Re: [IxDA Discuss] Forms - selecting a country
Sorry to disappoint you, but I think a dropdown with 195 country names is the most convenient way to select the country you live in. I propose to use the official UN list * of ISO 3166-1 country names in the same language as the rest of the form **, ordered alphabetically. My design consideration is, that this is the most predictable solution and very accessible. A design alternative could be a text box with a smart auto complete feature that will recognize variations in country names. * Depending on your target audience you might want to make a few political changes in the official UN list. ** An alphabetical list of countries by native names will not work, as there are no rules how to order a list with multiple scripts (Latin, Arabic) and there are countries with more than one native name (België, Belgium, Belgien). - Yohan [www.ylab.nl] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720 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] Forms - selecting a country
Jeff, We have just done a Remote Usability study where one of the issues was people selecting their country. The system been tested placed the country where it thought the user was from at the top of the drop down list of 195 countries. This is a common pattern with sites in America often listing the United States as the top country in the list. So for example if the person was from the Netherlands, the Netherlands was placed on the top. Every user still looked all the way down the list and then spent time in puzzlement in why their country was not listed under N. It took a long time for them to find the Netherlands at the top of the list. Even if the user was Austrian it still took the user time to find Austria if it was placed at the top, even though Austria is normally one of the top countries (alphabetically) on the list. We have carried out tests where countries are listed by continent (n=86), again puzzlement, and a high 15%+ failure rate of the user selecting the right country. This last study shows the importance of testing ideas with a target audience from the countries in question (remote is a cheap effective method), because I would believe that an American has become used to United States been listed as the top country but most users from other countries have not got to used to their countries been listed at the top of the drop down box. On a pure GOMS basis getting the user to type in the country would be far more efficient, on a key press count. Maybe the solution is to do an AJAX type auto complete box. With suggestions including the many ways of spelling each country. (eg. Great Britain, United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Alba, Écosse, etc...) An Auto Complete box gets around the issue of ordering by scripts(Latin, Arabic) as the user would have started typing in the script that the listing would order them by. But testing (remote) with a wide selection of the target audience in many parts of the world is imperative because people have got so used to selecting their country from a drop down list. James http://blog.feralabs.com 2008/12/30 Yohan Creemers yo...@ylab.nl Sorry to disappoint you, but I think a dropdown with 195 country names is the most convenient way to select the country you live in. I propose to use the official UN list * of ISO 3166-1 country names in the same language as the rest of the form **, ordered alphabetically. My design consideration is, that this is the most predictable solution and very accessible. A design alternative could be a text box with a smart auto complete feature that will recognize variations in country names. * Depending on your target audience you might want to make a few political changes in the official UN list. ** An alphabetical list of countries by native names will not work, as there are no rules how to order a list with multiple scripts (Latin, Arabic) and there are countries with more than one native name (België, Belgium, Belgien). - Yohan [www.ylab.nl] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720 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
[IxDA Discuss] Functional Level Personas Was dd character sheet as a persona model
Jared, So just after you have got everybody reading about Activity Theory, now you are getting them to read up about Functionalism :-) So we now have as basis of design. UCD, SCD, ACD, and now FCD. Functionalism is an interesting an idea to use for design. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalism_(sociology)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functionalism_%28sociology%29and I believe it could be a good time to revisit it. Functionalism went out of fashion in the 70's because it was viewed as a method that was not predictive. Functionalism should be a faster method to use compared to Grounded Theory, if its limitations can be overcome. Malinowski (one of the founders of Ethnography) used it to analyse his Ethnography of the Trobriand Islanders. The interesting point with Malinowski and functionalism is that Malinowski viewed Anthropology as the study of how people related to each other with objects. The object could be a church, or a fetish, or even a table. It would be interesting if we look at how his methods could be related to a computer, or even a virtual object such as software. I like your idea of using functional Persona, as it then should be easier to validate against real people. My argument before that Persona is not a valid method as there is no way to validate if a persona reflects a real person applies to design-project-wide personas, and may not apply to Functional Level Personas. This is because the scenarios can be tested if they are real or not, even if the Personas can't. It would be useful if you could share some of your scenarios and Personas so we can try testing the design of them theoretically, and see if they overcome the challenges with project-wide personas, which I think by your brief description of them they do. James 2008/12/28 Jared Spool jsp...@uie.com On Dec 27, 2008, at 11:47 PM, Angel Marquez wrote: I was thinking you would do your research, create personas based on your findings, find their real life equivalents, and use something similar to the character sheets to track their behaviors during usability testing with prototypes etc.. THEN Use those stats to fine tune the design while collecting the character types and offering them to the cyber community. It was a fleeting morning coffee thought though... It's an interesting notion. I like the idea of tying together with some uniform structure all phases of the deliverables, from early design through refinement and launch. At an abstract level, I think that's what you're describing. I'm a big fan of functional-level personas: personas that are created and curated with specific functionality in mind. Using this approach, when you're designing the print functionality of your product, you'd create and use different personas than if you're creating a data-merge capability. This way the personas and scenarios are tightly tied to the functionality you're focusing on. I like functional-level personas better than design-project-wide personas because it's easier to have them inform the specific design requirements. No doubt, they take more time and effort (at least to get started -- over time the team creates a substantial library of personas which can be rejuvenated for new functionality). I think the initial cost is worth it, but I know a lot of folks disagree. I think in my approach of these lower-level personas, sharing them with the cyber community is less valuable, since it's unlikely that they are expressed in any applicable form for people not working on the localized project. However, there's a lot to be said for some relative of the DnD character sheets to help with the curation of the ever growing library of user research data, personas, and their match with the library of patterns and components. Don't give up on this idea. I think there's something to it. :) Jared Jared M. Spool User Interface Engineering 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845 e: jsp...@uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561 http://uie.com Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks Twitter: jmspool 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] Functional Level Personas Was dd character sheet as a persona model
On Dec 30, 2008, at 4:35 AM, James Page wrote: My argument before that Persona is not a valid method as there is no way to validate if a persona reflects a real person applies to design-project-wide personas, and may not apply to Functional Level Personas. Once we've developed personas, we ask the stakeholders a few questions to help validate them: 1. Do you recognize a customer you've spoken to, or seen an email from? 2. Can the sales person honestly say Yeah, I've spoken to that person on the phone, or had lunch with them? It's important the personas are familiar to the stakeholder. The stakeholder really needs to feel like they can see on of their existing or target customers in the profile, activities, and behaviors. Additionally, we pass them back by the people we know, whom we used as an input source for the personas, to validate them further. 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
[IxDA Discuss] Tog on Gestures will force the mouse into retirement
@hannusalonen tweeted this article this morning which was in the Financial Times. Including the article b/c it was behind an annoying signup/registration process. http://tinyurl.com/9hmpj4 The Tog: Mouse users are little more than cavemen, running around pointing at symbols and 'grunting' with each click. http://bit.ly/yP1M; Gestures will force the mouse into retirement By Jessica Twentyman Published: September 17 2008 03:00 | Last updated: September 17 2008 03:00 At almost 30 years old, is the computer mouse ready for retirement? Certainly, a growing band of human-computer interaction (HCI) specialists believe so. The crude language of point and click, they argue, seriously limits the conversations we have with our computers. Among them is Bruce Tog Tognazzini, a veteran HCI expert who joined Apple in 1978 as its 66th employee and founded the company's Human Interface Group during his 14 years there. These days, after spells at Sun Microsystems and online healthcare company WebMD, Mr Tognazzini is a respected consultant, author and speaker with usability company, the Nielsen Norman Group. In many ways, our continued reliance on the computer mouse reduces us to little more than cavemen, running around pointing at symbols and 'grunting' with each click, he says. A revolution is long overdue, because we need more sophisticated tools that will allow us to increase our vocabulary way beyond that caveman grunt. Plus, the link between the computer mouse and cases of repetitive strain injury (RSI) are hardly an argument in its favour, he adds. Luckily, he says, those more sophisticated tools are right in front of our faces and we already know how to use them. They are, in fact, our fingers. Look at the facts: we've typically got 10 of these 'tools'; they move in a multitude of different ways; and gestural language, which came long before verbal language, is an established and intuitive form of self-expression. Even primates can be trained to express needs and intentions using their fingers, he points out. What has historically been lacking, is the ability of computers to read and understand our gestures - but that is changing very quickly. In fact, real-time video interpretation and inertial sensors are already being used to recognise facial expression and physical movement in a number of consumer technology devices, says Steven Prentice, an analyst with IT market research company Gartner. He traces the roots of this migration to two recent events: the launch of the Nintendo Wii games console in 2006 and of the Apple iPhone in 2007. Through clever use of accelerometers and optical sensor technology, the Wii Remote (or wiimote) is already enabling millions of people to practise their golf swings, play rock guitar or swordfight with imaginary enemies. And since the iPhone was launched, strong sales and high user satisfaction have reinforced just how powerful and intuitive a multitouch interface can be. These early announcements have been followed by a string of others in consumer technology. In recent months, Panasonic, Sony and NEC have all demonstrated applications that use facial and movement recognition. These include, for example, video displays from Panasonic that can identify users from their faces, serve up content choices based on their individual preferences, and that allow screen control by hand gestures. It's easy for business leaders and chief information officers to dismiss such trends in consumer preference as minimally relevant to enterprise computing - but that's a dangerous oversimplification, warns Mr Prentice. Not all consumer-targeted technologies find their way directly into enterprise IT environments, he concedes, but the growing adoption of these technologies by individuals in their 'personal infrastructures' is leading to increasing frustration and dissatisfaction with constraints and restrictions the corporate IT environment often imposes on users. Fortunately, it's not just the consumer technology firms that have their eyes on gestural technologies. At Accenture Technology Labs, research director Kelly Dempski has a long track record in exploring how they can be used in business applications, most recently concentrating on building multi-touch, interactive display walls. Accenture has installed such walls, for example, in O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Consisting of multiple screens housed in giant custom frames, they use graphics and touch-screen technology to allow passengers to check the weather at their destination, read the latest news from CNN, or find out how their team scored while they were in flight, by simply touching areas on the screen. This technology, says Dempski, could have equally valuable back-office applications, presenting vital internal data from back-end enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to employees in a control room at a utility firm, for example. The aim is to create a mode of interaction
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Functional Level Personas Was dd character sheet as a persona model
Todd, You run into the challenge with that the Persona are validated by opinion. Most Persona I have seen would be statistically imposable to relate back to a real person. As **Chris Boese discussed before on this list you should not generalize qualitative data. Or as some Anthropologists would say you run the risk of a Cargo Cult method. That is the idea that if one builds a runway in the middle of the Jungle a plane will land on it, and deliver lots of valuable stuff. If you ask peoples opinion they will say it looks like an airport, but it isn't and no plane will land on it. You can use a qualitative method, and you can use quantitative method, you can use both, but it is important to keep the results separate. Both methods may help you build a strong basis of evidence for your solution, but they are separate pieces of evidence. Jared's Functional Personas as well as Don Normans Throw Away Personas *may *overcome this challenge of testability, the other solution is to use real people. If the Persona is a Hypothesis with the output being a scenario. The scenario is testable against if real people have that particular projected course of action. It is important that one applies some robust theory as if one does not it is possible to run aground rather like what has happened on Wall Street. Where they used untestable theories that seamed scientific but where not and lost lots of money. Or you end up like the Highlanders of Papa New Guinea spending allot of time building perfect airports in the middle of nowhere, and getting nothing in return. All the best James http://blog.feralabs.com 2008/12/30 Todd Zaki Warfel li...@toddwarfel.com On Dec 30, 2008, at 4:35 AM, James Page wrote: My argument before that Persona is not a valid method as there is no way to validate if a persona reflects a real person applies to design-project-wide personas, and may not apply to Functional Level Personas. Once we've developed personas, we ask the stakeholders a few questions to help validate them: 1. Do you recognize a customer you've spoken to, or seen an email from? 2. Can the sales person honestly say Yeah, I've spoken to that person on the phone, or had lunch with them? It's important the personas are familiar to the stakeholder. The stakeholder really needs to feel like they can see on of their existing or target customers in the profile, activities, and behaviors. Additionally, we pass them back by the people we know, whom we used as an input source for the personas, to validate them further. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel President, Design Researcher Messagefirst | Designing Information. Beautifully -- *Contact Info* Voice: (215) 825-7423Email: t...@messagefirst.com AIM: twar...@mac.com Blog: http://toddwarfel.com http://toddwarfel/ 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Forms - selecting a country
A common mistake in listing languages for selection is to list them all in the form designer's native tongue (eg english, french, spanish; rather than english, francais, espanol). Seeing this post made me curious about how/if this problem should be addressed in country listings. It seems to me I always see these lists in english. Anyone dealt with that? Michael On Dec 30, 2008, at 3:29 AM, James Page wrote: Jeff, We have just done a Remote Usability study where one of the issues was people selecting their country. The system been tested placed the country where it thought the user was from at the top of the drop down list of 195 countries. This is a common pattern with sites in America often listing the United States as the top country in the list. So for example if the person was from the Netherlands, the Netherlands was placed on the top. Every user still looked all the way down the list and then spent time in puzzlement in why their country was not listed under N. It took a long time for them to find the Netherlands at the top of the list. Even if the user was Austrian it still took the user time to find Austria if it was placed at the top, even though Austria is normally one of the top countries (alphabetically) on the list. We have carried out tests where countries are listed by continent (n=86), again puzzlement, and a high 15%+ failure rate of the user selecting the right country. This last study shows the importance of testing ideas with a target audience from the countries in question (remote is a cheap effective method), because I would believe that an American has become used to United States been listed as the top country but most users from other countries have not got to used to their countries been listed at the top of the drop down box. On a pure GOMS basis getting the user to type in the country would be far more efficient, on a key press count. Maybe the solution is to do an AJAX type auto complete box. With suggestions including the many ways of spelling each country. (eg. Great Britain, United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Alba, Écosse, etc...) An Auto Complete box gets around the issue of ordering by scripts(Latin, Arabic) as the user would have started typing in the script that the listing would order them by. But testing (remote) with a wide selection of the target audience in many parts of the world is imperative because people have got so used to selecting their country from a drop down list. James http://blog.feralabs.com 2008/12/30 Yohan Creemers yo...@ylab.nl Sorry to disappoint you, but I think a dropdown with 195 country names is the most convenient way to select the country you live in. I propose to use the official UN list * of ISO 3166-1 country names in the same language as the rest of the form **, ordered alphabetically. My design consideration is, that this is the most predictable solution and very accessible. A design alternative could be a text box with a smart auto complete feature that will recognize variations in country names. * Depending on your target audience you might want to make a few political changes in the official UN list. ** An alphabetical list of countries by native names will not work, as there are no rules how to order a list with multiple scripts (Latin, Arabic) and there are countries with more than one native name (België, Belgium, Belgien). - Yohan [www.ylab.nl] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720 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] Forms - selecting a country
Michael, In this case language and country are not related. The language used for the list is the language of the user interface. In my opinion the list of country names should be in the same language as the rest of the page. On a French web page the list will start with: Afghanistan Afrique du Sud Albanie Algérie Allemagne ... I've dealt with this in several multilingual web applications. In case you're interested: I can provide a database with country names in English, français, español, Deutsch Nederlands. - 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] using a blog to drive ecommerce (and/or customer engagement)
Hi all, Any examples or stories about companies using a blog to drive sales of products on the web? For example, Design Within Reach delivers emails on request that include products and more - events, background stories, etc., but they don't put this type of content into a blog (that I know of). Amazon.com now has a small link to a daily blog on the home page, which, as it is from amazon.com, contains posts about a wide variety of topics and products. This blog is integrated with the site. Any one know if it helps drive sales? Anyone subscribe to amazon's daily blog or others like it? Anyone done or know of any research that relates to this topic? Thanks! Tania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tania Schlatter Nimble Partners, LLC 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] New York Times - City - Urban Stu dies - Revenge of the Nerds
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/nyregion/thecity/28tink.html?_r=1scp=1sq=Revenge%20of%20the%20Nerdsst=cse By BEN POPPER Published: December 26, 2008 A ROBOTIC roller skate propels itself across the fifth floor of an old sewing factory at 397 Bridge Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The softly lighted room is permeated by an acrid odor emanating from soldering irons and recently extinguished birthday candles. Over the thump of electronic rock, two dozen men and women chat, type at laptops and pull on tangles of wire. Firing the laser! someone shouts. An electronic sign attached to the wall blinks: Welcome — to — the — 21st — Century. The 800-square-foot space belongs to a hacker collective called NYC Resistor, which opened in the summer of 2007, and already has inspired a clone. The collective has turned away those who are interested in fraudulent computer hacking, preferring a membership of tinkers and inventors — mostly self-professed nerds — each of whom pays $75 a month for access to the space and equipment. People think hacker means a criminal, said Devon Jones, a 33-year-old member of the collective who was slumped on a ratty couch drinking a beer. Well, we want our word back. The collective has proved so successful that another one is planned in the city, called Htink, reflecting a growing trend of hacker spaces nationwide. Some people go to the gym, said Mr. Jones, a designer for an educational software firm in the West Village. Some people go to nightclubs. We tried to build a creative community for nerds. The result is a kind of frat house for modern-day mad scientists. Outside the collective's home is the bustling Fulton Street Mall, where vendors hawk sneakers and bundles of incense. Inside the converted laboratory, circuit boards, gadgets and spare parts overflow from every shelf. A minifridge near the entrance is stocked with beer. Members eager to quench their thirst can also consult Bar Bot, a silvery drink-dispensing robot that resembles the Jetsons' maid, Rosie. Diana Eng is one of seven women in the collective. A former contestant on the television series Project Runway, she created a sweatshirt with a digital camera embedded in the hood that takes a picture when the wearer's heart rate is elevated, creating snapshots of the day's excitements. My designs were too nerdy for 'Project Runway,' Ms. Eng said with a giggle. But here they fit right in. To help pay the rent, the collective offers classes for $25 each on topics from basic electronics to the art of laser-cutting Christmas decorations. The group's success has not gone unnoticed. Resistor blew the doors off the scene here, said Eric Moore, a hacker from Bushwick who is forming his own group. They're the next generation of American hacking. The rest of us are just trying to catch up. * 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] using a blog to drive ecommerce (and/or customer engagement)
Our Customer Evangelist, Betsy Weber, maintains a blog for our products and company: http://visuallounge.techsmith.com/ I don't have data on how much it drives sales, but it definitely increases customer engagement. I do have some anecdotal reports via customer feedback that at least some users have purchased upgrades based on new features, fixes, or tips posted in the blog. We also hear from some users that the tips and tricks on the blog have shown them new ways to use our products, and they've told other people about it, potentially increasing word-of-mouth sales... I have no idea how to quantify that, though. As an aside, I find our blog valuable as another place to gather feedback from users. Some users who don't call or email us sometimes post their feelings and experiences on our blog. Cheers, Sylvania User Experience Designer TechSmith Corp. 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] Functional Level Personas Was dd character sheet as a persona model
On Dec 30, 2008, at 7:36 AM, James Page wrote: You run into the challenge with that the Persona are validated by opinion. Actually, if you look at the model I use, it's heavily based on data. So, they are created from a combination of qualitative (interview and observation) data and often qualitative (survey) data. We build our personas off of the data models, which is why we call them Data-driven Personas. The validation is initially against the data, which they are originally based on. We do additional validation by checking with the stakeholders and the real people we use. So, it's more than mere opinion. 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Forms - selecting a country
Thanks for all of the responses so far. Yohan, I'd be very interested in your multilingual country database - thanks for sharing. Jeff On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 7:56 AM, Yohan Creemers yo...@ylab.nl wrote: Michael, In this case language and country are not related. The language used for the list is the language of the user interface. In my opinion the list of country names should be in the same language as the rest of the page. On a French web page the list will start with: Afghanistan Afrique du Sud Albanie Algérie Allemagne ... I've dealt with this in several multilingual web applications. In case you're interested: I can provide a database with country names in English, français, español, Deutsch Nederlands. - 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Forms - selecting a country
Many support sites begin with a map, having the user select the continent or region first, and then presenting a list of countries. If a graphical map isn't feasible, you could use two menus: one for continent/region that then populates the second with a filtered list of countries. Best, Jack Jack L. Moffett Interaction Designer inmedius 412.459.0310 x219 http://www.inmedius.com Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations. - Paul Rand 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] Forms - selecting a country
Hello to the list, hello Jeff. On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 5:56 PM, Jeff White jwhit...@gmail.com wrote: Thanks for all of the responses so far. Yohan, I'd be very interested in your multilingual country database - thanks for sharing. Good default value [1] is your friend here. IP-address provides information about the location of the one who is filling the form [2]. You can fill the form with this information and the guess will be probably true. Of course, in case this value is wrong (proxy issues, etc...) a drop-down list allows for manual selection, but my guess is that most of your audience will not have to select it manually. Yet, as usual, it depends really on your audience. If the web form is targeted for the consumer market, the ip address will be probably correct. If the form will be accessed by multinational companies, the chances are the proxy for the Internet connection will be in another country. Yet those cases are rare and previous solution still holds. my €.02 Gilles [1] http://designinginterfaces.com/Good_Defaults [2] http://www.geobytes.com/ipLocator.htm 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] Forms - selecting a country
I don't know what your limitations are, but could you have an auto-complete feature where the user just starts typing and possible countries show up? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720 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] Forms - selecting a country
Using a user's IP address to tell you where they are is NOT a good idea. The proxy will fool you too often. For accessibility and language issues I would use a graphical map approach just like Jack suggested. This way even if the language is different, the user still knows where their country is on a map and will be able to select it. You can tie into Google's API...this is an old file I found (http://www.nearby.org.uk/coords/countries.csv), but you can see how you can use the coordinates to create polygons to outline countries. -Jake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720 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] Forms - selecting a country
Yes, I could. This is the direction I was thinking, but I was curious as to what other designers are doing or have seen. Thanks, Jeff On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 10:10 AM, Allison alliwalk1...@yahoo.com wrote: I don't know what your limitations are, but could you have an auto-complete feature where the user just starts typing and possible countries show up? 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] Forms - selecting a country
A rough idea I haven't really thought through yet is a combination of this and a text form field with autocomplete. You could either click on a country or start typing. The auto complete suggestions would then correlate to highlighted countries on the map. Thanks, Jeff On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 10:31 AM, Jake Trimble jake.trim...@gmail.comwrote: Using a user's IP address to tell you where they are is NOT a good idea. The proxy will fool you too often. For accessibility and language issues I would use a graphical map approach just like Jack suggested. This way even if the language is different, the user still knows where their country is on a map and will be able to select it. You can tie into Google's API...this is an old file I found (http://www.nearby.org.uk/coords/countries.csv), but you can see how you can use the coordinates to create polygons to outline countries. -Jake 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] Forms - selecting a country
Well, I don't really see too many maps on web forms...but, it depends I guess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720 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] Forms - selecting a country
I think the challenge of maps is trying to select a small country in size. Try selecting Monte Carlo, the Vatican, St Kits and Nevis, and even slightly larger ones like Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Montenegro, Bosnia, Benin, Togo. James 2008/12/30 Allison alliwalk1...@yahoo.com Well, I don't really see too many maps on web forms...but, it depends I guess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720 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
[IxDA Discuss] Default UI standards for phone keypads: Audiotex
There seem to be some default UI standards in terms of dedicated numeric keypad functionality on most phone-based platforms, s.a: 1 - Do it 7 - Delete it 9 - Save it * - Up one level in hierarchy / Back # - Confirm / Submit entry Is there a central reference source for such conventions? How pervasive are they (i.e. conformance by providers, international scene)? Is there an actual industry standard? etc. 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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Forms - selecting a country
Yes, tiny countries would be difficult. I think you'd need a pretty big map, unless you can do some type of fish-eye selection like the Dock on the Mac. If you choose auto-complete, after the selection you could show a picture of the country as a verification. You'd then need to have an accurate collection of images from all the countries in the world. If you could include something from Google Earth, or something like that, I guess that work would be done for you. --- On Tue, 12/30/08, James Page jamesp...@gmail.com wrote: From: James Page jamesp...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Forms - selecting a country To: Allison alliwalk1...@yahoo.com Cc: disc...@ixda.org Date: Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 2:17 PM -Inline Attachment Follows- I think the challenge of maps is trying to select a small country in size. Try selecting Monte Carlo, the Vatican, St Kits and Nevis, and even slightly larger ones like Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Montenegro, Bosnia, Benin, Togo. James 2008/12/30 Allison alliwalk1...@yahoo.com Well, I don't really see too many maps on web forms...but, it depends I guess. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720 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] Forms - selecting a country
On Dec 30, 2008, at 3:26 PM, Allison Walker wrote: Yes, tiny countries would be difficult. I think you'd need a pretty big map, unless you can do some type of fish-eye selection like the Dock on the Mac. Which is why they typically only use maps for the initial selection of a continent or region. Jack Jack L. Moffett Interaction Designer inmedius 412.459.0310 x219 http://www.inmedius.com Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations. - Paul Rand 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] Profile picture for multiple social networks
Hi all, This may be obvious to others, but it's not clear to me: Is there a good enough reason why when I want to change my profile picture for Google, Yahoo!, Skype, LinkedIn and all the other social networks I'm a part of (i.e. IxDA :) ), I have to go to all these places and upload the new picture, and I can't just upload one picture to one place of my choosing? Thanks and Happy New Year! Sebi -- Sergiu Sebastian Tauciuc http://www.sergiutauciuc.ro/en/ 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] Profile picture for multiple social networks
Check out Gravatar: http://en.gravatar.com/ On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 1:37 PM, Sebi Tauciuc stauc...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, This may be obvious to others, but it's not clear to me: Is there a good enough reason why when I want to change my profile picture for Google, Yahoo!, Skype, LinkedIn and all the other social networks I'm a part of (i.e. IxDA :) ), I have to go to all these places and upload the new picture, and I can't just upload one picture to one place of my choosing? Thanks and Happy New Year! Sebi -- Sergiu Sebastian Tauciuc http://www.sergiutauciuc.ro/en/ 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] Profile picture for multiple social networks
Hi Jason, Thanks, this looks like a good step, however nothing about the giants I mentioned - it only seems to work on blogs. Is that right? Sebi On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 9:40 PM, jason z mydogisaro...@gmail.com wrote: Check out Gravatar: http://en.gravatar.com/ On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 1:37 PM, Sebi Tauciuc stauc...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, This may be obvious to others, but it's not clear to me: Is there a good enough reason why when I want to change my profile picture for Google, Yahoo!, Skype, LinkedIn and all the other social networks I'm a part of (i.e. IxDA :) ), I have to go to all these places and upload the new picture, and I can't just upload one picture to one place of my choosing? Thanks and Happy New Year! Sebi -- Sergiu Sebastian Tauciuc http://www.sergiutauciuc.ro/en/ 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 -- Sergiu Sebastian Tauciuc http://www.sergiutauciuc.ro/en/ 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] IxDA Email Changes... speaking of confusing UI
Touch of irony here... I was just trying to update my email address for this list So, this hole had probably been excavated before, but does anyone else find the process of updating you email address on the IxDA website to be terribly counter intuitive? No offense to the good people who actually had to build the site, I'm not throwing darts at the work, but bringing it up for discussion since I'm curious to know if maybe my experience makes me an outlier. If you have not tried it, here's a summary: 1. Sign in to the website (fine) 2. Click your underlined username in the top right column to get to your personal profile / history page (fine) 3. Click very faint, not obvious Edit Profile / Subscription at the top left of the page next to the Members header ( Would this be move intuitive if the link for updating my profile was in the right column, perhaps in the Member Profile section?) 4. Click Edit Subscription (fine -ish) 5. Stop. Wonder why you can only Add a new address and not change a current address, but figure that clicking Add a new address will get you there, so click it (Interaction gamble) 6. Nearly don't read the You'll need to create a new account if you'd like to use a new address. The new account will link with your old one so you won't lose your posting history. message because it appears above and to the left of the actual input area, where it could just be a header, not necessarily related to the current task. (Autopilot trip point) 7. Mumble to yourself and wonder why you have to create a new account. Does this mean the old account gets deleted? Do you then have two accounts? Do you have to manually configure the original account -not- to get emails while the new account does? (Seriously?) 8. Go ahead and create the new account. (fine) 9. Get an email confirmation for the new subscription at your new account email address. (fine) 10. Follow link in email (fine) 11. Sign into new account to see if it exists. (fine) 12. Wonder again if this means you'll stop getting email at the original account (maybe you get them both places?) 13. Sign out of new account. 14 Sign into old account. 15. Click your underlined username in the top right column to get to your personal profile / history page (again) 16. Click very faint, not obvious Edit Profile / Subscription at the top left of the page next to the Members header ( again) 17. Click Edit Subscription (again) 18. Click Unsubscribe e-mail delivery radio option and then click update button (fine) 19. Wonder, since the previous message you almost didn't read noted that these accounts were linked, if unsubscribing this old account had any impact on the new account (probably not, but there's no way to be sure) 20. Log out of old account (again) 21. Log into new account (again) 22. Click your underlined username in the top right column to get to your personal profile / history page (again) 23. Click very faint, not obvious Edit Profile / Subscription at the top left of the page next to the Members header ( again) 24. Click Edit Subscription (again) 25. Verify that the new account is still subscribed. 26. Send a snarky email to the list describing this experience as a way to make sure that messages are going out and coming in. 27. Throw self off building. Maybe there was a shortcut somewhere that I missed? =) Thoughts? Limitation of the current site backend? Sincerely, Damon 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] Profile picture for multiple social networks
For the most part, yes, though there's an extensive list of how to incorporate Gravatars on various platforms here: http://en.gravatar.com/site/implement Like you said, it's a good step, though not a complete solution. On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 1:48 PM, Sebi Tauciuc stauc...@gmail.com wrote: Hi Jason, Thanks, this looks like a good step, however nothing about the giants I mentioned - it only seems to work on blogs. Is that right? Sebi On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 9:40 PM, jason z mydogisaro...@gmail.com wrote: Check out Gravatar: http://en.gravatar.com/ On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 1:37 PM, Sebi Tauciuc stauc...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, This may be obvious to others, but it's not clear to me: Is there a good enough reason why when I want to change my profile picture for Google, Yahoo!, Skype, LinkedIn and all the other social networks I'm a part of (i.e. IxDA :) ), I have to go to all these places and upload the new picture, and I can't just upload one picture to one place of my choosing? Thanks and Happy New Year! Sebi 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] Default UI standards for phone keypads: Audiotex
John, There are very old semi-standards that companies such as the pre-breakup ATT published that also included menu structure guidelines. In practice, though, these are not used widely enough to call them standards. In addition, your example actually mixes a voicemail-type system references with other more general conventions. So, a little more context would be helpful to know what you are after. I've designed and built many DTMF and speech systems and many good and bad usages abound. In general, though, for customer service or other information systems, yes, keys 1 - 6 are used for call reason sorts of options, 8 or * can be used for going back one level or to the main menu, 9 can be used to end the call, and # for variable length digit string entry termination. In voicemail systems, while there should have been a standard based on or inspired by the Audix system, in reality many companies have done wonders in butchering what could be a straightforward interface. To step into fantasyland for a moment though, for the menus, the same options above could apply. Once listening to a message, 1 can be rewind, 3 can be fast forward, 5 can be message meta-data (calling number, date, time), 7 can be delete, 8 can be reply to, 9 can store the message, * can be exit to the menu, and # can skip to the next message. While no real standard exists, these are similar enough to many existing systems to be quickly learnable, IMO. Also, though you didn't ask, 0 should always get the caller to a person. Or at least to something helpful if not. Phillip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36742 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] IxDA Email Changes... speaking of confusing UI
Have you ever wondered how the site authenticates you? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36748 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] Forms - selecting a country
I like how google does it for their site. In that they guess right 99% of the time and give you a way to change it if they are wrong. You can guess, based on things like IP and other factors. Where the user is. And no matter the context, this is the best default.. Unless you run a service that specializes in shipping between counties... Why this isn't common in forms is beyond me. So auto-select that item in a drop down of all the countries. Almost all the time, you'll be right and they won't need to deal with that box. Sometimes, you'll be wrong, and they will end up with the a selection that is not perfect. Want bonus points? Float the item you guessed to the top. Under than put USA, under that an alphabetical listing of all the rest of the countries. No one will notice, and that is the point. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36720 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] IxDA Email Changes... speaking of confusing UI
I'm with you, William. I know the site's built to allow this kind of comp/locational validation, I'm just saying that the experience is confusing and tedious. An end user doesn't sit back and think how nifty the authentication system is, they just think what the heck is this?? Etc etc. -Damon William Brall wrote: Have you ever wondered how the site authenticates you? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=36748 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
