Re: [IxDA Discuss] Metrics for mobile websites/apps
> On Feb 18, 2010, at 11:05 PM, Hilary Bienstock wrote: >> I'm going to be gathering some metrics for a site meant to be accessed by >> mobile phone. (Users will follow a link sent to them in a text message or >> email.) So I need to understand what types of metrics can be collected by a >> service like Omniture, Webtrends, or Google Analytics specifically for >> mobile devices. Anyone have any good resources? > There are now lots of resources out there, including at least one just launched. Here's a page with many (all?) listed: http://m-strat.org/mobile-analytics/ The last time I spoke with Omniture (14 months ago), they hadn't yet realized that mobile might be a little different. That some phones don't run Javascript; that many users will have images turned off due to data costs, that cookies don't work on many devices, and that transcoders and proxies play a big role. That's a long time ago, but I'd look carefully before spending that kind of money. ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Designing for WAP v/s iPhone (web app)
On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 7:06 AM, Vishal Iyer wrote: > I'm designing a content website for the iPhone and was asked to investigate > on how the design should translate to the WAP (i.e other internet enabled > devices) version. I've lately seen a trend (not entirely sure though, my > first reaction was WAP is still around?) where the WAP version is pretty > much a downgraded iPhone experience- stripping off the iPhone specific > elements. Does this path work or does the WAP version need a completely > different set of considerations? First, you'll want to verify whether they are really wanting a "WAP" site, or if they actually want an "HTTP" site. That's a pretty snarky question, so instead ask them whether they mean WML, the markup language associated with WAP, or XHTML Basic/Mobile Profile. This question is a bit better because 98% of mobile phones are using XHTML these days ... but in some markets WML is still important. Use XHTML Basic unless you really need to go WML. I've not designed a WML page for 7 years, so you probably won't need to either. There are exceptions. Next you need to decide your strategy. How are you going to decide which device goes where? How many versions are you going to make? Are you going to make separate versions for devices with touch screens (finger friendly), or layer on a touch.css? Or make scroll-and-select users lose half their screen real estate? How are you going to handle screen sizes? 128x128 is not the same as 320x480, nor as 800x600. Oh, and are you going to allow Palm Pre and Android users to your iPhone site? What about Symbian? They all have WebKit, though different versions. Actually, add-on browsers Iris and Bolt are Webkit too. Some don't have touch screens. You can go with a least-common-denominator design, though even that won't be LCD. Follow mobileOK best practices. Or decide to ignore very-low-end phones (but careful! Windows Mobile 6 and earlier has a truly terrible browser, as do most Blackberries), and have a mid-range phone. Then you need to decide how to communicate support to end users. In addition to the mobile design wiki up at http://design4mobile.mobi, also check out http://mobiforge.com/designing ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile Design
> I am interested to hear the thoughts of those on the list with > regards to Mobile Design - i.e. designing for Mobile devices such as > the iPhone or Blackberry. > > Do you have any recommended books on mobile design best practices? At risk of being repetitive, I've got a few recommendations for learning. D4M (link below) is intended to be a central place for mobile design resources, patterns, books, etc. There are a hundred pages and several off-site links and book recommendations. We're soliciting contributions to the wiki and also planning the 2010 conference. Sponsorships for either are welcome. http://design4mobile.mobi/ ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] E-commerce websites for mobile
On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 5:52 AM, Sachin Ghodke wrote: > What rules should one follow while designing e-commerce websites for > the mobile? I understand that usability on mobile is extremely > primitive and very difficult. In such a case what are the usability > rules and GUI guidelines one needs to adhere to? > You first have to decide which of four approaches you are taking: 1) Just let the desktop site do its thing. 2) Least common denominator (or at least XHTML-MP with no Javascript and few images) 3) High end devices only (iPhone, Android, Opera Mobile, Palm Pre, maybe Opera Mini) 4) Targeted. I've seen approaches 2, 3, and 4 work in practice, but it depends on your brand and your customers. We almost always do #4; many designers advise only #3. #4 involves device detection at a minimum ... I can talk about approaches for #4 for quite some time. In the meantime, there are lots of resources over at http://design4mobile.mobi ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] iPhone app interaction related
On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 3:25 PM, Shivan Kannan wrote: > Hello > > This is iPhone application related. > There is a screen that displays a list of devices. For every device > in the list the user can perform one of the following > 1. browse into the directory of the device > 2. see device properties > 3. see home page of the device > 4. see settings for that device > > My question: Is it a good idea to have the four options display on > this second screen showing the directory of deivce? The four options > has got to act on the device and not on the directory itself. If user > goes browsing deeper into the directory, the options change and > actions have to act on the files within the directory and not on the > device. I think you are falling into the trap of menu-driven design. Perhaps try breaking apart that a little bit? One option is to have the screen simply display the directory, with buttons/tabs at the top for the other three options. This converts your hierarchical menus into a tabbed display, reducing one layer of menus. The whole "screen" with all four options is all about the device. I imagine more options are available. > >From your experience in designing interactions for iPhone > applications, have you come across such a problem? How should it be > handled? Is there a convention sort of flow followed for iPhone app > dealing with such type of interaction? As a rule of thumb, 80% of iPhone apps are poorly designed. They are pretty, but not well designed. The percent may be higher. Other than Apple guidelines (which they do not always follow) there aren't too many conventions that I would follow just yet. ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Where Industrial Design Meets IxD - Grad Programs
On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 5:13 PM, Leo Ham wrote: > I am a recent CogSci - HCI graduate and I'm looking into Industrial > Design (ID) programs that have close ties with IxD. > University of Kansas has a MA in IxD that shares a lot with the ID program. And a professor who is formerly head of human factors for IDSA. http://www.sadp.ku.edu/design/interaction/ ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Free mobile design template
Steven Hoober just published our updated mobile design template. http://bit.ly/1njw6 which points to http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/2009/08/24/more-templates-for-everyone/ It is, of course, a work in progress. ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Screen Resolution Sources
On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 1:43 PM, Sean Scott wrote: > Hi All. Currently looking for good sources on screen resolutions in > the Us if at all possible. Trying to take a wider look than just on > the client site. > Probably not what you are looking for, but Device Atlas gives (among many things) mobile screen sizes. http://deviceatlas.com/ (free registration) ~~~~~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Anyone developed great wireframes for Blackberry, iPhone or both?
One of the problems is that many of the templates out there presume a single size. Even Blackberry-only has a variety of sizes. Here's what we start with: http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/2008/05/19/steal-this-template/ ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 7:00 AM, Catriona Lohan-Conway wrote: > Would love to see what you have done as working on some travel apps for both > platforms. Preference for Omnigraffle but can convert. > > Thanks > > Catríona > __ > Catríona Lohan-Conway > User Experience Architect > 917 405 5127 > clohancon...@mac.com > > P Please consider our environment before printing. > > > > > > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org > Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Seeking for Recommendations on Mobile UI Design Companies
On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 3:30 AM, min Ouyang wrote: > I've become interested in the field of mobile UI design. And I would > love to contribute my research expertise and knowledge there. Could > anyone recommend companies who have been doing Mobile UI work in the > States? Thanks! http://www.squidoo.com/mobiledesign is a larger list. In the States: Punchcut Goto Media Cloud 4 Pinch Zoom (Brian Fling's new venture) Little Springs Design ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Design For Mobile wiki has a job board
We're working hard to make the Design For Mobile site be a good resource for all things mobile design, not just patterns. We started a job board on the wiki, and I've been adding jobs as I find them. There are 19 jobs listed right now. http://patterns.design4mobile.com/index.php/MobileDesignJobs Recruiting? This is a site targeted at folks in the business of mobile user experience. And the job board is on the wiki. Go ahead and post. ~~~~~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Itching for haptic feedback
On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 11:42 AM, Jerome Ryckborst wrote: > Does anyone out there who works on the hardware side of interaction design > want to give me an Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) for my dream? Is this 10 > years off, or 20? We don't have great hardware visibility except when we get to work on a relevant funded project, so it's spotty. But check out Immersion for medical, games, and mobile (in market already) and Senseg for arbitrary screens including mobile. With NO actual connection, my business hunch says that Senseg is 36 months out. And I got burned by predicting e-Ink as being commercial a few years before it actually did. http://immersion.com/markets/medical/index.html http://www.senseg.com/ ~~~~~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design Training
On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 8:20 AM, mark schraad wrote: > Most of those successful firms institutionalize this, and in > many cases (IDEO) sell upon the benefits of their process. In some case the > process can become a large portion of the brand (discover, define, design > etc). Most any firm will consult... and often about process. In the > nineties, we were leaders in application of digital tools to the graphic > design process and would often book our lead designers for weeks of > consulting and training within corporations. We found that in 9 out of 10 > cases this lead to design consulting and to some really great projects. Even a tiny little firm like ours is starting into this space. Steven Hoober chatted with some folks at Interaction'09 about his process book that's been a work in progress for a few years now. He finally "finished" it and it's available. http://dbd.littlespringsdesign.com/ The book is actually a conversation: any good comments on a part of the book will be incorporated into future versions, published a couple times a year. ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Testing a WAP site
On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 11:30 AM, Elana Glazer wrote: > Any recommended resources/reading on user research for WAP sites? > Looking to do usability testing, as well as preference testing. > > Any articles/sites/vendors would be appreciated. There is some stuff here: http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/category/usability-testing/ The most relevant of those articles is: http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/2008/07/21/usability-testing-of-multiple-device-software-and-sites/ (shortened here: http://is.gd/K1OC ) We do a lot of our own testing, and have a couple partners to outsource more. ~~~~~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] Two mobile design virtual seminars, May 27 and June 10
You already understand the web. You’ve been designing or building sites for years. But now you need to go mobile, and simply hoping isn’t going to satisfy your boss, your clients or your customers. Already a web expert? Mobile is different. Little Springs teaches several mobile web design classes, both in-person and via convenient webinars, covering the theory and basics of mobile use, pitfalls to avoid and detailed strategies to follow when moving to mobile. You’ll be educating for an increasingly portable and connected world. We’ll cover: * Design * Browsers & devices * User research * Analytics The next virtual events are: Top 10 Things Web Designers Need to Do When Going Mobile May 27 Learn Mobile Web Design 10 June – 8 July 2009 http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/training/virtualevents/ ~~~~~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Number of results displayed per page on mobile device
On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 12:33 PM, Eugene Kim wrote: > Has anyone come across an example of search results which aren't > based on the "base-10" method of displaying results per page? > My current set of thoughts on numbered results with numbers enabled as accesskeys: - A lot of "good" browsers don't support these, and will display them without making them controls. (Opera Mini, Blackberry) And a lot of QWERTY devices don't support them. And of course devices without keyboards won't respond to them. - For more, check out http://mobiforge.com/designing/blog/accesskeys-thinking-about-them-a-qwerty-world (short version: http://is.gd/vYsK ) - A lot of browsers won't display a 0 next to item 10, so there isn't a value there. - The "good" browsers will typically be able to display more results; if you limit results to only 9 or 10 you are forcing these folks to have more page requests. - For search results or advertising results, most users won't use the accesskey. (There are exceptions, but the exceptions appear to be very unlikely to use the web browser on the phone. ) This is because they have to scroll down to read the results, and most will use the "fire" (OK) button. Summary: for search results, I don't recommend displaying the numbers at all, or displaying the actual result number (e.g., "14") rather than a false accesskey. The more advanced recommendation is to detect the browser type, whether it has a QWERTY keyboard, and some other stuff and display only for a 12-key keypad and maybe also Pocket IE. Recommendations change a bit for sites where you can develop expertise. The Gmail mobile site, for example, probably still has "1" for Inbox and a few other shortcuts. Nice feature. I'm focused on "browser" because you said "WAP phones" ... a phrase that doesn't have a good definition. It's akin to saying a "HTTP computer". As a result, the above assumes you are talking about "feature-phone browsers". For java and other platforms where you have more control, recommendations change a little bit. ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Design For Mobile liveblogging
My colleague, Steven Hoober, live-blogged the Design For Mobile conference. With pictures. You can check out what we talked about here: http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/category/conference/ And check out the back-chat here: http://hashtags.org/tag/des4mo/ ~ Barbara Ballard Skype: barbara_ballard Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1.785.838.3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile security vs. ease-of-use
2009/4/16 Erik Wingren :
>
> 1. What is your thinking/point-of-view on application-level security
> requirements for a mobile app, where one of its' features is to store
> personal, potentially sensitive data, when the app runs on a mobile device
> that already has built-in security layers at the OS-level?
It depends. If your market consists of enterprise customers who are
using devices managed by their IT department, then you can feel
reasonably safe that the device security will be handled.
I actually don't know of very many other folks who are using any sort
of password protection on their phone. Savvy users are STARTING to
clue in to the problem. Starting. Gmail app recommends that you enable
password protection of the phone. Password protection is off by
default.
The next level of thinking is whether the sensitive data requires a
network connection to see, and just how sensitive the data is.
Consider viewing the current status of my stock portfolio. This
clearly is sensitive data, but how sensitive? Most people, if they
lose their phone, will both deactivate their previous device and
acquire a replacement. They don't want to pay for purchases and use
somebody else is going to make with their phone.
So, a stock portfolio status has a 24 hour period in which a thief (or
lucky person) might possibly look at the data. This is a pretty small
risk.
Allowing changes to a portfolio: VERY large risk. Require password. Period.
Also consider pre-paid customers, who are adopting web and apps as
well. (Pre-paid is more popular amongst Hispanic communities, and
mobile data adoption is higher amongst Hispanics). That same phone, on
a pre-paid plan, when lost will not likely recovered. It might not be
deactivated ("oh, it just has $5 left on it; I won't bother.")
So the security hole is a bit larger for this group.
I think the best solution is to somehow detect type of plan and
whether the device's password is on. We can't do that if we are
working on downloaded apps or web sites.
Instead, consider having an application password, on by default, with
advanced users having the ability to explicitly turn it off.
I also admire the two-level system adopted by many bank sites and at
least the 1Password application. You enter the service using a first
password (perhaps with the option of turning it off), and you can get
to a lower-sensitivity level of data. Much of the time this is all you
need. Sometimes you want access to more detailed, sensitive, or risky
data. In those cases, the user must enter a second password or PIN.
>
> 2. Does anyone have evidence to share, formal or anecdotal, on the percentage
> of iPhone/mobile users that complete registration (asking for
> email-as-username and password) when this is required on initial use?
>
For which application? What type of application? From what you
suggest, the app wouldn't work otherwise.
I do know that (for at least some large set of iPhone apps) 75% of
downloads aren't opened after day 1. See slides 12-14 here:
http://www.slideshare.net/pinchmedia/iphone-appstore-secrets-pinch-media
(same link: http://tinyurl.com/ahhcvl )
So there are already major issues. I'd consider carefully doing
anything to push those statistics even further down.
Try it out for your own app, with analytics from somebody like Flurry
or Pinch Media.
> 3. Same as above, but to what degree repeat usage starts trailing if login is
> required on subsequent uses?
I've not seen stats like that. But go look at those three slides. They
are sobering. Are you making money off of those subsequent views?
Barbara Ballard
Skype: barbara_ballard
Twitter, Delicious: barbaraballard
email: barb...@littlespringsdesign.com
1.785.838.3003
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Re: [IxDA Discuss] mobile dashboards / bi best practices
On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 6:06 AM, Milan Guenther wrote: > I'd like to exchange some best practices or reusable patterns, on > questions such as how to enable users to drill down in data using the > limited screen size and interaction capabilities of the device, or how > to adapt a dashboard to the mobile context. We did a recent project with a pretty good dashboard for mobile, but it was for a consumer site. Steven Hoober will be talking about it next week at http://design4mobile.mobi/conference.html . He was using standard portal theory to build the site. Blackberries are extra fun, because by default they have CSS and Javascript off. Your world is different if your IT department sets up Blackberries with the good browser settings. I don't think we've documented any portal or dashboard patterns here, but would love to get more: http://patterns.design4mobile.com Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] Mobile Web Design, Atlanta, April 17
I'll be giving a one-day workshop for learning mobile web design, next Friday, in Atlanta. We'll talk about different types of browsers (not just iPhone and Webkit), design for different screen sizes in the mobile environment, and refactoring your web site for mobile access. http://mobilewebdesign.eventbrite.com/ ~~~~ Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] Design For Mobile - virtual access
We're making the Design For Mobile conference available from the comfort of your own home. Or conference room! Gather your team around the computer screen, listen to the speakers, see the slides, ask questions. April 21-22, at your computer screen. http://design4mobile.mobi/webinar.html Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] \"Download Adobe Acrobat\" for PDFs
On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 12:52 PM, James Page wrote: > There where 9,199 visitors, and only 2,572 had "Acrobat". I sure if the > target audience was academic then the numbers for "Acrobat" would allot > higher. I'm not sure *I* have "Acrobat". I try to purge it from my system at every opportunity due to bloat. How is this measured? Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] alternate to Basecamp?
On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 9:08 AM, Will Evans wrote: > There is a web based application whose name escapes me right now but I heard > about it through twitter - something about 5 minutes before 5pm, or some > such thing that at least seemed like the user experience was better, more > thought through than the developer-designed Basecamp. If that jogs anyone's > memory, please post to the list - I do actually want to try it out. > We're using 5pmweb. If you're nice, you'll use our referral code and we'll get some discounts. (If not, just be lazy and click below). http://www.5pmweb.com/?ref=u782444 Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Sources for Touch Interaction Information
Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 1:38 PM, Damon Dimmick wrote: > > So, specializing in web apps, I've had precious little work on > touch-screens (especially for mobile platforms) come across my desk. This is already up on the mobile design resources wiki, specifically at http://patterns.design4mobile.com/index.php/TouchWeb ... add to it with anything else you know. Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] A list of mobile situations
On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 12:33 PM, Pietro Desiato wrote: > Hi all, since we're all interested in the design for mobile, I thought it > would be interesting to have a list of situations, common activities and > contexts that could related to the mobile design. The list would help us to > reflect upon mobile and would be truly INSPIRATIONAL for all the designers. > Sometimes, in fact, we don't reflect on what are the contexts in which our > users are going to interact. This would be a GREAT addition to the Design For Mobile wiki (see below). We have a list that we always consider for potential relevancy in any project: at a cafe/restaurant in class/meeting at airport in line in bathroom in front of the television (ESPN mobile spike) just before going to sleep (Google mobile spike) upon waking up (HUGE portion of people using phone as alarm clock) http://design4mobile.mobi/ Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Design For Mobile conference, April 20-22, Early Bird ends March 7
In late 2007, we got tired of all the conferences focusing on mobile user experience being in Europe. Usually London. Since more and more there's really great mobile design work going on in North America, we decided to make a new conference. And in 2008 it was terrific. The 2009 conference is approaching, with topics ranging from academic to theoretical to incredibly practical, from user research to implementation. We'll have a workshop on gestures for mobile phones and a workshop on designing & documenting mobile interaction. Design For Mobile April 20-22 Lawrence, KS, USA http://design4mobile.mobi/conference.html A limited number of discounts, 15% off, is available using code social_bb Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Touchscreen Buttons
I did some work for a client recently, and found the SAP guidelines very useful, as they echoed lots of things I learned in human factors (including the aforementioned Woodson, Tillman, and Tillman). http://www.sapdesignguild.org/resources/TSDesignGL/Index.htm What I found especially interesting as I worked through them is the degree to which they do and don't work for mobile phones. The document was clearly written with kiosks, not phones, in mind. Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 9:47 AM, Jeff Millington wrote: > I am looking for information related to touchscreen buttons (height, > width, separation, distance from corners, etc.) > > In a discussion archive from 2005, "Touchscreen target size"; it > was mentioned that ISO/ANSI recommends a size of 3/4" for the size > of touchscreen buttons. > > This is for a outdoor application and could have uses without gloves > to gloves of various thicknesses. > > 1) Does anyone know the numbers for these standards or where else to > look for this type of information? > > 2) Anyone have any suggestions/recommendations for "gloved" hand > use? > > 3) Any experiences with right-hand biasing of the GUI when using a > 7" LCD? > > Thanks for your help, Jeff > > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org > Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Attending Mobile World Congress 2009?
We're not going (small agency in US = very pricey to go to Barcelona) but we are hosting Design For Mobile http://design4mobile.mobi/ in April. Would love to talk. Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] iPhone Custom Application Standards and emulators for testing - reference
On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 4:23 AM, wrote: > Can anyone point to iPhone custom application design standards. And the > emulators available for testing the application in our local machine. > The Design For Mobile site (http://design4mobile.mobi) does have a wiki page talking about emulators and simulators. http://patterns.design4mobile.com/index.php/Design_Tools Of course the rest of the site has lots of information as well. ~~~~ Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] CRM system for a UX team?
On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 5:00 PM, Alina Barbuceanu wrote: > I've used Sugar CRM. It's the only stable, popular, open source > solution there is. It's a very feature rich CRM, has all you may > possibly need or not need. I'll second that assessment. However, don't rely on it to do bulk email. It claims it does it, but doesn't. And hopefully you won't have to use its definitions of lead vs. target. And converting people from one type (e.g., lead) to another is questionable ... sometimes the data types don't match up. We abandoned it since bulk email was a must-have for us. We are now using Daylite, but it's pricey if you want to have several people accessing it at once. It's cheap if you can put up with everybody using the same account info (one seat). Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] usability testing equipment for mobile devices
On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 9:26 PM, Juan Ruiz wrote: > We are looking to purchase equipment for usability testing on mobile devices. > > - Movable positioning: A dual camera is attached to the mobile > device. One camera records the screen and user interaction with the mobile, > and the second camera records the facial expression as well as the > positioning of the device in relation to the user. > > http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/analysis/utest/ We ended up adding a third camera. One points at the screen, one at the keypad (or the rest of the screen if a candybar phone), one at the face. Run the whole thing through a quad-processor security thing (I'd have to ask our camera geek about the details). Tip: do NOT use wireless cameras. GSM will cause signal degradation. Tip: if building it yourself, be sure to use lightweight metal or plastic. Users start ignoring the sled soon enough, but not if it's super heavy. We do lots of testing on feature phones, and you really don't want to add any software load to them (if you could get VNC in the first place). We don't "upgrade" participants to nicer phones because those aren't the phones they are used to, and then you have device & OS issues compounding your application & website issues. If you're testing the device itself, you've got more flexibility. Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] how to test different key-board lay-outs?
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 3:51 PM, majid dadgar wrote: > *1 -* *what are the approaches/ methods towards the most optimized lay-out > on key-boards?*(in other languages) > According to the nature of the language and alphabet, for example to > minimize cognitive load, to enhance typing speed, to distribute letters on > keyboards equally for both hands, ... .It would be a stage before the user > test.e.g. that if I have to find the 100 most frequent words, what will be > the approach to identify those words? Testing keyboard layout is difficult ... not in the actual task (simply develop a set of normal text entry tasks for your device) but in getting participants who don't know on particular layout. I'm going to assume you are designing for a mobile device. Why? Because I get about 5 inventors per year asking me to endorse their new mobile text input. And they're going about it the wrong way. It's not my input they need; they need to invest $5m and 3 years in business development. Why else do I assume mobile? Because keyboard layout is far more variable. Some keyboard inventors analyze letter combinations occurring in the language, and lay out keys accordingly. FrogPad was designed in this way. Optimized layout based on letter frequency or common words does mean you'll have a large learning curve in the resulting design. So you'll need to add a training task to your user studies. Don't just use the most common 100 words. Use the power of a computer, use the most common 10,000 words but weigh them by frequency of use. Add in common abbreviations in the language, decide whether you want to actively support slang, and don't forget NAMES. Consider whether a key might enter multiple keystrokes, like "Al " to make typing "Al Jazeera" that much easier. Layout isn't the only issue. Key size is huge. If you have limited space you have to decide whether to use very small keys or larger keys that do similar things. Don't require participants to learn more than one new layout. You'll have extra errors as a result; your results won't mean anything. Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Ux Trends to watch out for in 2009
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 12:22 PM, Danny Hope wrote: > 2009/1/13 Jared Spool : >> Jet Packs! >> Flying cars! >> Online Banking that doesn't frustrate! > > The first two are more likely than the third. So let's take a moment out to congratulate banks that have GOOD online banking experience. My first nomination is USAA. They posted a survey recently and there were a few things I wanted them to fix, and I was having fun actually describing them in detail, with the actual hope that a designer might read what I was writing. Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] 10 Most Common Misconceptions About User Experience Design
On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 8:02 PM, Whitney Hess wrote: > Just wanted to share an article I wrote titled ³10 Most Common > Misconceptions About User Experience Design² that was published today on > Mashable. > > http://mashable.com/2009/01/09/user-experience-design/ Thanks! I look forward to using this as a client education piece. Good stuff. Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Samsung UI Guidelines for Mobile Devices?
On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 6:47 PM, jayhilwig wrote: > Anyone know of any (public) Samsung UI Guidelines for Mobile Devices, in > particular TouchWiz? If you find one, please let me know. I've never found one, despite writing several such things myself. I keep track of design guidelines and other resources over at http://patterns.design4mobile.com/ and http://squidoo.com/mobiledesign ~~~~ Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Strategic Interaction Design
> On Jan 6, 2009, at 7:18 AM, Christina Wodtke wrote: >> ... you could even simplify that to "Strategy is the plan for how to" On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 5:32 PM, Peter Merholz wrote: > I'm wary of reducing strategy to just the plan, because, as we all know, > plans often (usually?) need to be changed once you start acting. That's why > philosophy and vision are important -- as you change your plans, you have a > foundation that helps you maintain appropriate focus. I had a blog comment that replaced the original "compete" with "succeed", which seems like a good solution. I think that the term strategy is terribly overused. For example, we are moving into a new office. We created a bit of a plan of all the things we needed to do. Did we have an office moving strategy? I don't think so. Now our office location might be part of our strategy. We're close to downtown, in an interesting part of town, accessible by bike, bus, foot, and car. It's interesting enough for designers to be happy, while being cheap enough to make me happy. It's on the side of town that makes for an acceptable commute from nearby Kansas City, where we can get a supply of experienced employees without forcing them to move. But I don't think that office location is part of our strategy. It is a specific tactic associated with the "be a great place to work for great UX folks who don't want to move to major design/tech centers" strategy. That in turn involves understanding various reasons why our target employees might not want to move, including family. So we have other tactics associated with that strategy. Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] University / Colleges in NC
On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 10:07 PM, Paul Nuschke wrote: > UNC-Chapel Hill - their program is through Library Sciences > NC State (Raleigh) - Psychology, Industrial Engineering > NC A&T (Greensboro) - Industrial & Systems Engineering (Human Factors) At NCSU you can (at least 15 years ago) also go into Industrial Design, so you can major in HF via Pysch or IE and minor in ID. It worked for me. ~~~~ Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Strategic Interaction Design
On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 1:50 PM, mark schraad wrote: >> Really, I think of design as tactics employed in product strategy. It >> seems like execution to me, though that's certainly arguable. > > > This is exactly the mind set that I have spent the last 10 - 15 years trying > to correct, or at least mitigate. In the nineties, running my design firm, I > saw project after project that were doomed before we even got a hold of > them. When you're working as a consultant and a 'go to' design firm, one of > the fastest way to reduce your livelihood is to call this out in initial > client meetings. And, as Barbara states, it is the rare designer that has a > hand or say in strategy. I totally understand, and even agree with, where you are coming from. It's just that I worship at the altar of execution. Without execution, strategy is nothing more than a bunch of hot air. Useful hot air, but hot air. And product strategy shaped without design thinking can doom projects before they start. Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Strategic Interaction Design
On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 12:43 PM, Dan Saffer wrote: > So when I ask, what should interaction designers know about strategy? You > respond... My history with strategy has been kind of strange. I saw all sorts of people talking about strategic design, strategy, and whatnot, and I thought that I wanted to be strategic too. All the cool kids were. But the more I learned about strategy, the more I realized I didn't know. Fast forward a few years, and I decided to get an MBA. Even after taking three classes in strategy, I *still* didn't know what all of the aforementioned "cool kids" were talking about. After embarking in a study of strategy in various contexts including military, I have finally defined strategy: Strategy is the plan for how to compete. I keep it that short in the interests of memorization and brevity. But there are lots of levels of strategy. You have to figure out what "you" is, and what you are competing for. Corporate strategy is deciding what lines of business to be in to compete for investment & market cap; available tactics include mergers, acquisitions, and more. Business strategy is how to compete for advertising or customer dollars against similar businesses and substitutes for your business services. What services should be offered? What customers should be targeted? What is the core value? Should we enter this new service area with either the same customers or the same process? Differentiation or low cost? Product strategy, in this framework, is how the product or service is going to compete. Good interaction design? Features? Simplicity? Flow? Beauty? Distribution model? Market segments? Really, I think of design as tactics employed in product strategy. It seems like execution to me, though that's certainly arguable. Each of the above are loosely coupled, with product strategy for different services being tightly coupled with each other. Each "lower" level influences the level "above", especially since there are are many lines of business that corporations are in, and many services that a business offers. So, what does an interaction designer have to know about strategy? First, it's a rare designer who has influence over business strategy. So the designer must generally work with the business strategy, not at cross-purposes. A Wal-Mart product must not be feature rich to the point of being high cost. A discount ISP must not induce customers to believe they can call customer care 10 times per month. An advertising-driven web site must have plenty of quality advertising opportunities. Second, IxDers can have significant influence over product strategy, though working with others. They must know this, but also be able to communicate in the language of product strategy. They can especially influence direction through user research, which is similar to but distinct from market research. But they can not be the sole source of product strategy. Third, product design, along with business processes and service design, can be the glue that holds together all of those product strategies. We can work across products, and create a more unified whole. I think this essentially is "strategic design". And if it doesn't get planned, it'll happen on its own. Fourth, we need to understand strategic marketing or marketing strategy. These folks talk about products and product features to offer to market segments. Each group can teach the other something valuable, and each also looks across the various product strategies. We need to be able to talk their language, understand how they segment, and articulate differences in research techniques and personas, and why each are valuable. We need to not fight with these folks, but collaborate with them. We need to understand when to invest in their research, when to invest extra in separate design research, and the differences between purchasers and users. I don't think that beginning IxDers need to know the above, but I think anyone with 3+ years of experience should understand it. Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile (Cellphone) Activated Streetlamps
On Tue, Dec 23, 2008 at 6:19 AM, wrote: > This piece from BBC News [1] demonstrates how the residents of Doerentrup > can activate the street lighting via mobile phone. This requires them to > call a specific number and then use an access code to switch a specific > lighting array for the street they want lit-up. Given that this is targeted > at older people who may well have memory issues, it seems peculiar to force > them to remember a (series of) 6-digit access code(s). A case where voice > recognition seems a better option? What is the text message use rate in that demographic? Wouldn't it be possible to put the code directly on the actual street lamps? And wouldn't location be a good addition to this service? Perhaps enough to make it a downloaded application? But if you require voice services only, I agree that speech recognition of street names are likely to be a good match. But it introduces a serious risk of errors that will drastically increase cognitive load if it isn't handled perfectly. Barbara Ballard barb...@littlespringsdesign.com 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] What extensions would you like to see in a mobile browser?
On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 11:21 PM, Sachendra Yadav <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > What extensions would you suggest to enhance the browsing experience on > mobile? > Most of my extensions are in the "fix things broken with the browser" department. As such, they are at risk of becoming obsolete. URL fixer seems obvious, session restore, readitlaterlist (a must try, and can work across browsers), delicious integration, Google Gears, and load-in-background. On that last one, if I (a) have an unlimited connection and (b) know what I'm doing, then PLEASE don't make me wait for a tab I have open to reload every time I glance at it. Do a combination of finish loading when a tab is in the background, respecting the page's refreshes, and NOT reloading the page when I glance at it. Next, I want to use plug-ins to give me access to local data and capabilities, a la the BONDI initiative and Oracle's nifty make-sure-you-have-local-data-but-sync-it-when-network-is-available database system. Once I have all that, I'll undoubtedly think of more stuff. But that'll be 2+ years out, so I have time. http://readitlaterlist.com/ Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Vive l'ergonomie?
On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 1:41 PM, Billie Mandel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > So, question of the day: what can you guys tell me about the state of our > field in France? > When you first asked the question, I could not remember the proper search term to retrieve this information. But now ... interaction design group in France: http://www.designersinteractifs.org/ Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Can an interaction designer creat (great) interaction without (great) visual design skills?
On Oct 28, 2008, at 1:46 p, allison wrote: My point was that while interactive products need to have great interaction, not every interactive product needs to have *visual* design. What about the Metro card machines in the NYC subway system? They're cute but the UI is pretty basic. Despite this the interaction design is great b/c they're fast and so easy to use. What level of visual or product design skill, or engineering for that matter, did those designers need to have in order to create a great interaction design? Any thoughts about whether http://www.livescribe.com/ Pulse constitutes great interaction? --- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] Designing compelling, usable, and device-appropriate software and web sites for mobile devices. Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] why the hate-on User-centered Design? (was Re: practice vs. discipline & roles vs. people
I've come to two general conclusions: 1. I'm never quite doing what the current best practice/fad/terminology says 2. Whatever terminology I choose will become outmoded. I remember back in '95 or so, Donald Norman came to a local chapter of HFES, with folks from the various parts of that field. Including design. And he asserted to our faces that what we were doing was crap, that emotion was critical. This lovely assertion that all HF folks are in the evaluative side of things is just funny. And the assumption that we narrow the entire range of human factors down to cognitive factors is insulting. This obviously stuck in my mind. And now that he is asserting that the lessons you learn in HF from the engineering side (Industrial Engineering) are critical to management of design ... I just can't take the whole thing seriously. I have training in industrial design, engineering, manufacturing, cognition, vision, human performance, social psychology, emotional psychology, artificial intelligence, programming, and business. I might not have training in fundamentals of typography and color, but I can evaluate responses to these things and refine designs. And I'm tired of people assuming that because I do one of these things, I fit in some stereotype. And this is what I think the backlash against "usability", "usability engineering", and "user centered design" is. And I look ahead to the backlash against interaction design. And other backlashes. I plan to roll my eyes, figure out what the current preferred methodology is, see what I am already doing of it, see what I can learn from it, and see if I want to adopt it as a label. I might, I might not. I think I have graduated to codgerhood. Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Scrolling list view vs. "More" links
On the mobile side, we've found: 1. Fetching is harder than scrolling 2. Different devices can support different sized lists; keep the list size smaller than the max size for the device (surprise!) 3. Applications can do dynamic loading of lists ... see the Gmail app: when you get near the bottom of the currently loaded list, the app fetches more of the list without user interaction. The user just keeps scrolling down. 4. If breaking a list onto different pages, provide your full navigation scheme on each page. Be careful with backward navigation; test with users. Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 9:42 AM, david farkas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > thanks, this is all very helpful for the standard browser view. is > there any similar research or articles on the mobile side? my gut > feeling is there is a different approach needed as > navigating back and forward is more difficult, > users can't open new tabs or windows in mobile devices (iphone > aside) > and the overall screen size is limited > > > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > Posted from the new ixda.org > http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=33803 > > > > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Need user data on iPhone adoption by age
Michael Mace and Rubicon Consulting did a study that might help: http://mobileopportunity.blogspot.com/2008/04/announcing-new-survey-of-iphone-users.html Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile phone - environment interactions?
> I'm looking for clever example of mobile phones interacting with the > environment, like in a museum or a retail space. I'm thinking of > interactions like pushing information to phones while the person is on-site, > or having them use their phone to make queries or send text messages to an > on-site system. I feel like this has come up on the list before, but I > didn't find anything in the archives. This is actually one of my passions regarding mobile. Relevant technologies are Bluetooth, GPS and other location technologies, camera, NFC, SMS. Camera: the Nokia phone that takes a picture of a piece of paper currency, recognizes what it is, and announces it to the user, verbally. Ta da! It's now harder for a blind user to be cheated. Camera: take a picture of a QR code, get info from a web page or MMS. Camera: take a picture of an arbitrary item, have it recognized (some startup at CTIA) Camera: generic text recognition, both for business cards and others. Want to read the menu in a foreign country? NFC: tap your phone on the turnstile in the subway; have your account debited. (Tokyo and London already working) SMS or web: watch television, interact with it via the mobile. Bluetooth: file transfer stuff. VML is working with Bluetooth hotspot advertising. We tend to write about context a fair amount, and it came up at the Design For Mobile conference. Check out http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/category/context/ and http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/category/conference/ Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] mobile design conference round-up
We had a great time at Design For Mobile last week, talking about research, presence, design, business, and more. Our blog summary is found here: http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/category/conference/ but we'll update it a little bit. --- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] Designing compelling, usable, and device-appropriate software and web sites for mobile devices. Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] retry: what is your favorite mobile/touch web site?
What web sites do you use on your iPhone/Opera Mobile/Pocket IE/ Skyfire device? Which ones do you think are well designed? Why? I'm not looking for design recommendations here, but sites that you like or that inspire you. --- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] Designing compelling, usable, and device-appropriate software and web sites for mobile devices. Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] favorite web site designs for mobile touch screens?
When you look to design inspiration for designing sites for iPhones and other mobile high-end browsers, which sites do you look to? Which designs are especially good? Do you have any pet peeves? Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] touchscreen predictive text input: Swype
On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 9:30 PM, pauric <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-50003669.html > > Very intriguing, almost gestural > I wish them all the luck in the world. I've seen several dozen text input methods for mobile, including at least three that looked like this. I'm pretty sure one of them was available for download on PocketPC 2004. I hope some of them will succeed. Obvious drawbacks: words not in dictionary require a different input method (and he clearly knows it with his T9 experience); still touch so requires vision; he has to sell it and get it in devices which is profoundly difficult in this industry -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Job: Lawrence, Kansas, USA: mobile interaction designer, mobile design producer
Looking to work in mobile design?<http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/2008/09/09/looking-to-work-in-mobile-design/> Looking to expand your stellar interaction design skills into mobile? Or perhaps you are already a rock star mobile designer? Like working with companies from startups to major brands, both in and out of the mobile industry? Have a passion for mobile? We are looking to fill one of two roles, either a Senior Designer or a Producer, with a need to fill the other one soon enough. Both focus on mobile: web sites, applications, services, devices, operating systems, marketing platforms, and more. The ideal *Senior Designer* conceives of multiple interaction models, details them out, tests them out, specifies them for our clients. An advocate of user research, this person has seen enough front end and usability research to create informed predictions of user behavior. Interaction design is a combination of art, modeling, psychology, design, and a touch of engineering. You'll have strengths in at least two. You have strong opinions, but recognize when other issues prevail – like clients and users. You aren't afraid to assert the user's needs in the face of client opinions. You can talk to clients, but it isn't necessarily your first choice. You can do some QA, though not based on scripts. You recognize that sometimes your designs have errors, but getting the development team coding is more important than perfection in design. A *Producer* is going to talk to clients more. You could do the whole design yourself, but addressing client needs and doing project management will take up much of your time. You'll probably own the vision for the project, and clients will come back requesting your team. You'll end up having your own team to help clients, but moving the client from idea to proposal to project launch will largely be your job. Everything your team produces will be consistent with your vision and your high quality standards. Whether designer or producer, you have a life. Little Springs Design wants people interested in long term relationships with both us and our clients; to do that we do what we can to help you make your life what you want it to be. This position is in Lawrence, Kansas, just outside of Kansas City. There is no relocation available at this time. Telecommuting is not an option at this time, though local telecommuting a few days a week are fine. We can not sponsor visas at this time. Send me a resume, CV, portfolio, whatever you've got. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile touch screen UI trends
Hola Jorge, > Everybody is optimizing their website to iPhone UI, but what about the > others touch screen devices? Some of our clients are actually getting the two confused. "touch screen" = "high end browser", at least in their minds. We re-educate them (Opera Mobile??), and frequently recommend a four-version approach (applies to web sites, not to apps): 1. touch/stylus + client scripting 2. scroll-and-select + client scripting 3. server-side scripting <-- includes transcoders like Novarra, OpenWeb, Google, etc. 4. nonscripting You use a little device detection to make minor tweaks to the last two. For example, increase target size or padding size if it is a touch device. You can combine 1 & 2 if you need to; you can combine 3 & 4 if you must. The distinction between server-side and client-side is critical, but not obvious to clients. Basically, server-side (like Opera Mini) will display the page, but won't re-draw parts of the page. It cripples responsiveness. Finally, we added a page to our wiki about what script *events* each browser can generate. Anybody with deep knowledge of S60 and Pocket IE is especially encouraged to participate. http://patterns.littlespringsdesign.com/index.php/Script_Events -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Good Mobile Trends Info
On Wed, Aug 13, 2008 at 7:00 PM, Petroff, Greg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am looking for blogs, whitepapers, conferences, places for where > people are talking about both the IxD and the scenarios of use that are > current. > I try to keep a good set over at www.squidoo.com/mobiledesign, which has most of the resources in this thread so far. Plus our stuff. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Information Architect Runs for Office
When I first started reading this thread (very late in) I thought, "oh no, somebody got me confused with that other Barbara Ballard again!" But happily, no. Though it really will start looking like we're taking over the state. And we got rid of the idiot state board of education folks. Every last one of them. It's been reversed. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Fwd: Contextual awareness on mobile apps
User error ... -- Forwarded message -- From: Barbara Ballard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:46:55 -0500 Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Contextual awareness on mobile apps To: dnp607 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> On Jul 15, 2008, at 1:36 p, dnp607 wrote: > I've been watching the growth of contextual awareness in mobile apps > recently There are several GPS, positionally aware apps... but I > wonder where else this contextual awareness can go? What else do > people want to know about their social networks beyond location > awareness? Events and shared interests are well traveled... In > general, the more (reliably) connected mobile devices become the > more opportunity for contextual awareness of the world around me... > but how? We have been writing about context, including interviewing two of the speakers at the Design For Mobile conference (shameless plug!!) who are speaking on the topic. Blog entries on context: http://www.littlespringsdesign.com/blog/blog/category/context/ Design For Mobile conference, including several IxDA participants as speakers: http://design4mobile.mobi/ Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] See us at Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] where have the Windows Mobile guidelines gone?
We're trying to brush up on the windows mobile design guidelines, but the documentation in MSDN isn't helping us any. It used to have good guidelines, but now most of the design links are broken. For example, in [1], the content is not found for any but the first UI control or two. I didn't find anything on microsoft.com/design, either. Does anybody have a link with fully functional content? [1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb158625.aspx -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Question about "scannable bar code" on a mobile display
On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 3:34 AM, Marcus Coghlan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Just wanted to follow up on the comments by Gretchen and Sanket on 2D > bar codes - in particular the QR Code from Denso. > This is the other side of the coin: using the phone to collect data from the environment; it's a topic about which I am quite enthusiastic. A quick technology history of Denso and QR Codes - they were using QR Codes in industrial environments, in which they could use high quality optics. When the operators (especially NTT DoCoMo) decided to go with cameraphones, they decided they wanted QR Code ability, so they required better quality cameras in the mobile phones. The Japanese code system is designed for these high quality devices. Western phones will not reliably read them, though some higher end devices will. If you want to try such things in Western locales, you will probably want a different form of code and the back end infrastructure to manage it. http://reader.kaywa.com/ seems like a winner to me. There are a few others, including some just using 1-D codes. There is also a bit of work on simple image recognition; one company is specializing in recognizing movie posters. Please note that I continue to talk about devices in the mass market, not in specialized environments. If you can control the hardware you have more flexibility. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Question about "scannable bar code" on a mobile display
On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 3:11 AM, David Malouf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Barbara, imaging (I think you said visual scanners) are required to > do this properly, but you are incorrect in your assumption that they > are somehow more standard in Europe and N. America. While I agree > there are more Laser Scanners in the US b/c there are older and more > legacy systems especially in standard retail environments, many many > enterprises are well on their way to imaging scanners as a norm. It > is the only way to scan not only barcodes from a screen, but also to > do any sort of 2D barcode scanning. The AA example couldn't have > happened/worked if they weren't already using imaging scanners. > Almost all ticket scanners are imaging due to the use of 2D scanners. > And, of course, the bulk of my work will be in consumer devices that need to work in retail environments. The main point is that you have to know what the scanners are going to be able to do. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Question about "scannable bar code" on a mobile display
On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 10:34 AM, Dante Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > A client has asked about the feasibility of displaying a scannable bar > code on a mobile device, like a cell phone or PDA. > > > > Do most devices support the requisite resolution for this to work? Yes. But that's the wrong question. The correct question is, can the scanning device scan the bar code on the mobile phone? The answer to that question is ... in places where they are using visual scanners, like in much of Europe, it works fine; in the US, the laser scanners won't work. > How does the difference in size and scale of each pixel and display > impact the readability of the barcode? The various mobile bar code companies have worked that out nicely. I'd have to go research to see who is currently in the field. > Have you ever heard of or seen this in action? Yup. Just not really here. Okay, there are some installations on getting truly paperless airplane tickets: display the ticket data on the phone and the check-in scanner can read it. This is an environment in which the scanner is controlled, so it works better. (maybe movie tickets could do the same, but you'd be behind the competition) > How would the user get this barcode...would it have to be MMS, or would > the e-mail client be able to display this kind of content? Any which way a picture could get to a phone. MMS is a good answer (be sure you know how to really send MMS so they get to end users). A web site could do it (be sure to size the image so that transcoders don't resize it). An application could do it (but the user would have to get the application). I wouldn't do email unless you really wanted it on computers as well, because so few people have email on their phones. Unless you want to focus on a small set of phones. Consider also IM. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] linkedin groups
Search for somebody you know will be in the group (me, Dave Malouf, etc.) and look at their groups. Dumb, but reliable. Oh, and I'm in a lot of groups. None of them seem to mean anything, but I'm ever hopeful. On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 10:10 PM, Joanne Weaver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > yeah, i wasn't able to search for the ixda group either on L.I,, so I > did an advanced search for "ixda", found a linkedin member that DID > have the icon at the bottom of their profile, and clicked on the icon -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Design For Mobile 22-24 September http://design4mobile.mobi/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Spatial reasoning and spatial memory
On Wed, Apr 9, 2008 at 5:47 AM, Morten Hjerde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm currently thinking a lot about spatial reasoning and spatial memory > related to small screens. > > Does anyone know about additional resources or research on spatial memory? I don't have time to dig deep into my human factors articles and research right now. Check in, though, with the US Air Force human factors guidelines. Anecdotally, we frequently test applications using one softkey paradigm (e.g., Options on left, Back on right) on devices with another softkey paradigm (primary action on left, menu on right, Back on Back button). What we've found is that after about 20-25 minutes of using an application and then returning to the native UI is that we start committing errors. Lots of errors. While using something we are very familiar with, and even expert at. Seriously check out aeronautics. There was a WWII plane in which the seat ejection lever was in the same location and the same action as another aircraft's landing gear deployment. Many airplanes were lost due to the muscle memory. What's worse is the B-57 Canberra, deployed in the 60's, had the same problem. Similarly, there was a specification for a cockpit layout for a specific aircraft. However, manufacturer A made it left-to-right, and manufacturer B made it right-to-left. The result was even more errors. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] REQUEST: Stats on Mac IE 5 ...
On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 10:40 AM, Zack Frazier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was hoping a few of you might have (or wouldn't mind asking around > to get some) stats on visitors using IE 5 on the Mac. As a percentage > of users, I expect it to be small but I have no hard numbers. > Um, what market? I just checked for my site's visitors, and 4 of 31,000 hits were from IE 5/Mac. Then again, only 45% of my hits are from IE at all. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] IxDA in flyover territory?
On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 8:17 AM, Billy Cox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm curious as to whether people doing interaction design live in places > other than Chicago or the coasts? Is this profession like music or theatre, > in which living in flyover territory is a career-limiting factor. > Kansas City has a few resources: VML (interactive agency) Hallmark Handmark Sprint, and some local offices for Sprint suppliers Kansas City Art Institute (some good designers have come from there) University of Kansas interaction design program Little Springs Design Other web shops & agencies And, apparently, you. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Creative Navigation
I intuitively jumped to the area to the right of the triangle, not the triangle itself. Was there anything else to do on the page? No idea. But, to your original question, check out http://www.etsy.com and the different "ways to shop". We've been using many of these as inspiration recently, with an eye towards figuring out how to mobilize some of it. (ours won't look anything like theirs) On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 10:06 AM, Russell Wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm not trying to drive people to my blog (I have enough traffic now), but I > posted > a very short entry highlighting what I feel is a very creative navigation > method. > > http://www.dexodesign.com/2008/02/creative-navigation.html > -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] Years 1 and 2 [was: Re: Where are all the designers?]
On Fri, Feb 22, 2008 at 9:58 AM, Mary Austin-Keller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think this is a serious problem with both our area and the general > software industry. There are so few junior job postings. Most are for 3-5 > years or more. Yet, how do you get those 3-5 years without year 1! Yes, I > have 3-5 years experience, but I think we all are doing ourselves a > disservice by not hiring junior folks. If you're out there hiring, try to > consider a junior position, even as a contractor position if necessary. I've been working my way through "Managing the Professional Service Firm" by David Maister. He makes a compelling argument that such a firm actually increases profit per partner *only* by increasing the number of juniors, as that is the only source of leverage (partners only have so much time in the week and prices are market driven). I was going to do it anyhow, but now I'm actively and resolutely looking for juniors. In Kansas. We haven't posted yet, but it'll be probably April or May. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Online newspaper software?
I recall that www.ljworld.com decided that no CMS worked well for them, so they started developing it. I even had coffee with a developer who moved from Boston to Lawrence to work more on it. I recall that it was open source, but I didn't find it anywhere obvious. A for-money CMS developed by the organization: http://www.ellingtoncms.com/ And an open source web system led by the same organization: http://www.djangoproject.com/ Mark Schraad may be able to say more on the topic. On Feb 7, 2008 2:33 PM, Joseph Selbie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Does anyone know of a well designed, highly usable, open source, online > newspaper software? > -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Master's thesis: Mobile phone GUI model
On 1/23/08, squall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm currently starting a master's thesis work on a experimental GUI model for > mobile phones, > > What programming language would be most convenient? The GUI is supposed to > offer icon based navigation (very traditional mobile style like SE or > Symbian Nokia), but no other applications (ie "dead ends" on UI nodes). You are going to test on an actual device? If possible, you should - interaction will be different when people have the device in their hands as opposed to on a computer. Also, are you making any changes or assumptions regarding the input mechanisms? Assuming that as a student you have a very limited time and money budget and hence want to test on a device but aren't making physical changes to the device, what I recommend is finding a device that meets your needs (touch screen? 4 way rocker?), then find a language to fit. Flash Lite is nice but very limited: it's a small sandbox on the device. If this is what you need, and you know a little Flash already, then go for it. Python is supposed to be pretty easy. Also consider the Neo1973 http://openmoko.org/ - designed for hackability. > How do I decide the relevant user "types", or Personas (perhaps around five > would be good)? I imagine there would be some studies on this already, > preferrably for mobile phones directly or otherwise for computer users > (hopefully somewhat similar). Um. What market would your new UI be aimed at? Just to give you an idea of implications, Nokia recently published personas for emerging markets: http://www.nokia.com/press/entrylaunch -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Traditional user testing vs micro design evolution (was: The death of web usability testing as we know it?)
I actually took a swing at this (genetic algorithms to do control panel layout) for my aborted dissertation. I chose control panel layout because it was a limited design domain: knobs, dials, and so forth, that couldn't particularly morph. The problems I ran into were: 1. representing the design constraints 2. representing the candidate designs (each control had a type, size, location, and some other variables) 3. adding genes during the evolution 4. determining "goodness" For #4, I took a set of four heuristics from human factors: frequent controls/displays should be larger and in the middle, important controls should be larger and in the middle, controls should be ordered by sequence of use, and controls with adverse effects should be difficult to use (avoid accidental activation). Even when these heuristics were developed, they were known to be simple. I could have expanded into Fitts' law and several other evaluative rules, but what I had was plenty complex. (too complex: this was three dissertations not one) The problem with these approaches in "real time", using live products or usability testing, is the number of generations necessary. If you want to have some fun seeing what these algorithms can do to design, check out this genetic algorithm geek's response to "intelligent design", and see that evolution can design clocks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcAq9bmCeR0 On 1/2/08, Bruce Esrig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Simulated annealing runs in a slightly different way. ( > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_annealing ). You throw a bunch of > trial balloons in, and let them bounce around on the ceiling, so that they > bobble out of the local maxima and have a tendency to bounce up and into > higher and higher local maxima, hopefully including the global maximum. To > make sure that they don't bounce out of the global maximum, you gradually > decrease the bounciness of the balloons. > > There have been attempts to find good designs through genetic algorithms > based on simulated annealing. They all depend on being able to reward > better designs, and you also have to have some idea of how to write down a > specification for a design. > > What we're missing in the kind of design we want to do is the specification > language. What would you say in order to ensure that the right design > elements are being included? > > In the initial discovery phase, that's what we need to find out from the > users that we interview. What is the problem space in which we will be > doing design? What concepts matter? What concepts are implied? What are the > most significant relationships among the concepts, namely the ones that the > users will want to follow? (I've got this, I want that, so I'm going to use > this relationship to get there.) > -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] A good source for stats on browsers, screen resolution, OS, etc.
I finally got details on what was going on with these statistics. My source is Ray from Bango (I think CEO), a mobile ad provider. He said: "Hitslink produced this report by using data from their analytics customers. These people operate HTML/PC websites. They say: "You simply paste a small piece of HTML code on each page you wish to track statistics on". The 300 million or so mobile phone browser users (say 50million S60) can't or don't browse HTML sites. They browse mobile friendly sites (WAP or XHTML or iMode) which will not have this HTML code in. Considering that organizations like Bango, Admob, Peperonity, Vodafone report mobile browser traffic in the billions of pages per day, most of thse being S40 or S60 its clear that by ignoring non- HTML sites these stats are misleading and mistaken. The other headline would be "iPhone users not not seen visiting the web" becuase the providers of web sites that serve mobile phones never see them. Or iPhone browsing is only 0.0001% of internet activity. It like a survey from a wheatgrass juicing company that supplies vegetarian restaurants revealling that a survey of people eating meals served in restaurants they monitored revealed 99% were vegetarian." On Dec 3, 2007 1:51 PM, Lada Gorlenko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > MarketShare is a good source of some recent and free statistics > frequently asked for by designers: > > Browsers: > http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0# -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] A good source for stats on browsers, screen resolution, OS, etc.
On Dec 3, 2007 1:51 PM, Lada Gorlenko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > MarketShare is a good source of some recent and free statistics > frequently asked for by designers: > > Browsers: > http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0# > > Screen resolution: > http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=17 > We're having trouble believing this data, with Windows Mobile/Pocket IE generating measurable volume and Symbian devices not even making the list. Perhaps this is North America only? -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] link vs button
On Nov 29, 2007 7:24 PM, Billie Mandel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > It seems to me like this is changing in our wild mashed-up world of web app > fabulousity - lots of folks are designing apps where a hyperlink invokes an > action (edit, add, send message, etc). > > What do you say - are said designers committing heresy, or are they > trailblazers? Should we be enforcing this line, or letting it blur? > I find myself using links in local applications sparingly ... for things that are going to launch the web browser. When designing web sites, I try to use best (or at least standard) practices for buttons & links. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile device testing
On 11/16/07, Bryan Minihan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My question is, if we anticipate at least SOME part of the mobile version > will deliver highlight videos, and others will likely be RSS-style text > alerts (who's new, who matches my saved alert, etc), which devices should we > target for testing, in order to capture a pretty significant user base. Our > primary personas fall in these categories: high school athletes & their > fans (generally teenagers - approx 14-19), what I call "advocate fans" > (parents & close friends helping the athlete get recruited), high school & > college coaches (we're researching now, but estimating their ages fall in > the 25-50 range). Some resources: - a presentation on how to choose mobile technologies http://www.slideshare.net/barbaraballard/going-mobile-choosing-target-devices-platforms - mobile UI patterns http://patterns.littlespringsdesign.com/ - recent mobile device & usage stats http://www.admob.com/metrics/ http://chetansharma.com/ - testing your app (NOT usability testing) on multiple devices http://deviceanywhere.com/ - useful mailing lists http://www.mobiledesign.org/ http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/wmlprogramming/ - design guidelines http://dev.mobi/book/export/html/293 In general, you'll find that video clips are going to be your most challenging technical objective. You may want to go web-only first; your market probably isn't saturated with iPhones. Video clips will require device detection and some sophisticated logic unless you partner with a service provider who does it for you. If you need to go cheap on the user research, you can consider that Amp'd did quite a bit of high school boy user research for mobile. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile phones usability research - Advices on video recording
On 11/6/07, Miguel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Interesting Barbara, I saw your slides and son I was looking for Elmo > cameras :-) > > As you have tried them, Can you say that the cameras are able to capture the > mobile screen in details, with good quality? > Scott Weiss can probably articulate Elmo benefits better; in my experience they are good for flat screens (candy bar phones but not clamshells) and they inhibit natural use of the phone. The camera quality is plenty good for usability work. I've used them for (surprise!) presentation work. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile phones usability research - Advices on video recording
On 11/6/07, Miguel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I am going to run a usability research on the BlackBerry Curve, for which I > want to video record the device screen for a later detailed analysis. > > I got a couple of camcorders, cheap camcorders, to discover that the > resolution they offer is so poor that they are of no value for this > research. For our clients, we use a sled with three cameras attached: face, screen, and keypad. These are tiny security cameras with different lenses on them. We run the three cameras, plus a wideshot camera, into a portable quad mixer (targeted at the security folks, again, but works fine for us). We then record the four images. Synchronization is very difficult. My photo specialist explained it to me once, and I don't have it fully integrated. The explanation included the fact that different cameras run at slightly different speeds, causing mismatches to accumulate. I've got a presentation up on slideshare on usability testing, it includes some pictures of different setups. http://www.slideshare.net/barbaraballard/mobile-usability-testing -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Hourly rates?
The formula I've used since 1994 or so is: annual salary / 100 = daily rate (divide by 8 to get hourly) I've gone through two other more sophisticated techniques that involved a lot more data. I've also looked at market-based pricing. The answers were all within 5% of the answer from above. On 11/2/07, maya gorton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi there, > > How do you calculate hourly rates? Is there a formula that can help you > extrapolate from a yearly salary? > -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Users ability with slider controls
On 11/1/07, Tim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I wonder, does anyone know of / carried out / read any research into users' > familiarity and ability with slider controls? > > I'm trying to put together a rating tool, users rate a product on a scale of > 1 to 10, and it seems to me that a slider fits the bill perfectly. We ran a study recently in which there was a slider and a list of checkboxes on a single (mobile phone) screen. Initial focus was on the slider. Findings include: - everybody easily set the slider - some people couldn't move focus off the slider - once users were thinking about the checkboxes, they didn't notice that their actions were affecting the slider Obviously the mobile context is different than the desktop. -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Fair Hourly Rate for Usability Test
Hi Bora, In my experience, there are three factors driving hourly cost for tests: - facility and travel costs - expertise level - mobile frequently costs more because there's a bit of specialized expertise necessary - where the consulting firm is located We, for example, charge a premium due to our mobile expertise, but as we're in Kansas we can pay our people less than half what we'd have to pay in San Francisco. We then use focus group facilities - anywhere - to run the actual test. So $160/hour is more than what we'd charge for the work. But then there's the facility, travel, and recruiting costs. It still adds up to less than $160/hr. If you want a Bay Area firm, I'm not sure what the average rates would be. Barbara On 10/30/07, Bora Ultas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello all. I am new to this list, but I wanted to get some people's opinion. > I received an SOW from a usability firm in San Francisco for user testing on > a mobile device. They want to charge $160 per hour for their consulting time > and some material costs. This seems like a very high rate, but I have never > hired such a company before, so I don't know what is fair. Does this seem > like a standard rate or is it too high? Any advice would be very helpful. > > Bora -- Barbara Ballard [EMAIL PROTECTED] 1-785-838-3003 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
