Re: [IxDA Discuss] French shopping cart terminology...
Just knowing French is not enough to actually localize to the particular French culture that is your target market. For example, if you're targeting a Parisian French audience, well, the culture of a Quebec is much different than that of France. The expectations of the audience are different. Even some of the words differ, for example, blueberry is bluet in quebecois but myrtille in French. To really localize a site, you need to have locals who actually grew up in that culture and know what the audience expects. That said, just to make sure there are not any grave errors like a literal translation that means something completely different or even offensive in the language and to make sure that there are no grammatical/spelling errors, like mis a jour instead of mise au jour :-D, you could use French speakers of the target dialect, beta testers, so to speak, who could catch these things. Also, if it's a particular kind of site that requires expertise, you would do best with francophone experts in that area. Good luck! Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of live Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 3:47 PM To: Bernie Monette Cc: Ixda Design Ixda Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] French shopping cart terminology... Ditto! Translation is NOT localisation. And you want your content to be localised. Either hire someone who knows French, or find among your friends or peers someone who knows French well. On Dec 30, 2009, at 10:48 AM, Alain wrote: You'll have to get your hands on a French speaker, before any other consideration. All of these terms can create absurd situations, when taken out of particular contexts. So any list of that this kind will be totally useless to you, alone if What makes sense to a French speaker makes little sense to me. Alain Vaillancourt --- En date de : Mer, 30.12.09, Bernie Monette mone...@iaai.ca a écrit : De: Bernie Monette mone...@iaai.ca Objet: Re: [IxDA Discuss] French shopping cart terminology... À: disc...@ixda.org Date: mercredi 30 Décembre 2009, 10 h 02 I did! But then you have to go through the checkout process, register, and then find the word that you *think* is right. What makes sense to a French speaker makes little sense to me. What I am looking for is a list of matching terms Checkout = Commander, Mis a jour = Updated (I think). Cheers, Bernie 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] On the topic of Recruiters
I think that allowing job postings enables people who aren't currently looking to see what skills they are expected to have in case they decide to start looking. It helps you to keep your skills up-to-date!. This is good for people who have been with one company for a long time and have had set responsibilities - they might not even think of these skills, but developing them might help them in their current position or get them ready for the next. And it also gives a somewhat inside track (sometimes even to the ones responsible for hiring) to both those who are and are not currently looking. And I agree with Alan - it's also interesting to see which companies are hiring and where and what they're looking for. And lastly, it gives us a reading on how the economy is doing...no job posts means no jobs...more job posts means that things are starting to look up, and that companies are starting to hire again! Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Alan Wexelblat Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 3:05 PM To: Elizabeth Bacon Cc: Interaction_Designers Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] On the topic of Recruiters On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 1:57 PM, Elizabeth Bacon li...@elizabethbacon.com wrote: Right now, job posts are definitely noise amid the discussion for those uninterested in opportunities, That's an interesting assumption - I'd be curious to know if you've surveyed people on that. For myself I'm not looking but I keep a file of job postings that I might refer to later. Likewise I check the subjects of job postings because they give interesting data on geographic locations and often company names/industries where hiring is taking place. I'd be sad to see all postings forced off the list. I though the application of a label such as [JOB] allowed easy enough filtering, but perhaps that's not universally true either... Best, --Alan 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] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.
That is an excellent point. Thank you for sharing your story - the personal situation really puts it in perspective. Another example of how the designer/UX person is not the user... I'm glad that a developer at the App Store recognized that gap. I agree that the panic button should have been pre-installed. How does the Panic button you installed work? I assume you still have to wake and unlock your phone. Thanks, Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Joan Vermette Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 1:40 PM To: IXDA list Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process. Yes, I think the iPhone is not easy to use. Here's my example: I bought my iPhone about a week ago, and a few days later I had a personal safety issue arise. With my old phone in that instance, I would have quickly dialed 911 and kept my thumb poised over the call button. The motion involved in that would have been: Flipping open phone. Feeling for raised keys on a keypad very like every other phone I've had since 1978. Glancing down for the call button. Placing my thumb on it. Holding phone in my hand. With my iPhone, the motion involved: Waking up the phone. Unlocking the phone. Getting out of the last app I was in when the phone fell asleep. Clicking the phone button. Finding and clicking the button to bring up the phone keypad. Dialing 911. Realizing I couldn't easily hover over the call button because I was so nervous and the touch screen so sensitive. Holding phone in my hand. **/Waking up the phone again to check it. Unlocking the phone Holding it in my hand./** In the midst of this (and with a creep possibly following me on a dark, empty street) I began to realize that I could probably change the settings so the phone would not fall asleep so quickly, but was too scared to attempt it. I also wished for a panic button, but certainly was not going to browse the App Store in those circumstances. There was some clear user error in that scenario - I should have just made the potentially needless 911 call and had the police talk me through my fear -- but given the occasion I wasn't really thinking straight. I'd hoped I was wrong about being followed; talking to police would have made that fear paradoxically seem more real. That's silly, yes - but perhaps understandable, nonetheless? When I've been in similar circumstances before, I've noticed a emotive cycle of fear/ feel like a silly ass, and I believe that is typical - and for us in this discussion, illustrative of the real emotional user contexts for which we designers need to account. Note that my old conventional phone accounts for this emotional context by providing a hard button that can't easily be pressed accidentally. I haven't figured out if the iPhone accounts for this at all - it didn't in a way that was easily learnable at the time. So yes, I think the iPhone is hard to use. I've since downloaded an app called 911 that is a panic button: it would be good to have that installed with the iPhone from the factory. At the time, I certainly needed it more than I needed a Stocks button, for instance, which does come pre-installed. So in conclusion, I do feel strange about sharing so much. I've shared this because I believe it's a classic example of the don't make me think rule - in this instance, my needing to think just may have come at the cost of my life, for all I knew. Also, please forgive me the slight snideness of the since 1978 line, above - I realize that there may also have been a learning curve involved if I were using an unfamiliar conventional phone, but I still don't think it would have been as great a curve as the learning I had to do with my iPhone. My iPhone still took eight unfamiliar steps instead of five relatively familiar ones banking on established phone interface designs, and I think that makes it hard to learn and hard to use. I'm fine, and there's been no sign of my stalker, since. Thanks. /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] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.
But it still holds true that to the user, Joan, it wasn't immediately learnable given a high-stress, potentially dangerous situation. I wouldn't expect to see emergency call on the keyboard of my phone, and would never think to look there. To me, it might as well not be there at all, for all that I would be able to find and use it when I needed it. Especially in a high-stress, dangerous situation, people aren't going to try to figure out something new - they are going to stick to the procedure that they know will work, no matter how long it takes. -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Andrei Herasimchuk Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 2:03 PM To: IXDA list Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process. On Aug 27, 2009, at 10:40 AM, Joan Vermette wrote: With my iPhone, the motion involved: Waking up the phone. Unlocking the phone. If the iPhone is locked, there is a button on it that says Emergency Call on the keycode screen (bottom left) which bypasses nearly all of the steps you listed and lets you get to talking to 911 immediately. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Chief Design Officer, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. and...@involutionstudios.com c. +1 408 306 6422 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] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.
Andrei probably isn't one who worries about being stalked on dark streets, thus his concept of something being easily usable (once one knows something exists, where to look and is able to find it) isn't typical of the female user who would probably more often need this button (trying to be PC here). Although I'm sure it does happen to men, it's much more often females who are followed on a dark (and possibly unfamiliar) street. I think in a life or death case, something needs to be immediately learnable. People need to make an emergency call in as little time as possible - as you said, it can make the difference between living to tell this story and not. -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Joan Vermette Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 2:52 PM To: IXDA list Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process. All that said, even now that I'm sitting perfectly safe in my home office and you've described the appropriate button for me to use, I still can't find it. I do recognize that there is a distinction between learnability and ease of repeat use but they are not entirely separate, are they? Certainly, both last Sunday evening in the dark and fully spooked - and here safe in my office looking for the button - that distinction seems quite blurred, indeed. On Aug 27, 2009, at 2:23 PM, Andrei Herasimchuk wrote: On Aug 27, 2009, at 11:17 AM, Jordan, Courtney wrote: But it still holds true that to the user, Joan, it wasn't immediately learnable given a high-stress, potentially dangerous situation. I don't agree that immediately learnable equates to hard to use. I wouldn't expect to see emergency call on the keyboard of my phone, and would never think to look there. To me, it might as well not be there at all, for all that I would be able to find and use it when I needed it. Again, this has little to do with hard to use in my opinion. Once you do see it or know it's there, one can make a pretty good case it's quite easy to use. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Joan Vermette email: jayeff...@mac.com primary phone: 617-495-0184 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] Flowchart: action box or decision box?
I would use the decision diamond as this is what is traditionally used in flowcharts to represent a decision needing to be made, in this case, probably what is the user doing to create which state in the system. If there is a generic decision, such as What happens? then have five different paths leading from the diamond, labeling each path with the appropriate identifying scenario text, such as error message is generated, success message is generated, goes to some other system, whatever the case may be. Hope that helps. Courtney Jordan -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of min Ouyang Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 3:01 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Flowchart: action box or decision box? I'm doing an exercise to practice the design of task flow. I have one step which has 5 options in it. And the user is supposed to choose one and move forward. In this case, shall I use the diamond decision box or the rectangular action box to illustrate this step? I googled a little bit. And it seems that the outcome of a diamond box is usually YES or NO instead of options. Where can I find more complicated samples for learning purpose? Thanks. 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] Password Masking and Chroma-Hash
Neat, but he doesn't address color-blind users. Maybe showing small pictures or symbols would address the needs of these users (I know there's already a few sites that use something like that where you have to either choose the picture that you chose as your password or check the associated image once you login with a text pwd). Does anyone else have ideas on how to make that accessible for color-blind users? Thanks, Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Yohan Creemers Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 5:09 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Password Masking and Chroma-Hash An experiment from Mattt Thompson in how to visualize the input of masked password fields: http://mattt.github.com/Chroma-Hash/ Some explanation taken from his blog: Chroma-Hash displays an ambient color representation of the input as it is being typed. Use Case 1: Login Check If your password normally is represented as red, purple, orange, and after you've finished typing you see pink, green, grey, you'll know you mistyped it somewhere along the way. This avoids a potentially long wait for the server to respond with a failed login notice. Use Case 2: Password Confirmation When you sign up for a web service, you often have to type your password twice to make sure that you entered what you wanted correctly. As in the demo, a user will be able to confirm that two fields are the same visually. There are, of course, many alternatives for live-input validation of password confirmation, but this is another viable use case for Chroma-Hash. http://mattt.me/2009/07/chroma-hash-a-belated-introduction/ See also a recent discussion about password masking http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=43168 - Yohan 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] Looking for great company career sites
Hello everyone, I'm in the process of redesigning a career site and I'm just getting into the research, but I wondered if you all had any career sites that just really impressed you that you'd be willing to share. By the way, these would be the career section on a company's site, not job search sites like monster or dice or what have you. Thanks for any help you can provide! Courtney Jordan 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] Are We The Puppet Masters? The Ethics of IxD.
Speaking from a mother's perspective, it's quite a bit easier to brush kids' teeth (and to feel like you got them all) of a sometimes squirmy child with an electric toothbrush set to low (I use the plug-in electric toothbrushes, not the disposable ones, as for whatever reason, they decided not to make those have circular brushes, which is the ideal shape for cleaning teeth - especially in tiny mouths!) rather than a traditional toothbrush. It's also a heck of a lot easier to simulate the round circular motions that dentists prescribe to ensure proper teeth cleaning and reduce gum recession. It seems that we took a difficult and tedious task and made it easier so that hopefully more people will do it. I don't see that there is an ethical dilemma in having made toothbrushing more fun. We've also really improved floss from something that hardly anyone used and pretty much everyone disliked to cater to a wide range of mouths and personal preferences, from woven to wax to flavored to those little flossing sticks. I appreciate most products that promote personal hygeine and make it easier for parents to effectively care for their children's personal hygeine. It's resulted in a more educated (and dedicated!) populace on the matter of personal hygeine. Better mouth care means you get to keep your teeth longer and don't have to deal with dentures or implants, so you make a little investment now to save thousands later. It's not environmentally sound, but neither are those tons of plastic bottles - why can't we just go back to glass - everything tasted better out of glass - but of course, they lost money due to bottle breakage and kids got cut on glass and the movies show people fighting with glass bottles and so they brought in plastics with all their BPA and other harmful chemicals that pollute our landfill at a much faster rate than toothbrushes which we at least use for 3 months. Those little blue bristle toothbrush indicators that let you know when your toothbrush is no longer doing its job effectively are wonderful, and again, result in a populace that can better understand that toothbrushes don't last forever. Okay, that's all I have to say on toothbrushes - brushing kids' teeth is a difficult process, so if you don't get to do it every night, you can live vicariously through my pain! Don't even get me started on the voting machines!! Check out blackboxvoting.org, if you haven't already! Courtney 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] His/Her vs. Their in website copy
Building on that idea, you could have the label change to His Birthday if the person selects that the SO is a male, Her Birthday if selects that SO is a female. Not sure though what you would do with the Self-Identifies As, maybe Other with a Their Birthday label (course, then we get back to that again :), but it would be for a fringe case - since I believe you already identified that 80% of your market is straight women.) Don't get too hung trying to design for a rare fringe case and risk alienating your main audience. Good luck. Courtney Jordan -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Katie Albers Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 1:19 PM To: IxDA Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] His/Her vs. Their in website copy When you've got this kind of question, it's usually best to start by reconsidering the way you've cast the whole thing. Can you put the info into two separate boxes (or otherwise divide them?). Then you have the section where you ask for the person's data and the section where you ask for the spouse/partner's data. Include gender in both areas (which, incidentally, is *not* binary -- I suggest using male/ female/self-identifies as: with a text box for the last) if it matters to you at all, and have the user select spouse/partner/other for the second set of data. Then, under that goes the same set of queries as for the primary user with no his/her/their problem to be found. Does that help? Katie Albers User Experience Consultant Project Manager ka...@firstthought.com 310 356 7550 On Jul 22, 2009, at 3:23 AM, William Hudson wrote: Chris - 'They' and 'their' are increasingly popular as singular personal pronouns. There is even a Wikipedia page on the subject (so it must be trueg) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they Certainly 'they' and 'their' are much less clumsy than 'he or she' and 'his or her'. Regards, William Hudson Syntagm Ltd Design for Usability UK 01235-522859 World +44-1235-522859 US Toll Free 1-866-SYNTAGM mailto:william.hud...@syntagm.co.uk http://www.syntagm.co.uk skype:williamhudsonskype Syntagm is a limited company registered in England and Wales (1985). Registered number: 1895345. Registered office: 10 Oxford Road, Abingdon OX14 2DS. Confused about dates in interaction design? See our new study (free): http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/datesstudy.htm 12 UK mobile phone e-commerce sites compared! Buy the report: http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/uxbench.shtml Courses in card sorting and Ajax interaction design. London, Las Vegas and Berlin: http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/csadvances.shtml http://www.syntagm.co.uk/design/ajaxdesign.shtml -Original Message- From: new-boun...@ixda.org [mailto:new-boun...@ixda.org] On Behalf Of Christopher Rider Sent: 21 July 2009 13:48 To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] His/Her vs. Their in website copy ... 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 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] low cost wireframing/diagramming solution?
I like Visio best. You can do so much with it. For example, you can either find or write VB code to copy pages automatically so that they are the same size, then whenever you want to make a new iteration of a page, just run the macro. You can also use GOTO, if you right-click on a shape or text or whatever control, then select Format Behavior. The last option on the Double-Click tab is Go to page. Select the page you want the control to go to and you're all set. The only difference is that you double-click the control rather than single-clicking it to invoke the go to action. You can also write code (or find some and modify it) to show and hide levels so that when you select an option button, it really appears to do something (shows a different level - so basically conditional display), or when you click a link to display optional controls, they really display. There are so many tricks to Visio. Using available code, you can also auto-create a table-of-contents and copy pages to another document, to name a few. There's also all sorts of fields (Insert Fields) that can be auto-populated, such as the name of page, what number page it is of how many pages, who the author is, and many other things that I've found to be very helpful. Just dig around on the net a bit - there is a ton of information out there. Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Shelly Cawood Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 2:13 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] low cost wireframing/diagramming solution? I use Omnigraffle, being a Mac user, as it is much quicker for producing wireframes than things like Illustrator, which is very time consuming. Viso for PC users is also good. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42842 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] Click Dummy
I've not heard of it either - but I have a few guesses. Just from the semantics, I would guess that they mean a mid-fidelity HTML prototype, where you can actually click option buttons and buttons and checkboxes and select things from list boxes and change screens, etc., but that there is no other code to make it do something. So, for example, in a recommender tool, you could click a certain path of option buttons to show/not show questions and get to a certain recommendation screen, but you could click any other path and get to that same rec screen, thus it is a dummy, it always behaves the same, regardless of what one clicks. However, I did a quick google search and it came up with this click dummy: http://www.medien.ifi.lmu.de/fileadmin/mimuc/mmi_ws0304/exercise/uebung4 /dummy_js/no-sound-index.html. This then is for testing purposes, it would seem, rather than for mostly getting buy-in from the client. Since it's obviously not a widely-used term (google had that 1 relevant link), I would get clarification on what they really want before you continue (especially if you're putting together a bid on the project). Let us know what you find out! Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Christine Milot Sent: Monday, June 08, 2009 5:05 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Click Dummy I have a client that is asking for a Click Dummy as part of a proposal but I have not heard of the term used before. Can anyone help me out? Thanks much, Christine 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] Sort order for listing languages in setup / settings
I agree. The shiny white circle at the top of the button-shaped flags makes the flag colors hard to distinguish or even to tell what color they should be and it is also hard on the eyes. You lose all the detail in the periphery of the flag that makes it immediately recognizable to natives. Also, people aren't used to looking up at a circular flag on the flagpoles in their respective countries. Great example. Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Mark Hurd Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 1:44 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Sort order for listing languages in setup / settings Apple takes an interesting approach: http://www.apple.com/choose-your-country/ Overall, the languages are broken up by region. Some are listed in English, some with native characters, and some with both. However, the common element for each is the icon of the country's flag. As an English speaker, I find this approach usable, but possibly only because I can read the regional headings and narrow down the selection. I can see how a non-English speaker would have a difficult time searching for their country's flag when there's at least 50 of them on that page. Too many colors, stripes, stars, other similarities between each. Mark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=42561 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] New release of GUI Design Studio
Actually, as someone who has to spend a lot of time manually creating extensive user flows and application and site maps in Visio (and then continually revise them throughout the course of the product lifecycle, since they are used by our testing team) then to see it done with drag-and-drop from a menu item to a new screen or from option buttons to a new screen so quickly and huge masters being able to be dropped (Visio only seems to allow a certain level of complexity for stencils and I haven't been able to figure out what that level is yet!), I thought that the application looked like a nice bridging of the massive gap between Visio and irise, which even with a CS degree (and an MS in Human Factors in Info Design), I find very difficult to use even just to create simple prototypes as the interface is so kludgy, let alone trying to use the more complex features! And while irise will cost you huge amounts of money (chances are, most people don't use most of what they're paying for), GUI Design Studio seemed pretty reasonably priced. Again, just from the video (haven't had time to try out the free trial yet, but I will), I thought that GUI Design Studio looked pretty easy to use and would definitely address one of my needs. Thanks for sending it out, Thomas! Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Thomas Davies Sent: Saturday, May 30, 2009 5:36 PM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] New release of GUI Design Studio To be honest, I'd like to see the usability testing that 3rd party Mac developers do, because I'm fairly sure it is not that much! I'm a Mac user, and many applications 'look' nice, but don't necessarily behave nicely. Mac developers either design their own UIs (Which is the same as Windows' programmers designing UIs. Just owning a Mac doesn't automatically give us taste) or hire an 'Interface Designer' to do the work. However, on many well known Mac 'Interface Designer' websites, I never see any information concerning usability testing or interaction design, so it appears that they are merely designing the interface in Photoshop, making sure it just looks pretty! Also, a lot of the top iPhone applications have been developed and designed by Mac software houses, and they are some of the most appalling pieces of software ever. Heck, some can't even handle a phone call interruption?! It's a fricking phone, and software can't handle interruptions properly! On 30 May 2009, at 22:04, David Drucker wrote: It's hardly elitist to say that a software company needs to address the population that they are selling to. Macs may make up 10% of the browsing population, but they probably are nearing 50% of the design world (where for a long time, they held over that number). But even if they are less than those numbers, Designers usually also have good taste, so therefore they don't base their decisions of what tools to use solely on 'the largest market'. So, call me/us elitist. Frankly, in this context, that's a compliment. Seriously, name-calling is not helpful here. From what I saw, the software looked pretty ugly to me. The clumsy tabbed Project panel was a classic example of bad Windows software design (putting everything into tree outlines at the left of the screen because that's the way File Manager did so in Win 3.1). The fact that it looks like a programmers IDE makes me suspect that the product was not developed by designers (even if it is for them). Worse still, the documents it appeared to produce looked even more tasteless and ugly. The Banking Application example suffered from poor design choices all over the place (badly designed tables, an unclear affordance for the collapsed panel, etc.). I suspect that this is really a package for programmers who have been forced to do the Design work a designer would do. That's why it's for Windows only, and that's why the software itself is designed like a programming environment. That's why some of us look at it and get a bit nauseous. Don't they realize that Mac users employ GUI design tools as well (and probably in disproportionate numbers)? I'm sorry, but I just can't let this comment stand. What exactly is the problem of choosing the single largest market and building a product to address it? It doesn't support linux either, or 3270 display terminals for that matter. I find the comments on this thread to be absurdly elitist. Less than a week ago, we were discussing how pencil and paper are a fine medium for wireframing. But a simple app that looks like it lets you throw together ideas quickly and easily, and transport them in small, effective packages is crap? What exactly is the problem here? Is there some rule that professionals must restrict themselves to blessed tools? What about those of us who think
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Pagination best practices
That is a great site. Thanks for sharing. (I like the surprise of different facets in the search box as well) Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of William Brall Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 3:05 PM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Pagination best practices http://search.ahp.us.army.mil/search/slideshows/ I'd like to say we did a decent job with army.mil's pagination. I would have liked the tabs to be larger, along with the clickable area. I would have liked to color the clickable items more obviously. I would have liked to omit the last link on the actual searches. (Google Search Appliances guess at the total number of pages... Making the last button very very broken) Thankfully, they also wanted a non-GSA based mode without a search. Which lets you see everything newest first. (Which the GSA also has trouble with) There are problems. But we were mindful to duplicate it at the top and bottom. Offer many number-per-page options, and the more savvy users will realize the URL tells them how many items per page and there is no limit to how many you want to get. Or the irrational numbers per page you might want to see for that matter... Over all I think we did well, just remember. Bigger. More obvious what is clickable. And don't include a last tab if you can't really predict a last page. Also. have not yet reached the point of ubiquity, or at least among people at the pentagon. But I think you can intuit what is happening once you try them. I'm a developer (And a contractor), so my sway on 'design' changes is limited. Will PS. Evan. I really like the idea of making the pagination keyboard accessible. I may have just found the next pet project for myself. :) Thanks! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=41915 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] Pagination best practices
In theory, I prefer scanning a longer list to clicking next 10 times, as it seems like it would take less time and it gives you a better overall picture. However, when I tried Google's 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 results preferences, it was much easier for me to scan through 10 results, didn't require as much scrolling (which is painful to people with repetitive stress injuries, fibromyalgia, arthritis, etc.), and made me feel like I was making progress, which I don't really feel when I'm scrolling through 50-100 results (I felt no difference in the length of time or frustration with either of these). So, in practice, although I am annoyed when I have to click next so soon, it gives my scrolling hand a break, which makes a big difference in how long I can continue searching. On the other hand, if I get 10 pages (100 results at 10 a page) into a google search, I've pretty much given up on finding whatever it is I'm looking for. What about just going Google's route and show 10 at first, for easy viewing and to reduce scrolling, especially for small displays, but let those advanced, oft-times younger users with faster hands, set their preference for # of results? Something like this: View 10 20 30 50 100 results per page, with 10 being bold black text as the default selection and the rest being blue underlined links Thanks, Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Jonathan Abbett Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 12:07 PM To: IXDA list Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Pagination best practices Can anyone recommend resources (or offer advice) addressing how best to paginate data on the web? Specifically looking for info on when to paginate and how many items to show per page. There may have been a time when retrieving more than 10 items from your database at a time was too much of a load, but there's no technical reason why we can't show the user 100+ items per page. Is it easier for the user to click next 10 times, rather than scroll down a long list? Thanks in advance, Jonathan 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] Feedback on Redesigned BART Ticket Kiosk Interface
Great job! I did expect a touch screen, where I could click the actual stop name or colored region, rather than a physical button, and similarly, that I could click the stop names once I had chosen a region, such as 19th St Oakland. This mental model expectation was created by being able to interact with the dialog box via touch and of course, interacting with newer ATMs. Since I don't live in an urban area that provides that type of infrastructure, I wasn't used to the buttons and letters corresponding to the soft keys (I dislike soft keys anyway, especially in my cell phone). I did wonder why there are corresponding letters when the letters don't provide any value or help to make things more understandable. If I clicked yellow, it shouldn't matter that that color corresponds to E. However, this might be a limitation of the current physical design of the kiosk which might not have been within the scope of your project. I liked how you made use of the limitations of the physical buttons to enable the display of MORE choices. If the buttons/letters aren't physical limitations, then it seems that clicking the actual stop name, rather than the button that is placed rather far from it. One idea (this is all fresh in my mind since I'm currently researching ATM redesign for my company): Fifth Third (53.com) bank's ATM makes the soft keys look like large buttons with a little arrow pointing towards the physical button, which seemed to integrate the software and hardware more, making it seem like the software interface design was deliberate rather than showing that it was constrained to the limitations of the physical design. But it does look like the blue arrows pointing into the screen rather than away at the buttons are part of the kiosk's physical constraints, so this kind of modification may not even be possible. Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Ljuba Miljkovic Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 8:08 PM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Feedback on Redesigned BART Ticket Kiosk Interface I just finished my final UI design project at UC Berkeley's School of Information (I'm a grad student there) and was hoping for your feedback. We redesigned the BART ticket kiosk. Our goal was to make it easier for first-time or infrequent riders to use while not making it any harder for experienced riders. The software was built in Adobe Flex; the physical prototype was built around a laptop and controlled by an Arduino micro-controller. www.bartkiosk.com Please check it out and let me know what you think. 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] Feedback on Redesigned BART Ticket Kiosk Interface
Good catch! The colors do not take into account red-green or blue-yellow (rarer) color-blind users. A is orange B is green C is blue No D E is yellow F is purple G is pink If you're going to use colors to convey information, you need to convey the information in another manner as well for color-blind users. That's why a touch screen would be more effective here. But now I see that the letters which are always present actually map to the letters within the map. I didn't catch that the first time around, I just mapped the section color to the color button, so for a new user, especially a color-blind user, this might require some trial and error. Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Weyert de Boer Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 10:24 AM To: IXDA list Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Feedback on Redesigned BART Ticket Kiosk Interface I think it's better to improve the interface without too much dependency on the colours themselves but more the contrast. The only clear colours on the Select a Destination Region screen are B and F. The other colours appears to be the same colour A and B are yellow and C and F are Blue also I am not sure why the colours yellow, blue, greenish and gray is being used. Why gray for G? Weyert de Boer (w...@innerfuse.biz) innerfuse* http://www.innerfuse.biz 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] Accordion Interaction
Your survey appears to be closed. The main difference between an accordion and closable/collapsible panels is that with an accordion only one panel's contents are visible at a time, thus if you open another panel, the first panel closes, whereas in closable/collapsible, you can view as many panels as you'd like at one time. If you open another panel, it opens but the first panel also stays open. Check out www.welie.com. I found his site very helpful when creating our design pattern library. Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Christian Crumlish Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 6:14 PM Cc: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Accordion Interaction As promised a month or so ago, I've put together a survey about the accordion user interface element to help inform a design pattern I'm writing. If you have opinions about what makes an accordion an accordion (and whether it's really anything different from stacked panels or a reskinned tab interface or a tree widget), please come by and share your thoughts. The questionnaire is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=lGHKygw2YwMI8yoom00Tzg_3d_3d ...and my blog post about it is here: http://yuiblog.com/blog/2009/03/23/survey-when-is-an-accordion-not-an-a ccordion/ (hoping those links don't break) Thanks! -xian- -- Christian Crumlish I'm writing a book so please forgive any lag http://designingsocialinterfaces.com 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] Small/local/community banks with cool functionalityand innovative designs
National City, acquired by PNC, had some great innovative designs. -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Callie Neylan Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 11:33 AM To: t...@otto.dreamhost.com; disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Small/local/community banks with cool functionalityand innovative designs Well, WAMU used to be one. Not small, but with innovative design. For a bank, anyway. Callie Neylan / Senior Interactive Designer / NPR / cney...@npr.org / 202 513 3672 -Original Message- From: new-boun...@ixda.org [mailto:new-boun...@ixda.org] On Behalf Of t...@otto.dreamhost.com Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 5:48 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Small/local/community banks with cool functionalityand innovative designs I've been asked to do some research on (small/local/community) banks that have innovative designs and offer functionality to engage and attract customers. Any suggestions and recommendations on financial institution candidates from your experience would be greatly appreciated. Please respond to theo at theomandel.com Thanks, Theo Reply to this thread at ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39847 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 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] The future of Wireframes (was: Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????)
I agree. In my experience, any client who sees color and images focuses on whether they like that color or whether that image fits, and don't pay attention to the more important elements (at this stage in the process), which include the related issues of clarity of navigation, how easy it is for users to fulfill their goals, whether the most important tasks are readily findable, whether the page flow makes sense. This can and much more can all be done in wireframes (I use Visio) in a fraction of the time it takes to code it, which allows the client to provide feedback earlier and keeps me from going down a wrong path, while letting me know when I'm going down the right one. I can also make changes on-the-fly when meeting with clients so that we can immediately see how their suggestions might enhance or detract from the user experience. You can do this with FireWorks too, but here you have usually added color and images (unless people are making grayscale prototypes in FireWorks?) which detract from the team's and client's abillity to think objectively about the afore-mentioned critical elements. At least for me, making changes on-the-fly with HTML within the span of a meeting would be difficult! Speaking of hi-fidelity prototyping tools, has anyone used Silverlight extensively? Could you share your experiences? Thanks, Courtney Jordan -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Milan Guenther Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 8:11 AM To: Dave Malouf Cc: Forum Interaction Design Ixda Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] The future of Wireframes (was: Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ) 1st, I didn't say don't do storyboards. I did say don't do wireframes and YES I do teach my students to work in interactive ALL the time. Sketch scenarios/storyboards (that are ALWAYS human situated; more on this below) low-fi interactive hi-fi interactive So that means you start with interactive techniques directly, but still there is a phase where the look of what you are building is rather undefined / abstract. So Flash, Blend, Fireworks may not be the best choice of tools, right? I think they focus too much on visual/interactive details, and thus distract from the goal to quickly create a rough vision of the product. Besides, imho ALL interaction designers have to learn to code to be able to produce new visions of interactions on their own, but that's another story. -- milan guenther * interaction design ||| | | || | || | || +33 6 67 11 13 83 * www.guenther.cx 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] Skittles Branding
Just in terms of the user experience, I found the implementation awful. I'm using chrome and if I use my mouse wheel to scroll, I get an undocumented feature: row upon row of skittles menus. Even without scrolling, there is no way to move the menu and it blocks out a large section of the page, and just reminds me of an annoying popup that I'd like to dismiss, but can't! I also found it very invasive that they would show a 'hold your horses' dialog requesting my birth date. Whatever happened to progressive engagement? There's nothing on this wikipedia site that would be harmful for people of any age to see, so there's no reason for that - from a user's perspective. Now from marketing's, that's another story Courtney Jordan -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Joel Laumans Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 10:44 PM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Skittles Branding I followed the whole Skittles / Modernista hype on Twitter a couple days ago, and I can't say that I am as enthusiastic about it as everyone else. Most of the reactions I saw flying by were similar to: Wow, this is really great! Great! Finally a company that let's the people represent them Great implementation of using social media to define your brand! I however am far more skeptical about the new site. I think the concept of letting your users define your brand is great, however I think the implementation is terrible. For us (interaction designers, new media experts, and so on) the site is great, we are familiar with these tools (such as Twitter and Wikipedia) and the concepts behind them. However, I think the average Skittles.com visitor will be very confused when visiting the site. The last thing I would expect when going to skittles.com is to see twitter.com. What do you think? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39555 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] Prototyping tools resources
I disagree. Even a one-page paper sketch can be a prototype - just a low-fidelity prototype. See Carolyn Snyder's book, Paper Prototypes. I often sketch ideas out before heading to Visio where they become mid-fidelity prototypes. Once you add some colors and images - then it's a high-fidelity prototype. Courtney Jordan -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Todd Zaki Warfel Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2009 7:32 PM To: Mary Deaton Cc: list IXDA Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Prototyping tools resources I series of storyboards could be used in the prototyping process, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a prototype. That's one of those grey areas. On Mar 5, 2009, at 3:45 PM, Mary Deaton wrote: In Todd's definition, a storyboard can be a prototype, but a one-page mock-up cannot be. Right? Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel President, Design Researcher Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully. -- Contact Info Voice: (215) 825-7423 Email: t...@messagefirst.com AIM:twar...@mac.com Blog: http://toddwarfel.com Twitter:zakiwarfel -- In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not. 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] Type or select?
from your site Now imagine you need to set your birthdate using the above control. We could initialise the date with an arbitrary date such as: 1980.06.15. One of the problems with setting an arbitrary date is that users might not change it to the appropriate date unless it actually behooves them (they get some sort of reward for being below or above a certain age), thus if you are trying to track the age groups of your users, this would skew your results. Since they won't get an error when they try to submit the form and if they don't get some type of reward, then why would they take the time? Another problem would be that it might make people think that the dates start at 1980, thus no one older than 27-28 could sign up for whatever service/product you're offering. This would skew the age group that you end up with. In looking at your tumbler, my first thought is what happens when I click the tumbler? There seems to be no way to go up or down as in a normal up/down arrow spin button control, so if it starts at 1980, does clicking it once move is to 1979 or 1981. Courtney Jordan -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Shaun O'Connell Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 11:10 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Type or select? Hi IXDA'ers, I was trawling through the archives looking for a suitable discussion topic to post against, and this one came up. I was recently inspired by a blog entry concerning calendar-based date/time pickershttp://blogs.uct.ac.za/blog/lovemores-world/2009/02/25/an-effect ive-jquery-date-time-pickerto create a more intuitive date/time picker. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but some calendar controls frustrate me as a user. Sometimes I'm forced to use a calendar control because it's easier than interpreting the format for the single date field. Anyway, the post got me thinking about a different approach to date/time pickers, leaning heavily on those old mechanical alarm clocks that had dials or cogs next to the hour and minute displays. Read more on the idea here: http://ndorfin.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/rl-date-picker/ Will this idea end up being harder to understand than a fly-out calendar picker? i.e. Does convention over-rule out-of-the-box UI ideas? Has anyone had any experience testing up-down-arrow or slider controls in web-based forms? Could something like my 'tumbler' idea work if the graphic design is done properly? I'd love to have some feedback on this idea. Thanks! Cheers, Shaun On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Pietro Desiato pietro.desi...@gmail.comwrote: hi all, I think that the date format could be an issue. I'd rather prefer a text field for day and year and a dropdown for month (it's also easier to select the month instead of either writing it or understand which format has been used). If you feel that the conversational paradigm is the way to go (as I do), think also about the label you want to associate to these fields. Maybe (I don't know your context\users) you can melt these input fileds with the label. Something like I am born on [month dropdown] [day], [year]. Imho the calendar is a complex interaction (opening, browsing, selecting, closing) and I'd avoid it. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36010 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 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] Why are there no Executive MFA / IxD programs? (response to RPI online HCI program phase out)
I'm not sure exactly what would be in an Executive MFA program and you may be wanting more flexibility, but for HCI or Human Factors, Bentley University in Waltham, MA, offers a joint MBA/MS HFID (human factors in information design - some courses include: cog psych (HF), UI design, user testing, AI, business process improvement, managing user-centered design teams, and many other HF and business courses) program. www.bentley.edu -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Michael Martinez-Campos Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 7:32 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Why are there no Executive MFA / IxD programs? (response to RPI online HCI program phase out) I'm still researching schools that offer an HCI program. The closest thing i've seen for what you're looking for is the MBA in design strategy at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. It's not HCI-focused, but they are very open to students crafting their own program. It could easily be reoriented towards HCI topics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39212 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] To use a colon or not to use a colon after field labels
That is excellent feedback. Thank you. Most of our straight-forward form labels (on web sites, not software) are still in title case (First Name is easier to read and doesn't take up as much space as What is your first name), while more complex labels are in the form of questions. Courtney Jordan -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Jim Drew Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 4:37 PM To: UI List Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] To use a colon or not to use a colon after field labels Possibly missed in this thread is the origin question. Rather than Should I use a colon or not?, ask instead Why did we used to always use colons? My thought is that it tied in with Labels Use Title Case. The label plus the field or control content made a Title: Subtitle comb. The colon wasn't there just by chance; it was there to signal the end of the Title part, or the division between the two. Today, much software no long uses Title Case. Labels tend to be more sentence like in their structure, with the field or control content being the predicate or object of the sentence: Choice for President: [John McCain] ... has become My choice for President is [Barack Obama] A colon is incorrect grammar in the new style of label; if anything, there should be a trailing period, but that would truly be visual noise (and would usually not sit just after the sentence predicate). So I would say to use a colon if your labels are in Title Case, and not to use one if they are not. (And if they are in Title Case, ask the question why your label design seems stuck in the 1990s. There may be a deeper issue to examine.) (Discussion of why Title Case was used -- and when it might still be best -- is another thread.) -- Jim Drew UI/UX Software Tester Seattle, WA 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] To use a colon or not to use a colon after field labels
Hi Chauncey, Thank you for your feedback - I was hoping you would! These are just form labels like First Name: textbox - rather than First Name text box. My feeling has been that the colon serves as an indicator as well. In that case, they wouldn't be non-data ink a la Tufte, as they serve a purpose. Courtney From: Chauncey Wilson [mailto:chauncey.wil...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 4:25 PM To: Jordan, Courtney Cc: disc...@ixda.org Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] To use a colon or not to use a colon after field labels Hello Courtney, The colon issue is one of the classic debates in UI design and it has raged since the early 1990s. I generally agree with Caroline, but if you have fields that are read-only with no 3D appearance, the colon can serve as an indicator that some text will follow. The colon serves to differentiate label from text (since in some cases there may be no text by the label and the label will look like a lost piece of text). Another consideration is whether you are following the particular style. I believe that the Vista guidelines call for a colon so if you are following Vista, you might want to follow that style. Chauncey On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 12:55 PM, Jordan, Courtney cjor...@bbandt.com wrote: Could anyone help me on the subject of whether to use colons after field labels. I have found one accessibility paper and a few other not-so-respected sources that indicate that colons after field labels help screen reader users, as well as normal vision users, to expect an input field. However, after years of including colons after field labels, our copy dept now maintains that a colon is punctuation and shouldn't be included after field labels. I've also found Jarrett's, No one cares about colons but UX people and Luke W doesn't mention it in his book :(. Has anyone fought this battle before? Do you have any sources that you could point me to? Thanks in advance, Courtney Jordan 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] To use a colon or not to use a colon after field labels
Thank you, everyone, for your feedback. In this case, I definitely feel colons are justified: they serve a purpose, thus they are not non-data ink; they provide a structure and an expectation of what is coming up next (a textbox) which further contributes to the concept of them being data ink, and aesthetically, I feel that they make the form look more professional and complete. Obviously, there are those that disagree with me, and I appreciate all of your great feedback! Courtney -Original Message- From: Caroline Jarrett [mailto:caroline.jarr...@effortmark.co.uk] Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 1:13 PM To: Jordan, Courtney; disc...@ixda.org Subject: RE: [IxDA Discuss] To use a colon or not to use a colon after field labels Subject: [IxDA Discuss] To use a colon or not to use a colon after field labels Could anyone help me on the subject of whether to use colons after field labels. I have found one accessibility paper and a few other not-so-respected sources that indicate that colons after field labels help screen reader users, as well as normal vision users, to expect an input field. However, after years of including colons after field labels, our copy dept now maintains that a colon is punctuation and shouldn't be included after field labels. I've also found Jarrett's, No one cares about colons but UX people and Luke W doesn't mention it in his book :(. Has anyone fought this battle before? Do you have any sources that you could point me to? You have accurately summarised my article: http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article3112.asp As Luke doesn't mention colons, maybe we should add and not even a lot of them to the end of the summary :-) But maybe you missed the follow-up one? http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article3200.asp That discussed the problem of screen readers and colons at the end of labels. So far as I have been able to find out since then, it used to be the case in the Olden Days that screen readers relied on colons as a cue about where the label might be. These days, they rely more on the actual mark-up. So provided that you are using label tags appropriately, the screen reader doesn't need the colon. The user may or may not hear 'colon' depending on whether the screen reader is set up to read the punctuation. My suggestion: estimate how long it would take to take all the colons off the existing forms. Ask your copy people if they truly wish to put that time in, compared to all the other cool/useful/revenue-earning (delete as applicable) things that you could be doing. Might help them to make a decision. Best Caroline Jarrett 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] Visual Importance of Page Titles
Title! Title! Just as you said, title is what users are looking for to ensure them they're in the right place. If users don't immediately see the expected title when they click from some similarly labeled call to action, uncertainty sets in. Did I click the right link? Am I in the right place? Important elements that provide users with a sense of place and ensure them that they're not lost (and that the company is taking care of them, at least while they're on the site) should always take precedence over marketing banners for the best user experience. Courtney -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Jennifer Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:54 AM To: disc...@ixda.org Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Visual Importance of Page Titles Hi everyone, We have a bit of an internal debate going on about the importance of page titles - from a visual standpoint - as compared with other elements of a page. That is to say, should a page title (what displays *on* the page, not in the browser frame) be the most important item of information on the page that a user first sees upon arriving there? Or, should the key marketing message - in our case, a 'banner' image/graphic - take priority over a page title? The argument for a page title being more important is that its raison d'etre is to help the user understand where they've arrived at. The argument for the 'banner' message being more important is that it is the 'meat' that we want users to see and interact with. In this case, it's not being suggested to remove page titles; instead, to make them considerably smaller so that the focus is on the banner space (which is top/center and large). Thoughts? Opinions? I'd love your input! Regards, Jennifer 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] Looking for feedback on three options for a website design
As the mother of a 5 and 2 year old, I thought that version 2 was great, and having lived in schaumburg before, wished that I could send my kids to that daycare, as it seemed that they would be well cared-for. I liked that it showed the kids engaged in learning (puzzles) with a concerned caretaker right next to them. I liked that I would be able to take a virtual tour of the place as well. It personally impacted me as this is close to the interaction good parents have with their children, and what working parents are seeking to emulate when they can't be there personally. One concern would be there the optional banner would preclude me from immediately seeing that there was a virtual tour available, which in my opinion is very important, as it helps parents preview the daycare so that they don't waste time going to a lot of centers that do not align with their expectations. I had to spend a lot of time going to several centers that didn't meet my children's needs before I found one that did. This would have helped streamline the process, as one use case is when a parent is looking for a new daycare, doesn't have a current daycare and is worried about availability and the distance from home or work (how far away from their children they'll be). In my case, I'd just moved to a new city and started a new job and had to find a center within three days. I liked the me and my mom; very clean and lots of white space. But as a parent, I wasn't immediately drawn in as I was with the pictures of the children learning while being cared for, or as the audience is different, I wasn't immediately drawn in by what pictures of what adventures my children and I could do. It is much more of an exploratory site, but very well-designed. Courtney Jordan 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] To use a colon or not to use a colon after field labels
Could anyone help me on the subject of whether to use colons after field labels. I have found one accessibility paper and a few other not-so-respected sources that indicate that colons after field labels help screen reader users, as well as normal vision users, to expect an input field. However, after years of including colons after field labels, our copy dept now maintains that a colon is punctuation and shouldn't be included after field labels. I've also found Jarrett's, No one cares about colons but UX people and Luke W doesn't mention it in his book :(. Has anyone fought this battle before? Do you have any sources that you could point me to? Thanks in advance, Courtney Jordan 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 of accordions
Having just created a design pattern library for my company, I'm pretty well-versed on these! There are actually two design patterns: accordions and show/hide panels. Accordions only allow one bar's contents to display at a time. These are usually used to show details for steps in a procedure, for example. Show/hide panels allow multiple bars' content to be shown at a time, relying on the user to click the bars to show/hide them. We have found that this works best for our interactions. One main use is to show detail for categories (the category name would be the bar title, then clicking on it would explain more about that category). In my opinion, I wouldn't automatically switch the selected bar. I wouldn't expect that behavior as a user. I don't have a strong opinion on hover-over. I think it would work well and if someone didn't realize that they could click on the bar title, but were mousing around the screen, they would discover that feature. If you haven't already, check out welie.com for Martijn van Welie's great design pattern work or designinginterfaces.com for Jennifer Tidwell's. Courtney Jordan Senior User Experience Architect -Original Message- From: discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com [mailto:discuss-boun...@lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Kordian Piotr Klecha Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 9:51 AM To: disc...@ixda.org 1. Accordion auto-switches to the next part after every 5 seconds when mouse pointer is outside the box. 2. OnMouseOver any part-title bar opens this part (with latency 200ms). 3. Clicking on part-title bar opens it too. 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] Error messages for edit-in-place forms
The best way that several books (e.g., 37 Signals, and I believe Luke Wroblewski's Web Form Design book has it as well) have shown to display an error message is to use an error icon, such as an X or a ! (often surrounded by a circle or triangle or diamond), and to the right of that error icon, display a message above the incorrect field. If there is no room to display it above the incorrect field, you could put it the the right if there are no formatting hints in the way. You could also surround the entire error message and field with a red outline to make it really stand out. To help avoid an error, have a forgiving format, (for example, allow phone numbers with no spaces, spaces, hyphens, parentheses) or if that is not possible given your database or the code, then provide a formatting hint (e.g., xxx-xxx-) to the right in gray text or underneath, depending on space constraints. Highlighting the fields is good, but color shouldn't be the only way that you convey information to your users. Red-green color-blind people might miss the highlighting distinction (they see red and pink as shades of brown). Also, make sure that you indicate required fields (a standard is with bold and asterisks) to highlight that distinction, to help avoid errors occurring in the first place. Hope that helps. Courtney Senior Usability Analyst -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rachel Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 10:53 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Error messages for edit-in-place forms I'm working on an Ajax app that will have edit-in-place forms (a.k.a. inline editing). Page has read-only data; parts of the data are editable. User chooses to edit a part; that part turns into an editable form. When user saves changes, the form converts back to read-only data (this happens without a page reload). The fields in the forms are required. So if user leaves any blank, they need to be challenged, and we need to let them know which fields are in question. What's the best way to handle this? We are reluctant to show an error message right above the form, because it will push the form other content on the page downward, creating a visual jumping effect. (unless we overlay the error message over top of other content on the page) What are best practices for this? Good examples? Thanks, Rachel 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] Top U.S. design schools/colleges for user experience/ usability / IA
Bentley University (my alma mater for UX - so of course, I have to put that first!) Stanford CMU (Carnegie Mellon) Univ of Michigan Virginia Tech Courtney Jordan Senior Usability Analyst -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Veena Gowthamchand Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 1:02 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Top U.S. design schools/colleges for user experience/ usability / IA In your opinion, what are the top U.S. design schools/colleges for user experience? Thank You. Veena G Bestica Inc Tel: 210-614-4198| http://www.bestica.com/ http://www.bestica.com E-mail ID: - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/veenarecruiter http://www.linkedin.com/in/veenarecruiter 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] Joe the Plumber as Persona
Just to build on this discussion which I think is an excellent idea and something that should have been done a long time ago...perhaps we could have come up with economic stimulus concepts that worked better and had the desired effect. The majority of the last stimulus checks went to paying down debts and bills, rather than to boost consumer spending, as the government had hoped. A more throrough development of the personas that needed to be helped would have undoubtedly had a more positive economic impact. ___ Persona 2: Susan, the hard-working married high-school educated woman with 4 kids who just lost both her jobs due to economic cutbacks and a poor economy in a poor (northern) state and is now worried how they'll survive the harsh winter and about her children's future. She's an actual person and her concerns are more real and urgent and desperate than whether this plumber can afford to buy the company he works for and the amount of taxes he might have to pay. __ In developing personas, we also need to consider lower-income families, as these are the people who are hurting the worst from this economic crisis. It's interesting what Australia's doing - helping the people who need it most. article excerpt The surprise package primarily targets pensioners, low and middle-income families, carers and first-home buyers, and is aimed at boosting consumer spending./exerpt http://www1.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/Australia_unveils_massi ve_economic_stimulus_package/articleshow/3592920.cms Courtney Jordan -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Micheletti Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 11:37 AM To: IxDA list Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Joe the Plumber as Persona In the US Presidential debate last night, there was considerable discussion about Joe the Plumber. Turns out he's a real person, but nevertheless I heard him used as a sort of proxy or persona. Anybody else flash on this too? Is he the right persona to be designing an economic turnaround for? Other secondary personas to consider? Just wondering what you wise and witty folks will come up with... 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] any ideas for icon research?
I agree with Steve. Use the paper statement metaphor that already exists rather than trying to reinvent the wheel. I would guess that Italians, Canadians, and everyone else in the developed nations have at one point received paper statements in the mail, thus I would think that the paper icon would be universal. But if you have access to your audiences, test some different icons out and see how each culture reacts to each icon, what they expect when clicking it, when seeing it on something... Courtney -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:42 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] any ideas for icon research? Maybe approach the icon creation from how people view their paper statements. Just create a statement icon. Why differentiate paper versus online? Do people really make a distinction between a paper statement and an online statement? Isn't an online statement just a digital version of the paper statement? original msg: I'm not finding a lot of icons for paperless billing. 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] Interactive prototyping
In my experience, irise is incredibly difficult to use (to give you an idea of how difficult - I have a BS in Computer Systems and an MS in HF in Info Design and have worked in software for 10 years, so I'm pretty technical and adept at learning software quickly), has a very steep learning curve, the product does not behave the way you would expect it to, simple functions are not so cleverly hidden away so that what should take you a few minutes can take hours. It is very frustrating to use. However, with it, you can create what appear to be fully interactive prototypes that can wow your stakeholders and get buy-in from executive management. However, there is absolutely no code behind it. Although you can tie screen elements (controls) to requirements, this doesn't work well for us, as the tool really isn't made for extensive documentation and allows no formatting besides an outline. We basically have had to resort to creating the irise simulation, then spending several more days or weeks creating a UI spec which our web writers and UAT can actually use. These groups were very unhappy interacting with irise and there was a lot of pushback. For fully interactive simulations, be prepared to spend hundreds of hours on something that would take days in Visio. This tool is basically programming lite, but even more or at least just as difficult because the tool never behaves as expected and important functions and features are extremely hidden, while other important ones just aren't available in this tool. For example, to select a table to delete it, you have to know that in the bottom right of the tool (in the status bar location), there is a tiny breadcrumb that shows the table table row table cell (except the default for these names are obviously not nearly as intuitive), and you have to click table to select the table. It will look on the screen like the table's selected, but ou can try to delete the selected area (which is actually just the cell or row, but there is no way to tell visually) to your heart's discontent, and never will the tool provide any feedback besides not doing what it's been told to do, it won't say something obvious like, hey, you have to select the table itself to delete the table, right now the cell is only selected. Additionally, I spoke to others in my alumni group from near Boston and all but one of those colleagues who had dealt with irise said that their company eventually discarded it due to the steep learning curve, dissatisfaction with the tool, no code to show for all the effort (absolutely no HTML code is generated by all that work, so designers/developers have to start from scratch) and relatively low ROI. Courtney Is anyone here famililar with iRise? It seems similar to Axure. http://www.irise.com/products/2007_tours/index.php Jennifer Hoppenrath | SeniorInformation Architect | Avenue A I Razorfish I direct 206 816 8497 | cell 206 724 3307 \ 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] The Documentation View of Design
Hi Oleg, iRise enables you to do this in their Document tab. It's a clunky tool, but you can easily tie requirements and your own or reviewers' comments to widgets in the Document tab. Unfortunately, the tool itself is difficult for non-programmers to use, and what you see (in the design state) is very often not what you get (in the simulation state) especially without irise training courses, so a more usable tool would be well received! Unfortunately, I can't check out your app due to the NET version restrictions. Thanks, Courtney -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Oleg Krupnov Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 3:02 PM To: discuss@lists.interactiondesigners.com Subject: [IxDA Discuss] The Documentation View of Design The existing tools used for wireframing and prototyping seem to underestimate the frequent need for annotating and documenting design elements. If you need to annotate something, you a) draw your footnote or callout as a yet another graphic object, and maintain its connection to the annotated object manually, because the tool does not understand it is an annotation or b) select the element to be annotated and enter plain text somewhere far in the sidebar Properties panel, and then lose it out of sight when you select something else. Both approaches become clunky when you need to create different layers of annotations for different audiences, which is a common task. Afterwards, the existing tools can usually spit out a functional spec in Word or PDF that is rather a formal red-tape deliverable. Or if you are not satisfied, you can go to a word processor or a spreadsheet and write the documentation manually (and I often do), but then it will not be connected to the wireframe/prototype anyhow but in your mind, so you have to maintain them in sync manually as well. Besides, you find yourself dealing with many documents and tools instead of one. 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] Yo gender-neutral singular pronoun has arrived at last!
That's interesting about the yo. It reminded me of a comment that my 4 1/2 year old daughter made the other day, I'm a smart girl, amn't I?. I corrected her, saying that she should say aren't I. But when I thought about it, even though that's the way we say it, it really isn't grammatically correct, but it's the way it's evolved through everyday usage. Are is supposed to be conjugated with you, not I. And without the contraction, the sentence is grammatically correct: I'm a smart girl, am I not?. So I'm a smart girl, aren't I isn't technically grammatically correct, though we hear that conjugation all the time. After this thought process, I un-corrected her (I guess that would really be dis-corrected, if either were a word, since I can't undo the knowledge of the correction completely!). So perhaps one day soon, we'll be using amn't as well! ;-) And really, why on earth wasn't a contraction formed from that when the contractions were evolving...probably cause we were already using aren't for those instances. Courtney Jordan 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
