Speed is key. Triage helps sort order in chaos and the time limit creates a scenario where there is lots of pressure. First is Prioritization – look at all the products and features that must be dealt with and rank them. Minor Problems are low impact and can often be taken care of them by [...]
It’s important to record testing – it serves both as memory aid for the tester as well as a powerful tool (evidence) for clients and stakeholders. I can also serve as an empathy aid for dev and design teams. Handsets matter. Users want to test to test with their own phones. If that’s not possible, [...]
Games are deeply embedded into Chinese culture, so playful interaction is needed to entice more users. How do you tap into a culture of competition. Scale is Huge – How do you rethink your UI/UX to account for actions in the hundreds of thousands? Safety is of huge concern in China. Seatbelts, however, are rarely [...]
DIY has caused an influx of mass customization and rapid propogation of ideas wants massive customization (3-D printing technologies, open source software). Makers will start to own the interaction model through environmental changes. The old model is massive variation leading to a favorite construct, leading to slightly less variation, leading again to a favorite construct. [...]
Gamestorming! Use the 6/8/5 sketch method to rapidly get ideas out on paper without huge overhead. Does it pass the sniff test? Use feedback from sketches to influence design – people are more likely to give feedback on low-fi mockups. Iterate, sketch, and play with ideas to work the bad ideas out of your head. [...]
The more information you need, the worse off you are – users only want you to have the data you really need. Flow is important to gaining traction in small apps – every button, field, etc. is a new risk of losing a potential user. Build on networks people are already using. Facebook, Google +, [...]
In the Desktop world devs are often concerned with browsers, their capabilities, and their shortcomings. Differences in browsers account for most of the code changes. In the mobile space, that’s been take care of. Mobile FF, Opera Mini, and Webkit all provide a very similar, up-to-date experience on a wide array of devices. A new [...]
Focus Groups: These are often done in situ. Individual assignments given before the discussion can be used to produce better results and data. Small workshops are sufficient for the data you’ll need to collect. Site Visits are important! “What people do, what they say, and what they say they do; are all different things”- Margret [...]
The scent of good information is strong – Humans are infovores for content. Content trigger words prompt users for action. Having a link is useless without descriptive content. Links secretly want to deliver you to the content. Good design is greater than the experience. The back button, however is the Button of DOOM. The back [...]
Watches and digital clocks point to a system that looks simple but is actually very complex. Only a few buttons, but presses, sequences, and the manual are all difficult to understand or remember. “I know it [simplicity] when I see it!” Designers see: Space (white space), Noise (visual cleanliness), and Hierarchy (typography) IXD see: Functionality [...]