Archive for the 'Usability and Human Interface' Category
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I loved this.

Partially because I’ve got some of these obsessive/compulsive tendencies when I see stuff like this wrong in the world, too. Partially because it is a good idea. And partially because I know companies ignore stuff like this when they should pay attention to it - in fact, this is great marketing material (e.g. “the little things that make Subway better.”)

While I was born inherently visual, I think it’s partially Donald Norman and Seth Godin’s fault, though for making it nearly impossible for me to walk out of any establishment without a mental “improvements” list I’d like to send the proprietor. I think the only places I go where such rarely happens are Disney, BMW service centers, Starbucks, and McDonalds.

Postscript:� From the lefthandedtoons.com blog, even more goodness.

1 year ago, one of the worst plane crashes in recent years happened here in Lexington. 49 people died when flight 5191 went down due a runway mix-up.

This morning, WTVQ decided to send out last year’s RSS feed headline and story again resulting in the image you see below. Did we have another crash?

It turns out the web page is showing a “one year later” discussion, but the feed itself was obviously forgotten.

Look closely at this news story’s date.

People using content management systems need to educate all users of what will go out not only on the browser, but on the RSS feed.

The Blackberry Desktop Manager (BDM) has become my enemy, even as my new BlackBerry Curve has become my best friend. With my MPX220 Smartphone I used to be able to just walk NEAR the office and Bluetooth would sync to outlook - hands off automatically. If there were conflicts, my sync rules would handle them. I could be a good 30′ away and all was good. I have pulled up IN MY CAR outside my office and sync’d without getting out via Bluetooth and driven away. No kidding. I realize I could buy sync-over-web, but this has worked really well for me.

It really was sweet. But now, the BDM will not allow such luxuries. Not because of the hardware itself (it has far better bluetooth range than the MPX220 in fact) but because of problems (for me) in the user interface (UI) design on the BDM.

First issue….BDM’s designers have decided that they need to ignore the connection options chosen by users in the Windows Bluetooth control panels. Just because I have selected “do not confirm bluetooth connections” doesn’t mean they have to actually LISTEN to that setting choice, right? BDM ignores these settings and proceeds to confirm every attempted connection by my Curve. Showstopper for proximity syncing. Gotta click “OK” to continue. Physical Presence Required #1.

Second issue…The confirmation box at the end that boasts “Desktop Manager Synchronized Outlook for you!” kills further synchronizations and locks up my blackberry in the “Connected to Desktop” screen (as long as you’re in bluetooth range.) You mu st walk to the damn computer and dismiss it before the sync can happen again. Just release the connection and give the status another way!

The point of the Blackberry was to improve our productivity not to force us to admire the success of your software! Physical Presence Required #2. Proximity sync showstopper #2.

The hardware is sweet. The handheld software has been sweet. But Research in Motion should be ALL OVER the Desktop Manager team to fix these inexcusable Gaffes.

I’ll be psyched if someone can tell me that I’m doing something fundamentally wrong. You’ll get link love galore and I’ll have happy-day-yes.

Jakob Nielson’s latest Alertbox is the longest-read enewsletter in my list. The writeups are focused and brilliant. I only wish I were skilled enough to translate them into convincing arguments when talking to clients. That’s me, not Jakob, who’s needing refinement I know.

In the latest Alertbox (June 25) He writes, in the Pros/Cons of Whether Designers and Developers Should Do Usability this, as a “Con”…the Lack of Objectivity:

“If you test your own design, however, you might be less willing to admit its deficiencies. Designers can be too willing to dismiss user complaints or problems as minor or unrepresentative, when in fact the test indicates the need for a deep redesign. Also, designers can get so caught up in their own theories about how users ought to behave that they forget to test for cases in which people behave differently. “

Here, my interjection for multivariate testing data serving as the myth-buster for such activity. When a designer or developer gets a particular idea in their head about how something should be done, well developed testing that polls users’ behaviors via well-designed software systems and test suites should be able to close the gap and remove this “Con” from the table.

But as Nielson Points out, who’s writing the tests, and are those tests focused on the particular pet-peeves of the designer or developer? In my examples, are the variables we’re testing too focused on that designers favored bits?

I’ve found the rather mechanical process of creating on-line multivariate tests tends to remove some of the favoritism. It makes you think in segmented parts, and while you might still have a bit of ego invested in a design, you become more objective in the whole thing once you start taking it apart for testing. Could it be that such testing neutralizes this “worry” when it comes to designers testing their own designs? Should variable definition be more of a part of the web design process?

I find myself thinking hard about the variables I’m going to have to test when I’m brain-mapping a layout. Headlines, navigation, visual elements, flow, buildup, call-to-action, and so forth. But “pure designers” do not seem to do this. Flow might be on their mind, but it’s more a concern about “general fluidity” than tilting the entire thing towards a specific action. I’m usually in the game to make money with my clients, not to impress visitors as much - and I’m sure this changes the entire thought process. I’ll bet a middle ground would be ideal here.

From the “Must have been a feature they finished up on Friday” department.� I bring you….. the 1 second voice mail from quickvoicemail.com

On the tail of a 2 day feature outage where my ‘out of town’ message was stuck “in place” now I am vastly less patient for these blatant time wasters.

This makes their entire engineering effort seem ridiculous.� Even voice mails up to 10 seconds long are empty - every time.� In fact… I have set up an Outlook rule to clean up this crap that’s forwarded to me.� But it doesn’t help when I have to log in to their system and clean them up.

Outlook Rule: Yep.. forgot “1 second”.. didn’t think I needed it..� but I was wrong.

I’m definitely in the market for a new hosted voice mail.� Giving Grand Central a try after a few people have recommended it.

Surely some funny Brit is going to bound out, Monty Python-Style, and tell us they were kidding…. Please?� The 2012 Summer Olympics Logo, which emerged from a sober and straight faced committee, was meant to be “very different from what had gone before”…”A brave endeavor.”� � At the same time,� thousands of talented English graphic artists cry in their Guinness at the horror of it all.� And now… the epilepsy scare� after complaints and a failure of the HardingFPA flash and Pattern Analyzer� test suite.

Tony Blair said:� “When people see the new brand, we want them to be inspired to make a positive change in their life.”� � I think� this change may come in the form of turning away from this hideous thing.�

Dear Seth, perhaps this is the reason for the jaggy picture?

� Still one bright spot is the collection of user-generated uploads found on the Design Gallery, a large number of which are more attractive and moving than the chosen one.� Among my favorites, are George Wasall’s design, William’s from London,� and Chris’ from Malaga Spain.� One I found particularly disturbing was the mushroom-cloud-like design here.

Side note… Wolff Ollins’ work normally blows me away.� WTF with this logo?