Re: [IxDA Discuss] Can anyone point me to research about hiding interface elements?
I am also a supporter of the guideline of graying out any fields or controls that are not available in the current context, but can be made available to the user by shifting the context. Among other reasons stated above, another advantage is that tooltips can be displayed on the inactive fields or controls about how to make them active. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=49270 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] Need for Portal Design Guidelines?
Thanks to all for the additional comments and links. Chris, your suggestion to emphasize practical guidelines make good sense; I am perhaps using the term best practices too loosely in this thread. Tanya, I'm looking forward to reading through the ATG design process paper. John, thanks for the offer to provide further feedback; I may take you up on it. Also, the Lamantia series on a portal framework is excellent. Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47479 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] Need for Portal Design Guidelines?
Thanks for the case studies, Paul. My experience is similar to yours - nothing will trump the importance of user research and other discovery and user-centered activities to shape the needs of the portal solution to the specific organization. Still, do you not find repeating patterns among these solutions? I certainly have. I've found, for example, effective ways to organize documents, rather than having them scattered throughout the portal. And I've discovered effective ways to enable access to portlet-level content. So far I've found design approaches to these and certain other challenges as universal. Documenting these may be of limited benefit to a consultant who is already experienced in portal design, but there are many people tasked with UI design of portal technologies who have far more limited skills and experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47479 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] Work in groups or as individuals in your IxD work
Dave asks, ...how often do you find yourself collaborating on group work in your specific role as an IxD or UX designers? Here's one data point: Over the past 20 years, in the role of IxD or UX design, I'd estimate that somewhere around 50% of the projects I've worked on were collaborative with other IxD/UX designers. As for the group size, it was almost always two people, and on occasion three. This is just a rough estimate, as it's not something I've ever tracked. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=47452 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] Need for Portal Design Guidelines?
A few days ago I posted a question about existing materials out there on portal design (http://www.ixda.org/discuss.php?post=47358#47358). I'm very surprised that there was no response. I'm starting a new thread rather than posting a second item to the same thread to ask a closely related question: Since there has been no response to my appeal, among the possibly thousands of readers on this discussion list, and since portal technology is pervasive these days, is it safe to conclude that a set of practical guidelines for the user-experience design of applications using portal technology represents a big void that needs to be filled? Paul 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] Best Practices in Portal Design
I'm writing a chapter on the design of portals for a human factors handbook (Handbook of Human Factors in Web Design, 2nd Ed.). I'm doing my best to dig up the current state of the art in this, but have come up with little formalized content. There was a brief IxDA discussion thread about this in May of 2008, referring to an excellent series of articles and related IxDA conference presentation on a portal design framework by Joe Lamantia. And there are the reports by the Neilsen Norman Group resulting from each year's Intranet Design Annual competition. Are there any other pearls I need to make sure I pay attention to? Thanks, Paul ~ Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven http://www.tandemseven.comhttp://www.tandemseven.com/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ... disc...@ixda.org Unsubscribe http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .. http://www.ixda.org/help
Re: [IxDA Discuss] Looking for feedback on three options for a website design
Irrespective of the clean design and professional look of version 3, the photos create an emotional connection that strongly trumps the other two. Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=39055 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] Items appearing more than once in a navigation
I can't reference research to support this - and I'm not a guru - but I am a strong proponent of the principal that content should live in only one location, as represented in the breadcrumbs and other primary navigational mechanisms. Convenient links can and should be located wherever this content may be applicable. But by locating the content formally in multiple locations, the site structure becomes more obscured or convoluted, making it harder for the user to make sense of the whole site. Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37675 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] Data to support the ROI of an Intranet re-design
Neil, with respect to testimonials on business impact, the Neilsen Norman reports suggested by Angel's earlier post is a good start. With respect to quantitative ROI of community features, however, I would be surprised if there is any decent numbers out there that you could apply to your own environment. In my experience, these features are normally supported when there is political will, in the same way an organization normally doesn't require a quantitative business case to put telephones on their employees' desks. Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=37307 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] Question: How to show discounted pricing to members without logging in to a site
I had a very similar problem to solve in a recent B-to-B e-commerce project for a different industry (HVAC parts ordering). Input and feedback I got from users led me to conclude that they are happy to log in to see their discounted pricing. They prefer this to not knowing the price until they add the item to the cart. The fringe benefit of logging in is the perception of feeling special - not treated like the general public. Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=35597 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] Where that ACD thing fits
Outstanding post, Jared. I particularly applaud your characterization of personas, their role in guiding UCD (and distinguishing it from ACD), and the need to focus on qualities that actually impact design. That for me is the key to crafting a set of personas - to create as FEW personas as is necessary to encompass all of the substantive design-relevant qualities of the target population. Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=35466 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] Good examples of Help Tooltips
How about a non-standard, multiline tooltip? Same simple presentation as the standard tooltip, showing on mouseover with a reasonable delay. See, for example, the way news story abstracts display upon rollover of the headline in the CNN news gadget: http://www.gmodules.com/ig/creator?synd=openurl=http://quotesandlines.googlepages.com/cnn-news-customized-rss-feeds.xmlpt=context=bsynd=openlang=en.lang=encountry=us.country=uscat=newsnum=24start=0cols=4objs=OVJ,WXnd,Hg,2sQ,UDF,Snj,Rm,Z9t,Ro1h,0KL,1N8,mQx,UF1q,we,3sR,bTw,p,B2eyK,kHK,Wb,Rk,QEC,2sWY,3Yt0sn=UDFlang=en If some users find this too cumbersome, you could include a global toggle to show or hide them. Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=35373 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] New thread notifications for IxDA Discuss
Jeff, Thanks are due to you and all those who made this subscription option possible. My email client was flooded with IxDA chatter. This is the perfect solution. Paul Eisen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=34854 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] consistency or usability
Jeff Noyes said: I'm so tired of this argument, and I'm hoping this group can help provide facts. I recognize that some things in the UI should remain consistent - like an interaction model. But often a deviation is required - ironically for the sake of usability... The struggle you are expressing is a common one. Personally, I think it stems from a misunderstanding of the word consistency. If you interpret consistent as things needing to be the same, then you very quickly fall into the trap you describe. However, more accurately, consistency is *as much* about distinguishing things that have good reason to be distinct as it is about making things the same when they have no good reason to be distinct. As Jeff Howard points out, your ability to express your rationale about things you have made the same, and those you have made different, will help communicate the consistency of your design to your project stakeholders. Paul Eisen 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] consistency or usability
Nick wrote: There are times when the user may not expect or predict, but things have to make sense in context. If making sense in context means presenting in an inconsistent way with other contexts, then why wouldn't you? You would. And the distinct context would justify your change. So in fact it IS consistent, just not the same. Paul 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 represent overlapping objects
Iram asked: I am designing a map feature where there may be several objects that can overlap. Anyone have any suggestions on how best to indicate overlapping items? Some of the options are using the indicators similar to the ones used in Google Maps, or pins. One option: How about adding a visual indicator among the cluster, which, on mouseover, presents a small pop-up panel with just the clustered area zoomed in for better visual discernment and selection? So that the indicators don't add too much noise, they can be dim and then grow brighter when the pointer gets close. Paul Eisen 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] Site Map - How important is it as a link?
There's a general perception that users *want* global navigation, but if you spend any time watching folks on sites, you quickly realize they are *only* interested in local navigation -- how do I get from *here* to *where I want to be*? So, any effort to add global nav to a page is a senseless waste of pixels. Jared, typically when I read your postings, I find myself nodding my head a lot in agreement. Not so this time. Am I misunderstanding what you mean by global nav? Research conducted at a now-defunct company I worked for in the dot com days (Immersant) showed many users commenting positively on seeing the full extent of the navigation - both global and local. Users appreciated gaining a sense of the scope from the global navigation, and, if it's comprehensive, engenders trust. I wonder if that's changed in the past 8 years. But even if it has, IMO the existence of the global nav still plays a critical role in enabling the user to navigate from here to where I want to be reliably and with confidence. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 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 Understanding Business Models is Important to Ix Designers
Closely related to this thread (and terminology), there is a posting by Jess McMullin on Boxes and Arrows reinforcing the necessity of balancing the value exchange between the business sponsor of an application and its end users: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/searching_for_the_center_of_design. I found it by a web search on the term value centered design. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 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] Next previous button order
Interesting question, Tamlyn. As strong a proponent as I am for left-justification of page-level push buttons with the primary action being leftmost in a dialog box acting as a secondary window, I agree with the majority of responses you've gotten here for wizards: for left-to-right languages - where the population stereotype of going forward is to the right - Back should be left of Next. Also different from the standard dialog, I would also consider further reinforcing the wizard model of a sequence or chain of panels by placing the Back button on the left side and the Next button on the right side of the panel, as opposed to adjacent to one another. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tamlyn Rhodes Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 10:40 AM To: IxDA Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Next previous button order As discussed by LukeW in Web Form Design, it's best to have the primary action of a form be the first button that the user sees. For left-to-right languages this means having the primary action on the left and any secondary actions on the right (see A in this illustration http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia/2366430953/ ). In a multi-page 'wizard' style form, the primary action is usually 'next' or 'continue' and the secondary action is 'back' or 'previous' but at the same time the conceptual model for such forms is that the screens are arranged progressively from left to right (the ipod/iphone interfaces even animate the transition). In such situations is it better to have the secondary action, 'back', to the left or the right of the primary action, 'next'? Or is there a better solution? Cheers, Tamlyn. 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] Looking for finding around URLs
Brian asked: Can someone point me to research finding around whether users pay attention to a URL changes? Can you describe the users? If they are not particularly web savvy, it may be worth pursuing your gut feeling on this. I don't know specifically of any research looking at user's awareness of URL's or use of URL's for orientation, but I can suggest you dig into the available research in two areas: 1) Eye-tracking data for web sites. Eye-tracking heat maps of web pages may demonstrate how much interest most users have in the URL. 2) Research on web-site identity and user orientation. This research should point to cues including the logo, page title, the breadcrumbs, the major sections including the one showing with selected state, the background and general visual treatment, and the URL. Older research in this area summarized by HFI: http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/aug99.asp. HFI probably has some newer and relevant stuff also summarized in their Technical Material. Good luck! Let us know what you find. ~ Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 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] Physical controls attached to an LCD screen
http://girtonlabs.googlepages.com/sensesurface Thanks for pointing this out, Fred. Interesting technology. This type of input device certainly opens up some new possibilities. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 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] Should persuasion be left to marketers?
Relevant to this topic, Andrew Chak - an interactive architect - wrote a book in 2003 on web site design, with the fundamental premise that the experience designer's role is to not simply react to what user's think they want in a usable manner, but also to choreograph persuasive online experiences that compel users to modify their goals to increase the value derived by both the user and the business. (I hope I did his thesis justice in my summary; I haven't been close to this book in a while.) http://www.amazon.com/Submit-Now-Designing-Persuasive-VOICES/dp/0735711704/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8s=booksqid=1215398882sr=8-1 Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 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] Error Messages (Was: Hiding and Disabling Menu Items)
There's another way to approach this, that I think at least conceptually can help the designer make the right choices. We should all eradicate the word error from our design vocabularies. I propose that the user NEVER makes errors. The user may do unexpected things, or provide unexpected input, or act in ways that the system is not sophisticated enough to deal with. Or that the sponsor of the system chooses not to deal with. But no error has occurred. Even a slip, where the user acts in a way contrary to their own intention, can be anticipated. I personally think we should always avoid the word error in our artifacts. Most certainly in the UI. But even in our internal documentation and discussions. Calling these incidents unexpected events instead of errors leads to a totally different mind-set about how to deal with them. To begin: Let's start examining our expectations. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven -Original Message- From: Dan Saffer snip The system should never present an error message to a user unless the user has done everything right but the system itself cannot respond correctly. Users should otherwise never be allowed to make errors. snip 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] Hiding and Disabling Menu Items
That list sounds right, Rich, and consistent with the GUI-design guidelines of yesteryear (ahhh...the days when applications were just applications and didn't need a Web 2.0 moniker to make them sound rich and interactive). A more generalized rule can be stated: Disable (gray out) options that are sometimes available to a particular user, but not in the current context. Hide options that are never available to a particular user. The latter point is important when considering features to which not all user roles have access. Leaving those showing but disabled can be frustrating. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven -Original Message- From: Rich Rogan I think we're all saying the same thing, (making my ordered list more organized): Optimal solution: 1. Disable button when functionality is not available, (with messaging). Sub-Optimal solutions: 1. Hide buttons 2. Leave buttons visually enabled but thru user intervention the user discovers buttons are actually disabled. (There is consensus on the above Optimal solution, right?) 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] Hiding and Disabling Menu Items
Dan Saffer said: I'd rather set the users' expectations correctly than to have them click on a menu item and have a pop up appear telling them why they can't do that. A really long tooltip: If you want to Paste an object, first you need to unlock this layer. is definitely better, but could have tons of conditionals. Right on, Dan. Making a menu item active to show a message why it is not actually available should be reserved for VERY unusual circumstances. In addition to the point you make, disabling menu choices in context provides a quick way to see what can and cannot be done at any moment: i.e., an effective tool for learning. And disabled choices also provide feedback to the more advanced user about what the current context is (e.g., it's sometimes hard to discern if 0, 1, or multiple items are selected, and the available choices can give good feedback about this). In addition to your suggestion about the wordy tooltip, one often overlooked area of online help in traditional software is information not only about what a field or UI element DOES, but also how to find it and how to enable it. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 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 also like the concept. But following on the theme of trust raised by Meredith, how can I trust the accuracy of the information provided by people, some of whom may be solely motivated to put in information just to get access. Or worse, who are motivated to create an inflated view of the monetary value of their job? Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 416.840.4447 office/mobile [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tandemseven.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] Thoughts on Tourfilter
Will Evans asked: A very good friend of mine designed Tourfilter - we worked together at Gather.com, and I wanted to know people's thoughts on the stripped down design - definitely taking a page from my kayak design: http://www.tourfilter.com/ I like the concept. However the city selector violates a basic and longstanding guideline of interaction design: Drop-down lists - and list boxes in general - should not initiate actions. There should be a push button beside the drop-down to initiate the view-calendar action for the selected city. Even in this simple, 2-input-field interface, I am frustrated because keyboard navigation won't allow me to browse the options before choosing one and navigating to the next page. Simple, yet so often violated on the web. Paul ~ Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 416.840.4447 office/mobile [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tandemseven.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] Combining input and search field
Abdul-Rahman Advany asked: 1. User is asked to input a suggestion 2. During input relevant suggestions are searched and given to the user 3. User can either choose to vote or to suggest However its currently not clear that the field also functions as a search field... can you simplify this somehow? My thoughts on this: It's not necessary to call out search as an action. Why? Because the user is not explicitly searching; they are just suggesting. The search is a background system function, invoked as a way to help interpret the input. A suggestion: If a close match to the user input is found, the system response can be something to the effect of, Thanks for your suggestion. You told us 'ABC'. Others have said 'abc'. Select one of the following to submit your input: [Radio button] 'abc' is essentially the same as my suggestion [Radio button] I'm suggesting ABC as a new alternative [Push buttons] Submit; Back or Cancel (depending on the interaction model) Pardon the coarse wording; could definitely use some cleanup. Other thoughts? Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 416.840.4447 office/mobile [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tandemseven.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] Desktop application menus
I am looking for pointers on how to design desktop menus for a typical Windows desktop application. Pankaj, Love it or hate it, Microsoft has defined guidelines for menus that have formed de facto patterns by their pervasiveness. Check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511502.aspx for details. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 416.840.4447 office/mobile [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tandemseven.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] Coming Soon Pages
One of the designs-to-avoid postcards in the IxDA handouts from Cooper Interaction Design is a very simple and compelling picture of an open door leading to a brick wall. A page consisting solely of the text Coming soon is a brick wall. A more acceptable alternative is to put the coming soon text beside the label that will eventually be a live link leading to a page with real content. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 416.840.4447 office/mobile [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tandemseven.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] Yo gender-neutral singular pronoun has arrived atlast!
They has been used as an informal replacement for he or she or one, as in Each student should hand in their assignment when they finish it. It's not grammatically correct, but it is universally understood. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tandemseven.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] home links
Jeff said, I don't think the numbers tell everything about the usefulness of this or any other function (I've only needed a seatbelt once, but I was glad to have it), so Bryan's data doesn't surprise me. Some familiar controls may be worth keeping for the sake of user comfort and convenience, more than pure function. I *love* the seatbelt analogy, Jeff. So often we as interaction designers get caught up in designing to reflect or incent usage patterns, and forget the importance of communicating brand image - such as trust and confidence - through design elements. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven *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] home links
Bryan, These results are quite interesting; thanks for sharing. You mentioned, We found the Home link was the least clicked link in the banner, with something like less than 1-2% of clicks for the entire banner (the primary nav consisted of about 9-10 visible links, with several popup menus of 5-10 items each). I'm curious about the relative use of the Home link in the banner compared with the logo itself. Do you have any data to share about this comparison? Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 416.840.4447 office/mobile [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tandemseven.com *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] Differnce between user interface and interactiodesign?
Wipe out the entire design colony and start afresh and just name anyone who does work in any of these areas as a Designer. Amen brother. That makes two of us. That unfortunately still doesn't solve the problem that often people - including arguably at least two postings to this very thread - refer to people who *develop* interfaces as designers. But that opens up a whole new can of worms that I doubt I have the appetite for. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven 416.840.4447 office/mobile [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.tandemseven.com *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] Really interesting article on IxD on Core77
Dann said: Here's a favorite quote: ...every product in the world gets designed by someone, whether or not they know what they're doing. In my early days of UCD-design evangelism, I used to refer to a frequent alternative to UI design, or to user-centred design, which I sometimes called design by accident. After all, it hasn't always been the case that someone does or does not know *what* they're doing. Many products unfortunately still infest this world where someone -- usually an unwitting coder or software architect -- didn't even know *that* they were doing (design). Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven http://www.tandemseven.com *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] Use of colors/shapes in tools for education
Oliver asked, Can someone point me to research done to determine how many and what types of colors and shapes students can successfully remember or distinguish or use immediately when using tools for education? Oliver, my answer addresses the part of your question asking about color. Forgive me if this is too academic for what you're looking for; I don't know what background you have in color science and how specific an answer you are expecting. There has been quite a bit of sound research done in creating distinct color sets for various applications, particularly military and aviation. The science behind this starts with a perceptual color space - one whose scale calibrates to perceived differences in color rather than physically measured differences. Based on the number of distinct colors desired, there are recommended sets of maximally distinguishable colors. In applying an approach like this, you would distinguish between the light source - reflective colors vs. emissive light - as these are modeled with different color spaces (CIELAB for reflective; CIELUV for emissive light). I assume that your education application runs on a computer monitor, which would be the latter. But it should not at all matter, in theory, whether the application is for education vs. say, gaming, currency trading, etc. Unfortunately it has been too many years since my hands have touched this color science literature, so I can't quickly point to a source that offers suggestions for, say, a set of 5 reflective colors that are maximally distinct. But these do exist, and I suspect with a bit of digging on the web, you should be able to unearth what you need. For a quick and dirty solution, have a look at http://dba.med.sc.edu/price/irf/Adobe_tg/models/cieluv.html and pick some colors that are roughly equally spaced around this diagram. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven http://www.tandemseven.com *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
