The Half Life team (A first-person shooter game) really knows how to
get user feedback right. This is what they do:
For every scene in the Half Life series of games they develop, they
write down expectations. When expectations don't line up with what
playtesters end up doing, they know they need
Not surprisingly, Apple spent big money on researching this in the
80s:
http://www.asktog.com/TOI/toi06KeyboardVMouse1.html
that is a good example: people say keyboard shortcuts are faster,
stopwatch (for same users) shows mouse is faster (this was some time
ago now - 20 years since 1989 ! WOW !
That wasn't my intent. Good designers are no rarer than good
engineers. It requires a good mix of talent and skill. What I meant
about ignoring users is this: You must listen to your users but you
must also watch them. People often say something different than what
they actually do. And
Ryan, I think what Frederic is trying to say is that this is how
business people often think, especially for internal or b2b software.
In the b2c market, unusable products are massively getting ditched.
Any business idiot who still thinks you can skimp on UI is getting
their pants handed to them
I respectfully disagree with that statement. There are many examples in my
opinion that counter that arguement. For example, one of the reasons that
the new blogging software (and more), squarespace.com, is so hot right now
is because it is easy to use. Look at other products as well -- whethe
Well, the main reason for bad UI is: Good UI does not bring revenues.
>From the 4 variables in software planning: Time, Resources, Features,
Quality
Enterprise software managers always remove "Quality" and so "UI". Training
your users, or imposing bad software on your employees is always more
effic
Never thought of it like that, Joshua. Huh, this thread is kind of
making it sound like being a good designer is a rare feat reserved
only for those akin to a deity on this world. Eh - practice makes
perfect, I guess. I do stand by my point that in many cases, people
weren't even trying, and if yo
Part of the art of UI design is knowing when to listen to your users
*and* when to ignore them. Most of the many UI flaws in Windows
remain not because Microsoft's designers are unaware of them. :)
On May 28, 2009, at 9:52 PM, Michael Neale wrote:
>
> OH, also, and when you fix something, t
And every time facebook change something people start a group like: "1
Squillion people against the new margin width!"
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OH, also, and when you fix something, there will be the 10 angry
emails from people who don't like it now, who liked it then, or don't
like change, or just like to write angry emails.
You know when Toyota changed the Landcruiser from having a basic metal
dashboard to a modern one they got death t
I honestly hope that isn't true - otherwise good design is impossible,
commercially speaking. No app is that perfect, not even stuff from
apple (they all do stupid things at times, sometimes REALLY BAD stupid
things - just try using OS-X when your disk starts to die, it will be
the last to tell yo
I think that you hit upon a very important aspect of good design -- that it
is consistent throughout the user's experience. If even one part of the
experience is less than satisfactory, then the designers have failed. The
user walks away with a bad taste in their mouth.
I'd love to hear Josh's
Here's a fine example of how clearly somebody wasn't even thinking
straight. This is linux, doing a major update in ubuntu. Just a few
things sprang to mind:
The theme: Every so often I get a dialog box that tells me that I've
changed some settings file and now apt-get doesn't know what to do;
re
Well good luck with everything for JavaOne ! And I hope you can post
more on this subject in the future - just resurrect it when you have
some time !
On May 29, 11:47 am, Joshua Marinacci wrote:
> It sucks that this thread is going on right now during JavaOne prep.
> I'd love to join in. I'll
It sucks that this thread is going on right now during JavaOne prep.
I'd love to join in. I'll just say this really quick:
Yes, UI design (and visual design in general) is an art. But there is
method to the madness. There are rules and guidelines. There are
things you can learn and apply in
The tools help streamline parts of code that can be streamlined.
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." What is intuitive to one person
can be cumbersome and clunky to another, or too simple and limiting to
someone else. From my understanding, we want to design to a certain
demographic, and ha
good points - and I agree with Mark - change is in fact good, nothing
to be allergic to.
I think the important point to me was that is very very very hard, and
very very important. I also wish I was better at it - partly that is
practice and study, but I think the bigger thing is facing up to the
Same here; I disagree with the notion that its an art and can't be
learned well if you don't have the knack for it.
I think that most software developers/companies just don't put in the
effort. No, scratch that - they don't even acknowledge that such a
thing as design exists.
if you haven't the
On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 9:42 AM, Michael Neale wrote:
>
> well replace intuitive with cohesive and consistent etc... do you
> agree with the gist of it then?
Yeh I would. I definitely agree it is underrated, both how difficult
and how important it is to get UI right. I just think the article
o
well replace intuitive with cohesive and consistent etc... do you
agree with the gist of it then?
I so wish I had the skills that is described there, I have an enormous
amount of respect for those who are able to get it right (I don't
agree that you *can't* learn them), and desperately try to lea
Lol - well I think "intuitive" is never used correctly - but its
consistently incorrect in most literature - I think what people mean
is it is "discoverable" - a good design makes you feel comfortable to
explore and "discover" how it works, form a mental model, quickly,
without necessarily resort
On 27 May 2009, at 03:26, Mark Hibberd wrote:
> I have to say I disagree with it, mainly the phrase "intuitive
> well-designed user interface". The idea that a human interacting with
> a piece of plastic and silicon can be intuitive is crazy.
A long while back, I heard the phrase "the only intui
I have to say I disagree with it, mainly the phrase "intuitive
well-designed user interface". The idea that a human interacting with
a piece of plastic and silicon can be intuitive is crazy. 'Intuitive'
is extremely skewed towards individual skills and preference. I think
he means 'aesthetic', but
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