WebWord

Communicating Complex Ideas (Boxes & Arrows) — “The most successful sites are those that understand the experience range of their users.”

Where should “User Experience” be positioned in your company?

Cultural usability revisited; or Why are Finnish kids not making a scene?

Usability Exchange — “By connecting content providers directly with disabled end users we provide an environment in which accessibility and usability issues can be resolved quickly and easily.”

Responsible Asynchronous Scripting — “This lower barrier to entry also makes it easier to make poor decisions and inappropriate use of a powerful technology.”

What I learned from eye tracking (Seth Godin) — “You can see that some of the participants are slower, more linear readers, while others are jumping like mad, taking it all in.”

On Eye Tracking – an overvalued technique — “There is big money in eye tracking, and the heat maps are great for senior management presentations. I think that’s the biggest reason eye tracking is the latest hype in the usability field.”

B2B Usability (useit.com) — “User testing shows that business-to-business websites have substantially lower usability than mainstream consumer sites.”

Some Cell Phone Owners Spurn Gadgetry — “But the wireless industry needs him to be comfortable with advanced features and actively use them. As the universe of people who want a cell phone and don’t already have one gets smaller, wireless carriers are counting on advanced services to generate the bulk of new revenue in coming years.”

Got Surveys? Recommendations from the Trenches — “…but surveys, done right, can be a powerful method of gleaning key learnings and a great complement to other traditional Usability methodologies.”

The evolution of the NetFlix envelope (CNN) — “The key to Netflix’s lean operations is its lightweight, versatile mailer. Here’s how 7 years of tweaking paid off.”

Expert Voices: Peter Morville on why information architecture matters (CIO Magazine) — “There are a lot of things beyond usability that we’re striving for in designing the user experience.”

From a WebWord reader:

“My boss insists that the correct way of typing is to use two (2) spaces after a period or colon. I have read the information on your website, and would like you to confirm that using one space is the correct way to type.”

This really tickles me. The issue won’t die. Probably never will. In any event, here’s my response:

“It depends.”

John S. Rhodes
“Industrial Strength Usability”
http://webword.com

I’ve always had a warm spot in my heart for comic books and I try to stay alert for cool things related to them. A good friend recently passed along a link to a music video that really blew me away. While you might not like the music, the video is presented like a comic book with action from panel to panel. Furthermore, since the video is, well, a video, certain “special effects” were possible. For example, there are several places where the heroes and villians break through one panel and into the next. Definitely two thumbs up, especially if you are interested comic books.

If you’re confused, here are some more details. This is a rap video animated in comic book format. I’m told it is a collaboration between MF Doom and a hip-hop producer named Madlib. The name of the album is Madvillain. Don’t miss the video.

Related: Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.

The ultimate cell phone is first a phone.

• It is not a game machine.
• It is not a web browser.
• It is not an MP3 player.
• It is not a camera.
• It is not an email client.
• It is not a calendar.
• It is not a clock.
• It is not an IM device.
• It is not a Global Positioning System.
• It is not a modem.

Again, the ultimate cell phone is first a phone.

Not convinced? Here’s some evidence:

• Some Cell Phone Owners Spurn Gadgetry
• Just a cell phone
• Are gadgets too complex?
• Survey Says Smart Phones Too Hard to Use

“Software usability is one of the hardest things to get right. Writing good, usable software is the holy grail of software development, yet few developers give it more than an afterthought. As a professional developer, I delight in writing software for other developers but shy away from writing an interface that the end users will see. What resources/books are recommended for improving your Human Computer Interaction (HCI) / software usability skills?”

If you want the perspective of the Slashdot community (i.e., hardcore geeks) on the topic of usability, this is a must read.

Check out the responses…

“Don’t Make Me Think and The Design of Everyday Things … two of my very favorite books.”

“…don’t confuse usability with user responsibility.”

“Photoshop and Illustrator are classic examples of what I consider bad user interfaces, because things that should be simple and obvious, aren’t.”

“In my mind, the entire point of a GUI is that you shouldn’t have to RTFM to do the basic functions of the application.”

“…it must be known that those that create the software should NOT be responsible for designing the interface.”

“Many people who are good programmers aren’t necessarily good at user interfaces, or worrying about how people will interact with the software.”

“The best resource for making sure your software is usable is to watch people use it.”

Jef Raskin’s The Humane Interface

“So remember to design the interface around your users and your problem. Your program is literally the interface that sits between the users and the problem, a bridge as it were.”

“Spend the money to hire a good usability expert, and have THEM perform proper usability studies. Good usability is NOT necessarily about a “clean UI” or “clean code”. It’s about a product that people know how to use.”

“Don’t assume user expertise: always assume your user knows NOTHING about computers.”

“In other words, while there is indeed a place for simplistic software (witness the popularity of basic photo editing programs that literally only offer crop, size, and red-eye removal), it is by no means desirable for all software to be simplistic. Complex tasks require complex interfaces.”

“If you want to that the basic principles, simply go with the Apple Human Interface Guidelines”

“Read Nielson’s essays. Then do what they say. Specifically conduct usability testing in the manner he prescribes – anything else is a waste of time and money.”

“The importance of “usability” is overstated by people who make money parroting it.”

“Just interface your program with an electrode in the control device. Then when the user does something stupid, you zap them!”

“I highly recommend GUI Bloopers: Don’ts and Do’s for Software Developers and Web Designers”

“I have read those books, and its just a bunch of blowhards telling you what they think is good UI, its not necessarily what is going to be good UI for your applications.”

“The talent is in understanding and putting yourself in the place of an end user. Its understanding your target audience and catering to their needs. This varies with every software project you work on and no book is going to cover all the bases.”

I recommend The User Interface Hall of Shame

“Tog on Interface”

Keep in mind that IT people often serve as usability experts in disquise, as they frequently must find ways to simplify and work with badly designed software and hardware that they have no power to change.

Unfortunately, WebWord was not mentioned. That’s really a shame since I think this site hits on usability and user experience (UX) in ways that engineers and developers would appreciate. If you think that your friends or colleagues would like WebWord, definitely let them know about it. Go ahead and link to WebWord if you have a site.

That’s all for now. Have a great weekend.

Design Patterns: Part 1 (Author: Luke Wroblewski, Props: Column Two) — “Part one of Design Patterns: a conversation about defining and sharing user interface design languages.”

Architecture and interaction design, via adaptation and hackability — “So what follows directly addresses one of the stated purposes behind this blog: to see what we can draw from the culture and practice of architecture and design into this new arena of interaction design – and some of the issues in doing so.”

Peter Merholz’s closing plenary at the 2006 IA Summit (Props: Information Design)

Customer Made (Props: 37signals)– “…bringing you new insights and hands-on examples of firms already profiting from co-creating with their customers.”

The Guided Wireframe Narrative for Rich Internet Applications (Source: Boxes & Arrows, Author: Andres Zapata) — “It is true that RIAs make our jobs harder. But it is also true that they introduce some very exciting opportunities that can significantly improve user experience and flow.”

Smart: Give a talk, convert to article — How to be Silicon Valley (This essay is not related to usability but I like most of Graham’s writing so I’m posting the link. He sort of reminds me of Shirky.)

Google Is Tops For Search, But Lags Rivals In Portal Services — I haven’t seen any radical stepwise improvements from Google on search in a loooong time. Are their updates too subtle? I have to tell you, I’m getting some damn good results from Ask.com these days, and I like their interface goodies (e.g., narrow search, expand search, site preview, related names). Meanwhile, some of Google’s recent stuff, like video advertising, seems a bit weak. Whatcha think?

Free Choice and The Usability of Links (Cre8pc) — “Why does underlining words that don’t link anywhere matter?”

Inline Linking Bad for Usability

I’ve just started reading The Validity of the Stimulated Retrospective Think-Aloud Method as Measured by Eye Tracking (PDF, 340Kb), which is a pretty good article. By chance, I took a close look at the author information. Here’s a pretty clever way of jamming several email addresses onto one line:

{zguan, sllee, ecuddihy, jramey }@u.washington.edu

I wasn’t sharp enough to instantly grok it because it wasn’t something I’d seen before. Maybe you’ll have better luck. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t sharp!

What’s the issue? Well, it only works if everyone’s from the same organization. That’s pretty limiting but I still think it is cool.

Get your copy while you can! (Warning: 12MB PDF)

Here’s what I posted over at Susan Mernit’s blog:

“This is a really nice overview of where Yahoo is right now and where they are going. If you do any work with large portals, this is invaluable material. One of the interesting points is that they claim they are a media company but they are very focused on things that are not directly media, such as capabilities and platforms. The reason is that technology enables them. Furthermore, I like that they really focus on users and usability first, then explain or demonstrate how technology makes the magic happen.”

“…the first in-depth look at the new yahoo.com”

Tales From Packaging Hell (Wired)

Report on last CM Pros meeting (Sydney, Australia)

Web 2.0 Meets The Enterprise (Blather?)

Ignoring Eager Customers?

Opportunity: Work with Adrian Holovaty — “This project will combine journalism and computer programming, in the vein of chicagocrime.org.”

Creating the market takes time – “Arguing that Google is a one-hit wonder ignores that fact that their seeming competitor, Microsoft, is pretty much a two-hit wonder – Windows and Office.”

Do You Want Your Blog to Be User Centered? — “For you that are blog owners. How much do you really, honestly care about the usability side?”

Are you a 1 Percenter? — “It’s time to recalibrate any lofty Web 2.0 expectations, especially for those who would believe the Pareto Principle applies to citizien-created content and citizen marketing.”

Chinese Banks Homepage Usability — “This study assesses the usability of homepages of three leading Chinese retail banks from a user’s perspective.” (Author: Dr. Ming Zhao, Source: Apogee HK)

If you don’t get this report you’ll be missing key intelligence on the usability of chinese bank homepages. There is nothing like this available and it is in your best interest to grab it with both hands. It’s a winner.

Glass Ceiling in Usability? (Paul Sherman) “The data suggest that yes, Virginia, there is a gender differential in our field. The silver lining (if it can be called that) is that the disparity seems to be less than the average (as measured in the US by the Census Bureau and the BLS), and less than the disparity in other professional occupations.”

Outstanding work by Paul Sherman and Lyle Kantrovich!

Related:

• Usability Glass Ceiling: Part Deux
• Salary Trends for Usability Professionals

STOP! The 7 Steps That Guarantee Victory on Large Projects

Gadget firms tackled on usability (BBC) — “This is about making the experience better for every single one of your customers”

Variability in User Performance (useit.com) — “When doing website tasks, the slowest 25% of users take 2.4 times as long as the fastest 25% of users.”

Salary Trends for Usability Professionals (useit.com) — “Experience also dramatically increases a person’s ability to infer underlying design flaws from observing user behavior.”

Blog Usability Interview with Kim Krause Berg — “The number one usability error bloggers make is not explaining to the reader who you are and why you have a blog.” (I’m John S. Rhodes and I like usability.)

Communicating design concepts without getting skewered (Cooper) — “Have a good story to tell”

Rentacoder.com Usability Analysis — “PROBLEM : Speed!”

Lou Rosenfeld’s Bad Experience — “I am really, really unhappy with my experience reading the New York Times right now”

KDE developers, usability experts complement each other — “Developers’ discussions about usability are often marked by shrill accusations and defensive responses.”

Google Trends — Usablity more powerful than User Experience?

Calling All Designers: Learn to Write! (A List Apart) — “I hate email.”

In the email signature of Steve Ruschill, a quote from Kent Beck (Planning Extreme Programming) — “Long range planning can be fun, but its regular little deliveries that keep the money coming in” (Amen)

Jared Spool — “Google displays a Long Tail distribution” (Related: Google 2.0)

Speech Privacy Articles — What are the usability implications?

Interview with Liisa Puolakka, Head of Brand Visual and Sensorial Experiences for Nokia — “The main thing is to start with an understanding of the user, the consumer, and the life they are living.”

Don’t miss: The 7 Steps That Guarantee Victory on Large Projects