Usability week ending February 28th

Friday, 26th February, 4:22 PM
The laws of prägnanz (pithiness) say we order our experience in a way that's regular, orderly, symmetric, and simple: http://j.mp/bPcwrW #ux

Friday, 26th February, 2:49 PM
If elements of an interface are ambiguous, behaviour should be what will least astonish the user: http://j.mp/bKjqei #ux #usability #pola

Thursday, 25th February, 3:40 PM
Bringing user centered #design to the #agile environment: http://j.mp/bl4oln #ucd #ux #development #scrum

Thursday, 25th February, 11:07 AM
Is this obvious? Let’s make 2010 the year of common sense user experience: http://j.mp/b5xTBV #usability #ux #ui #design #webdesign

Wednesday, 24th February, 11:40 AM
"The All New Yahoo! eFail Client" -- when web mail stops being usable, users get irate: http://j.mp/ct44EC #ux #usability @yahoo #gmail

Tuesday, 23rd February, 1:07 PM
#Simplicity is easy to describe but difficult to achieve, especially when there are other people in your life: http://j.mp/bSR58X #declutter

Monday, 22nd February, 5:20 PM
Transform your software #design process into an objective, deliberate activity that furthers commerce: http://j.mp/9VSIMb #ia #ux

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

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

Usability week ending February 7th

Friday, 5th February, 9:54 AM
Why the Apple iPad has no Java or Flash http://post.ly/MKQc

Thursday, 4th February, 1:38 PM
Not only must interfaces be simple, elegant, usable, and accessible; they must also be honest: http://j.mp/94x9R5 #ux #ui #design #ia

Wednesday, 3rd February, 3:56 PM
In global age of #UX thinking and design, we must develop better appreciation and understanding of cultures we work with: http://j.mp/91tvpi

Tuesday, 2nd February, 5:42 PM
The growing percentage of users on non-Flash-capable platforms is a wake-up call to get the basics right first: http://j.mp/9QhMCb #ia #ux

Monday, 1st February, 2:37 PM
An information appliance for the caveman in us http://post.ly/LewE

Monday, 1st February, 11:54 AM
Great products are triumphs of taste, trying to bring the best things humans have done into what you are doing: http://j.mp/93Ksxg @Apple

Sunday, 31st January, 7:01 PM
Good #design is always hard to program. 12 ways to help #developers make software more human: http://j.mp/dtohKO #ux #ia #teamwork

via twitter.com/terretta

iA's "What’s Next in Web Design?"

Technology often develops from primitive to complicated to simple. The web develops faster and more client focussed than traditional technologies. Web development is cheaper, more flexible and most importantly: everyone can contribute to its development. In concrete terms: Better interaction design, less graphic design. Better user experience, less debates about taste. Faster technology, more reliable design standards.
via informationarchitects.jp

iA predicts the future of web design by looking at What's Needed. After 15+ years of web design, you'd imagine some of this would be taken for granted, but then again, look at magazines...

Simplicity. iA points out most sites are still too hard to use. In our web design profession, we sometimes forget the users who think "screenshot" means taking a picture of the computer with their camera. Sites need to focus on a rational business model, simplify to do it well, and be approachable for non-insiders.

Speed. Physical interfaces offer instant feedback. Flipping through People magazine is far faster using paper than online. Web sites need to be designed for fewer clicks with less latency. Using them needs to feel fluid. iPhone apps such as Tweetie 2 are getting there.

Beauty. User experience isn't the skin, it's the interface. Designers need to work more on interaction style than visual style—less on what the CEO wants and more on what the end user needs.

Applying these, iA sees trends towards getting design out of the way and unifying user interfaces, through tools such as standardized web fonts, grid layouts, and UI libraries such as jQuery.

Visual realism in UI design: just enough, but no more

Lukas Mathis's ignore the code blog offers illustrations of—and explanations for—the user interface sweet spot between visual realism and conceptual shapes.  His conclusion?  Designers should convey the essence of a symbol.  Any more detail distracts, while any less loses the symbol's intent.

Let’s look at a symbol we actually see in user interfaces, the home button. Typically, this button uses a little house as its symbol.

The thing on the left is a house. The thing on the right means «home». Somewhere between the two, the meaning switches from «a specific house» to «home as a concept». The more realistic something is, the harder it is to figure out the meaning. Again, if the image is simplified too much, it’s not clearly and immediately recognizable anymore.

The thing on the left is a home button. The thing on the right might as well be an arrow pointing up; or perhaps it’s the ⇧ key. Let me explain this concept using an entirely unscientific graph:

People are confused by symbols if they have too many or too few details. They will recognize UI elements which are somewhere in the middle.

via ignorethecode.net

As an aside, I keep Coda's icon on my dock because it's so uniquely refreshing.

Usability week ending January 24th

Friday, 22nd January, 6:29 PM
To see beyond today’s limits of the web, all we need to do is see what is needed. What's next in #web #design: http://j.mp/6HNHNu #ia #ux

Thursday, 21st January, 4:40 PM
People are confused by symbols with too many or too few details, but recognize UI elements somewhere in the middle: http://j.mp/6YrAAg #ui

Wednesday, 20th January, 11:55 AM
For pleasant usability, ensure a consistent continuous flow of design ideas in your entire software house: http://j.mp/5bn1jJ #ux #ui #ia

Tuesday, 19th January, 2:33 PM
#Design in the computing biz is too often confused with #technology, something entirely different: http://j.mp/4yIBpT #ux #ui #pc #mac

Tuesday, 19th January, 8:18 AM
For consumer web apps today, #design matters more than technology. You can't just engineer any more: http://j.mp/4OBnaN #ux #ui

Monday, 18th January, 6:55 PM
Choose usable UI components based on key principles of affordance and intuitiveness: http://j.mp/4tTGGL #ux #ui #usability

via twitter.com/terretta

Usability week ending January 17th

Friday, 15th January, 11:03 PM
Use diagramming tools to "hand-sketch" #wireframes for faster expression of ideas, perception of fluidity: http://j.mp/7imLg4 #ia #ui

Thursday, 14th January, 11:41 AM
Shopping for bedsheets–how hard could it be? A survey of challenges in #ecommerce #usability: http://j.mp/4HRnfY #ux

Wednesday, 13th January, 4:12 PM
As the virtual and the ambient are integrated into our lives, we can start to live in more minimalist environments: http://j.mp/8JqlRh #ux

Tuesday, 12th January, 11:38 PM
Don't use words that suck all the meaning out. Language is how we know each other: http://j.mp/83h0ut #marketing #language #usability

Monday, 11th January, 9:25 PM
If your personality could be translated into a typeface, what type are you? http://j.mp/8Y5PrV #font #design #personality #quiz #typography

Monday, 11th January, 5:02 PM
Droid doesn't. Have touchscreen accuracy, that is... http://post.ly/IAru

via twitter.com/terretta

Usability week ending January 10th

Friday, 8th January, 5:53 PM
5 steps to designing and building social experiences: http://j.mp/53Sxnt #ux #ui #ia #userexperience #socialmedia

Thursday, 7th January, 10:46 AM
“Oh,” he said, “so this is how a touchscreen is supposed to work.” A #usability test of 10 phones: http://j.mp/5BbuwV #ux #ui #iphone #nokia

Wednesday, 6th January, 10:37 AM
Ambient user experience--design applied to the context in which users get things done while using a website: http://j.mp/7Bl7sZ #ux #ui #ia

Tuesday, 5th January, 4:26 PM
RT @brandon_wirtz: Really smart people -- Brandon Wirtz, Robert Scoble, and SEO: http://j.mp/5UR4Dg

Tuesday, 5th January, 11:13 AM
The "of course factor" at the heart of every great design: http://j.mp/6a86uW #userexperience #ux #ui #design

Monday, 4th January, 3:57 PM
Well-designed tech should build on familiar, emphasize simplicity, do wishful things well, offer better experience: http://j.mp/6c6u2X #ux

Monday, 4th January, 10:30 AM
Use the powerful design pattern "More Like This" to make search results nav quick, easy, and intuitive: http://j.mp/5XRD2j #ux #ui #ia

via twitter.com/terretta

Usability week ending January 3rd

Thursday, 31st December, 8:36 AM
Secret to beautiful #UI #design is realism--2D objects on-screen appear to be 3D thanks to cues from real life: http://j.mp/7F6ILT

Wednesday, 30th December, 11:06 AM
There are seven buttons: http://j.mp/60kSgk (#minimalism #ia #ux #ui #design #simplicity #elegance #apple #mce)

Tuesday, 29th December, 1:23 PM
Top 10 reasons Santa is a great designer: http://j.mp/6D3ju6 #ux #ui #santa #christmas #design

Monday, 28th December, 11:40 AM
Organic tools simplify digital design -- examples of beautiful pen and paper sketches of website prototypes: http://j.mp/8HBhHi #ux #ui

via twitter.com/terretta