension to bring a feature they believe in to life.
In open source, you need to elevate contributors who know what they are doing. The Firefox team nominated designers who were criticizing the logo to fix it.
Flow: cognitive state people enter when they no longer focus consciously on the means of accomplishing the task they are doing –they just naturally do it. How can the interface fade away in software products?
How to not draw attention to Firefox but still be unique? The team divided visual elements (shape, colors, textures, etc.) across two objectives: half were used to blend with the operating system, the other half were used make Firefox feel unique.
Visual hierarchy: most common actions get the most prominent treatment. Tivo remote is a great example of this. Playstation 2 remote is an anti-example.
Physical: how quickly can you get to where you want to interact? Cognitive: can you remember where the control is (similar to landmark recognition)?
You can still tell what the controls in Firefox are even without the icons. They have a physical recognition.
Quicksilver is a software product that molds behavior over time. It gets more streamlined the more you use it. Alex “stole” that idea for the Firefox Awesome bar. The Awesome bar meshes with how people use the browser address bar and gets better with use like Quicksilver.
Selective variables: people can process visual variables in a single glance. Color works effectively to distinguish information. Google search results work this way: blue links, green domains/urls.
Firefox 4 will finally put tabs on the top (after a lot of back & forth debate).
It will have a locally hosted home page. The Web browser knows a lot of things about your Web surfing patterns. Could display, for example, RSS from pages you visit often.
The team is exploring location to tune content on home page and “app tabs” as a more permanent element in the Web browser
Private browsing mode in Firefox 4 has a very dark color.
The Web is maturing into a full application platform. Have more access to things only the operating system could tackle before.
Almost everything boils down to personal preference. The final solution to almost everything in Firefox is to “give the user the option”. This adds up to too many options and makes for a difficult UI.
The role of a designer in an open source company is to facilitate ideas rather than be the source.
A while ago, I came across a unique registration form built by Jeremy Keith for his audio sharing site, Huffduffer. Though it asked people the same questions found in typical sign-up forms, the Huffduffer registration form did so in a narrative format. It presented input fields to people as blanks within sentences (Mad Libs-style, if you will).
Jeremy built the form to work as you'd expect. You can tab between the "blanks" just the way you tab between standard Web form input fields. You can click on any "blank" to start entering text. The password "blank" masks any characters you enter just like a standard password input, and the whole form manages errors if you answer any questions incorrectly. In other words, it works like a standard Web form but it looks quite different. The presentation is inviting and fun, which is quite unlike a standard Web form.
After seeing the Huffduffer form in action, I was curious how it would perform against a traditional form. Would people be more inclined to complete it because of the narrative format? Or would the unfamiliar presentation format confuse people? Thanks to Ron Kurti and the team at Vast.com, I now have some early answers.
Ron and his team ran some A/B testing online that compared a traditional Web form layout with a narrative "Mad Libs" format. In Vast.com's testing, Mad Libs style forms increased conversion across the board by 25-40%. You can see a before and after view of the Contact Dealer forms where they ran these tests below.
Most of the input fields have stayed the same but the "comments" text area has been replaced by a "personalize this message link" and the phone number set of three input fields has been replaced a single flexible input. While it's possible these adjustments also contributed to the increase, it's unlikely they were solely responsible for it. As a result, the mad libs layout likely had an impact as well.
Examples of this form are live at Vast, Kelley Blue Book, and several more sites. Ron and the Vast.com team are rolling out new versions of these forms over the coming weeks and will continue to test improvements. Hopefully, they'll be able to share their results again.
Thanks to Ron Kurti for sharing these images and performance stats!
Vast.com, Inc works within the auto, travel, and real estate industries to create online marketplaces for the world's most respected companies. Partners such as Kelley Blue Book, Orbitz Worldwide, AOL, and Overstock have integrated Vast's custom platform into their portals to serve over 20 million consumers per month.
I wanted a way to see if somebody had entered “illegal” data into loaded fixtures. So I wrote this simple rake task. It’s also useful to run as you add more validations to your files.
read full article | hide summary
Blogging for the first time in a long time from my wife’s computer, because I’m installing my brand new Intel SSD hard drive in my macbook.
Oddly enough I ran into a few things during the install process that I think Apple could improve in their interface. (using Snow Leopard)
Apple should recognize a new unformatted disk [...]
read full article | hide summary
I recently deleted a branch from our (svn) code repository. Did you know that it’s the general recommendation to delete a branch after a merge to ensure that nobody commits to it. (see svnmerge wiki for more on that advice)
Svn checkout, svn info, etc. all fail when you try to access the deleted branch immediately:
$ [...]
read full article | hide summary
I wanted to add a menu item in Finder’s context menu that would open the selected folder in Textmate.
A google search suggested the method described by K. Adam Christensen on his blog: “Opening a directory in TextMate from Finder“. However, from the documentation, I learned that that method is now outdated. Snow Leopard users should [...]
read full article | hide summary
For a project I’m working on, I had to change some files with personal settings, and the files kept showing up with a
git status
.
Adding files to .gitignore that are already tracked does not work. (and it’s actually pretty well documented in the documentation). In stead, it’s possible to use this command:
git update-index --assume-unchanged [filename(s)]
From [...]
read full article | hide summary
There are alternatives to Resolve Symlinks When Copying Files With Rsync .
How about firing up a (tiny) webserver that starts up quickly. Yehuda Katz suggested this some years ago:
Just drop this file in any directory, run the script, and it serves the files. I use this frequently for instance when I need to browser test [...]
read full article | hide summary
This Stackoverflow user asked How To Remove Trailing Whitespace Of All Files Recursively.
This reply helped me to work around the fact that \s and \t are not supported in the mac version of sed:
find dir -type f -print0 | xargs -0 sed -i .bak -E “s/[[:space:]]*$//”
So using [:space:] can actually work for both [...]
read full article | hide summary
I have recently discovered an alcoholic in my family. And in order to deal with that, a friend pointed me to Al-Anon which has material and publications to help relatives.
The angle for this blog, however, is that i wrote this small script to remove scrollbars and remove menu when printing page. The script works on [...]
read full article | hide summary
UX Magazine's Managing Editor, Jonathan Anderson, and Contributing Editor, Whitney Hess, will be on the ground looking for interesting UX stories and professionals.
We're looking for suggestions of who we should talk to, what companies we should meet with, and what stories we should cover. There's also an overwhelming number of exciting parties, so we're trying to decide which ones to check out. If you have any suggestions for us, or if you're at SXSW and see something interesting we should capture on tape or video, please send us an email:
A 3D FX and UI designer examines UI concepts in futuristic movies.
While I was doing research for a virtual user interface I was creating in 3D, I spent some time looking at some of the virtual UIs that have come out of Hollywood. A lot of money and thought goes into their development, so I figured they would make good reference material for my project. While you can’t take the virtual UIs in movies at face value, they do contain some nuggets of information on what the future might hold.
Complexity
I’ve noticed that UIs in feature films are continually getting more elaborate and complex. Meanwhile, though, real-world interfaces are getting more simple and intuitive. It seems an odd contradiction that the futuristic UIs we dream up for movies follow one path, while real world ones are heading down another path.
But the reason for this is simple. Complexity conveys the impression that a system is very robust and advanced, and a character’s mastery of a complex system is more impressive than it would be if the system were simple and intuitive. No matter how complex the system gets, the hero can always operate it expertly, leaving the audience dazzled by the UI and the character’s skill. In the real world, though, users are more often like Mr. Magoo than like Tony Stark or (as in the clip below) an MI5 agent. So while high-aptitude, heavily trained users might be the fantasy world for UX professionals, it’s not the world we live in. The trend toward complexity in movie UIs doesn’t give us much of a preview of the world to come.
Gestural UIs
The most notable use of gestural UIs that I can think of was in Minority Report. It’s impressive to see Tom Cruise moving his arms around to call up and manipulate video. But the large and intricate motions he makes wouldn’t work in actual practice. Our arms get tired, and it is hard to make such intricate motions with precision without any form of tactile feedback. Another issue with this method is that all of the commands Tom Cruise employs are completely memorized. Systems that don’t show commands rely completely on memorization and training. This is faster for an expert but takes a long time to master. Recalling commands, especially when stressed, can be very challenging.
Gestural UIs will be a part of our future. They are already present in several devices such as the iPhone and some video game systems, and they’re in development for televisions. In order to be successful these UIs will have to be supplemented with menus or be extremely intuitive. If they are to be a major part of the overall interface they will need to be driven by lazy or small motions that won’t tire out a user. The exception here would be something like the Wii where the gestures are more engaging and getting tired is part of the game.
The XBox Project Natal is a new gaming system that will be gesture driven. Unlike the Wii (which uses a remote with an accelerometer to capture movements), Natal will use a camera to detect motion. This may not go over well with users as it doesn’t provide any sort of feedback. Holding a prop steering wheel as you would with the Wii feels more engaging than an imaginary one as you would with Natal.
Eye Tracking UIs
This concept can be seen in the movie Iron Man. Tony Stark accesses various widgets just by looking at them. This concept is universal (cross-cultural)—just look at something to activate it. My concern is how the system knows the difference between someone glancing over an item and intentionally focusing on it. The idea of “hover intent” isn’t as applicable since the human eye doesn’t scan across a UI and come to rest on a particular spot like a mouse. Our eyes dart from spot to spot with temporary pauses as they pass over a screen. This could be worked out by having timer trigger based on the eye movements. Another issue would be temporary distractions that cause us to look away from the UI would potentially close applications we were working on. Interactive billboards will be a very likely candidate for this technology; in fact, a few of them already exist.
Voice Activated UIs
Probably the most famous incarnation of this is Star Trek. The ship’s crew can issue almost any command verbally and the ship complies. This technology is already present in most cell phones, some cars, and computer programs. If you own any of these systems you may already know some of the current technological pitfalls. The systems struggle when you speak fast or issue long commands. They also rely heavily on you speaking with the proper inflection (which is hard to do when you are panicked, distracted, or sick) and they user must have commands memorized. I often only use a couple commands in my car because they are the only ones I can recall while flying down an interstate full of cars. The only other alternative is asking for a list of commands that is lengthy and distracting.
On the other hand, these systems are extremely useful when you can’t use your hands or have a handicap that prevents you from interacting with the system normally. The key here in the future will be an easy method of retrieving commands and keeping voice commands short and simple.
Stereoscopy / Holographic UIs
Most recently, you can see these in the movie Avatar and District 9. In Avatar, human brains are projected in 3D allowing the doctor to look around at all parts for any abnormalities. In District 9, the alien ships are piloted with holographic UIs, something that is especially useful in navigation. These are a great idea as they help separate content from UI, and separates what is important at the moment and what isn’t. This can be faked in 2.5D systems as is done now, but with full dimensionality the effect is enhanced as well as allowing the user to create better groupings and spatial mappings. One trick to this system will be locating the right uses of this technology. Novelty will not be a good reason to make a UI 3D. Dealing with geography, multiple dimensions, and multiple axes will be good reasons.
While the keyboard and mouse work just fine as 2D inputs, these UIs will benefit greatly from other forms of 3D input such as multiple cameras comparing imagery to locate users in 3D space, manipulating a device in 3D that contains an accelerometer, or perhaps other current methods of 3D motion capture used in films and games today. In any of these methodologies, feedback will be important. Users will need to feel some sort of resistance to know they have pushed a holographic button. A simple visual indication won’t be satisfying enough. Perhaps a glove that provides feedback will be the solution.
Transparent UIs
Many of the movies that have come out lately feature transparent UIs. They are very visually stimulating and work for something like a HUD in a jet fighter since you need the UI laid on top of the elements behind it. However, it doesn’t work for a typical screen. It provides too many distractions when you add the elements on the screen with the complex visual scene and motions occurring behind it.
Large Fonts
Jakob Nielsen included the use of large fonts in his list of top 10 movie UI bloopers. I don’t agree with him on this one. His reasoning that fonts are unnecessarily large so that people in the audience can read them is sound. However, our culture of computer users is going from a “leaning forward” posture to a “laid-back” one. As we buy larger monitors and find more UIs on our television screens combined with wireless input devices, we’ll need those larger fonts to read the screens from farther away. Instead of sitting at a desk to interact with a computer, we are doing it more and more from our couches.
Adaptive UIs
The only really good adaptive UI I can think of is the Omega widget in Tony Stark’s final Iron Man suit. In the movie, the Omega widget is a single widget that contains all of the information from the previous widgets. However this one only shows information and options that are currently pertinent.
The easiest UIs are ones where each command has a unique button, but the number of buttons shown is limited to only the current options. This methodology allows for a tremendous amount of information and commands to be available, but without cluttering the user’s screen. Adobe is utilizing this currently in Catalyst and I’ve seen it in sneak previews of Adobe Rome.
Am I going to ditch my iPhone for a Puma phone? No. I am, however, really impressed by how Puma has chosen to enter a space that’s already way over-saturated. In an industry full of me-too-ing, they clearly recognized that the only chance they have to make any mark is to come to market with something genuinely different and from the looks of these demos and screenshots, they’ve done just that. This is evident from the memorable (and very well-branded) UI, the playfulness that permeates the OS and even some of the hardware additions:
That might be thanks to some of the silly stuff like a calculator that teases you when you try an operation it deems too trivial, a pet puma on the device called Dylan (who shows up on-screen when you leave your handset untouched for a while), and an audio player with a turntable you can actually scratch—but the real draw is probably the solar panel around back.
In a lot of ways, Puma is showing up manufacturers that have been making phones for years by demonstrating how even the little guy can make a splash if he’s willing to take a chance.
Facebook has updated its Communication Channels Best Practices. A must-read for any developers who want their apps to be "streamlined, clear, and less spammy."
Categorizing feeling words and the Product Reaction Cards to develop custom cards.
Most user experience designers will have heard of the Product Reaction Cards (doc), a set of 118 words and phrases developed for Microsoft by Joey Benedek and Trish Miner in 2002 that can be deployed in a user testing workshop to help people articulate their emotional responses to a product.
The Product Reaction Cards are part of the Desirability Toolkit (doc) that suggests facilitators ask users to choose the cards that "best describe the product or how using the product made them feel" and then ask them to narrow their selection to just five cards. The cards selection process is then followed by an interview where the participant explains why they selected those five cards.
Whilst the 118 card deck seems to work for the creators of the PRC, some people think it's too much—I posted a question on UX Exchange a few months ago about and received responses like "unnecessarily fiddly" whilst another said they use a subset of the cards. Donna Spencer, author of Card Sorting, commented:
…at the end of the test the last thing a participant wants to do is go through this big pile of cards. It takes quite a lot of time, but I don't think the gain is worth the pain.
Whilst I support the goals of the cards to prompt people and provide a full vocabulary than might otherwise come to mind during workshop sessions I've been wondering if there might be a different approach.
For example, in the book People Skills, Robert Bolton talks about using adverbs to describe the level of intensity as well as grouping feeling words into "families":
By preceding feeling-word adjectives with appropriate adverbs, you can communicate with some accuracy the degree or intensity of feeling.
You could select adverbs appropriate to the adjective, as in the example Bolton uses:
You feel a little sad because your dog died
You feel quite sad over your dog's death
You feel very sad that your dog died
You feel deeply sad since your dog died
Or you could opt for a normalised Likert scale approach that could be applied to any adjective; although that would require participants to explicitly state their opinion of every feeling word, phrased as questions like, "This product makes me feel stressed: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither Agree or Disagree, Agree or Strongly Agree."
It's intensive but it is a more analytical and thorough approach.
The "families" that Bolton refers to is a matrix of categories of feeling words grouped by levels of intensity for example in the category of emotional feeling words for "sadness":
Strong:
Desolate
Anguished
Despondent
Depressed
Mild:
Glum
Blue
Sad
Out of sorts
Weak:
Below par
Displeased
Dissatisfied
Low
This grouping of feeling words by level of intensity, the use of adverbs or a Likert scale, coupled with the Production Reaction Cards authors' recommendation to maintain a 60/40 ratio of positive to negative words should provide you with a better framework should you wish to alter or reduce the list of 118 words and phrases whilst ensuring you still cover the full range of emotional responses.
Think of it like a paint palette where the type of emotion is the hue and the intensity is the brightness. You might not need your 16.7 million colours but if you're going to cull your palette at least take a sensible and logical approach to it.
This is especially important if you want to follow a quantitative approach to reporting on research conducted using the PRC as mentioned in the book Measuring the User Experience by Thomas Tullis and Bill Albert.
What are your experiences with using the Product Reaction Cards—specifically if you culled the list of words and phrases or came up with your own? What technique did you use for developing your custom set of cards and how do you think your choices affected the quality and thoroughness of the emotional response inquiry?
What I learned in the process of developing style guidelines for voting system documentation (which, astonishingly, took about a year) is that most heuristics—accepted principles—used in evaluating user interfaces come from three sources: lore or folk wisdom, specialist experience, and research.
Though style guidelines for content are important, I’m going to talk about each of these sources of heuristics with various design examples. I’m sure you’ll see something that you’ve encountered before.
Lore or Folk Wisdom
First comes guidance from “They,” as in “They say…,” for which no one knows the true source. For example: “Feed a cold, starve a fever.” “Never end a sentence with a preposition.” “Limit the number of items in the main navigation to seven plus or minus two.”
Where do these come from? Someone’s belief that this is a good practice. They may have heard something or done something that they think supports the practice, but there’s really no basis in fact for any of these.
A New York Times article by Anahad O’Connor says that recent research about whether to eat a lot when you have a cold and fast when you have a fever is inconclusive. No one seems to know how this one started. It may just feel like there’s some inherent logic to it.
Not ending sentences with prepositions was encoded by a British guy named Henry Fowler in 1926. He was a crotchety, proscriptionist pedant, but his book was a best seller. People wanted guidance about how to speak and write “properly,” especially in class-conscious England. So a rule to not use words like “to,” “in,” “for,” “with,” or “on” as the last word in a sentence became wildly popular as a marker of a well-bred, well-educated person. But it was really just Fowler’s personal preference, and today the practice seems like an affectation.
My favorite example in the Web design world is a guideline about limiting the number of items in a navigation menu or list to five to seven items. Most people don’t know where this came from; if they did, they’d know that this isn’t the best use of that “rule” and imposing it actually won’t make the design usable. This one does originate in research, specifically an article published in 1956 by George Miller in the Psychological Review called “The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information.” The findings from the research Miller describes are about working memory. The lore passed down from that article is that humans can only hold about seven things in their short-term memory at a time. But Miller very heavily qualifies this as “suggestive” and an “estimate.” More importantly, what in the world does this have to do with designing website navigation? Nothing. Navigation is persistent. We’re not asking people to remember from section to section where they can go. It’s right there for them to see and use. The number of items in navigation should be determined by the data from research about the users and their task goals.
If you find yourself saying “they say” or “I’ve heard” when you make an observation about a design issue, you may be caught without a lot of support for your point. Basing an inspection on your own experiences observing users can hold more authority.
Specialist Experience
Older adults who use the Web need high contrast and large targets. If they are not expert Web users, they can be easily distracted, so to ensure that they’re successful, we should design in smooth task paths and clear labeling that doesn’t use jargon.
One of my special interests since about 2003 has been Web design for older adults. I’ve internalized the design principles above (as well as many others) after watching dozens of people who are age 55 or older use a variety of Web sites. I am confident that implementing a design that takes these design principles into account will make the design easier for older people to use than designs that use subtle colors layered on one another, small buttons and links, and cluttered page layout with trendoid headings and labels. Though I have observed many types of people using lots of different kinds of websites, I have specialist experience from watching one audience try to do typical tasks on a variety of websites.
Specialist experience means expertise in a particular domain or product. You get it only after hours and hours and hours of seeing the same kinds of things happen to the same types of users. Basing an inspection on specialist experience is definitely a step up from working from lore, but if you haven’t distilled what you have found in the many hours of observing a type of users using a site or type of site, then you may be working from hunches and opinion that could make it difficult for you to justify the evaluation recommendations.
Evidence From Research
Some things that experienced designers have internalized do have data to support them: eliminate horizontal scrolling, design for working memory limitations, facilitate scanning.
On the way, the NCI team realized that not all guidelines were equal. Some guidelines were supported by a lot of data from multiple studies (like the high-scoring heuristics above). Some guidelines might come from only one study. Still, evidence was evidence, and NCI wanted to use “quantified, peer-reviewed Web site design guidelines,” which they found simply didn’t exist. And as far as I know, there’s nothing like the resource NCI created at usability.gov.
To reach their goal, NCI put together panels of experts to review research. The panelists then rated each guideline for strength of evidence that, among other considerations, needed to be “cumulative and compelling” for a 5 out of 5. The idea was that teams could use the ratings to help them make design decisions. But the guidelines were not meant to be a substitute for usability testing. Why not? The main reason was that the guidelines at usability.gov were developed for information-rich websites (versus e-commerce or transaction-based sites) with content about major illnesses. That’s fairly specialized. But when you read through the 500 guidelines that NCI identified, it is obvious that almost all could apply to many types of websites or many types of pages within sites. Your mileage may vary.
The Basis of the Heuristic Matter
As the folks at NCI learned in developing usability.gov and I learned in the work for NIST[*], the provenance of a heuristic is important. This is true of all implicit and explicit heuristics applied in design decisions.
Learning about where heuristics come from—lore or folk wisdom, specialist experience, or research—helped me understand better where some of the teams I’ve worked with were coming from as they developed design principles. Sometimes they based the principles on lore, sometimes on expertise. Rarely did they go to the research.
Expertise is good, but research is better. Research-based heuristics simply have more heft: credibility, specificity, and applicability.
Still, there’s no substitute for primary research. Firsthand observation of your users in their context reveals subtleties of behavior that even research-based heuristics can’t match. And if your research of your users in their context contradicts the known research, what do you do? (You don’t get two guesses to answer this question.) If you go with what your users do, then even the most deeply researched heuristics are at best a poor substitute for doing the right thing.
[*] I couldn't have made the discoveries I did on that project without Susan Becker, my project partner, who did most of the heavy lifting.
Related Links
You can pore through the evidence-based guidelines for usability developed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at usability.gov.
You might also want to check out other sets of research-based heuristics and guidelines. I've worked on a couple of them:
The future of touchscreen interfaces is: you? A project between a Carnegie Mellon researcher and a couple of creative thinkers over at Microsoft Research have created Skinput, a Bluetooth-enabled device that allows you to use your own skin as a peripheral input device for devices like cell phones, MP3 players or gaming consoles.
This is one of those things that's better shown than explained:
It's clearly a long way off from commercialization. But as they've demonstrated, this has a lot of potential for keeping devices in pockets and out of hands, allowing people to stay focused on their activity rather than on operating their devices. This also seems like one component of a potential future system that converts sign language communication to synthesized speech.
Earlier this month the Boxee beta was released, and the consensus so far is that the overall experience is a huge improvement over the alpha. While I have not been formally engaged with Boxee since May (such is the life of an independent consultant), I am incredibly pleased to see that many of my ideas were implemented and made all the better by Boxee's small but outstanding team of visual designers and developers.
The Process
I conducted interviews with six prospective users (people who at the time had never used Boxee) and five existing users. I also performed usability testing with five existing users (three on their laptop and two on their home TV).
For the user research, I asked a boatload of questions about people's media consumption habits and attitudes. Of the 11 people I interviewed, two people subscribed to basic cable without DVR, five people subscribed to digital cable with DVR, and four people did not subscribe to cable at all.
Everyone I interviewed watches TV and movies using their computers, at least in part; approximately half had substantial personally-stored media collections and almost all used streaming media online. All interviewees also consumed digital music and photographs to some degree.
These individuals all considered themselves tech savvy, but represented both ends of the spectrum: from tinkerers to zealots. While some were programmers, others worked in technology only tangentially as business analysts, writers, designers, and sales representatives. They also had varying use of social networking websites, Web applications, blogs, and other websites.
The questions I asked during my interviews are below.
User Interview Questions
Tell me a bit about yourself. Where do you live? Where are you from? What do you do?
What kind of computer do you have?
What kind of TV do you have? What stuff do you have hooked up to your TV?
Tell me about your TV watching habits. Cable? Satellite? How often? Where?
Who do you usually watch TV with? How do you decide what to watch?
What kinds of shows do you watch? Are there shows that you watch regularly? How do you remember to watch them?
What are your movie watching habits?
Do you watch movies on your computer? How? Where? When?
Do you watch videos, movies or TV shows online? How? How often? Where?
Do you subscribe to Netflix or similar? How do you use it?
Do you use Hulu, YouTube or other online video sites?
What is your personal movie collection like?
Are you using any media centers now? Which ones? Experience with them?
What is your personal music collection like?
What are your music listening habits? How and where do you listen?
Where do you find music?
Do you listen to music on the Internet? Where?
Have you ever played music at a party you were hosting? How? Where?
Have you ever played music through your TV? What do you use? How do you navigate? Keyboard/remote
What is your personal photo collection like?
Where are your photos stored?
What photo applications do you use?
What photo sites do you use?
Have you ever displayed your photos on your TV? How? What do you use? How do you navigate? Keyboard/remote
Not only did we want to get to know prospective target users of the Boxee application, but it was also important that we receive input on how existing users are currently using the system. To measure the ease of use of several areas of the Boxee experience, I conducted usability tests with five existing users: three of whom most regularly use Boxee on their TVs, and two who primarily use Boxee on their laptops.
The usability tests started with each user simply walking me through their typical usage scenarios, from launching Boxee, to finding a movie or TV show to watch, to scanning through their music. Then after approximately 30 minutes of this natural navigation and discussion, I asked each participant to perform a series of tasks. This helped to identify breakdowns in user flow, usability flaws and bugs, or generally any problematic areas in the experience.
The tasks were as follows:
Start watching one of your favorite TV shows.
You just realized that you've already seen this episode. Switch to the next episode.
You're done watching this show for now. Switch to another favorite TV show.
Our friend is in an episode of Army Wives. Find it.
Now you're in the mood for some music. Play one of your favorite songs.
Check out the latest episode of This American Life on NPR.
These usability tests resulted in a wide array of findings, and several themes emerged across participants. I have collected the most pervasive and significant areas of difficulty and have provided my recommendations on how to resolve the problem. The issues are organized by content area.
Personas and Scenarios
To aid in the design and development of the beta, I developed three personas derived from insights I learned in my research to depict Boxee's target users; I called them a Practical Dad, a Techie Bachelor, and a Principled Fan. The personas do not reflect a single person, but rather are an amalgamation of various interviews. There is a lot of intellectual property captured in the personas so I will refrain from sharing them here.
I also developed a set of high-level scenarios to describe how each of the personas would interact with an ideal Boxee application. The scenarios helped us envision the right workflow, step-by-step, and allowed us to identify the key features necessary to meet users' needs. A selection of the scenarios we aimed to support are:
I want to see if a movie is available online
I want to subscribe to a current season of a TV show
I want to pick up where I left off in a movie or TV show
Features
From the scenarios I was able to draw out an extensive list of features across multiple areas of the app that would need to be implemented in order to meet our target users' needs. Overall, we wanted to provide users with greater ability to discover content across sources, easier ways to sort and filter lists, and quick access to their favorite programming.
It was a long, long list, and not everything that ideally belongs in the app was realistic for our release schedule so we were forced to triage. We started first by prioritizing scenarios, and then marked each feature as Must Have, Should Have, Nice to Have, and Won't Have. This helped focus the team on what we needed to tackle immediately.
Flows and Wireframes
Now with the full set of features we were intending to implement, I set out to weave them together in an easy to use way that would make for a pleasurable experience. I drew flow diagrams to indicate how a user would navigate from screen to screen, and then created a series of wireframes of the key screens to recommend layout, prominence of features and content, necessary functionality and data display.
The Outcome
Take a look at some of the key screens of the app below, and see how my wireframes laid the groundwork for the beta's redesign.
Home Screen
Navigation
TV Shows
In the Press
Ars Technica 1/13/2010 "The program's user interface has undergone a significant transformation that simplifies navigation and makes Internet content easier to access."
TechCrunch 1/07/2010 "The new version is really a complete overhaul of the app — it's received a new, sexier UI that makes it easier to browse through the service's content (and anything you might have saved locally too)."
Mashable 1/07/2010 "The UI overhaul is significantly better…"
Wired 12/31/2009 "Yes, there are many methods for putting web video on your TV, but Boxee is the most elegant solution I've seen. For the beta release, the whole user experience has undergone a slick redesign."
CNET News 12/09/2009 "…new beta has a completely redone interface that is far superior to the alpha's."
Lifehacker 12/07/2009 "From the outset, it looks a whole lot more pretty and user friendly."
Gizmodo 12/07/2009 "What looked impressive during the demo was how cleanly it aggregated both local and online sources of video content."
Engadget 12/07/2009 "We're particularly fond of the new global menu for quick shuffling through the menu and to shortcuts."
What Do You Think?
If you're a Boxee user, I would love to hear your thoughts on the beta. Praise, criticisms, and questions are all welcome.
Over at UX Matters, Michael Hawley writes about a quite interesting take on how to measure the viability of an visual design: Ask people to describe their experience of a design by selecting adjectives such as "busy", "fresh", "clear" and "trustworthy" from a predefined list. Then asses how these adjectives align with the goals you have set for the design.
The Swedes have this deep and heartfelt respect for Jakob Nielsen that he really deserves. Now, they made a film in his honor. May come to a cinema near you...
Here's a short tutorial on how you can create an interactive prototype using InDesign. The screens are created as pages, linked together and the whole thing is exported as an interactive Flash movie.
Watching over 800 user test sessions, cxpartners report to have seen the page fold as a barrier to users on only 3 occations. In addition, eye tracking studies commonly show a strong hotspot over the scrollbar, indicating that people expect to have to scroll.
Cxpartners gives the following advise on how to deal with the fold:
- Don't cram everything above the fold. Use whitespace and imagery to encourage scrolling.
- Don't use stark, horizontal lines as they discourage scrolling
- Avoid the use of in-page scroll bars - the browser scrollbar is an indicator of the amount of content on the page
Here's a great example of an envisionment made for the media company Bonnier. It shows the tangible results of a research project exploring the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices.
I just picked this up from my Twitter stream. It's quite an amazing event. Edward Tufte helping the American public see where their $787 billion in economic stimulus tax money is going to help revive the US economy. Turning to Tufte is a brilliant move by Obama and a big win for innovation.
Here is what Tufte says:
"I will be serving on the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel. This Panel advises The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, whose job is to track and explain $787 billion in recovery stimulus funds:
"The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board was created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with two goals:
To provide transparency in relation to the use of Recovery-related funds.
To prevent and detect fraud, waste, and mismanagement.
Earl E. Devaney was appointed by President Obama to serve as chairman of the Recovery Board. Twelve Inspectors General from various federal agencies serve with Chairman Devaney. The Board issues quarterly and annual reports to the President and Congress and, if necessary, "flash reports" on matters that require immediate attention. In addition, the Board maintains the Recovery.gov website so the American people can see how Recovery money is being distributed by federal agencies and how the funds are being used by the recipients.
Mission statement: To promote accountability by coordinating and conducting oversight of Recovery funds to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse and to foster transparency on Recovery spending by providing the public with accurate, user-friendly information."
I'm doing this because I like accountability and transparency, and I believe in public service. And it is the complete opposite of everything else I do. Maybe I'll learn something. The practical consequence is that I will probably go to Washington several days each month, in addition to whatever homework and phone meetings are necessary."
We need more designers and design thinkers like Tufte in government.
I am going out to Stanford in a couple of weeks to talk about the future of Design Thinking/Innovation and I'm prepping by seeing a Ph.d in social anthropology who also happens to be the best financial journalist around at the moment--Gillian Tett. Tett writes a column for the FT and was just appointed head of the US Financial Times. Her book, Fool's Gold, is a must-read.
I learned three things from Tett's columns and book: 1- many, if not most of the important innovations over the past decade took place in the financial services space: 2- the innovations were made possible by technology--faster computers and newer algorithms, but the actual creation of the innovations took place within a new and very specific culture of finance composed of ritual, rites of passage and beliefs. Think Thomas Kuhn's paradigm shift here: from accepting more or less public market regulation to rejecting all regulation and believing that any financial market regulation is bad.
We know that it all ended in financial and economic disaster, with the worst recession since the last depression. The world got THIS close to a complete meltdown because the social context of technological invention messed up. The symposium at Columbia University with Tett will discuss the belief system, patterns of behavior and rules that came together to enable the financial crash. She will use the tools of social anthropology to explain what went wrong with financial innovation and why we need to change the culture of finance, not just the tools of finance, to prevent another catastrophe.
When I was in South Africa recently, I had dinner at an art school sponsored by Robbie Brozen, President of Nando's, an 800-restaurant global chain that sells grilled chicken with Mozambique-Portuguese Peri Peri sauce. The restaurants, started in South Africa and now are over much of Asia. Two Nando's recently opened in Washington DC and more are coming.
The ads for Nando here and here are hillarious. This last also shows the art on the wall. Who did these ads? And the others that you should check out on YouTube?
Rob Brozen told me he was thinking of stepping back from the day to day operations at Nando's and become the Chief Creativity Officer. The fast expansion of the chain plus the recent recession had forced him to focus on efficiency and operations. But Brozen was worried that Nando's was losing some of its early creativity, so he was going to focus on it and not suffer the troubles of Starbucks. I wish him and Nando's luck.
Rob told me you can buy Nando's Peri Peri sauce at Fairway in NYC but he wasn't going to open up a restaurant in New York anytime soon. New York is a tough chicken town, with lots of competition. So I'll have to take the Acela to DC to encounter the designed eating experience coming out of Africa.
I just returned from South Africa and the Design Indaba conference and if you are interested in creativity, innovation and design, put it on your list of "must-go" annual confabs. Putting an incredible array of brilliant speakers including Stephan Bucher, J. Craig Venter, Han Feng, Piyush Pandy, Li Edelkoort and Christien Meindertsma in one of the world's most beautiful cities, Cape Town, in a truly emergent country context (the shantytowns are a few miles out of the city-center near the airport), makes for an experience unlike any you've had in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum or Long Beach, California for TED. At Davos and TED, people talk about social innovation and designing solutions for the poor but the poor are absent and invisible. At Design Indaba, they are THERE. The problems are in your face. The need for innovation/design-generated economic growth and jobs is clear, not abstract.
Moreover, a creativity conference inside a hugely creative emergent society like South Africa generates a whole new level of ideas and conversation. South Africa has a deep, rich, varied culture that hits you the moment you get off the plane. This is quite unlike Singapore or Shanghai which face you as supremely "modern" first world cities. African culture is a huge resource that is just beginning to be commercialized and sold in world markets (much like India's). Music is leading, but South African textiles and fashion are amazing, the food is incredible, the graphic and product design unique and appealing, the furniture is different. South Africa has retained it craft traditions while plugging in to the most modern technology. In an interview, I talk a bit about the potential to generate economic growth from the rich South African culture.
Morevoer, the hunger to hear and see some of the world's best creative talent present by the near-2000 Design Indaba audience of business people, designers, government policy-makers, students and design educators was palpable, not jaded. This was the warmest big audience I have ever engaged with.
The biggest and best design/innovation/creativity conference in Africa is Design Indaba. It opens in Capetown on February 24, runs through the 26 and is followed by a fantastic Expo of South African industry through the next week. I've been wanting to go to Design Indaba ever since Yves Behar and Tucker Veimiester went and had amazing times. Now I get the chance to give a talk, learn a lot and have fun.
Design Indaba is a showcase of South Africa’s local design talent in fashion, advertising, architecture, craft, film, graphic, interior and product design, jewellery, new media, publishing and visual media.
I also get to arrange for a free trip for Parsons School of Design grad, Michael Edwards, to present his own work at the conference. Design Indaba invites students from around the world to get up and show that they are doing.
This is how the article begins: "From batteries to cars, BYD engineers have found that successful product manufacturing begins by copying others."
Yes, Warren Buffet is investing in an auto company that cuts costs and generates value by reverse engineering Japanese, European and American cars, steals their technology and intellectual property, and resells it at a lower cost. Yes, BYD also use a lot of cheap human labor to keep costs low, but it begins by reverse engineering and not paying for the technology it takes.
As virtually every US, European, Korean and Japanese company knows but doesn't publicly say, this model of copying but not paying for foreign technology is THE PARADIGM in China. I was on a plane flying home from Beijing recently and overheard a manager from a US company selling electric car-charging stations to China admit that he believed his technology would be copied in a year or two, without any compensation paid. But it was still worth it to his company and he hoped it could stay ahead of the high-tech curve.
I've seen true innovation and creativity in China. Lenovo, to my mind, is a truly innovative company. So is Haier. And there are thousands of creative people in social media and tens of thousands students graduating every year with great creative skills.
But the culture of copying remains the dominant one in China. It apparently is reinforced by government-condoned, if not sponsored, cyber-espionage on a vast scale that penetrates computers and steals technology from companies and governments all over the world.
I hope the forces of creativity win out over the forces of copying in China. For many industries, there may soon be a time when there isn't anything left to copy from the West, but there will be no culture of creativity to move forward and build the new. I am encouraged in this by the fact that inside China, there are publications like Caixin online that can escape government censorship and publish the truth about the Chinese manufacturing and export "miracle."
BYD is scheduled to sell all-electric cars in the US soon. They will be cheap. There is a reason for that.
There are two awards, one for New Ideas and activism and one for Lifetime Leadership and contribution. The award money is serious--$200,000 is shared by the two winners. As Rockefeller puts it: "Together the medalists represent the creativity, innovation and dynamism of New York City."
The 2009 recipients of the Jane Jacobs Medal were Damaris Reyes, Executive Director of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), and Richard Kahan, Founder and CEO of the Urban Assembly.
Here are Jane Jacobs' urban principles:
"Make New York City a place of hope and expectation that attracts new people and new ideas
Challenge traditional assumptions and conventional thinking
Promote dynamism, density and diversity
Generate new principles for the way we think about development and preservation in New York City
Take a common-sense approach to complex problems
Provide leadership in solving common problems
Respect neighborhood knowledge
Generate creative use of the urban environment."
As a native-born New Yorker, I love them.
I'm going to be on the jury this year. Please enter.
The Foodspotting iPhone app — inspired in part by Alexa Andrzejewski’s mobile visioning work here at AP & built with help from Dan Harrelson — is now in the app store! Launch was announced by TechCrunch.
Teresa Brazen (of Adaptive Path) teaches Ben Chun’s Introduction to Programming class about User Experience Design!!! Read Ben’s thoughtful recap [...]
read full article | hide summary
Hooboy. When it rains, it pours! The last few weeks have seen the addition of a number of new folks here at Adaptive Path.
In Austin, we’re thrilled to have Kristina Barnett join the team. She contracted with us initially, and we fell in love and asked her to make it permanent.
The rest of [...]
read full article | hide summary
I love museums, and am fortunate that San Francisco has a number of great ones. I especially enjoy exploring museums with a friend. Wandering through a museum sharing thoughts about what we see is a big part of how I experience art and history. I also love to learn as much as possible about what [...]
read full article | hide summary
I’m dropping the word “user” from user experience. Flame on.
First, I’m not suggesting anyone forget the user – the person using the thing – from our consideration. Quite the contrary. I believe that the user should always come first in any design discussion, even initially above business needs.
What I am proposing is that today’s consumer electronics [...]
read full article | hide summary
An admitted oversimplification, I still find it helpful to think of the history of computing use to have three primary waves.
In the 1st Wave, the use was straightforward: Calculation. Whether to figure out trajectories of artillery, to support Manhattan Project, or manage astronomical math, it was largely a matter of numbers in and numbers out.
Photo [...]
read full article | hide summary
We’re sad to have The Winter Olympics come to a close this week. Catch up on the latest or wait another 4 years.
A great breakdown of the “Global Visual Language” developed for BCC’s online and mobile sites.
We were surprised to see Luke W’s experimentation with mad-lib style form design increase conversion rates by 25-40%
A breakthrough [...]
read full article | hide summary
It’s eerie when the Miriam-Webster word of the day feels more like a horoscope than a vocabulary lesson.
Yesterday in the Adaptive Path Newsletter I published an article called Embrace your Page Rage. And later in the day I got this:
The Word of the Day for February 24 is:
logomachy \loh-GAH-muh-kee\ noun
: a dispute over or about [...]
read full article | hide summary
Some new analysis about how to reach customers triggered an interesting conversation within the walls of Adaptive Path . We thought we’d share our insight with readers and get your feedback.
Two prominent articles on the topic make the the case that “Brands must stay focused on where customers already are”. Steve Rubel makes the claim:
“I believe business [...]
read full article | hide summary
A recently published international standard requires manufacturers of medical devices to follow a systematic usability process. To comply, manufacturers of medical devices will need to change the way they design, develop, test and manufacture their systems.
read full article | hide summary
This article reviews 6 simple but powerful research techniques you can use to improve the information architecture of your product or web site. None of these activities requires a computer. You simply need a bunch of cards, a participant and a desk.
read full article | hide summary
Do you spend so much time firefighting that you forget to think about your career? January is as good a time as any to think about improving your career prospects so here are some tips to help you get more from your job — or even get a better job. Presented as 12 bite-sized, monthly activities, do just one a month and watch your career take off this year.
read full article | hide summary
Follow a young man's journey as he discovers the three secrets of user-centred design. After reading this 40-page fable, you'll understand the framework of user-centred design and know how to apply it to your own design project. It's a small book that has big results.
read full article | hide summary
For most products, it's easy to track down participants for a usability test. But there are some products where end-users are difficult to find and recruit. For these products, it's better to use surrogate users as a proxy for genuine users than not to usability test at all, but you must manage the risks appropriately.
read full article | hide summary
A typical usability test may return over 100 usability issues. How can you prioritise the issues so that the development team know which ones are the most serious? By asking just 3 questions of any usability problem, we are able to classify its severity as low, medium, serious or critical.
read full article | hide summary
When trying to communicate the process of user centred design to senior managers it helps to convey the idea as concisely as possible. This process diagram conveys the various steps and phases of user centred design on a single page.
read full article | hide summary
Does your organisation use personas to describe users' characteristics, goals, needs and behaviours? Although they are a popular tool for communicating knowledge about users, many personas are little more than anecdote, hearsay and rumour. These kind of fake personas rapidly fall into disuse. Make sure your own personas get used by validating them against this 7-item checklist.
read full article | hide summary
The idea of “hover intent” isn’t as applicable since the human eye doesn’t scan across a UI and come to rest on a particular spot like a mouse. Our eyes dart from spot to spot with temporary pauses as they pass over a screen. This could be worked out by having timer trigger based on the eye movements. Another issue would be temporary distractions that cause us to look away from the UI would potentially close applications we were working on. Interactive billboards will be a very likely candidate for this technology; in fact, a few of them already exist.
In District 9, the alien ships are piloted with holographic UIs, something that is especially useful in navigation. These are a great idea as they help separate content from UI, and separates what is important at the moment and what isn’t. This can be faked in 2.5D systems as is done now, but with full dimensionality the effect is enhanced as well as allowing the user to create better groupings and spatial mappings. One trick to this system will be locating the right uses of this technology. Novelty will not be a good reason to make a UI 3D. Dealing with geography, multiple dimensions, and multiple axes will be good reasons.
