Re: [IxDA Discuss] Article on Number of Usability Test Participants
David, Jared, AFAIK you can't set tasks in userfly and you can't capture basic KPIs like task failure rate, task time, user satisfaction (expressed through post-hoc likert scale questions), etc. As such there is no test plan to create, and there's no way including / excluding certain users. It's not an unmoderated remote usability testing tool - it's means of unfiltered remote user observation. I can imagine it being useful for certain people in certain contexts. For example, if you find people aren't completing the lead generation form on your small business website, you could install a userfly script on that page. This could be kind of eye opening for a newcomer to user research - *wow, there really are users out there... and hey - the design of our site has an influence on their behaviour - which determines the success of our business! Fancy that!* Personally, it's not for me since there's no way of aggregating the data - each video has to be watched sequentially. Harry 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 Browsing Interface
Cooliris, seems to be a common thread in here. Here are a few alternatives: :: Oskope - http://www.oskope.com/ :: Viewzi - http://www.viewzi.com/ :: Apple time machine - http://bit.ly/KXIx7 :: Tiltview (Flash) - http://www.simpleviewer.net/tiltviewer/app/ :: Bing Vis. Search - http://www.bing.com/visualsearch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46519 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] JOB: Contract User Experience Designer in New York
Please contact Chandan Mahadeo Gokhale at chandan_gokh...@infosys.com if interested. Job title: User Experience Designer Location: New York Summary: The Technology Division of a large investment bank is seeking an experienced User-Interaction designer and Information Architect to manage the user experience of the Investment Banking Division’s web portal. The portal is a globally available portal that provides a single point of entry for bankers to access market data, client, project and other proprietary information. It provides intelligent grouping and aggregation of information to present comprehensive views and is fully customizable to allow user specific organization of data. It also allows updating and correcting of key data and serves as a platform to disseminate information via smart alerts and notifications. Principal responsibilities: Reporting to a Project Manager you will be responsible for: - Usability evaluation of existing web-based application - Defining information architecture and navigational structure that is logical and consistent - Creating and applying design patterns and interaction methodologies consistently across the application - Recommending best practices for web interaction techniques - Vetting design concepts with stakeholders and development groups - Partnering with business sponsors, users and developers to built consensus around the UI Experience/ Skills: - Experience in User-Interaction and Information Architecture - Experience providing formal usability assessments of complex applications - Graduate or Undergraduate degree in the user experience / human factors field - Significant experience in the design of data intensive business portals - Excellent communication skills and the ability to work in a team environment. - Self-starter, self-motivated, able to work with minimal supervision. - Familiarity with web-based software development methodologies 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] UX/ID Education Options in Canada at the Graduate level?
Hi there, Is anyone aware of graduate-level programs in UX/ID in Canada? I'm a Canadian undergraduate student, interested in getting into the field. My undergraduate degree will be in Rhetoric and Professional Writing from the University of Waterloo, if that matters at all. Thanks all :-) -Colleen 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] Advice for IxD Grad Student
hi Chris, big name companies like google, vmware, yahoo, ibm etc have interaction design/user experience internships if you look up their career website. (although i am not sure if winter internships, you probably have to ask) Sometimes agencies have internship opening as well. Unless you know people who knows people, the best way to start is to search with job search engine. or check out the usual suspects - job board, forum, mailing list, or attend local local ixd/hci/upa events to find out. the job search engine i used in the past was indeed.com (was quite helpful. i got one internship out of its search result and interned there for two summers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46549 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 discussions usability
I have thought the same thing. It's ironic to say the least . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46547 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] Advice for a stanger
Hi everyone, I'm Mohammed Khan from India.I'm currently pursuing my bachelor's degree in Computer Science Domain and hopefully will be out in the wild by 2010.Apart from been a decent programmer i also have had very strong likening towards Art,design and human psychology.I always wondered if i could ever find myself a profession that would have all the creative juice.Today i am very confident that i wish to make my mark in the IxD,UI discipline. I never had any formal education in design but have given my best to learnfind as much as possible from text and web. Today i need a sincere advice from everyone of you here in the board in regard to how i can move ahead in life to become a successful UI,IxD Designer.I wish to have a strong foundation and understanding so that i can deliver by best out-of-the-box. Lately i been having thoughts about joining the Pilot Program @ the CIID,Copenhagen right after my graduation.Not sure yet but would be great help if anyone of you could suggest anything better. Please reply soon cuz i'm already halfway through to loosing my breath.Thank U. 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 discussions usability
@Thomas: The IxDA Discussion list is in the first place a mailing list. The website offers an archive of the emails sent through the list. This archiving is automated, but the algorithms aren't perfect. @Gayatri: IxDA Discuss is not a formally moderated list. However, to ensure that new subscribers have not subscribed solely to spam the list, our list administrators moderate the FIRST FEW POSTS from each new subscriber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46547 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] Advice for IxD Grad Student
Do something that makes you stand out! An internship at a small IxD firm won't do that . . . .do something really different. Spend your time in Sub-Africa investigating all the cool things people are doing with mobile phones. Get an internship in China! You have your whole life to work a 9-5 job at a U.S. company. . .I've done that and it is not very exciting. Take advantage of this time to do something really different! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46549 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 Browsing Interface
This TED talk shows off what ultimately became Microsoft's PhotoSynth - pretty wild zoom effects on print material. TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/blaise_aguera_y_arcas_demos_photosynth.html MS PhotoSynth: http://livelabs.com/photosynth/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46519 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] Multicurrency basket scenario
Hi Ted, Has anyone had any experience with a shopping experience that includes purchasing items using different currencies in the same basket? We have a situation where we may be constrained by the business to sell products this way. It is a heavily compromised user experience and we are doing all we can to fix things behind the scenes, but exploring options if we do need to handle it as is. A single credit card charge will go to the customer for the USD amount and the GBP amount, with the GBP amount converted into USD by the credit card company. The client does not want to show a converted price in the basket because the actual charge may be different. The most we can do is show an approximate conversion, which means the customer will not see a confirmed total price. The whole thing is awful, but if we fail to make the business change, we will have to find a way to make it as painless as possible on the front end. Any thoughts or examples of someone handling this gracefully would be much appreciated. As you say, it's a far from ideal situation - a foreign currency transaction against a credit card is not only likely to involve a variable exchange rate but also, at least in the UK, a fixed foreign transaction fee from the card provider. So, the final cost may vary significantly. On the other hand, customers need at least an idea of how much they're spending. I think all you can do is to be as transparent with customers as possible - split the basket into two in this instance: One section for USD transactions, the other for GBP. Next to the GBP amount, have a link along the lines of 'How much is this in USD?' When a customer clicks on that, display the approximate amount with a very obvious disclaimer. All the best, -- Ian Fenn Freelance UX Consultant Chopstix Media Limited http://www.chopstixmedia.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
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Leaving Las Vegas...I mean the website site.
Hello Brian Let me answer using examples. Consider links that you may see in your gmail message (I notice you have one). They open a new tab or new window unlike gmail interface's own navigation links. There is a login session, and it so requires that the user is checking the emails and would always like to get back to the email window after navigating/ getting far to a different page. Hence it is context based and how your users, a majority of them prefer. If it is a link in a blog page, and you are using intriguing links, consider what Jhon had said. Leave the choice to the user, and as everyone will learn through experience interacting with the web, eventually users can decide how and when they want to view a link, either same page or new page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46314 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] Wheels as user interface mechanisms
I had just the same thought as conetees. In some multimedia application such as those for audio editing, I have seen dials where the operator clicks on the dial once, and drags the mouse either up/down or left/right that rotates the knob clockwise, anti-clockwise accordingly. But again, it maybe that only those technicians are aware of how to manipulate them and I am not knowing if there has been any user study or research on such dial controls. Just wondering if all knobs can really be replaced with sliders, as both have a definite start and end value with a scale factor that determines the interval value between them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46499 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] UX/ID Education Options in Canada at the Graduate level?
Simon Frasier University in Vancouver should work for ya if you don't mind going a few miles down highway 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from ixda.org (via iPhone) http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46581 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] Advice for a stanger
It doesn't get much better than CIID, but there are other definite worthy programs. Each have their own special take on IxD design education which makes answering your question quite difficult w/o knowing more about you your goals. Here is a list for you to look at which is by no means comprehensive. In Europe: Royal College of Art Delft Umea Malmo Utrecht US SVA CMU IiT/ID Kansas Asia IIT Hong Kong Poly KAIST Australia RMIT U Sydney Brazil also has a few schools, but I'm going blank. Lots to research! - Dave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from ixda.org (via iPhone) http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46584 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 discussions usability
Yohan Thanks for your answer. Yeah I thought it had something to do with it being a email list. But how hard can it be to submit the emails cronologically to the list? Do you know if the re-design is going to continue this line of posting inconsistency? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46547 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] A minor follow-up on identifying credit cards' types
On Oct 9, 2009, at 8:47 AM, Alan Wexelblat wrote: Recently there was a discussion on the list about whether it was necessary to require users to select what type of credit card they were entering. Someone once tried to tell me that requiring the user to select a credit card type was intended to (or at least served the purpose of) a protection against card number thieves and such. I didn't quite believe them then, and even less so now. -- Jim Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design Patterns: multi-touch and stream
I'm kind of a tangible interface enthusiast and proud owner of a Jazzmutant Lemur, and maybe some of the links I collect are of interest to you: http://delicious.com/bitecontrol/multitouch I'll be following this thread with interest to see what else comes up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46467 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] Article on Number of Usability Test Participants
@Jared: What you're describing is a situation in which you'd fully implement remote, unobtrusive testing into an overall test plan. That is not really how I have used it (and I did not mean to imply that this is how I use it). I'm still experimenting a bit, but with several clients I have asked them (not me) to install Userfly for some period of time. Afterward, I pop in and randomly pick a few (sometimes the longer ones) and look for anything that jumps out as being interesting. One memorable example is a conversion point (in the form of a button-looking thing) that was sitting near the top of a longer-ish page. The Userfly recordings I watched showed practically everyone, after they would reach the page, scrolling past the conversion point and not going back to it. Before we had conducted a formal user test, we were able to show our client a major problem point (they were impressed with the turnaround time for feedback). This finding allowed us to focus formal testing time on that page, which I thought was really cool. Would we have found the problem through heuristic analysis? Probably. With formalized user testing? Definitely. But knowing (from observation of real users) where the problem was allowed us to spend more time coming up with recommendations to remedy it. @Harry See above example on how I have used Userfly to create a better formal testing plan. I think you're absolutely right that it depends on the context. If a business client has a conversion point that's not meeting expectations, I think unobtrusive observation can help there. And as you point out, it's also a great way to show newcomers to user research (in many cases, clients) some user perspective. 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 discussions usability
Hi Thomas, et al., The current website was built awhile back solely through the generous efforts of one of our members. Because it relies on the limited capabilities of the Mailman mailing list technology, it sometimes has difficulty collating emails into the proper thread. Additionally, note that our moderation team comprises all volunteers. Our new website is going to use core Drupal technology to provide an online discussion forum with more stable reliable capabilities, and it will be augmented by the same email delivery options that you have today. Going forward, we will continue to have an all-volunteer moderation team so if anybody has issues with the experience perhaps you could volunteer yourself to augment the team. :) Cheers, Liz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=46547 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] Article on Number of Usability Test Participants
On Oct 10, 2009, at 5:38 PM, David Mulder wrote: The Userfly recordings I watched showed practically everyone, after they would reach the page, scrolling past the conversion point and not going back to it. Here's the problem with using this kind of product, the issue you describe doesn't mean they necessarily missed the conversion point and that it failed, it could very well be that they simply weren't interested in the product. You won't know this without speaking to them. It's really amazing what you can find when you just talk to people. We had a client a couple of years ago who was having a similar problem. They're a financial investment company who offers products that help you pick better investments. They noticed through web traffic analysis that the potential customers weren't trying their trial product. They thought they were missing the call to action button to convert customers to the free trial. We did some formative A/ B testing to see if we could figure out a better position for the call to action. What we found was that it wasn't that participants were missing the call to action, they simply didn't like the free product offers that the client was offering. If you don't talk to your customers/users/participants, then you're really missing 99% of your data. Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal 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] Article on Number of Usability Test Participants
I totally agree, Todd. You need to talk to people who use your product or website to uncover insights on motivation behavior. Which is exactly what I do and will continue to do into the future :-) Also, to be clear, I'm not promoting the use of unobtrusive/remote as a primary means of observation or testing, just defending it as a trick that can help us (at least me) in some situations. On Oct 10, 2009, at 7:25 PM, Todd Zaki Warfel li...@toddwarfel.com wrote: Here's the problem with using this kind of product, the issue you describe doesn't mean they necessarily missed the conversion point and that it failed, it could very well be that they simply weren't interested in the product. You won't know this without speaking to them. It's really amazing what you can find when you just talk to people. 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] Is software design a luxury?
http://www.dexodesign.com/2009/10/10/is-software-design-a-luxury/ Russell Wilson Vice President of Product Design, NetQoS Blog: http://www.dexodesign.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/russwilson 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] Article on Number of Usability Test Participants
On Oct 10, 2009, at 5:38 PM, David Mulder wrote: One memorable example is a conversion point (in the form of a button- looking thing) that was sitting near the top of a longer-ish page. The Userfly recordings I watched showed practically everyone, after they would reach the page, scrolling past the conversion point and not going back to it. Before we had conducted a formal user test, we were able to show our client a major problem point (they were impressed with the turnaround time for feedback). This finding allowed us to focus formal testing time on that page, which I thought was really cool. That's interesting, but I have some questions. First, how did you know that the sessions that Userfly caught (and you ended up running) were people who should convert? Maybe the lead generation system is attracting the wrong folks? Did you have a way to collect any information about the people in your study? Second, as Todd pointed out, why did you assume that the users wanted to convert? Third, wouldn't your analytics have told your that people weren't converting? Fourth, what did your subsequent formal usability test (it's not a user test, as the users aren't the ones being tested -- the design is) tell you was happening? Did the participants in that test match in the behaviors of the Userfly sessions? Just curious is this is something more than a parlor trick to get clients to pay attention and enthusiastically do better work. (I have nothing against using parlor tricks. I just want us to be honest about it when we're talking amongst ourselves.) Jared 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
