[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] IxDA Toronto - UX Show and Tell Night, Mon Feb 1st, 7-9pm
Our next IxDA Toronto event is going to be a UX Show and Tell night (http://www.uxshowandtell.com/). THE IDEA: You come with interesting deliverables you've worked on (or are actively working on), and share them in a casual setting with others interested in UX. Tell us how you communicated your ideas in the face of design adversity! Alternatively, get feedback on a work-in-progress. We'll see how things shake out the night of, but we'd like to set up a number of roundtables with 8-10 people each. Proposed roundtables are: - Wireframes - Prototypes (paper, Axure, HTML, other) - Other interesting deliverables scenarios stories, flows, personas, strategy docs, heuristic reports, usability testing reports (email us at toronto-lo...@ixda.org with ideas!) The key is: we need YOU to share! Bring print copies of a deliverable and/or something to project. WHO SHOULD COME? Everyone! We want seasoned veterans as well as UX newcomers. Developers, visual designers, content strategists, other UX hobbyists you're all welcome. We'd love if you brought things to share, but if you don't have anything or don't feel comfortable, that's okay too. WHERE WHEN? We've found a new home that will hopefully give us some room to grow in the future: Function13 in Kensington Market. Come a little early and check out their awesome design / tech store and art gallery (and get a discount the night of IxDA Toronto!). Monday, Feb. 1st, 7-9 pm 156 Augusta Ave (note that Google Maps says this is further north than it actually is it's just north of Dundas on the west side) After, we'll head over to The Embassy (223 Augusta) for some drinks and conversation. RSVP: http://guestlistapp.com/events/12936 As always, thanks to Usability Matters (http://www.usabilitymatters.com) for covering our venue rental, and nForm (http://www.nform.ca) for covering incidentals. And special thanks to Function13 (http://www.function13.ca/) for supporting local user groups! 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 Mentorship Program - We Need Mentors!
I would also note my personal experience in Toronto -- where people I knew had TONS to teach to others still felt insecure about what they could bring to the table as a mentor. I had to do a lot of convincing to get people for our mentorship speed dating night. I think people who came to UX later in their careers particularly felt this. I had to explain that their professional experience BEFORE UX could be just as valuable to a mentee as years and years of UX experience. They bring different perspectives to the table. Fritz, I don't know anything about you, but as long as this isn't your first week out of university, I bet there is someone else with less experience than you in a certain area, who could benefit from your past experiences. In fact, in Toronto, we talked about the fact that peer mentorships (two people of similar years of experience) could be just as valuable as traditional senior/junior arrangements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=45851 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] Trees Mixed Value Selections
Hi all, Has anyone tested mixed values in trees in webapps lately? We discussed this four years ago (http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=7380) and I'm wondering if anything has changed. Picture: - A tree with selectable nodes (e.g. http://bit.ly/fEXrR) The issue: - How to indicate that some child items under a parent node are selected, but not all Options: 1) Mixed value square -- as seen in many desktop apps 2) Greyed out check (as seen in the example above) 3) Leave the parent node's checkbox empty regardless of whether some of its children are selected (e.g. http://bit.ly/me8Hv) Considerations: - This is a webapp so options 1) and 2) would have to be specially coded, and aren't standard on a webpage - I tried option 1) and in usability testing, people had no idea what it meant -- even when I had (5 selected) next to the mixed value node. Given 1) failed in usability testing, and 2) looks like the checkbox is disabled, I'm wondering about 3) but don't know how I feel about it. It's not fully accurate, but if my users can't understand the mixed concept, perhaps it doesn't NEED to be accurate. What it does mean though, is that if the tree is fully collapsed, some nodes could be selected and the user would never notice. Any thoughts, IxDAers? Getting frustrated over this one. (Darnit users, UNDERSTAND!) Meredith 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] Trees Mixed Value Selections
Scott -- The tree isn't representing traditional files and folders, so the design is wide open. I can do whatever I want (though I'm sure the developers would like it if some components were steal-able from common JS frameworks!). Brandon -- thanks; I think that's what Mac OS does, but given that my users didn't understand the square mixed value indicator, I'm worried that they won't understand a dash either. It's a bit risky, since I can't test again. Bryan -- while playing around I added a total count at the bottom of the tree (104 selected) but perhaps I need to go further in your direction, by listing them out directly. The problem is the number of items in the tree: it could range between 1 and 3500 (sigh). If they did a select all on the tree, that would be one massive list on the right! I think I'll still play around with that concept though... I agree my best bet may be to get myself out of the standard tree entirely. Thanks all! Meredith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=45857 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 Mentorship Program - We Need Mentors!
I tend to agree with Lisa -- once a week is daunting given my current commitments! What we did in Toronto was say that it's a negotiation between mentor and mentee -- some mentees will want a lot of meetings, others will be content to chat every month or so. As long as everyone states their expectations and availability up front, then all is well. Meredith IxDA Toronto Co-Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=45851 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] Trees Mixed Value Selections
Unfortunately our testing was incomplete -- we were only able to test 5 people, so clearly not a great sample, but the pattern was still clear (utter cluelessness with respect to the mixed value). It's hard to know what to call the participants, but they keep track of all of the service contracts / devices within their company. All were middle-aged. I'd be really curious to repeat on people in their teens / 20s. I still fear that rates of understanding would be dismal, but who knows. I think the results are complicated by the fact that we were testing a paper prototype. Testing a tree picker on a paper prototype is NOT something I would recommend (!). I am having trouble deciding what issues arose because they didn't experience the true dynamics of the tree, vs. what issues are genuine. I have UX designers in my own office telling me that they've never seen a mixed value in their entire lives! This blows my mind. The trouble is, I can't think of any immediate examples of panels with them on OS X or Windows. Anyone?? To answer your question, 3500 = number of leaf nodes Those can be arranged in an extremely simple hierarchy, or something much more complex. The arrangement options are pretty limitless (sadly) so I'm pretty much looking at a file system paradigm. Unfortunately there is no additional sense of categorization that can be layered on to limit numbers -- would have done that a long time ago if I could have :) Thanks for the suggestion of the legend, the italicization and the accordion view. All are worth a ponder. I am trying hard to focus on the 90% case, while still letting things work for the remain 10%. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=45857 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] Trees Mixed Value Selections
For anyone who wants a good example of the OS X-style dash option: http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/treeview/tv_highlight.html . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=45857 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] suggestions for best in class B2B websites?
Thanks Tiffany, thanks Ethan. I really, really appreciate the help. Tiffany, Basecamp is a great idea -- definitely B2B, and definitely more current than other sites. I'll check out the journal too. And Ethan, Fogbugz is great too. Hope you like the product itself. It fell short on a few things my team and I needed, but overall, it was quite awesome :) Meredith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=45337 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] suggestions for best in class B2B websites?
Hi all, Does anyone have any B2B websites that they'd hold up as good examples? I'm doing a competitive review and none of my client's direct competitors have remarkable websites. I'm looking for: - A well-done B2B site - The company preferably sells a service rather than a physical product - Bonus if the company provides some selling tools right on the website rather than asking the customer just to call in for a quote - Bonus if the company has a self-service website for customers (DOUBLE bonus if I can become a customer so as to check it out!) We're going to do a logistics company (FedEx or UPS), a water delivery company (Poland Springs), and a software company (Bentley) but I'm reaaally struggling with others for some reason. Would be so grateful for other ideas. Thanks gang, Meredith 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] How To Host an IxDA Speed Mentorship Night!
IxDA Toronto recently had a very successful event centred around creating a culture of mentorship in our local community. Since it went so well, we thought we'd share our experiences with everyone else... so you can host your own! The event was based on the model of a speed dating night, except with the goal of establishing mentoring relationships instead of romantic relationships. The idea was for 15 potential mentees and 15 potential mentors to meet at a pub, where we'd reserved a private room. We set up 15 small tables around the outside of the room. Mentors each chose a table and stayed there for the rest of the night. Mentees chose a table with a mentor to start. They then had 5 minutes to talk with the mentor about their background and interests, and what they were looking for in a mentoring relationship. After 4 minutes we gave a 1 minute warning. Then at the end of 5 minutes, mentees picked up and moved to the next mentor. Aaaand... things repeated 15 times. We gave mentors checklists of mentee names and vice versa. As they met each other, they were instructed to check off anyone who they would be interested in having as their mentee / mentor. At the end of the night we collected everyone's sheets, and created a huge spreadsheet of who matched whom. Our next step is to email people to tell them the name and contact information of those they matched. From there, they can pursue a relationship as they like. After calculating the matches, it turned out that every mentor had at least one mentee match, and every mentee but one had a mentor match. (The one without a match was looking for something very specific, so I don't think she'll be that surprised that she didn't match anyone.) Overall, the night was a huge success. People said at the end that they had a ton of fun, and really appreciated meeting so many people. We got a lot of thank you notes from attendees, which was awesome. If anyone would like to repeat this locally, GO FOR IT! It's a pretty simple event - once you get the people in the room, you can let the event run itself. The hardest thing is finding people to be mentors. Asking and explaining the value of mentorship to our community goes a long way though. We actually ended up with a surplus of mentors the night of the event... albeit after some hard recruitment work :) If you're a local leader, I posted a much more detailed summary, including some tips, on the Local Leaders' Basecamp. I'm happy to send it to anyone else who wants it too -- just mail me off-list! Meredith Matt Co-Coordinators, IxDA Toronto P.S. One of my colleagues, who was a mentor the night of the event, recently had a friend ask her, So I hear you were at a speed dating night the other night? The person thought we were actually trying to hook UX people up romantically. Ooops :) 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] Greyed background for popups
Brandon, would love to hear why you hate modal popovers... can you elaborate? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=44487 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] [EVENT] IxDA Toronto: Creating a Culture of Mentorship in the TO UX community
This month, IxDA and UXIrregulars are co-hosting a talk about how to create a culture of mentorship in our local UX community. Wednesday May 6, 2009 from 7:00pm - 9:00pm 215 Spadina Ave. Centre for Social Innovation, Room 120 FREE The format of the evening will be: 1) Video excerpt of Kim Goodwin's Interaction 09 talk, Each One, Teach One. (See a summary: http://www.cooper.com/journal/2009/02/kim_goodwin_ixda_keynote.html) 2) Various speakers will share how they found their mentor/mentee, what worked in their relationship, and what didn't work so well. 3) We'll break into small groups to brainstorm how we can foster a culture of UX mentorship in Toronto. As always, we'll go to The Rivoli after the event to continue chatting. PLEASE RSVP (we got really tight on space last time): http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2511546/ Also, PLEASE spread the word -- anyone with an interest in user experience / interaction design / information architecture / HCI / etc. etc. etc. is welcome, and any experience level. Attending doesn't mean you'll be committed to becoming a mentor or mentee. We just want to start the conversation. Hope to see you then, Meredith Matt Twitter: @IxDAToronto Email: toronto-lo...@ixda.org -- Thanks to our generous sponsors, Usability Matters (http://www.usabilitymatters.com) and nForm (http://www.nform.ca), for making this event possible. 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] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager roledoes UI design... ????
On Tuesday, March 17, 2009 1:20 AM, Dave Malouf said: to even be in conversation with mechanical engineers. You have to know the material that people are going to be interacting with, how to forge it to what you need it to be AND to your point about communication, you need to be able to create your own apearance models. NOT b/c you have to do them in the real world, but having the craft mastered is a process of well mastering the craft of your medium, so when you communicate within it, or to others who have to understand it, you do so with unparalleled command. Okay Dave, you've mentioned this twice now and Google and Wikipedia are leading me to things that I can't quite tie to your quotes. So, can you please explain what an appearance model is, in the context of IxD? Thanks :) Meredith 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] This Thursday: UX Irregulars + IxDA Toronto - Interaction '09 Conference Redux
Hi Everybody, Announcing our next IxDA Toronto event, co-hosted by our good friends the UX Irregulars. Please RSVP at Upcoming.org if you plan to attend: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2119336 Or email us at: toronto-lo...@ixda.org Thursday March 12, 2009 from 7:00pm - 9:00pm Centre for Social Innovation - Room 120 215 Spadina Ave., Toronto Torontonians who attended the IxDA Interaction '09 conference will summarize their favourite talks and themes from the conference to bring a little bit of Interaction '09 to you. A taste: - Sarah Toy will explore the overarching themes of designing for behaviour and social change - Steven LeMay will summarize some of the discussion of NUIs, Microsoft Surface and gestures - Iain Lowe will talk about design patterns - Kaleem Khan will talk about Dan Saffer's and Bill DeRouchey's workshop on designing for touch screens and interactive gestures emergent sustainable design themes - Meredith Noble will review Leisa Reichelt's session on Designing with Community (specifically Drupal.org) - Matt Nish-Lapidus will give an overview of Mark Rettig's keynote on How to Change Important Stuff - Kim Peter will speak about Luke Wroblewski's web forms workshop We will also screen one of the most inspiring keynotes from the conference, by Kim Goodwin. She talked about the sustainability of our profession and how we should be passing our craft on to others, through mentorship, internships and more. After the event, we'll head over to the Rivoli for refreshments and more discussion. Everyone is welcome - bring a colleague! - Matt, Meredith and Kaleem --- About UX Irregulars UX Irregulars are a rag-tag, fugitive fleet of user experience designers, researchers and strategists who design mostly Web interactions, but also software, and sometimes crazy things like ski hills. http://groups.google.com/group/UXIrregulars/ Who is IxDA Toronto? We're a group of Torontonians interested in interaction design. The group is an extension of the vibrant online Interaction Design Association community (http://www.ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/ ) but absolutely anyone interested in interaction design is welcome -- novices and experts, IxDA members and non-members. Sign up for our mailing list to be notified of future events: http://groups.google.com/group/ixda-toronto/ 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] What music for interaction designers
Anybody out there not listen to anything? (coz that's what I do :-) I actually have a 1 minute white noise track that I found via Wikipedia a year or two ago. I loop it and it drowns out the chatter in my open concept office. Other times, when it's completely quiet, I'll go with nothing. And when I want to get in the zone while wireframing, I'll turn on some music that I'm familiar with that doesn't take a lot of processing, with lyrics or without lyrics. I'm with Live, who said they were listening to Kathleen Edwards lately. I never listen to music while writing anything -- particularly reports analysis. Adrian, you mentioned you'd be scared about programmers listening to music -- I find that amazing! When I was an agile coder we had a stereo on at all times in our team room. It was a great bonding experience because we got to listen to each other's music and hence get to know each other better. And I find music really helps me get into the groove while coding. Also while doing math problems back in engineering school -- HAD to have music. This whole topic is fascinating... the way some people break up their music choices by task, others by time of day. Thanks to the person who started the thread! Meredith 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] What music for interaction designers
Mark, I can completely relate to the ear bud thing. So often I put ear buds in and forget to turn my music or white noise on, but there's something about doing it that still makes me concentrate. It's not even that it drowns out noise in the office, I guess it's just a symbol to myself that I'm going to attempt to get in the zone. So interesting. Meredith From: mark schraad [mailto:mschr...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 04, 2009 1:41 PM To: Meredith Noble Cc: Adrian Howard; IXDA list Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] What music for interaction designers Musak used to (they may still) offer a service that pumped white noise into the office rendering the open office concept much quieter. Basically it served to kill voices. You had to walk over and have conversations within a cube. There was also a noise curtain under development at one point. You placed it at the top of a door way and it projected high intensity white noise straight down with the intent of canceling out noise that might come from the room. Not sure what happened to that idea... I often listen to music in order to screen out small noises and conversations when working. I also just put in ear buds at times to do the same thing... but allowing better focus. Mark 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] [EVENT] IxDA Toronto Meeting: Wed Nov 26, 7pm
We're excited to announce that Matthew Milan, principal at Normative, will be presenting at the next IxDA Toronto meeting, exactly two weeks from today. --- Saab Owners Never Forget: The Role of Novelty in Interaction Design Affordance and consistency are nice: nobody complains when you create something that is easy to use. But in the business world, being usable or even useful just isn't enough. Experiences need to stand out and drive brand recognition. The talk will explore the role of novelty in interaction design, and how it can be applied to create memorable branded interactions. In addition to digging into examples of how novel interactions have been used to build and reinforce brand affinity, the session will also explore the theories behind the use of novelty in design. Novelty isn't about making things different for the sake of being different. Instead novelty is a driver of innovation and change, and helps to more closely connect experiences with brands. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of why novelty matters in interaction design, and what considerations go into using novelty to create strategic business advantage. --- Details: Centre for Social Innovation 215 Spadina Ave, Suite 120 Wednesday November 26, 7pm We will head to The Rivoli after the presentation for refreshments. Please RSVP on Upcoming if you're attending: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1339417 Alternatively, if you're Upcoming-shy, email us: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Everyone is welcome - bring a colleague! Sign up for our mailing list to be notified of future events: http://groups.google.com/group/ixda-toronto/ Meredith Matt IxDA Toronto Coordinators Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] incentive models for longitudinal studies
Thanks Ricardo. I think that sort of breakdown would be good for a small number of repeating sessions but when you get to eight, I think I lean towards Jeff's feeling: it might be too complicated for people. Still a good idea though; I will keep it in my back pocket for a shorter study. Jeff, all great ideas, and I hadn't thought of asking anthrodesign. Figures that I just unsubscribed a month ago :) We're asking ourselves just how important it is to have repeat attendance (perhaps we don't need to go to all this trouble). The unfortunate thing is we don't know yet. It's certainly important from a recruitment standpoint -- we don't want to have to re-recruit every two weeks. But in terms of properly testing the application, because it's being developed using agile, we don't really have a sense of the dependencies between features yet, and therefore don't know how important it is for the same people to test the application week after week. At this point we're thinking that to keep things simple we might just make sure the immediate incentive is enough to make people want to come as often as possible, and leave it at that, no bonus at the end. We'll probably have a mixture of repeat people and new people in each test, and that may be a good thing. Thanks for all the suggestions! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=35086 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] In the Event of My Death
Andy, you might be interested in this segment from CBC's great digital culture show, Spark: http://www.cbc.ca/spark/blog/2008/04/full_interview_derek_k_miller_1.html (CBC = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation... Canada's BBC or NPR) It's an interview with a man who has cancer and is thinking about his digital legacy. One of the things that Derek has been thinking about his digital legacy, and what should happen to our web presence when we die. Do we need to appoint a digital executor to oversee our online belongings? Someone who would know all of your passwords and keep up the payments for your domain name, for example, so your site would live on even after you have gone? I listened to it a few months back so don't remember details, but I'm sure you'd find it interesting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=35136 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] incentive models for longitudinal studies
Has anyone done a longitudinal study before? What was your incentive model like? We're asking participants to commit to 8 sessions, happening roughly two weeks apart. We are fully prepared for drop-outs but want to minimize this, obviously. We'd considered giving people some money for each session (say $50), and then reserving the same amount of money for the very end, which would be handed over if they complete all 8 sessions. So they'd get $50 every session for 8 sessions, and get an extra $400 at the end if they attended all 8. If they miss one of the 8, the bonus money wouldn't be paid out. The trouble is, if someone misses session 5, we are worried that such a model might make them give up on sessions 6, 7 and 8. If they've already blown the big pay-out at the end, why bother continuing? Any suggestions on how we can use incentives to encourage long-term participation? Thanks, Meredith - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416.598.7770 x16 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.usabilitymatters.com http://www.usabilitymatters.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] password strength usability studies?
Does anyone know of any studies that weigh various password strength requirements (e.g. minimum 8 characters, one capital letter, one number of symbol) with users' ability to remember the passwords? Or, on a more practical level, reports that track password strength requirements vs. increased calls to support / password reset requests? My client wants increased security, but I don't want the users to go nuts. Trying to find a happy medium. Also, have you ever had a website ask you to change your password (long after you originally registered)? Did it hugely annoy you or were you pleased that they were tightening up? Meredith - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416.598.7770 x16 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.usabilitymatters.com http://www.usabilitymatters.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] password strength usability studies?
When I worked in this field, we used to explain that usability and security, at the extremes were two opposite ends of a continuum. Adding to one nearly always compromised the other. I know it is a bit simplistic, but it works as a quick explaination. Thanks, Mark. I am quite familiar with the usability-security continuum, but I'm surprised as how few sites out there have concrete recommendations on where the best place along the continuum is. I guess it's still too controversial, but surely someone out there has some opinions on what the best password policy is, trading off complexity / time to hack and ability for users to remember. Perhaps, as you say, they're all lurking in Forrester, which, sadly, I don't have access to! Another person replied to me privately with the following blog post: http://www.baekdal.com/articles/usability/password-security-usability/ The author talks about how long it would take a hacker to break certain passwords. It's easy to calculate how long brute force attacks might take, but it gets scary when you look at dictionary attacks. I think my recommendation is going to be a weak-medium-strong entropy indicator that takes dictionary words into account, plus restricting the number of attempts the user can make within a time period. I am EXTREMELY worried about forcing high entropy on people though... so that's where I start sighing. Sigh. Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] password strength usability studies?
Brett brings up another possibility - has anyone ever implemented passphrases or graphical passwords on their websites? I've never seen them on the web (only in non-web applications, like passphrases for WEP keys). I'm curious if there are any downsides to passphrases in particular. I don't think I would force users to use a passphrase, but I'm interested in suggesting it to them as a more secure option. (I doubt my client has the resources for a graphical password system at this point.) Brett, just to play devil's advocate, the downsides to your proposed system seem to be: - only 28 potential characters -- so there are only 28^L possibilities for the password (where L is the length of the password), whereas a regular keyboard gives you 96^L possibilities (although L could be left open, most users would probably keep it fairly low so they could more easily remember the password) - people could easily watch you over your shoulder - hackers could probably try patterns first - Vs, Ls, etc. - because not all letters / numbers are available, you can't create a password with much personal meaning to you. Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Alternate design for check box table
Check box table design is widely used for selecting multiple rows in a table and performing batch actions (example- delete, apply, assign). Alternatively, Shift click can be used to enable multi selection. Hotmail is doing this in a slightly different way. Are there any other thoughts, examples out there for selecting multiple rows? Suba, we had a big discussion about this in March -- you might find some useful info in it: http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=26984 I had the exact same issue and sadly decided to go with the standard checkbox approach, because my client's customers were already used to that style of interaction, and because I couldn't come up with anything else that worked well with the number of batch actions I had. I had to figure out what to do with buttons that could only act on one item at a time vs. button that could act on many items at one time (batch). In the end, I disabled single-item buttons when the user selected more than one item. They display an explanation of why they're disabled on rollover. Would love to hear (or see!) if you end up finding some cool alternative to checkboxes! Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Alternate design for check box table
I had the exact same issue and sadly decided to go with the standard checkbox approach, because my client's customers were already used to that style of interaction, and because I couldn't come up with anything else that worked well with the number of batch actions I had. Couldn't you enable both so they can learn the interaction over time? The Hotmail model, yeah, absolutely. I just tried it out with Shift+Click and Ctrl+Click and it's great; Fitt's Law at its best. But it never would have occurred to me to try Shift+Clicking, and I never saw anything on the interface that suggested it might work that way. How did you discover it, Suba? If my client's developers weren't already going nuts, I might suggest it now... but perhaps I'll save it for phase 2. :) I'd put in a little help bubble explaining the feature though. As soon as I see checkboxes the idea of Shift+Clicking just doesn't enter my brain. Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] IxDA Toronto Meeting: Thursday Sept 18, 7pm
Hot on the heels of our very successful August meeting, Toronto's got another great session for September. Paul Eisen of TandemSeven has offered to tell us about his experiences developing an enterprise portal for Campbell's Soup Company. The details: Centre for Social Innovation 215 Spadina Ave, Suite 400 Thursday September 18, 7pm About the talk: Paul will present a case study on TandemSeven's award-winning design of a unified enterprise portal at Campbell Soup Company. This portal is replacing over 100 disconnected intranet assets. He will share details of the design strategy and approach, emphasizing several interaction design innovations that supplement the base capabilities of the portal platform (WebSphere v6.0). Paul will further discuss the user research and information architecture activities, and share some post-implementation metrics of employee engagement and productivity. Paul's bio: http://www.tandemseven.com/about-us/expert-profiles/profile/15/ We will head to The Rivoli after the presentation for refreshments. Please RSVP on Upcoming if you're attending: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1075129/ Sign up for our mailing list to be notified of future events: http://groups.google.com/group/ixda-toronto/ Meredith Matt IxDA Toronto Coordinators Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] IxDA Toronto Meeting: Tuesday August 26, 7pm
Announcing the August IxDA Toronto event! Four IxDA Toronto members will each be presenting on a topic. After each presentation we'll open things up to the group for contributions, questions, thoughts, rebuttals, etc. Details: Centre for Social Innovation 215 Spadina Ave, Suite 120 Tuesday August 26, 7pm The topics will be as follows: - Introduction to HTML Javascript Prototyping (Matt Nish-Lapidus) - Input Technologies - Pros and Cons (Ian Hooper) - The Best Firefox Add-Ons for Interaction Designers (Meredith Noble) - Introduction to Prototyping with Axure XP (Iain Lowe) As before, we'll head to The Rivoli afterward for refreshments. Please RSVP on Upcoming if you're attending, so we have an estimate of numbers: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1025380/ Anyone is welcome, so invite a colleague! Hope to see you there! Meredith P.S. Check out the photos from the last event: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/flickr/863232/2749919503 Also, sign up for our mailing list to be notified of future events: http://groups.google.com/group/ixda-toronto/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] best practices for login security?
- Emailing lost passwords to users Never, ever, ever store passwords in the clear, anywhere. If a user forgets their password, generate a temporary one and ask them to create a new password. Thanks, Eric. I hate it when people send me a congrats, you're signed up, and your password is BLAAAH email -- it shows me they just don't get it, and absolutely, it puts all of my other accounts at risk. I meant more of email a reset password link to users. Then again, your approach might be better because people can navigate to the site on their own rather than trusting a link in an email (which could be phishing them, technically). Would you agree? Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] best practices for login security?
I'm looking at a similar issue. I found this on passwords, but haven't looked in depth yet. http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/jun04.asp One of my questions right now is whether or not to enforce the password complexity rule. It is enough to inform the user that their password is weak, and let them go about their business if they so desire? Or do we force them to have a strong password that they may forget later? Security at the expense of usability, or usability at the expense of security? The article you liked proposes some good tips for users for creating passwords, but it doesn't help inform design much. I guess we could share tips about how to make a secure-but-easily-memorable password in a little help section, but I expect most people are so focused during a registration process that they wouldn't bother reading it. The passphrase technique is fabulous, but it's hard to explain that in a sentence, plus most people have a set of predefined passwords that they use on sites anyway. Personally I hate it when I'm forced to include at minimum 8 characters, one uppercase character, one lowercase character, a symbol, etc. My worry is that if we enforce this (as the project charter currently specifies!) that people will choose crazy passwords, forget them, and have to make numerous password retrieval requests, thereby degrading their experience on the site. Or perhaps it's not as big a deal as I'm anticipating? I'd love input. Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] best practices for login security?
Chauncey wrote: There is an edited book that covers many topics related to security and usability that might have some useful information. Here is the title from Amazon. *Security and Usability: Designing Secure Systems that People Can Use*http://www.amazon.com/Security-Usability-Designing-Secure- Systems/dp/0596008279/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1218636293sr=1-1b y Lorrie Cranor and Simson Garfinkel (*Paperback* - Aug 25, 2005) - *Illustrated* FYI, turns out this book is on Google Books: http://tinyurl.com/6ob22p Some pages have been removed, but there's enough to get a good feel for things I expect. Thanks for the recommendation. My Google search for usability security turned up a variety of other promising sites as well (why didn't it occur to me to use that phrase yesterday?) so I'll report back to the list if I find anything useful. Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] Reminder: IxDA Toronto event tonight at 7pm!
Hi all, Just a reminder that IxDA Toronto is having its first educational event tonight - Nick Farnell is going to be giving a sketching tutorial at the Centre for Social Innovation (215 Spadina). If you're looking for something to do tonight, we'll have lots of room. Festivities start at 7pm! Everyone is welcome. If there's interest, we'll head over to The Rivoli afterward. Full details on Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/863232/ Meredith - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416.598.7770 x6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.usabilitymatters.com http://www.usabilitymatters.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is Google trying to use human intelligence toimprove search results?
Aiding my wife in playing around with a dream, I searched for france immigration in Google. I got the following result set: http://tinyurl.com/6pzdd7 Fred, thanks for pointing this out! You don't happen to have a screenshot of what you see when you click Know of a better... do you? I'm curious whether they wanted you to enter just a URL or also details about why it was a good page, whether you needed a Google account, etc. They must be A/B testing it as I just repeated the search and don't see the recommendation link. I can't imagine that any normal person would have the time or inclination to fix a search that didn't perform well for them -- rather, it seems the people who would be most motivated would be spammers and corporations. This will be an interesting one to watch. If anyone has more info, do share! Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] IxDA Toronto Meeting: Thursday July 17, 7pm
Announcing the next IxDA Toronto event! Nick Farnell, a recent grad from Humber's Industrial Design program, has kindly offered to present at our upcoming July meeting. Details: Centre for Social Innovation 215 Spadina Ave, Suite 120 Thursday July 17th, 7pm Topic: The Industrial Design Process, Plus Introductory Sketching Techniques Nick will be talking about the typical industrial design process and (bonus!) will also give us some introductory sketching tips. It will be informal and we hope to have lots of audience participation - in particular, discussion of how the techniques he's shared might be transferable to interaction design. After the presentation, we'll head to The Rivoli for further conversation and liquid refreshment. :) Hope everyone can make it! As usual, please RSVP on Upcoming if you're attending, so we have an estimate of numbers: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/863232/ See you then! Meredith Sign up for our mailing list to be notified of future events: http://groups.google.com/group/ixda-toronto/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] examples of HUDs on the web?
Google Maps. http://maps.google.com Kev, could you explain where in Google Maps I could see such a thing? I can't find anything. Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] examples of HUDs on the web?
Have you considered the Self Healing Transition from the Yahoo pattern library?( http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/pattern.php?pattern=selfhealing) Thanks for the suggestion, Michael. It's a fantastic pattern for removing/deleting, but I need something that will work for any type of action (e.g. deleting, copying, bolding, emailing). I wish my app was a little simpler sometimes, but it keeps things interesting at least :) Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] examples of HUDs on the web?
Just another nod to Katy -- it turns out the guys at Humanized have described what I was envisioning in great detail. (I found this via the UIPatternLibrary.) In case anyone else is looking for this kind of thing in the future, instead of HUDs they call them simply transparent messages. The full write-up is here: http://humanized.com/weblog/2006/09/11/monolog_boxes_and_transparent_mes sages/ Unlike my original plan, which was to have the message fade after a certain elapsed time (say, 2 seconds), theirs actually fade when the user either moves their mouse or clicks. I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of this approach, because the user could miss the message entirely if they happen to be moving their mouse when the message appears. I think I will try: - A minimum of 1 second showing, even if the user is currently moving their mouse (the 1 second is a guess -- will play with the exact duration) - After 1 second, showing the message on the screen as long as the user isn't moving their mouse I'd love to hear any thoughts about this proposed approach. Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] examples of HUDs on the web?
Hi all, Does anyone have any examples of web apps that use HUDs or Heads-Up Displays to give the user feedback? I'm talking a really light HUD here - basically a little rectangle that comes up in the middle of the screen after the user completes an action, says something like Your widget has been deleted, and then fades away after a couple of seconds. The idea is to create feedback in the user's locus of attention rather than somewhere else on the page where they might not be looking. (This is where my app is failing right now - in user testing NO ONE saw my beautiful yellow bar at the top of the page after they deleted a widget.) I recall watching an Autodesk (then Alias) presentation at UPA a few years back about HUDs in their software... but I'm wondering who's using them online and if there's anything I can learn from them. (HUD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HUD_%28computer_gaming%29) Thanks, Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] examples of HUDs on the web?
The first thing that comes to mind is the 37 Signals Yellow Fade Technique that is used as a visual device to create a temporary focal point: http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives/000558.php Thanks Geoff. That's pretty much what I'm thinking of, except I was thinking of a box come up that actually obscures the rest of the page for a moment (well, part of the page). Google Reader does something similar to the YFT whenever a feed has a new item added. The name of the feed glows yellow for a second. My question with the BaseCamp example is, what happens when you're editing an entry that isn't at the top of the page, and the user has to scroll to see it? The yellow won't even show up. This seems like a place where a feedback box in the middle of the page, regardless of whether the modified item is showing on the screen, might be a better option. (Or maybe the two techniques could be used in tandem somehow... or YFT could be used when the item is showing, and my technique could be used when the item is off the page?) Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] examples of HUDs on the web?
I'm not sure they can be classified as a HUD - my understanding of the function (certain aircraft, cars, games, etc...) is that HUDS provide a persistent but presumably non-intrusive display of information in a location that provides some sort of context to the user's activity. Thanks Matthew. I think they're not HUDs in the traditional sense -- I think I just got that term from the Alias presentation (don't have anything better to call it -- am open to suggestions!). I definitely don't intend these to be persistent. Im In Like WIth You (http://iminlikewithyou.com) displays notifications as users log into the system using AJAX, and there are several OS-level (e.g., Growl for OS X), and application-level (MS Office Outlook) that provide similar functions - notifying users that an event has occurred. I just spent a minute on Im In Like With You and that's almost exactly what I have in mind, but I was intending mine to come up right after you click OK to complete an action. I'll poke around a bit more and see what else they have. Much appreciated! Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] [PLUG] glassdoor.com goes live
I was put off becoming a member because I work for a fairly small company. I figure that it would be pretty easy to identify me by definitely an issue - but if you employer is too small, basically, not indexed by Hoovers, we are giving you access but holding your review from display. so, you get access even if we dont use your review. Wow, this is really interesting Jeff. Thanks for bringing up the model for discussion. I'm curious to see how this strategy for people at small companies works. Personally, I would be way too scared to trust you with information that you may or may not release at some point in the future. I simply cannot risk that information getting into the wild, even if you promise to keep it safe. I would be much more likely to make something up about a bigger company just to get access. (Sorry!) Anyway, best of luck -- I'll be watching with interest! Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Thoughts on Tourfilter
Jeff said: Also, the city scoping doesn't seem to work consistently. Seems like if I'm in San Francisco and I search for shows, the results should be limited to San Francisco. And most of the subscribe features seem to be hardcoded to Boston for some reason... Yeah, I must say that I'm thoroughly confused about the location thing. I searched for a Death Cab concert that I'm attending this weekend in Toronto, end up on a page whose title is TourFilter Toronto, and immediately below that is a field saying subscribe to death cab shows in boston =. This has got to be a bug... I also expected type-ahead functionality on the first page... it certainly would prevent some spelling errors that are likely to happen with band/artist names. Oh, and I thought that Search Shows was a button until I just clicked on it and discovered it was a text box with text pre-filled in it. I think I would have had that text grey, italicized, maybe with an ellipsis, to show it's temporary text and will disappear when I click it. Or else I'd use a standard Search: label beside a blank text box. This may be a case where stripping stuff down does damage. Overall it seems like a useful place to track what's going on. I like that it will help me discover similar artists... on the Stars page, for instance, (http://www.tourfilter.com/toronto/stars) I can see everyone else who's tracking them, and what other bands they're tracking. That's a nice way to discover similar artists. Oh, but eek, when I click on Basia Bulat, for instance, I'm taken to the Basia Bulat page but with a lightbox asking me to sign up for an alert. I have to dismiss it before I can continue. Jarring! Will, do you know if they did usability testing at all? I'm curious. Some of the issues I've come across (e.g. the search box thing) seem like they'd be found really quickly in testing and could easily be fixed! Anyway, I'm sure they'll fine-tune some of these things as time goes on. Overall I think it works fairly well, I like the simplicity of it (my eyes appreciate it, for sure) and I may even continue using it myself. Thanks for sharing, Will. Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] how to position a new beta feature -- examples?
Ha, evidently it is a toughie! :) Thanks to all who replied. To answer some questions, as of Friday afternoon, my client was *not* planning on A/B testing... they wanted the use of the beta feature to be opt-in. This was, I thought, easy enough - I designed something much like Martin describes below - but things started to get complicated when they told me about certain things they *weren't* willing to change as part of the beta. I was worried these omissions would confuse users. Anyway, about 30 minutes after I mailed the list I got an email from the client saying they were planning on using A/B testing after all, and they're going to make those other changes that were previously out of scope. I think they just needed some time to realize that the previous scheme just didn't make sense! So yes, I don't think I need any examples after all now that we're A/B testing, but thanks to everyone who wrote back. And Martin, I think I'll try to track down that podcast, it sounds quite interesting! Thanks! Meredith From: Martin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2008 3:01 AM To: Meredith Noble Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] how to position a new beta feature -- examples? Hi Meredith, I remember listening to a podcast not too long ago (by Luke W via UIE, IIRC) that talked about how eBay made incremental changes to its design. If memory serves, when they changed their sell an item page, they added a link from the old page to the new page, with some text explaining why it would be a good idea to use the new version. I know it's not current, but maybe a similar approach would work here? HTH, -- Martin Polley Technical writer, etc. +972 52 3864280 http://capcloud.com/ On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 11:49 PM, Meredith Noble [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Can anyone think of any sites that are currently offering two versions of a particular *feature*, classic and beta? Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] how to position a new beta feature -- examples?
I imagine this might be a tough one, but you IxDAers never fail me, so here goes. Can anyone think of any sites that are currently offering two versions of a particular *feature*, classic and beta? To be clear, I'm NOT looking for: - brand new sites that are still in beta testing mode - existing sites that have an entire beta replacement site to try out (e.g. Gmail's Older Version / Newer Version) Instead I'm looking for sites that have, say, two different searches available - their old search, and a new search that they're testing. The feature doesn't have to be a search - any sort of discrete tool WITHIN a website will do. I'm just trying to pick up ideas of how to position such a beta, and how to transition people in and out of it. It seems easy but my client has some unusual limitations, so I'm in idea-gathering mode. Thanks as always, Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] teaching young people about usability
Thanks so much for this, Elizabeth! It is indeed very encouraging :) Thanks to everyone else for their notes of interest and pointers to resources as well. It's clear that a lot of people are passionate about teaching the young about technology. I promise to get back to people individually (it might take a few days as I'm suddenly a bit swamped), but in the long term I will definitely keep the list updated about my project. I'm very excited about what the possibilities are! Meredith -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:discuss- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Elizabeth Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 4:15 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] teaching young people about usability Interestingly enough I was just reading a report I was sent yesterday: Being Human: Human-Computer Interaction in the Year 2020 http://research.microsoft.com/hci2020/download.html which makes various recommendations, including number 4 which is summarised in the reader%u2019s guide as: Teach HCI to the young. The report argues that changes in computers and computing have a significant impact on all our lives. Consequently, the study of HCI should be introduced to the young as soon as possible. This goes beyond traditional educational concepts of %u2018computer science%u2019 %u2013 not just teaching children about how computers and applications work, but about their wider impact. -so sorry, it's not really helpful to you, Meredith, but I was just excited to see that people are already on it and thought it might be of interest and encouragement! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=28169 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] teaching young people about usability
Thanks for this, Chauncey. I am probably one of those people who would struggle when asked the question you mention, but I've been trying to keep it front of mind for the past little while. (I believe you wrote on the subject in another thread not long ago and it hit home.) It's particularly relevant in terms of teaching the kids though, you're absolutely right. The ideal activity does seem to be a) let's come up with some things that don't work well in this example and b) can you design something that fixes those problems? You mention that you've seen sessions where kids are asked to critique systems -- where was this? Was it part of a program of some kind or something more informal? How old were the kids, out of curiosity? Meredith -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:discuss- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Chauncey Wilson Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 1:30 PM To: Elizabeth Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] teaching young people about usability In teaching HCI to the young, it is important to highlight good designu as well as teach people how to find design and usability problems. I've seen some sessions where children are asked to critique or evaluate systems which is fine, but there is often a lack of discussion about what good design is. Actually the same is true of our interaction with people outside the field. We can show what bad design is, but examples of good design are harder to come by. Exercises where people redesign something to eliminate problems would seem to be critical so in ideas about exercises, consider a cycling through evaluation, design, review several times. As a field we love to find fault, but finding what is good with a product or service is a bit harder. A question that I like to ask designers and usability colleagues is What artifacts (online or real) have inspired your work?. People could give many answers, but I am often presented with a long pause and an interviewee struggling to think of examples of good design. Chauncey On Sun, Apr 20, 2008 at 8:22 AM, Elizabeth [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Interestingly enough I was just reading a report I was sent yesterday: Being Human: Human-Computer Interaction in the Year 2020 http://research.microsoft.com/hci2020/download.html which makes various recommendations, including number 4 which is summarised in the reader%u2019s guide as: Teach HCI to the young. The report argues that changes in computers and computing have a significant impact on all our lives. Consequently, the study of HCI should be introduced to the young as soon as possible. This goes beyond traditional educational concepts of %u2018computer science%u2019 %u2013 not just teaching children about how computers and applications work, but about their wider impact. -so sorry, it's not really helpful to you, Meredith, but I was just excited to see that people are already on it and thought it might be of interest and encouragement! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=28169 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] teaching young people about usability
Has anyone ever run a program that teaches young people (say, grades 6-9 range, or older teens even) about usability? I'm thinking about starting up a program that promotes technology careers to girls. I want to help correct the common belief that people who work in technology sit alone all day in a cubicle and code. I'm interested in using pair programming methods to show girls that programming and software design can be social and collaborative. At the same time I'm interested in exposing them to the concept of user experience / usability / IxD, and showing that it's a great career for people who want to be involved in technology but don't necessarily want to code full time (or at all). If anyone has ever tried to teach the basics of what we do to young people, I'd really love to talk to you about how you approached it. I did a quick Google search and didn't manage to come up with much! Thanks, Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] Reminder: IxDA Toronto Meeting: This Thursday at LinuxCaffe
Hi folks, Just a reminder about the IxDA Toronto meeting happening tomorrow at LinuxCaffe at 7pm! All are welcome, but we'd ask that you RSVP on Upcoming (http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/460354) or to myself at [EMAIL PROTECTED] so we have some idea of how many to expect. We've got 14 so far, so it should be a really great group. Can't wait to see everyone! Meredith (I've attached the original invitation below for full details.) --- We'd like to invite you to the first official IxDA Toronto event! Join interaction designers and other user experience specialists at a casual get-together. We'll be getting to know each other, chatting about some recent mailing list topics (portfolios, education and interesting interaction innovations), and gathering ideas for future meeting topics. LinuxCaffe has generously offered to host the event. They'll have a wide variety of very tasty beverages and goodies available for sustenance! Who We Are: We're a group of Torontonians interested in interaction design. The group is an extension of the vibrant online Interaction Design Association community (http://www.ixda.org) but absolutely anyone interested in interaction design is welcome -- novices and experts, IxDA members and non-members. Details: Thursday, April 3, 2008 7pm LinuxCaffe, 326 Harbord Street (Harbord and Grace, map: http://tinyurl.com/2mlrgn) FREE What to do if you plan to come: 1) RSVP on upcoming.org (http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/460354) or to Meredith at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2) Think of an example of a really interesting / innovative / controversial interaction or site you've seen lately, and bring its URL if possible Thanks! We look forward to meeting everyone! Matt Nish-Lapidus and Meredith Noble IxDA Toronto Local Chapter Leaders *** Interested in joining the IxDA Toronto event announcement list? Go to http://groups.google.com/group/ixda-toronto/subscribe. *** Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] 2 part button - industry standard?
The intended interaction is that the user checks off one or several line items and then clicks anywhere on the two part select a task button and sees menu options (delete, assign a tag, etc). Elisabeth, can you clarify -- how is it a two-part button if you can click anywhere on it and get the same result (a menu)? Isn't it just a regular drop-down menu at that point, albeit perhaps with a different graphic design? I'm very curious because I've been designing a similar inbox-style interface. If you've found a role for an actual two-part button I'd be interested in knowing what the two different click actions you've defined are. Thanks! Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] advice on usability testing for complex sites
Wow, I just want to say thank you to everyone who weighed in on this. This is why I love IxDA :) I always struggle in explaining these sorts of situations without giving away details about the actual application, but let me make an attempt. Katie, it's not quite as dire as you might think, ha! The dependencies aren't even *that* complex, it's just that I'd like to make the test situation as realistic as possible. (I am wondering if this is simply overly ambitious.) Basically, in Section A, you define a widget. You give all sorts of information about the widget, and are offered a bunch of different widget options based on the information you enter. In Section B, you're managing your widgets and various sub-widgets. (Oh man, sub-widgets, sorry, sigh.) What I'm struggling with is that in almost all cases, the person who DEFINES the widget is the person MANAGING the widget. And in the process of defining the widget, you get all sorts of important background information about how widgets work. It feels unrealistic to throw someone into the management of the widget totally blind. I worry that they might struggle on certain tasks because they don't have proper background information, background they would almost certainly have if they defined the widget. (Perhaps this points to other flaws in my design, ha. I will give it a once-over and see if there are any other ways I can introduce this background information.) Anyway, they might very well define the widget and come back several days later to manage it -- so option b) I described is reasonable, although our recruiting company might hate us :), and I fully expect some participant drop-off (the 1/3 over-recruitment strategy is a great recommendation). I am also strongly considering a), and letting them walk through the widget definition flow by themselves 15 minutes before the 60 minute test of widget management. I worry that if we prepare a prereq knowledge document, or have a facilitator walk them through a scenario, we may artificially emphasize important information -- information they might actually have missed if they just read it through on their own. Anyway, you've all given me lots of good food for thought. I will continue pondering this. Thanks so much for your perspectives. And Paul, whatever we do, an early pilot is DEFINITELY in order, thanks! Meredith -Original Message- From: Melvin Jay Kumar [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:45 PM To: Meredith Noble Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] advice on usability testing for complex sites Hi Meredith, Agree on B. But would like to add, that if you know what the dependcies are from A to B, that would help a great deal. So from understanding the dependencies and based on the resources and time available ( which I rarely have enough) I would narrow down on the most important tasks / scenarios that go from A to B. So once that is done, then what would happen is that, you have one session in which users get to do A and then continue to do B. Also, if you have do test various scenarios, then you would have to break the resources . My 2 cents based on the simplistic understanding of your requirements. Hope it helps. Regards, Jay Kumar On 3/20/08, Meredith Noble [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Can anyone recommend methods for performing usability tests on large, complex applications with lots of conceptual dependencies? We're running into issues in our design of a test. We want to test Section B of our application, but Section B doesn't make a lot of sense unless you've already been exposed to Section A. The trouble is, Section A is pretty complicated in itself. They're definitely too big to test together in a single 60 minute test. What to do, what to do...! So far I've thought of (with drawbacks in parentheses): a) Have a facilitator walk them through Section A for 15 minutes before they do the 60 minute Section B test (perhaps a bit overwhelming, hard to digest) b) Ensure the participants who test Section A come back and test Section B (good in theory, but difficult to schedule) c) Test the two back-to-back in a 120-minute-long test (participants might fade) d) Pretend the dependencies don't exist and have them test Section B with no background knowledge (not realistic, but hey, maybe the others are too ambitious) Surely other people have had experience with this sort of thing - any recommendations on what has and hasn't worked well? Am I approaching it all wrong? Thanks so much, Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help
[IxDA Discuss] [EVENT] IxDA Toronto Meeting: Thurs April 3rd at LinuxCaffe
We'd like to invite you to the first official IxDA Toronto event! Join interaction designers and other user experience specialists at a casual get-together. We'll be getting to know each other, chatting about some recent mailing list topics (portfolios, education and interesting interaction innovations), and gathering ideas for future meeting topics. LinuxCaffe has generously offered to host the event. They'll have a wide variety of very tasty beverages and goodies available for sustenance! Who We Are: We're a group of Torontonians interested in interaction design. The group is an extension of the vibrant online Interaction Design Association community (http://www.ixda.org) but absolutely anyone interested in interaction design is welcome -- novices and experts, IxDA members and non-members. Details: Thursday, April 3, 2008 7pm LinuxCaffe, 326 Harbord Street (Harbord and Grace, map: http://tinyurl.com/2mlrgn) FREE What to do if you plan to come: 1) RSVP on upcoming.org (http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/460354) or to Meredith at [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2) Think of an example of a really interesting / innovative / controversial interaction or site you've seen lately, and bring its URL if possible Thanks! We look forward to meeting everyone! Matt Nish-Lapidus and Meredith Noble IxDA Toronto Local Chapter Leaders *** Interested in joining the IxDA Toronto event announcement list? Go to http://groups.google.com/group/ixda-toronto/subscribe. *** Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
[IxDA Discuss] advice on usability testing for complex sites
Can anyone recommend methods for performing usability tests on large, complex applications with lots of conceptual dependencies? We're running into issues in our design of a test. We want to test Section B of our application, but Section B doesn't make a lot of sense unless you've already been exposed to Section A. The trouble is, Section A is pretty complicated in itself. They're definitely too big to test together in a single 60 minute test. What to do, what to do...! So far I've thought of (with drawbacks in parentheses): a) Have a facilitator walk them through Section A for 15 minutes before they do the 60 minute Section B test (perhaps a bit overwhelming, hard to digest) b) Ensure the participants who test Section A come back and test Section B (good in theory, but difficult to schedule) c) Test the two back-to-back in a 120-minute-long test (participants might fade) d) Pretend the dependencies don't exist and have them test Section B with no background knowledge (not realistic, but hey, maybe the others are too ambitious) Surely other people have had experience with this sort of thing - any recommendations on what has and hasn't worked well? Am I approaching it all wrong? Thanks so much, Meredith Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Table Row Interactions and .ico files
3. Row selection In this pattern, the user selects a row (or multiple rows) and then presses a button found on a toolbar above the list. Buttons should enable and disable based on the selection. Benefits: removes screen clutter, allows for actions on multiple items. Drawbacks: two-click interaction, actions and items are not directly connected. Jack, you mention buttons should enable and disable based on the selection. Have you had success with this in the past? I am worried about randomly disabling buttons -- what if the user doesn't understand why it's happening? (In my situation, I'd be disabling certain items when the user selects multiples -- because some actions can't be done to more than one item at a time.) I just imagine this would be confusing to users and I can't find any decent examples. I'm wondering if someone has come up with some elegant feedback mechanism -- like a button greys out and next to it is something saying some actions can only be performed on one item at a time -- but ugh, this seems so ugly! Meredith - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416.598.7770 x6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.usabilitymatters.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Table Row Interactions and .ico files
Jack, you mention buttons should enable and disable based on the selection. Have you had success with this in the past? I am worried about randomly disabling buttons -- what if the user doesn't understand why it's happening? My philosophy is that it would be more confusing to allow them to press a button that won't work because of the selection. I have also used tooltips on disabled buttons that indicate why they are disabled. Oh, absolutely, I agree, better to prevent the error in the first place than to have to explain it after it happens! We actually dismissed both these approaches. Instead, our solution has been to move any single item actions down to the item detail page only. An example of this is Edit. Because we can't let people edit two items at the same time, we don't include that option on the List Page. Instead, people click on one item in the list, go to the Item Detail Page, and then click the Edit button there. So we have: List Page (list of all items, with buttons allowing the user to perform any actions that can be applied to any combination of items in the list, including multiples) Item Detail Pages (what you get when you click on an item, with all of the same buttons as the list page, PLUS any buttons for actions that you can only perform on one item at a time) I don't know if that explanation makes any sense -- hope so :) Anyway, we're about to test this in a few weeks and I'm quite worried about it. We dismissed your proposed solution in favour of this, so I was just curious how your solution tests. Would love to hear your results after you're done! Thanks, Meredith - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416.598.7770 x6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.usabilitymatters.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] First Set of Interaction08 Videos
Not to be impatient :) but is there any news on the Chris Conley video yet? It's one that I'm really eager to share with my colleagues. Just wanted to make sure I didn't miss an announcement about it! Thanks! Meredith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=25901 Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Continuous Scroll
Once the vertical scrollbar reaches the bottom it triggers a new page to load. Unlike its common use in separate frames(i.e. the inbox of Hotmail Live), ajax pagination(weird name) attaches a new full page to the end of the current one. So, we end up with a continuous scroll bar and therefore a continuous content. Thanks for bringing this up again, Etkin. Three real-world examples I've found are: The Humanized Reader http://humanized.com/reader/ Google Reader (I use this daily and love it, for the most part) http://reader.google.com A9 http://a9.com/ I have been referring to it as infinite scroll -- not sure whether I made that term up or if I heard it somewhere. I'm interested to know what other good examples of this people have found. Overall, I agree that its value entirely depends on the user's expectations for the page. It works well for me for RSS viewing because I have no desire to do anything other than keep reading when I get to the bottom of a page of articles. The trickiness comes in with other features -- for example, Google Reader has to guess that if I've scrolled past something, that means I've read it and its state should therefore be changed, so I won't see that article again. This isn't always necessarily a safe assumption, and it can be quite irksome at times. Meredith --- Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416-598-7770, ext. 6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Forward/reverse in a mobile phone's music player
I'm listening to CBC Radio's hourly news podcast, but the current news story doesn't interest me; I want to skip to the next story. A Forward button would offer me nothing that I don't already get from dragging or scrubbing the playback head through the timeline (or pressing-and-holding the FFwd knob on my MP3 player). What I really want is a podcast that enables signposts, so that I can quickly jump between news stories. Jerome, for an example of chapters as described by Jack, check out the CBC Radio 3 podcast on this page: http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/index.html?arts I am a bit of a CBC podcast junkie -- to my knowledge Radio 3 is the only one who uses chapters. It's too bad. I would particularly like to see them on the regional podcasts. (The Toronto podcast, at least, is made up of 3 segments from different shows, and if I don't like the first one, it's a struggle to find the start of the second!) Meredith --- Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416-598-7770, ext. 6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Why has micro-blogging become so popular
The difference could be the time it takes to compose. A blog is like a book report, term paper or official position on something, whereas a twit(ter) is like an offhand comment. You don't have to think about the second one, but you want to make a strong point (about fly larva, in my case) in the first one. I find this fascinating, because way back when, in the late 90s/early 2000s, I saw my blog as my quick way of getting a thought out into the world. This was compared to writing an article for my site, which I would carefully edit and revise to be as well-written as possible. Now we've gone one step further, to needing a quick version of a blog post. Amazing! As a bit of a side note, it seems to me that the reason blogs became popular was because they were a ready-made content management system. People who didn't know a lot about HTML could get a pretty good looking site up quickly, and without the need to crunch code on a daily basis. If free, easy-to-use, *non-chronological* content management systems had existed at the same time blogs became popular, would people really have latched on to blogs as much as they did? I admit that some information out there is genuinely timely, and loses freshness after a few days -- it makes sense for that content to be in blog format. That said, it seems like a lot of really great content gets missed these days because it's been pushed down to the second page of a blog. If the primary means of access of this content was by topic, perhaps we'd serendipitously find content we're interested in more readily. Am I way out in left field with this? Meredith --- Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416-598-7770, ext. 6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Screen Capture Software of Interest
What appeals to me most about Jing is the quick video snagging. I always want to capture interesting dynamic interactions for later reference (you never know when a site will be redesigned and your great example will be gone)! This is the first tool I've seen that can help me do this quickly, but to be honest I've never looked into it much. Are there other great tools I've missed? How do other people keep track of interesting interaction examples? (I've used Skitch at home but we use Windows in the office, so I'm stuck there...) Meredith --- Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416-598-7770, ext. 6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:discuss- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Faith Peterson Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 9:45 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Screen Capture Software of Interest I've been using Jing for internal sharing. If someone doesn't already have a tool to use I think it's worth a look. It's a lightweight tool but quick, easy to use, and free. Still captures only capture the viewport, not a whole page, however, you can select different regions of a window or screen - for example, full screen, just a toolbar, etc.. There are also some rudimentary annotation tools. Jing records video as well so you can use it to capture, for example, prototype demos or, of course, training - or demonstrate reference examples. It records audio simultaneously. You can email the finished capture or share it via Jing's online sharing service - free for a little storage space, fees for more. Faith -- Faith Peterson [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 05:14:16, pauric [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Thank you Robby! Skitch, video: http://plasq.com/skitch#demo looks perfect for one of my clients.. *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] nested, multi-step progress bars
Pauric, perhaps all our difficulty is about terminology. I am actually talking about a stage indicator, but for some reason the term didn't come to mind when I was first posting. Apologies for the confusion! It is a web app, so there is no concept of subroutine processing, etc. They walk through different pages with forms, and work their way to the end of the process. I want them to understand what step they and on, and how many more steps they have to complete before they accomplish their goal. It's exactly like Amazon, except pretend that in certain circumstances, from the Shipping Payment step, you might need to launch into another 3 step process before you're able to get to the Gift Wrap step. Unfortunately I'm so far down the path that I can't really get away from the stage indicator at this point, and due to other requirements I can't change the indicator into an active navigation item, so I am probably stuck with a variation of what I have right now. I appreciate all your thoughts though -- they've definitely made me think! Meredith -Original Message- From: pauric [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 2:46 PM To: Meredith Noble Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] nested, multi-step progress bars I didnt read your description carefully.. apologies. Point taken on the labels, Amazon is an excellent example I guess this boils down to my belief that progress meters are an illusion. A little trick designers can employ to comfort users in to thinking things aren't stuck. Borne out of the flaws of slow systems - where user's needed feedback. I do see a fundamental difference between a 'progress bar' (extreme example - but fundamentally this is what they are) http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex11/xpprogressbar.htm and a stage indicator http://www.webreference.com/programming/xul/amazon.png I didnt realize before that your process can be stopped and picked up over a number of days. In that case I'd point towards some of the Tax applications (TaxAct, Turbo tax etc). I dont believe they use progress meters - stand to be corrected on that. If this was a straight forward flow I'd buy the requirement. But I still have the question - why would users need a graphic to indicate 'progress' when the user is the dependency in terms of the time they spend in your flows and the subroutines they may (or may not) choose. Again, I may (hell.. probably) have misunderstood things but it sounds like you need a navigation system that indicates the stages. I have in the past used a series of tabbed mini wizards... my aprroach here would be to build the 'progress' in to the navigation. regards- pauric *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] nested, multi-step progress bars
Meredith, I would not use a progress bar to solve this design problem (of the widgets). I would instead state the completion status or rather the not complete status of the widget definition [B]. Basically you can't continue with [A] without having completed [B]. Simple instructions or indicators at start and through the process can serve the purpose. It's very similar to the * required field device. Parth, are you suggesting that I not let them into the A flow if they haven't already done B? I'm not sure I follow. Meredith *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] nested, multi-step progress bars
Thanks for this, Oleh. This would work well if Task B was a complete once and only once sort of thing. What I don't think I managed to get across was that it's fully up to the user each time whether they want to go through Task B again or not. If they've never done Task B before, they are *forced* into Task B to create a widget to work with. However, even if they *have* done Task B before, and have widgets to work with, they may still choose to define a new widget to work with - one that's not already in their list. Unfortunately (I think) your great design only allows for completing Task B once and only once. Am I right? Sorry for leaving that important detail out! Meredith From: Oleh Kovalchuke [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 1:15 PM To: Meredith Noble Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] nested, multi-step progress bars Here is one possible solution for the progress bar. Progress bar in the beginning of the wizard: A step1 A step2 B step1 B step2 B step3 B step4 A step3 Progress bar at the branching point (B path has been completed): Replace star (*) with done check mark. *A step1 A step2 *B step1 *B step2 *B step3 *B step4 A step3 Progress bar at the branching point (B path has not been completed): *A step1 A step2 B step1 B step2 B step3 B step4 A step3 Progress bar past the branching point (working on B path): *A step1 *A step2 *B step1 B step2 B step3 B step4 A step3 This progress bar keeps users informed about future steps at all times as well as educates them about the connection between pathways A and B (builds the conceptual model of the workflow) for the future similar tasks. Oleh On Nov 30, 2007 9:02 AM, Meredith Noble [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, I'm looking for some ideas on how to design progress bars for some nested flows. In the application I'm designing right now, we have two flows for two related tasks, task A and task B. Task A has 3 steps, and Task B has 4 steps. Task B can be done independently, without task A, but MUST be completed before Task A can be completed. The trick is that we allow people to enter the flow for Task A, and then jump out to Task B if they need/wish to. In other words, instead of just doing A1 - A2 - A3, some users instead go through the steps: A1 - B1 - B2 - B3 - B4 - A2 - A3. Has anyone ever designed progress bars for something like this before? We can't predict in advance whether or not a user will want to jump out to Task B from Task A, so we can't simply include those steps in our progress bar off the bat. The other solutions I can envision are: a) Dynamically updating the progress bar to include 7 steps after the user can indicated a desire to go to Task B (maybe visually indicating that some are substeps, so as not to overwhelm the user) b) Simply replacing the Task A progress bar with the Task B progress bar until Task B is finished, then going back to the Task A progress bar afterward Phew, I hope I've been clear here. It's hard to explain without a concrete example! I can see shortcomings in both of these solutions so I'm hoping someone might have a suggestion for something else elegant that I've missed... Thanks all, Meredith --- Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416-598-7770, ext. 6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help -- Oleh Kovalchuke Interaction Design is the Design of Time http://www.tangospring.com/IxDtopicWhatIsInteractionDesign.htm *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] comments to the Doro's ridiculously simplephones in the wild
Lis, even though some of today's boomers will already have cell phone experience by the time they become elderly, I think we overestimate just how many people in the older generation are truly comfortable with the tools. More importantly, don't forget about reduced cognitive abilities over time. If you consider how common diseases like Alzheimer's are becoming (see some stats below), and even lesser forms of dementias / memory loss, I think the market for these kinds of devices is going to continue growing over time. That isn't to say that these particular devices are that great (I don't know much about them), but I think we're going to be seeing more and more of these kinds of tools in the future, and for a long time to come. Stats on Alzheimer's via Wikipedia: - There are an estimated 24 million people with dementia worldwide. By 2040, it is projected that this figure will have increased to 81 million. - More than 5 million Americans are estimated to have Alzheimer's disease. It is projected that 14.3 million Americans will have the disease by mid-century: a 350 percent increase from 2000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer's_disease#Statistics_on_Alzheimer .27s_disease Interested in hearing other opinions on this, Meredith -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:discuss- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of ELISABETH HUBERT Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 11:16 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] comments to the Doro's ridiculously simplephones in the wild Is it just me or is the market for these types of phones starting to disappear. I know that older people are looking to use these types of phones now, but I'm assuming that the number of elderly that don't know how to use other features (address book for example) is decreasing over time. Any idea how long we'll need these types of solutions around?? I'm thinking no more than say 3 - 5 years, but that is a shot in the dark. The need for bigger buttons may always be around. ~Lis http://www.elisabethhuber.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=22900 *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] comments to the Doro's ridiculously simplephones in the wild
Alexander, I just wanted to clarify -- I simply meant mobile tools that cater to the elderly, not specifically cell phones, when I wrote my comment. (I certainly agree with you that a cell phone alone is not the right tool for an advanced Alzheimer's patient.) I'm trying to make the point that there's a full spectrum here, from perfectly capable older adult, to someone with mild cognitive issues, to someone with significant cognitive issues (e.g. Alzheimer's). I think different tools will be useful to different people along the spectrum. And of course there are other spectrums too -- vision, mobility, previous experience with devices, etc. Different devices will continue to develop for different niches. The problem is not going to go away in 3-5 years. For people who are interested in more info, Ron Baecker at the University of Toronto is doing a lot of work on memory aids for seniors at the moment. (I'm sure there are others too, but I worked with Ron so his name comes to mind first.) His publications on the subject can be found at the first green bullet on this page: http://www.kmdi.toronto.edu/rmb/; a good starter article is here (An Empirical Study of Seniors' Perceptions of Mobile Phones as Memory Aids): http://www.kmdi.toronto.edu/rmb/papers/B16.pdf. Meredith --- Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416-598-7770, ext. 6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: Alexander Baxevanis [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 5:01 PM To: Meredith Noble Cc: ELISABETH HUBERT; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] comments to the Doro's ridiculously simplephones in the wild If only all human beings made purely rational decisions... Working in the mobile industry, I have seen a lot of studies focusing on that population segment. Something that comes up in every study is that many people find the idea of dumb-looking phone with large buttons very patronising and wouldn't want to be seen dead with them. They want to have the same phones as their children grandchildren as a matter of pride. Reading the article below it seems to me that Alzheimer patients may have more serious problems than operating a mobile phone, problems that make them need frequent assistance of a carer. Maybe we could come up with a different paradigm for a communication device tailored for such people, but I doubt it's worth trying to twist the mobile phone paradigm to accommodate such needs. *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] [Event F2F Correction] Toronto hosted by UsabilityMatters
Hey all, I'm sorry to throw another wrench in the works here, but Parth, I think we originally discussed Monday the 26th! We hope you'll all still be able to join us! Meredith - Meredith Noble Information Architect, Usability Matters Inc. 416-598-7770, ext. 6 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:discuss- [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Parth Upadhye Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 11:31 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [IxDA Discuss] [Event F2F Correction] Toronto hosted by UsabilityMatters F2F for some serious fun and interaction. Title: Discussion :: Interaction Design :: User Experience :: Information Architecture Date: Tuesday November 27, 2007 (7:00PM) Topic: Interaction Design :: User Experience Location: Boardroom, Usability Matters, 215 Spadina Ave, Suite 550. Agenda: 1. Introductions 2. IA, UX and IxD (10-15 min show and tell by our hosts) 3. Open Forum 4. F2F Evaluation and Next Steps Come prepared to meet other UX Designers. P.S. My previous posting had a wrong date. Sorry for an inconvenience. *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
