“Participants in the usability study accepted and appreciated the concept of incorporating information transfer and secure payment functionality into mobile phones. Retail purchases with a mobile phone were particularly well received, as participants found Philips NFC technology and Visa contactless payments easy to understand, convenient and fast.” (Source: Electronicstalk)
Usability study of near field communication and contactless payment technology…
(Thanks Dano)
I’m reviewing some crazy delicious CSS tricks from Mandarin Design.
Webword is going crazy delicious with the alphabet blocks. While I don’t have mad CSS skillz, I do have some Cntl-C and Cntl-V karate at my disposal.
Paul Sherman compiles the UPA salary survey.
I ask: Is there a glass ceiling for female usability practitioners?
Jason Coleman of Investor Geeks writes up some fantastic comments.
Paul Sherman responds: I’m planning to revisit the data and explore this issue.
I’m going to *strongly* encourage people to visit Paul’s blog to post comments. The UPA data is excellent and it sounds like Paul is the right guy to pound on it. Also, post your suggestions for chopping up the data in other ways. Let’s help Paul extract maximum value. Thanks.
Good introduction to the topic of user-centered design (UCD) by Marco Nieminen (PDF, 1MB). There’s something for everyone.
There’s a ton of great advice on how to create great PowerPoint charts. There’s also plenty on how to fix charts that are broken. There’s also plenty of good advice on how to create create presentations; How to Be Like Jobs.
But, there’s a problem with all of this. Most presentations are internally driven. Corporations force PowerPoint slides and most folks have no control whatsoever. That is, most cube slaves are consumers of slides, not producers. Where’s the advice on how to tolerate presentations?
Are you stuck in a sinking cage in shark infested waters? Even if you break out, will you get eaten or beaten by corporate policy?
“The purpose of this article is to provide you with a way to measure the level of effort required to successfully complete a project in respect to user experience. This is a powerful merging of project management, user experience, requirements and best practices. And, it is simple enough for a little monkey to use. More accurately, it is simple enough for me to use.” (Source: Apogee HK, Author: John S. Rhodes)
Watch out, folks. I’ve included a formula in the article. But don’t worry, it is pretty easy to follow. And, there’s a detailed example to smooth the way.
My main point is that it is possible to figure out how hard you have to work to create a great user experience. This topic has only been loosely explored by others. The key is that you have to understand what your users face while also knowing how well your organization can meet users needs. The formula shows how to get your arms around all of this at once. Enjoy!
How Much Effort Does It Take to Create a Great User Experience?
Two other articles I’ve written for Apogee:
Welcome to Monday!
Here are some great things I’ve already seen today:
“Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” ~ Brian Tracy
17-inch MacBook Pro
The First Ever iPod Introduction
Flash or AJAX: Choosing a platform for your web application
I agree with Lou Rosenfeld’s comment 100%: “Information architects are moving away from consulting and toward developing their own products and services”
Learning, Doing, Selling: 2006 IA Summit Wrapup
I called Dell and told them of my dilemma, and their first response was, “We are Dell and our parts are proprietary. The only place you can get them is from us.” Just to be sure that I’d heard correctly, I asked, “You mean to tell me that there is no place in all of New York City where I can buy or borrow a power supply?” You know the answer: “No!” (Source: Tom Peters)
Does Dell’s size have anything to do with their proprietary technology? I don’t think so.
Is Dell Getting Too Big?
Does it matter? Do users care? Any worthy research?
Conclusions: (1) Top left is probably best although the research seems to indicate that it doesn’t really matter. (2) Consistency from page to page is a good thing.
Good list, Leisa!
“The top 10 commands represented 70 percent of all scores given. The bottom 70 commands represented 1 percent of scores given.”
Good to know that the Pareto princple is alive and well.
“An important question relates to where the first navigational choices should be located on the page. Is the navigation better placed at the top of the page, on the left or right panels? If three clicks (i.e., three navigational level selections) are required to get to the desired content, should they be grouped together at the top, left, right, or split between different locations (e.g., select from the top, with the next selection[s] from the left, top or right)?”
“Kingsburg and Andre’s research demonstrated that navigational selection limited to either the left or right panels resulted in the best human performance and strongest user preference. However, there appears to be a performance advantage when the first selection is made from the left navigation panel as compared to the right navigation panel. This difference may be explained by the reading pattern of the participants (i.e., English reading requires reading from left to right and top to bottom).” (Source: Usability.gov, Author: Dr. Bob Bailey)
Left Hand Navigation is Best
“Today, audiences are becoming increasingly fragmented. Now, with the availability of on demand, self-programming and search features, some are moving beyond niche to individualized viewing.” (IBM)
When you watch TV, are you are part of an audience? Do you feel like you are single fish in the ocean? Do you feel like you’re in a movie theater with a bunch of other people? Where’s the crowd?
Do you feel fragmented?
“With increasing competition, the industry is confronting unparalleled complexity, change and pressure to innovate, as new markets, new consumers and new business models interact to reinvent TV.” (IBM)
In this situation, competition spells complexity and complexity translates to a poor user experience. Forget the wicked days of programming your VCR. Welcome to the age of nasty devices as well as digital diarrhea.
To be fair to IBM, these messages are clearly geared toward businesses. When is the last time you talked about business models? Entrepreneurs: Put your hands down. I know that you care.
