http://www.uie.com/brainsparks UIE\'s latest insights on the world of design Thu, 01 May 2008 13:06:39 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Every year, I ask each of my graduate students to interview four of their friends, finding what brands they love and what brands they really despise and the reasons for their feelings. These students, being engineers, all go into the experiment thinking that people will either love or hate the ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/04/30/uietips-article-can-i-trust-you-how-anticipating-problems-can-help-your-brand/ SpoolCast: Design Patterns and Anti-Patterns with Bill Scott Recorded: November 30th, 2007 from the studios at UIE. Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 39m | File size: 20 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Text transcript ] In this week’s ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/04/28/spoolcast-design-patterns-and-anti-patterns-with-bill-scott/ My late spring / early summer isn't as busy as the first 4 months of this year, but I'm still getting out and about. Here's where we can meet up: May 2008 May 5-6, Chicago Web Design World/Chicago Web 2.0: The Power Behind the Hype - 5/5 10:15-11:15am Enhancing Experiences with AJAX, RIAs, and Browser-Side ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/04/28/upcoming-presentations-may-thru-july-2008/ On April 12, I gave the keynote at the IA Summit. It was my second time keynoting this event and a real honor for me. The audience was great and it lead to some very interesting discussion, both at the conference and on blogs and discussion lists everywhere. I've posted the ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/04/23/ia-summit-keynote-journey-to-the-center-of-design/ We're looking for someone special and I'm hoping you know this person. We're growing our very successful Virtual Seminar program which currently delivers an information packed online webinar to 1,000-2,500 designers and user experience professionals every month. We need someone who has the insight and right touch to take this program ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/03/18/wanted-amazing-top-quality-product-manager/ SpoolCast: Mental Models with Indi Young Recorded: February 29th, 2008 from the studios at UIE. Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 43m | File size: 22 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Text transcript coming soon ] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] In February we ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/03/17/spoolcast-reviewing-mental-models-with-indi-young/ This spring, our good friends, Steve Krug and Lou Rosenfeld, will offer a two-day workshop series on the topics of discount usability testing and site search analytics. If you haven't had a chance to hear these two experts share their knowledge, I highly suggest you attend. Cities, Dates, and Program Details April ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/03/17/discount-for-upcoming-workshops-by-steve-krug-and-lou-rosenfeld/ In last week's UIEtips email newsletter, I shared three challenges we've seen users encounter in our usability tests. These are challenges to look out for when users interact with your applications. In this week's newsletter, I continue my commentary by discussing two more important challenges. You can read my article ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/03/11/uietips-article-two-more-usability-challenges-for-designing-web-apps/ Want to know what relationship behind magical illusions, practiced by professional magicians, and experience design, practiced by UX designers, really is? That's the subject of a presentation I'm giving twice over the next week. The first time is tonight, at Yahoo!'s Sunnyvale offices, and open the public. The second time is ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/03/05/magic-and-mental-models-using-illusion-to-simplify-designs/ Web-based applications are different from content-based web sites because the users are involved in a transaction. In our work researching the usability of a content-based site, we focus on how users will find and react to the information. However, with web-based applications, there are many other considerations we account for. In ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/03/05/uietips-article-3-important-usability-challenges-for-designing-web-apps/ Usability Tools Podcast: Applying Fitts' Law in Design Recorded: January 25th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 14 min | File size: 8 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] Each week in our Usability ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/02/28/usability-tools-podcast-applying-fittss-law/ Usability Tools Podcast: Useful Web App Usability Techniques, Part 2 Recorded: January 25th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 22min | File size: 12.5 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] [ Text Transcript ] Each ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/02/13/usability-tools-podcast-successful-web-app-usability-techniques-part-2/ I just got off the phone (well, Skype, but it's the same thing, sort of) with Steve Mulder. We were recording an interview, talking about his experiences with developing rich interactive applications at Molecular. What really struck me about his experience was how much we can now do within a ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/02/11/uietips-article-playful-data-3-inspiring-interactive-web-sites/ Usability Tools Podcast: Successful Web App Usability Techniques, Part 1 Recorded: January 25th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 17 min | File size: 9.6 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] [ Text Transcript ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/02/07/usability-tools-podcast-useful-web-app-usability-techniques-part-1/ Web App Summit 2008 is less than two months away. World-class speakers from organizations like The New York Times, Yahoo!, Netflix, 37signals, and Cooper will be attending and presenting on today's most critical issues surrounding web applications. Would you like to help us out? Web App Summit 2008 is ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/02/04/want-to-be-a-web-app-summit-2008-volunteer/ SpoolCast Crew Episode 7 - The Book of Face Recorded: December 7th, 2007 from the studios at UIE. Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 1h 18m | File size: 45 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] This week, we have ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/31/spoolcast-crew-episode-7-the-book-of-face/ In my article, 8 More Design Mistakes with Account Sign-in, Mistake #13 said: Mistake #13: Not Explaining If It’s The Username or Password They Got Wrong Returning to an electronics site they hadn't used since last holiday season, the user entered what they thought was their email address and password, but it ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/30/did-i-get-13-wrong-do-all-sites-need-similar-security/ For today's application designers, one of the biggest challenges is getting the vision implemented the way we imagined it. In our mind, we can clearly see the design in all of its interactive goodness. Yet, when it emerges from the development process, it doesn't work the way we thought it ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/29/uietips-article-getting-the-most-from-design-deliverables/ SpoolCast: Creating Advanced Web App Deliverables with D. Keith Robinson Recorded: December 29th, 2007 remotely from our studios at UIE. Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 35m | File size: 18.5 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Text Transcript ] How ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/28/spoolcast-creating-advanced-web-app-deliverables-with-d-keith-robinson/ Joshua Porter (formerly of UIE, but now doing great work on his own at Bokardo Design) recently described much of the latest online debate about the need to develop personas when designing. Josh got a lot of things right, but he got one thing very, very wrong. And, unfortunately, he ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/24/personas-are-not-a-document/ While design teams add account registration and sign-in features to enhance the user's experience, in doing so, they can create all manner of user experience problems. One of the most difficult things to get right is a good sign-in and registration process. In a recent UIEtips article, I described eight common ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/14/uietips-article-8-more-design-mistakes-with-account-sign-in/ SpoolCast: Making Data Engaging: A Talk with the New York Times Interactive Design Team Recorded: December 11th, 2007 from the studios at UIE. Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 24m | File size: 13MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/10/spoolcast-making-data-engaging-a-talk-with-the-new-york-times-interactive-design-team/ Greetings, Today, in our UIEtips email newsletter, we published my latest article talking about engaging experiences found in an unlikely place: a newspaper web site. Yet, this isn't just any newspaper web site, it's the New York Times. The engaging experiences are interactive calculators, maps, and data visualization tools. I'll admit it ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/09/uietips-article-playgrounds-for-data-inspiration-from-nytimes-interactives/ You're probably aware of this, but I'll say it anyways. Among the many things she does as Managing Director of UIE, Christine Perfetti has done a wonderful job of managing UIE's conferences and events for the last few years. She's produced what have become best-of-class events that others frequently use ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/06/wanted-amazing-top-quality-event-manager/ There's nothing that's as ubiquitous on the web as account sign-in. Create a new user account and you turn a visitor into a long-term customer. Few things can be as important as having user accounts. The ironic thing is, while we add account registration and sign-in features to enhance the user's ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2008/01/04/uietips-article-account-sign-in-8-design-mistakes-to-avoid/ Usability Tools Podcast: Mouseovers in Navigation Recorded: November 20th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 24 min | File size: 14 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] Each week in our Usability Tools Podcast, ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/17/usability-tools-podcast-mouseovers-in-navigation/ If you had a chance to build your user experience design team from scratch, what would you do? Where would you focus your resources? What would you do first? That's exactly the situation that our friend and second-time Web App Summit presenter, Sean Kane, now finds himself in. Sean recently left ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/17/uietips-article-taking-the-netflix-experience-to-a-new-level-an-interview-with-sean-kane/ I bet you can tell I'm cleaning out my inbox. Jen wrote: I enjoyed your December 10th article, on assessing UX skills, so I sent it around to my colleagues. It was favorably received, but the folks on the alias found that one core skill was missing: the creation of UI mockups, ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/14/the-missing-skill-creating-ui-mockups/ Lucy wrote us: How can I learn to do what you do? Specifically, I am in awe of the courses and conferences your offer, and your site confirms that interface design is what I want to do in my second career. However, everything seems to presuppose a general ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/14/getting-started-in-interface-design-your-thoughts/ SpoolCast: Accessibility with Derek Featherstone Recorded: September 22nd, 2007 from the Webmaster Jam Session, Dallas, Texas. Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 24m | File size: 14 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Text Transcript ] In September, I had the ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/spoolcast-accessibility-with-derek-featherstone/ Over the last 7 years, we've been looking carefully at how to put a user experience team together. We've studied dozens of teams, some that are very good at producing great designs, while others regularly struggle to produce anything that makes users happy. As we've looked at the differences between ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/10/uietips-article-assessing-your-teams-ux-skills/ Over the past few years, we've been studying the emergence of web-based applications and the usability and design challenges that accompany bringing them to light. We've also been concerned with the best practices for overcoming these issues to create web apps that actually delight users. During this time, we've been ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/04/uietips-article-five-usability-challenges-of-web-based-applications-2/ Usability Tools Podcast: Avoiding Redesigns Recorded: November 20th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 13 min | File size: 7.6 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] [ Text Transcript ] Each week in our Usability ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/12/03/usability-tools-podcast-avoiding-redesigns/ A little more than a year ago, we republished my article, The Quiet Death of the Major Re-Launch. The article generated an interesting discussion about when a re-launch is warranted. During the debate, Richard Todd made this observation: What about the challenges in trying to avoid a major relaunch? When faced with many ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/29/one-year-later-on-major-re-launches-we-were-warned-you-have-been-warned/ Slideshare.net's Slidecast technology is pretty slick. With very little effort, I easily added the soundtrack to the slides I'd uploaded earlier: | View | Upload your own Kudos to Rashmi, Jon, and the folks at Slideshare. Thanks to Andy Budd at d.Construct 2007 for letting me use the audio. [Note: the slides don't completely ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/28/slides-with-audio-for-the-dawning-of-the-age-of-experience/ As we continue our research into what separates the best design teams from the rest, we see one factor consistently bubbling to the top: an attention to the user's entire experience. This attention comes in the way the team thinks about their design. Are the elements designed right? Do they ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/27/uietips-article-seven-critical-decisions-for-designing-effective-applications-part-ii/ Usability Tools Podcast: On-Site Search Recorded: November 20th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 20.5 min | File size: 11 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] [ Text Transcript ] Each week in our Usability ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/26/usability-tools-podcast-on-site-search/ Bruce McCarthy offers this great writeup of our recent Virtual Seminar on Building Robust Personas. A while back I wrote a piece about personas where I talked it about why it's a bad idea to base your personas on a single real individual. Using a real person as a substitute persona ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/26/great-writeup-of-our-building-robust-personas-virtual-seminar/ Usability Tools Podcast: Robust Personas Recorded: November 19th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 36 min | File size: 21.5 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] [ Text Transcript ] Each week in our Usability ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/21/usability-tools-podcast-robust-personas/ I'm pleased to announce the return of our Web App Summit sell-out program. Within minutes, we received our first registration and they've been coming in ever since. At this rate, we'll definitely sell out. We're holding the Summit in beautiful Coronado, CA on March 26 - 28, 2008. We've got a ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/16/announcing-web-app-summit-2008/ Yesterday, I gave my Virtual Seminar on Building Robust Personas in 30 Days or Less. If you missed it, you can watch it on demand. The session went well, but we ran tight on time and I didn't get to all the great questions. Brian and I were just talking and ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/15/a-few-followup-questions-from-the-building-robust-personas-seminar/ The always intriguing Christopher Fahey commented on yesterday's post about Crappy Personas vs. Robust Personas: Personas provide a fabulous way for people who understand their audience/users to communicate their understanding to people who do not understand that audience in a rapid and meaningful way. They are also a great way for ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/15/personas-vs-user-descriptions-apples-vs-tomatoes/ Are you an ACM or SIGCHI member? Have you seen me give a presentation? Did you like it? If so, I may need your help. I've been nominated to the Association for Computing Machinery's Distinguished Speakers Program. They've contacted me and asked for references. If you think I'd be a good addition to ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/14/anyone-want-to-give-me-a-reference/ There's been a lot of discussion lately on the Interwebs about how personas are a useless tool. 37Signals' Jason Fried recently wrote: We don’t use personas. We use ourselves. I believe personas lead to a false sense of understanding at the deepest, most critical levels. Every product we build is a product ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/14/crappy-personas-vs-robust-personas/ Unbeknown to me, David Armano recorded and posted a small portion of my UI12 Keynote: Magic and Mental Models. In this segment, I'm talking about how functionality of a customer experience creates delight, sharing examples from Proflowers, Orbitz, and Farecast. It was a fun presentation and the audience was very responsive. I'll ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/13/delight-by-functionality-an-excerpt-from-ui12/ A while back, I wrote about a question our friend Cheryl had about the KJ technique. Recently, Cheryl got back to me about her company's reaction: A few months back you kindly responded to my inquiry about facilitating a KJ Analysis session. The team did a great job and I was ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/12/kj-analysis-is-sweeping-the-company/ With much prompting from Rashmi and others, I've learned to post things on SlideShare. My first experiment is the slides from my presentation, The Dawning of the Age of Experience. | View | Upload your own If you'd like to hear the presentation, you can listen to the d.Construct podcast of my ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/11/12/slides-for-the-dawning-of-the-age-of-experience/ Are you looking for our weekly podcast? Thanks to next week's User Interface 12 Conference, we're extra busy around the office, so we've put the podcast series on temporary hiatus for these two weeks. If you're subscribed you won't miss a beat, when the next one comes out, it'll magically ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/29/podcasting-update/ Dave wrote: I just listened to your podcast: Usability Tools Podcast: The Truth About Page Download Time. Can you express your thoughts on download time and usability as it applies to e-learning modules with rich media content? We have been receiving more and more requests for adding video and audio to ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/25/download-time-and-e-learning/ UIE Usability Tools Podcast: Statistical Significance Recorded: October 19th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 26 min | File size: 15.5 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] [ Text Transcript ] Each week in our ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/22/usability-tools-podcast-statistical-significance/ The landscape for building applications is always changing. In the '80s, we built them out of "dumb terminals" and DOS screens. In the '90s, we used GUIs. In this millennium, we get browser-based technologies, like Flash, Flex, Javascript, and Ajax (and now new technologies on the horizon, such as Adobe's ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/22/uietips-article-seven-critical-decisions-for-designing-effective-applications-part-i/ SpoolCast: An Interview with Cameron Moll Recorded: September 7th, 2007 from the d.Construct 2007 Conference, Brighton, England Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 30m | File size: 17 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Text Transcript ] On my recent trip ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/17/spoolcast-an-interview-with-cameron-moll/ The user, a frequent traveler, wanted to find ways to impress his new girlfriend. WhiteTie, a luxury concierge and VIP service, seems to be just the ticket. To ensure this is what he wanted, he visited the WhiteTie web site and started to look at the What We Offer links in ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/16/avoiding-useful-content-with-slick-javascript/ Our friend Cameron Moll has an outline and video preview of his upcoming UI12 Full-day tutorial up on his blog. Cameron works for the LDS Church and has assembled a lot of real-world examples of web design in a large organization. Cameron oversees the creation of highly flexible interfaces that can ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/16/cameron-molls-highly-extensible-interface/ We're getting reports from folks that Amazon is about to roll out a new navigation scheme. Some people already are part of their test audience and now seeing it. Amazon's New Look What's notable is they ridded themselves of the the old tabbed interface, which goes back to Amazon's initial designs. The new ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/15/amazoncom-soon-to-launch-new-navigation/ In last week's issue of our email newsletter, UIEtips, we published a fantastic article written by Luke Wroblewski, a Principal Designer at Yahoo!, where he discusses tips for improving web forms and impacting user success. Today, we published the second part of the article where Luke shares additional design tips ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/12/uietips-article-web-form-design-in-the-wild-part-ii/ UIE Usability Tools Podcast: Are There Users Who Always Search? Recorded: September 26, 2007 from UIE's studios Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 21 min | File size: 12 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] Each week in our Usability ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/09/usability-tools-podcast-are-there-users-who-always-search/ In this week's issue of our email newsletter, UIEtips, we published a fantastic article written by Luke Wroblewski, a Principal Designer at Yahoo!, where he discusses tips for improving web forms and impacting user success. Read Luke Wroblewski's article on Web Forms. If you would like to learn more about ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/02/uietips-article-web-form-design-in-the-wild/ UIE Usability Tools Podcast: Interview-Based Tasks for Usability Testing Recorded: September 26, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 29 min | File size: 16.5 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] [ Text Transcript ] Each ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/10/01/usability-tools-podcast-interview-based-tasks-for-usability-testing/ UIEtips 9/27/07: The Power of Comics for Understanding User Needs As designs and product visions become more complex, there is an increasing need to find ways that effectively convey just how people will use the product and integrate it into their lives. Recently, more and more organizations and design teams have ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/27/uietips-article-the-power-of-comics-for-understanding-user-needs/ SpoolCast: Kevin Cheng Interviewed by Jared Spool Recorded: September 14th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 29m 30sec | File size: 16 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] [ Text Transcript of the Interview coming ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/26/spoolcast-communicating-concepts-with-comics-an-interview-with-kevin-cheng/ When dealing with photo sets on the photo sharing site, Flickr.com, one nifty little viewing feature is the Slide Show. This feature shows the each image on a full-screen black image, with cinematic fades between them. The slide show interface is simple: just select the images and start the ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/25/a-perfectly-cromulent-fairy-door-at-flickr/ UIE Usability Tools Podcast: The Truth About Page Download Time Recorded: September 20, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: min | File size: [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] Each week in our ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/24/usability-tools-podcast-the-truth-about-page-download-time/ In the 60's television show, Get Smart, the opening credits have the lead character, secret agent Maxwell Smart, entering the his agency's headquarters. He progresses through a series of doors, unlocking each to get deeper into the secure facility. This is similar to how many login procedures currently work. In my ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/23/states-of-login/ This past week, Apple announced it will partner with mobile carrier O2 for its UK iPhone release. The day of the announcement, users using the popular Mac browser, Camino, received the following message when visiting O2's iPhone promotion page: Error message in Camino Browser when visiting O2's iPhone Page Your browser version ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/20/losing-control-of-the-experience/ UIEtips 9/18/07: Time for Content to Become More Scientific Time and time again in usability testing, I watch users struggle with web sites. I'd like to say that the problems I see in testing are always unique and novel, but they aren't. We've been seeing very similar problems with all of ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/18/uietips-article-time-for-content-to-become-more-scientific/ We've had some great comments on my post, Usability Tests with 30 Observers. Here are my responses: Daniel asked: Would the result be the same if the participant sat in a different room from the 30 observers? Are there benefits by having them in the same room? On initial reads this seems scary for ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/18/more-on-usability-tests-with-30-observers/ The user didn't enter their billing address over at CollegeBoard.com, when registering for an SAT test. It made sense not to enter the billing address, since it matched the address they entered on the previous page. The site, being partially clever, decided to pre-fill in the zip code, but no other ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/17/being-cheap-with-error-messages/ UIE Usability Tools Podcast: Inherent Value Tests Recorded: September 17, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 25 min | File size: 14.5 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] Each week in our Usability Tools ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/17/usability-tools-podcast-inherent-value-tests/ One of the most common design elements that stops users in their tracks is the sign-in page. A poorly-designed sign-in page can prevent users from proceeding with their task, thereby dramatically increasing abandonment rates. We recently encountered this problem, in its full glory, at the CollegeBoard.com site, while observing users registering ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/14/the-sign-in-travesty/ I'm very excited about our upcoming Virtual Seminar presented by my good friend, Larry Constantine. If your team is facing an aggressive deadline for your web site or product launch and you don't have the time or resources to conduct in-depth user research, you'll want to gather everyone around for ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/13/927-virtual-seminar-design-and-usability-under-impossible-pressure-presented-by-larry-constantine/ Often times, the clients we're working with have never conducted a usability test before. Since it's not part of the regular process, almost no one in the organization has been exposed to watching users. We've found it's critical to the adoption of testing in the organization for people to quickly see ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/13/usability-tests-with-30-observers/ UIEtips 9/11/07: 5-Second Tests: Measuring Your Site's Content Pages It's hard enough creating usable designs when there is ample time and plenty of resources, but what do you do when that's just not an option for your design team? One of the most common reasons designs fail users is because the ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/11/uietips-article-5-second-tests-measuring-your-sites-content-pages/ UIE Usability Tools Podcast: 5 Second Tests Recorded: August 7, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 16 min | File size: 9.5 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] Each week in our Usability Tools ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/10/usability-tools-podcast-5-second-usability-tests/ UIEtips 9/06/07: Making Personas Work for Your Web Site -- An Interview with Steve Mulder These days, we're seeing more and more design teams successfully adopt personas into their design process. Personas allow teams to delve right into the attitudes, behaviors, and goals of their target audience. They're also a great ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/09/06/uietips-article-making-personas-work-for-your-web-site-an-interview-with-steve-mulder/ UIEtips 8/30/07: Thinking in the Right Terms: 7 Components for a Successful Web Site Redesign A few weeks back, I had the chance to talk with Gerry McGovern, author of Killer Web Content and UI12 Speaker Extraordinaire. We talked about a variety of aspects of designing web sites, but one theme ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/30/uietips-article-thinking-in-the-right-terms-7-components-for-a-succesful-web-site-redesign/ This year's User Interface Conference is only two months away. The most forward-thinking minds in usability and design will be presenting on the critical issues facing today's information architects, designers, and usability professionals. Would you like to help us out? UI12 is being held from November 5 - November 8, ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/28/want-to-be-a-user-interface-12-volunteer/ UIE Usability Tools Podcast: Department and Store Pages Recorded: August 7, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 21 min | File size: 10 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] Each week in our Usability ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/27/usability-tools-podcast-department-and-store-pages/ We're big fans of the KJ Technique, a method that helps teams rank the important issues for a focus question, such as "What are the most important usability problems we need to fix in this version of the design?" or "Which user populations are most important to our business?" In the ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/24/resolving-group-name-differences-in-a-kj-analysis/ At User Interface Engineering, we're looking for a PHP wizard who can help us enhance UIE.com to add better customer service functionality. We're looking for someone with expertise in: + PHP + MySQL + Database design and administration + Apache + .HTAccess + xHTML/CSS + DHTML + JavaScript If you know a freelance developer specializing in PHP, located in the ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/23/uie-needs-a-freelance-php-wizard/ You've probably lived this scenario: You buy a product online -- one you're anxious to receive. The e-commerce vendor sends you a confirmation saying the product has been shipped and giving you a tracking number. You click on the supplied link with the tracking number you just received only to ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/22/holes-in-the-experience/ UIEtips 8/21/07: Five Survival Techniques for Creating Usable Products At User Interface Engineering, we've spent two decades researching the usability and design techniques employed by both successful and unsuccessful development teams. We've focused our research agenda on identifying the key techniques successful teams utilize to consistently produce usable products on time ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/21/uietips-article-five-survival-techniques-for-creating-usable-products/ I'm betting, on June 29, 2007, there was a team of developers inside Apple corporation who were not very cheery about the successful launch of the iPhone. I'm betting, if such things were available, they were wearing their "Why not us?" t-shirts. The launch of the iPhone proved to be very ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/21/what-happened-to-apple-tv/ SpoolCast Crew Episode 6 - Shenzhen Typhoon Recorded: August 10th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 1h 29m | File size: 42 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] This week, we have the latest ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/20/spoolcast-crew-episode-6-shenzhen-typhoon/ Someone in eBay's user experience group must've rubbed the belly of a magic lamp last quarter, because a wish was definitely granted. A month ago, the New York Times ran a story about eBay, reporting how eBay's Chief Executive, Meg Whitman, is telling shareholders their number one priority for the rest ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/20/getting-exactly-what-we-asked-for/ When we're doing user research, such as usability tests or field studies, we like to keep our users' real needs in constant consideration. To keep our users on our mind, we create a set of cards with images and information on your users. The cards become useful when you want ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/15/study-participant-playing-cards/ UIEtips 8/15/07: Goal-Directed Design: An Interview with Kim Goodwin The most valuable asset of a successful design team is the information they have about users' goals and behaviors. When teams have the right information, the job of designing a powerful, intuitive, easy-to-use interface becomes tremendously easier. When they don't, every little ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/15/uietips-article-goal-directed-design-an-interview-with-kim-goodwin/ Our friend Luke Wroblewski has written a fun post on his blog, Functioning Form - Apple’s Input Device Alternatives, documenting a number of Human-Computer Interface patents Apple has filed at the US Patent Office in recent years. There are 11 ideas in all, all regarding the way a human physically ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/14/apple%e2%80%99s-input-device-alternatives/ SpoolCast: An Interview with Cooper's Kim Goodwin Recorded: July 5th, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 35m | File size: 16 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] [ Text Transcript ] In today's SpoolCast, Christine ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/14/spoolcast-an-interview-with-coopers-kim-goodwin/ UIE Usability Tools Podcast: Gallery Pages Recorded: August 7, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 24 min | File size: 11 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] Each week in our Usability Tools podcast, ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/13/usability-tools-podcast-gallery-pages/ UIEtips 8/07/07: Web 2.0 -- The Power Behind the Hype Over the past few years, the world of web application development has seen the emergence of a new set of approaches such as APIs, RSS, and Folksonomies that have come to be known collectively as Web 2.0. These new approaches ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/07/uietips-article-web-20-the-power-behind-the-hype-2/ UIE Usability Tools Podcast: Home Page Design Recorded: July 20, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 24 min | File size: 11 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications. ] I'm very excited to announce the ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/06/usability-tools-podcast-home-page-design/ I am visiting San Francisco, visiting with several clients and enjoying the Bay Area with friends while my kids are away for the summer. If you're in this area too, I'd love to meet with you. I'm hosting an informal cocktail hour in San Francisco on Monday, August 6, from ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/03/social-hour-san-francisco-86-530-7/ Handling and presenting large amounts of data is often a challenge many organizations are faced with. There are issues such as the number of fields that must be shown, the height and width of the cells the data must fit in, visual noise and redundant content, filtering and sorting mechanisms, ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/02/floating-headers-for-tabular-data/ Editing your site's content can be an exhaustive and time-consuming job. However, it's absolutely critical to your site's success. In her great new book, Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works, Ginny Redish gives several helpful guidelines that design teams should keep in mind when working on ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/08/01/ginny-redishs-letting-go-of-the-words/ UIEtips 7/31/07: Common Pitfalls of Social Web Applications, Part II This week, UIE turns 19 years old. Over the years, we've seen technology come and go, features grow and shrink, and interaction styles dramatically change. What used to be just a person interacting with a screen has become something more -- ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/07/31/uietips-article-common-pitfalls-of-social-web-applications-part-ii/ SpoolCast: Gerry McGovern Interviewed by Jared Spool Recorded: July 2nd, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 21m | File size: 46 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] In today's SpoolCast, I had the opportunity to ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/07/30/spoolcast-gerry-mcgovern-interviewed-by-jared-spool/ UIEtips 7/26/07: Debunking the Myths of Innovation: An Interview with Scott Berkun Flickr, the online photosharing web site, changed everything for web applications. For one of the first times, the developers of Flickr combined elements of Flash and AJAX in a seamless form, along with the HTML page. What many people don't ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/07/26/uietips-article-debunking-the-myths-of-innovation-an-interview-with-scott-berkun/ Leisa Reichelt, over at Disambiguity, is writing a 3-part series on accepting the unscientific qualities of qualitative research, and using qualitative research as a flexible way to gather rich and insightful information about your intended audience. In each part (part 3 is in the works,) Leisa states a way you ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/07/25/qualitative-research/ SpoolCast: Eric Mattson interviewed by Jared Spool Recorded: June 22nd, 2007 from the studios of UIE Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer Duration: 25m | File size: 12 MB [ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.] [ Subscribe with other podcast applications.] Eric Mattson is on a quest to record ... http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2007/07/23/spoolcast-eric-mattson-interviewed-by-jared-spool/