Usability week ending March 7th

Thursday, 4th March, 3:45 PM
The Minimum Feature Set's purpose is getting the first version and vision of your product to early-vangelists fast: http://j.mp/d8gRcX

Wednesday, 3rd March, 9:20 PM
Above-the-fold thinking neglects what happens at the end of an #html page. You need footers that don't stink: http://j.mp/aqfQgb #ia #ux #ui

Tuesday, 2nd March, 10:23 AM
How Lady Gaga builds brand loyalty--Give fans a name, make them bigger, share symbols, treat as rock stars, socialize: http://j.mp/90AEzl

Monday, 1st March, 12:39 PM
Sometimes all that stuff your product does NOT do is exactly why people want it: http://j.mp/bD6OlF #ux #ia #usability #Google #Buzz

Monday, 1st March, 9:19 AM
5 user experience trends for 2010--service as software, #UX analytics, content strategy, mobile web, experience economy: http://j.mp/d16QtB

via twitter.com/terretta

Usability week ending February 21st

Friday, 19th February, 12:59 PM
Style guides are a great way to ensure user experience consistency. Here's how to make one: http://j.mp/9PFwca #ux #ui #ia #design

Friday, 19th February, 10:54 AM
For non-hierarchical sites, breadcrumbs are useful only to show a page’s relation to more general concepts: http://j.mp/a8i2Xg #ia #ui #ux

Friday, 19th February, 9:40 AM
#Apple has no pretense at “openness” but, unlike #Google, it thinks deeper when designing its products: http://j.mp/9f8smo #ux $GOOG $AAPL

Thursday, 18th February, 8:22 PM
Goal oriented "Activity-Centered Design" results in better technology than user study driven "Human-Centered Design": http://j.mp/aVuyiL #ux

Wednesday, 17th February, 12:37 PM
Warning: force feeding users can result in vomiting: http://j.mp/9JzHom #ux #userexperience #marketing #Google #Buzz $GOOG

Tuesday, 16th February, 12:45 PM
The $5 Guerrilla User Test--drunk people are a pretty accurate mimic of distracted, indifferent people: http://j.mp/9WOWem #usability #ux

Monday, 15th February, 11:20 AM
Google, these are your users http://post.ly/Nzdk

via twitter.com/terretta

Google admits Buzz social network user testing flaws

The BBC understands that Buzz was only tested internally and bypassed more extensive trials with external testers - used for many other Google services.

Google said that it was now working "extremely hard" to fix the problems.

"We've been testing Buzz internally at Google for a while," Todd Jackson, Buzz product manager, told the BBC. "Of course, getting feedback from 20,000 Googlers isn't quite the same as letting Gmail users play with Buzz in the wild."

via news.bbc.co.uk

In yesterday's post, I speculated Google Buzz was only tested by its own engineers. Today, Google admitted to the BBC that was true.

Jackson told BBC News that the decision to create these automatic lists was borne out of the idea that Google "wanted to provide a great user experience straight out of the box".

Well, not quite. Google focused on providing a great Google employee experience straight out of the box. The article reports even when Google does "user testing", it uses "a network of friends and family of Google employees". That sounds like a privileged class, not everyday users.

Google needs to refocus its core products for the real users making up its market share, before insular thinking damages Search audience driven revenue.

Usability week ending February 14th

Saturday, 13th February, 9:04 PM
#Google learns value of #usability #testing, hastily revises #Buzz start-up experience based on user feedback: http://j.mp/9bpgW6 #ux #ia

Thursday, 11th February, 9:04 AM
Google Buzz is disruptive because all about open, standardized user data: http://j.mp/awIJJ1 #usability #ia

Wednesday, 10th February, 10:48 AM
By focusing on only 3 core features in a first version, you're forced to find its true essence and value: http://j.mp/cNYGG7 #ia #ux

Tuesday, 9th February, 10:58 AM
A novel idea to push the social media "signal vs noise" quality problem into authors’ hands: http://j.mp/bNLXII #ia #ux #ui #facebook

Monday, 8th February, 9:16 AM
Font stacks are ultimately #design factors, and should be scrutinized as such--use better #CSS #font stacks: http://j.mp/dbUw26 #ux #ui

via twitter.com/terretta