Usability
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Answers to those Questions
Occasionally I get emails from aspiring User Experience professionals asking a bunch of questions about the industry and how I got into it. Over the years I’ve had people contacting me from around the world including the USA, Europe, The Philippines, India and New Zealand. I thought it might be useful to share some of these questions…
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Get Real!
Digital content should be there to enhance and extend an already compelling real-world experience, not replace, clutter or dominate it.
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11 Must-Follow Kiwi User Experience Evangelists on Twitter
Being down-under often means we are off the radar. But did you know that New Zealand is also brimming with UX (User Experience) evangelists? This is my list of Twitter must-follows for any New Zealander interested in locals talking about usability, user experience, information architecture and interaction design. This is by no means a comprehensive…
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Power to the People!
A presentation from my archives – many of the points made in these slides are still relevant today. Extracts from a workshop at GOVIS 2007. This one-day intensive workshop taught attendees how to incorporate user goals and agency needs into the web design process. Workshop presenters: Zef Fugaz, Bob Medcalf, Elyssa Timmer. Feedback from the…
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Jakob’s Top 10 Provoked!
I’ve been hinting for a while that we had big news for 2008 : and now the word is out! Provoke – Project Management, Information Architecture, Implementation, Development. Capiche – Visual Design.From Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, January 7, 2008 10 Best Intranets of 2008 The winners of the award for 10 best-designed intranets for 2008 are:…
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Blobbing-Up Users
We’ve been going all gooey over ‘blob charts’ – our answer to persona data analysis – a godsend when faced with dozens of interview transcriptions and observations. When analysing users we look at a huge number of facets including: …Gender, Age group, Family situation, Income, Housing, Where living, Occupation, Education, Race/Ethnicity, Nationality, Language skills, Social…
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Feedback from Power to the People
Apologies to my regular subscribers – I’m not keeping pace with my goal of two blogs a week. Part of the reason is the return of my dj turntables (I sold them in 1999 – now they’re back!), gathering and stacking firewood for the winter (which we’re told is “still coming”), and my work at…
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Reflections on Power to the People
Today I co-presented a full day workshop at GOVIS 2007 here in Wellington. I didn’t think I’d make it having spent the last few days in bed with an aggressive case of bacterial sinutus. Over the weekend I’d taken nasty antibiotics (for the first time in living memory), and was feeling a tad strange… My…
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stuck in a reality distortion field
If you haven’t heard from me in recent weeks it’s because I’m stupidly busy, and when I get extra busy I often end up in a strange ‘reality distortion field’ where the busier I get the more I suddenly decide to take on. I don’t know if this is a sign of abject stupidity or…
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Helping Airlines Cope with Children
Qantas and Air New Zealand could greatly improve their online booking process when it comes to children who need to fly unaccompanied. There’s many reasons why children need to fly alone. Their parents might live in two different cities; a child might be going to spend the holidays with their grandparents; a child might be…
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Make Qantas Smarter (and win!)
Qantas have a ‘thick’ online booking system. This came to light when I read an article in The Dominion Post this morning, which reads: A mother says she will never fly Qantas again after her two unaccompanied children were bumped off an overloaded Wellington to Sydney flight and sent to Auckland instead. And here’s the…
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prototyping tools for web design
After a slow start to the year, the Wellington Usability Professionals group has an exciting series of events planned for 2007! To kick things off, their next meeting is Tuesday April 3rd and will be about prototyping tools for web design. A rapid iterative prototyping process is often used with user centred design (UCD) methodologies.…
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Seeking User Experience Strategic Guru (E-Commerce)
Provoke has some exciting projects on the horizon and I’m keen to hear from (or about) any fantabulous e-commerce gurus out there (freelancers or full-timers). You might be the sort of person who could lead the research, strategy, requirements and information architecture of a large e-commerce and dynamic data-driven web site.
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Hiccups ruin commuter’s lives…
Stuff reports a ‘big financial hit’ for Stagecoach due to staff not understanding their new software.
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iFlat Earth
Are we throwing ourselves blindly into a yawning flat paradigm with the Apple iPhone? Let us consider a world without pressing your (or someone else’s) buttons… First of all, try kissing a glossy photograph of Bradgelina’s lips (Brad or Angelina, or both, depending on your persuasion). Next, try some real lips – you might want…
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Personas Banking Elves & Why Technology Does Not Matter
PERSONA QUAKE! Following my ‘Bring Your Personas to Life’ article on Boxes and Arrows (and more recently, this blog) I’ve attracted a lot of criticism and some praise. I don’t mind stirring debate, but somehow feel that some people assumed the extreme-end of my method. Infact all I was saying is that a constructive approach…
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Bring Your Personas to Life!
Most UCD (user centred design) companies now create personas – profiles of representative users – to guide their designs. After all, to do UCD you need to get the ‘U’ in focus right from the start. So you’ve got your persona set all neatly defined and documented, now what? How can you ensure the persona…
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Filtering Out Advanced Search
Last year I designed a prototype of an advanced search system for Student Job Search (SJS). I’d taken inspiration from the iTunes ‘smart playlist’ feature and created an ultra flexible tool for students to add multiple layers of search phrases and criteria. Then a few months ago SJS asked us to build the search for…
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Get the Method with Boxes and Arrows
My latest piece of writing – ‘Method Acting with Personas’ – appears over on Boxes and Arrows It’s a suggestion for publication and your interest might help get it to the next stage. Take a sneak peek… Register for Boxes & Arrows (and then you’ll be able post your comments and a rating for my…
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Microsoft Bridging the Gap Between Developers, Designers and the User Experience
This article originally appeared on Digitalmelon, and is re-blogged here with the kind permission of Chandima Kulathilake. Chan has been recently evaluating new Microsoft technologies for User Interface Design – in what is just the start of Microsoft recognising interactive designers as integral to software – better enabling them to deliver an engaging User Experience.…
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Statisfaction
A few months ago I kicked up a fuss about the usability and interaction design of the first New Zealand Online Census. Just having completed my own design projects for the SJS registration forms and E-Government compliance for Grants Online, I was surprised at how the Online Census differed so radically from what I considered…
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Triple Bottom Line Usertarianism
As the designers of user interfaces we have an obligation to not only our clients, but our users and their greater working environment. In practical terms, Triple Bottom Line Usertarianism usually means expanding the traditional user experience framework to take into account not just user and client satisfaction but the overall user-ecology. Usertarianism is a…
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It’s K-Time!
Webstock is the biggest thing to hit the Wellington web industry since Trade Me sold for $700m in cash – the difference is that, this time, almost everyone gets to share the riches. For me the Webstock Experience started last night over a relaxed dinner at the Matterhorn with the Provoke DUX team and (a…
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“I aint got no use-a-bill-latty”
As the President of the Usability Professionals’ Association of New Zealand (you can just call me ‘Mr President’), I\’m charged with supporting and growing “usability” in this country. Well, things seem to be ticking along quite nicely, with the latest UPA survey of over 1300 usability professionals worldwide (including a healthy 21 responses from little…
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To submit, submit or submit?
I’m sick to death of screens containing multiple submit buttons and in recent years I’ve been culling submit buttons from any web application I can lay my hands on. Most of the time users will click on ‘NEXT’ so there’s no need to offer extra buttons saying ‘BACK’, ‘SAVE’ or ‘CANCEL’My rule is simple… “One…
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Environmentally Friendlier Pop-ups
Old fossil Web1.0 technologies (such as pop-ups) continue to pollute our browsing environment and are hampering progressive and sustainable navigation. So, in one of my previous blogs I declared “War on Pop-Up Pollution“. In this issue I look at some alternative techniques to “display information within information”. Why Pop-ups Are Evil Forced Consumption’¦ According to…
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War on Pop-Up Pollution!
Pop-up creators are polluting our fragile web eco-system – they must look to alternatives. Now pop-ups are infiltrating people’s homes and messing-up the web eco-system.You might not realise it, but your friends, family and co-workers are all suffering from the long-term consequences of pop-up pollution. Common symptoms include cluttered desk-tops, confused navigators and homeless browser…
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Online Census Flopped?
The online census attracted less than half the expected number the Dominion Post reported yesterday. Less than half the expected number of people filled out the new Online Census.The paper reported that Statistics NZ had hoped that 15-20 per cent of the population would complete the census online, based on dry runs conducted last year…
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A Cultivated Census
In my blog a few days ago (about the poor design and usability of the New Zealand online Census), drew bundles of feedback and criticism from various quarters. Comments I received via email and on other websites included: Agreements… ” I have to agree with the blog – a simple URL is a lot easier…
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Holding the Online Census to Account
The online version of the New Zealand 2006 Census is littered with unnecessary design and usability issues. For the first time New Zealand citizens have the option of doing the census online – which is brilliant news. So I thought I’d give it a go. I was truly expecting a slick, web savvy and usable…
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Man Goes Silly Over Usability
Here’s proof that usability can make you look a little bit silly. My work colleague is in love with these new mega-chunky Phillips headphones, which he bought half price for $40. I tried them on for myself. The sound quality is pretty average – I’d even go as far to say the sound quality isn’t…
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King Kong of Usability Stuff Ups
Last Wednesday I was setting up a usability test environment for a new website. Somebody commented on the computer monitor – “It’s fuzzy” – and proceeded to try and adjust the monitor settings. But, as I pointed out, the target market for the website is students. Our field research has shown that a fair percentage…
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Students Treated to Defensive Design
The Student Job Search website has been relaunched, but at first glance you wouldn’t notice much of a difference… While the visual design has largely remained untouched – most of the work has gone in to turning a potentially arduous registration process in to something digestable and usable for both students and employers. Provoke’s ethos…
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Radio NZ Rocks Online
I’m probably a tad younger than the core Radio New Zealand demographic, but in recent years it has become my station of choice – thanks in part to my fabulous retro 1950’s transistor radio (which only picks up the AM frequency). The station makes me feel connected to the flavour of New Zealand I identify…
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Foto Blotto
It was my first exploration into the brave new world of ordering photo-prints online. I thought the experience would be simple… Visit a website Upload a bunch of photos I want printed Choose the size and format Enter my address and credit card details Then forget about it a for a few days… …until “viola!”…
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Blind Greens
While travelling from Ohakune to Paraparaumu the other day I became obsessed with the plethora of political party billboards lining the highway. To the point…The National Party takes the cake for effective design (and billboards per mile), and the Social Credit party billboard in Wanganui wins the prize for sheer audacity… (won’t they ever give…
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Trade Me Your Region
The Trade Me ‘change my region’ feature assumes New Zealanders are hermits – never leaving the comfort of their internet device, home, street or town. I live and work in more than one region.The purpose of ‘change my region’ is to allow people to search for goodies in ‘their region’ (or, alternatively, over the whole…
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