Last week I needed to create a special website for a client project. The specific website is unimportant, but it’s a service that several companies offer – you create an account and configure the site, and they host it. I looked into two different companies for this web service…
In honor of World Usability Day, today, November 12, hundreds of usability conferences, design challenges and meet-ups are being sponsored and organized around the globe! Check out events in your local area and around the world.
HumanCentric will be attending North Carolina’s Triangle Usability Professionals’ Association and Carolina Chapter of HFES event at SAS. The event starts at 6 pm.
Staff from HumanCentric will present their solution to this year’s design challenge.
Happy usability!
This week marks the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. When I visited their website in a browser that didn’t support Flash, I was greeted by a fantastic error message: F is for Flash! What was so great about this error message? It felt like something Sesame Street would say. It used letters and alliteration, it had a happy Muppet character next to it, and it tried to sneak in a little educational information about Flash. It was also great from a user interface perspective. Much of the rest of the site was still usable; it explained what was happening and why I couldn’t use this part of the website (feedback), and gave me a helpful link to download and install flash so I could use the site (feed forward). I love it!
I’m starting to pay more attention to how sound is used in product design. When it’s good, I don’t notice it. When it’s bad, it’s all I focus on. This brings me to my coffee maker.
Coffee is a big deal at my house. When it was time to buy a new coffee maker, I was concerned with two main things: how it looked (as it’s the only appliance, other than my mixer, that sits out on the counter) and an auto-start feature. I loved the idea of prepping the coffee maker the night before and having fresh coffee made and ready when I woke in the morning. Sounds good in theory, right?
I recently attended an open house at my daughter’s middle school. It was one of these events where you get to wander around the school campus and learn about the curriculum and school environment. We ended the evening in the media center. At first I was looking for a computer lab, only to learn that what I saw as the library is now considered a media center. It was there that the differences between my education experiences and that of my children will be worlds apart. But it didn’t start in the media center.
I have played computer sales associate for my family for years, helping guide them when they buy a new computer and translating the technical jargon that goes into computer specifications. I’ve patiently explained that the new laptop probably comes with an 80GB hard drive, not an 80GB CPU, that RAM is for running programs and not storing photos, and that you don’t need a high-end graphics card designed for gamers if all you’re going to do is watch a few YouTube videos. So I’m very excited to see that AMD is launching an ad campaign focused on tasks, rather than technical specifications.
My husband downloaded the Kindle application for his iPhone recently, and, despite having a PhD in Computer Science/HCI, immediately proceeded to accidentally purchase a book. He started off well, downloading a free sample of the book from the Kindle store (screenshots 1 + 2). When he reached the end of the sample (screenshot 3) he wanted pricing information for purchasing, so he clicked on “Buy Now” and poof! purchased the book (screenshot 4). I’m not sure what surprised me more – the fact that Amazon, which has been doing online shopping for almost 15 years, managed to create an application that made it so easy to accidentally purchase a book, or that the accidental purchase seemed to be anticipated. Because after purchasing the book, the confirmation screen asked “Purchased by accident?” and provided a large “Cancel this order” button that immediately canceled the order. After I found out how easy it was to cancel the order, I had to try this myself, and decided that the design wasn’t nearly as terrible as I thought at first. Let me explain…
As user interface designers, how often do we consider the effect of a selected typeface on our UIs? Probably not enough. Of course we all remember to select a typeface that is legible on computer screens and things like that, but do we really look at it in detail? I can’t say I have recently. Until something made me think of it the other night…
Eric Taub of the New York Times posted on his blog this week an explanation of how Vizio, which was founded in 2002, became the largest seller of LCD TVs in the US. One of his key points: they provide an easy-to-understand one-sheet summary of how to hook up the TV, because no one wants to read a manual. If you can’t figure out how to hook up your TV, how likely are you to keep it?
Companies go to very great lengths to design and develop the latest and greatest child products such as child safety seats, strollers, and other contraptions. Parents feed this development by wanting to provide their children with the best in safety. Given all of these products, our children are probably the safest they have ever been. It is great that our children are so safe and snug, but what about the parents?
HumanCentric provides design solutions with.a focus on products, users and goals. Our process brings designers and researchers together to implement a customized approach for user and business needs. These are our thoughts on process, practice and life.
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