By the way... Many times I come across services I would like to use or
stores I would like to buy from and the only way to tell if it works outside
U.S. or not is to go through the registration process and get to that Enter
your address page..I try searching the geographical scope in the 'About'
I rely on an strict alphabetical list because I use the keyboard.
I live in Switzerland (which is one of the last countries starting with 'S').
What I do:
1. Press 'T' - This will show Tanzania or Taiwan.
2. Press a few times 'Arrow Up' until I find Switzerland.
I guess if the most
There's little doubt that self-promotion is high on Nielsen's list of talents,
Ben, but I also think he has a pretty good grasp on the essence of usability.
If you read far enough in the Alertbox missive he sent out today, you'll see
he's giving away a 150-page study that includes 75
Like Sergiu I have had to resort to going through the
registration/purchasing process to find out whether a site is US
only.
Sometimes I also have to search high and low to work out what
currency prices are in.
I suspect people forget that the Web is rather borderless.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Some members have suggested using the IP address as a default pre-fill
for the country field.
The benefit of this approach is that for the majority of users, they
pre-fill selection will be right, saving them from modifying one of
the form's fields.
However, it may not be correct where a
Jeff (Axup), thanks for continuing the discussion and opening up many new
sub-threads -- I would like to address every one of those, but clearly
can't. But let me continue the conversation anyway. Bear with me through
the following points which seem unrelated to the issue initially.
1. The idea
Hi Jeff,
You elude to an important point for clarification. That one is an expert in
usability, does not mean they are an expert in interaction design - or an
interaction designer. Usability is a large area - only a portion of which is
focused upon interfacing with software/web. Likewise, I
On Dec 18, 2007, at 8:16 AM, Murli Nagasundaram wrote:
I hope I am making sense.
Hi Murli,
You are making sense.
However, you're not correct. In particular, this statement:
Usability is about ensuring that your design is NOT BAD -- i.e.,
does not
in any way impede, restrict, prevent,
Jared,
Are you suggesting that the domain of usability is growing? Nearly everything I
have read and most of what I have heard about usability is in fact 'working to
make the interface transparent' - which implies staying out of the way, or
making the interface 'not bad'. It does not seam the
All,
While many of you have followed a very straight career path into
interaction design, I'm probably not alone here in having come into this
field along a more winding path. Even now I'm in a position where I get
to wear several specialized hats and would like to add some depth to my
I cannot understand why a state dropdown would display state abbreviations
versus the actual name of the state. One would assume that the average user
knows the abbreviation of their own state, but I used to assume that
everyone knew that they could TAB through a form.
As for the maximum number
Murli,
I think that's a really useful distinction -- good design versus not-
bad design.
Perhaps unusually for a designer, I long ago put myself in the not-
bad design camp. To flourish as a designer and business person, I had
to let go of the conceit that every job has to be award-winning
One of the most frequent usability requests we got at my last company was to
make IE browser dropdowns behave more like MS Office dropdown lists, wherein
you click a dropdown box and can type the first several letters of an option
to jump directly to it (e.g. typing nor to get to North Carolina
I'm disappointed by the tone of his article. Jakob Nielsen is known for a
dramatic flair and absolute statements and he has shown it once again in his
text. I think he could have softened the blow by taking a more objective
tone. None of what he says is untrue, but there are several path breaking
On Dec 18, 2007 4:52 PM, Chris Williams [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
...
I don't know what this affects as far as the real question goes, but I
do know it would apparently make dropdowns a little easier for some. At
least in Claude's case, he could take a number of keystrokes down to
two, 'Sw'
It's not business networking, it's probably social networking, but
that's too dry and clinical of a term. It's people connecting as
people, not as workers or professionals or business contacts, but as
people.
Someone should create a Twitter visualization app, where you can visualize
the
Kim, to reinforce your point, I was sent a link to a simple flash-based game
that I passed on to friends and family. It's a very simple, very
crudely-designed game, but has turned out to be so addictive that it has led
some to joke that it's threatening to tear apart families and destroy
Correct me if I am wrong here, Joseph, but from your perspective the term
Usability should be used only with regard to Testing and Evaluation. Am I
right? (I'm not challenging your perspective, only trying to determine if
there is a consensual or at least majority view here.)
On 12/19/07,
The other way I use Twitter is when I'm out - I send SMS messages to
Twitter with what I'm up to that night if I'm meeting up with friends
later on, or if I'm looking for company to come along for the ride.
Twitter is super-easy to deal with through desktop and mobile apps. I use
Hahlo
Brian Hoffman kirjoitti 18.12.2007 kello 18:35:
Given that, what resources can any of you
recommend for the following fields? These could be books, websites,
conferences, user/professional organizations (such as IxDA), or other
things.
* Other related areas
Cooper's Communicating
All good suggestions.
I would also add that recruitment is different for devices than it is for
websites. For instance, some people simply refuse to setup any electronic
device they buy- they have someone else do it. The same people may
eventually use that device often but you may or may not want
Correct me if I am wrong here, Joseph, but from your perspective the term
Usability should be used only with regard to Testing and Evaluation. Am I
right? (I'm not challenging your perspective, only trying to determine if
there is a consensual or at least majority view here.)
That is a good
I didn't want to send a me too post but my sentiments towards Twitter
have been better explained by Bill.
Bill DeRouchey wrote:
But my main point is, I use Twitter to follow people that I like as
people.
The web has allowed me to maintain friendships from afar that I probably
wouldn't have
On Dec 18, 2007, at 8:35 AM, Brian Hoffman wrote:
While many of you have followed a very straight career path into
interaction design, I'm probably not alone here in having come into
this
field along a more winding path.
Design is like California. No one is born there. -Dick Buchanan
I
My company develops both software and hardware products. So I spent quite a
chunk of my time doing usability testing on hardware designs. Alexander
already gave a good list. I will just add some quick points to it.
If it is a handheld, industrial design is very important. A list of items
you may
It appears to me that you are equating transparent with conforms
to a set of known standards and to me that makes no sense.
I see no inconsistency at all in doing something better than the norm
and building a transparent interaction.
I understand that you aren't disagreeing with the idea of
Actually, I was equating many usability practitioners sense of
transparency with equates to a set of known standards. Particularly, many
who have just begun learning their craft and follow Jakob Nielsen with a
vengeance.
I fell in that camp only 7 years ago and have since evolved a better
On 12/18/07, pauric [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I think many of us took the long winding path actually. I was
wondering if we could hear some stories about those pivotal moments in
our careers where we changed from being 'X' in to Interaction
Designers
Fun thread.. I remember that moment
I was wondering if we could hear some stories about those pivotal moments
in
our careers where we changed from being 'X' in to Interaction
Designers
Great thread!
For me, it happened twice. The first time, I was a fledgling web code monkey
tasked with a redesign for an employer's site.
HOW TO APPLY
Please send your resume to tony.hyun (at) corp (dot) aol (dot) com.
Also, if you could, please include a cover letter telling me how
perfect you'd be for the position along with links to see some of your
work, that'd be great.
Interesting topic =]
I made the decision about a year ago, actually.
I've always been a cartoonist and since 12 always wanted to do computer
animation (back when sprites were big, whoop!). Then I took 3 semesters of
engineering calculus in college and swore off computers as a career choice
Mark,
I don't agree with the conclusion that usability is always about
'staying out of the way' or making the interface 'not bad'. I think
it's about ensuring that the
design and features are helping the users (and the business) move
toward their goals, rather than hindering them. This is as
I come from a graphic design background and am trying to pickup more and
more programming bits of knowledge. I don't yet hold any title with
Interaction in it. I'm still a very broadly titled Web Designer at my
work, but I love it. By process of elimination (being the sole web
designer) and
Thanks, Mark. I agree. I also believe that usability may be the core
component of all design (I don't care if my house/car/computer/website is sleek
and pretty if it doesn't function). And though I occasionally praise Nielsen's
usability evangelism, this is one of those fields in which I
biology major switch to environmental science major switch to
psychology major graduate with b.a. in psych behavioral tech in
supervised group living program for mentally ill adults switch to
therapeutic recreation tech for mentally ill adults client vomits
on my head quit job reenter
What we have here is a failure to communicate.
Comparing 'usability' to 'design' is like comparing 'cooking' to a
'watermelon'. It's a non-sensical notion, in my mind.
Usability is a quality of a design, like performance or elegance. It
can only be thought of relative to other designs. One
Hi everyone, I'm brand new to the list. What a great question for
introducing myself!
I was in art school in the late 90's, but frustrated with the lack of
web training. I sent my resume out, mostly in jest, and got leads
from Microsoft and RealNetworks. I picked RealNetworks, known far and
I don't agree with the conclusion that usability is always about
'staying out of the way' or making the interface 'not bad'. I think
it's about ensuring that the
design and features are helping the users (and the business) move
toward their goals, rather than hindering them. This is as likely to
Surely you're not leaving out Designing the Obvious, by Robert Hoekman
Jr.!
One of my favorites, Robert.
Thanks for the plug, Jeff. Cheers!
(And on a note of shameless self-promotion, the next book will be out in
March. http://rhjr.net/shorty/amazon/DTM/)
-r-
It was during my junior year of college, in the graphic design
program at WVU, that my professor took a group of us to a
multimedia design conference held at Marshall University. Jim
Ludtke presented the work he had done with The Residents on their
Freak Show CD-ROM. There was a lot of
My interest in becoming an information and interaction designer
started very early.
My first icon set that I created (probably like most of my early
drawings - when I was supposed to be doing something else) was when I
was in the first grade in 1967:
On Dec 18, 2007, at 12:46 PM, Jeff Seager wrote:
Surely you're not leaving out Designing the Obvious, by Robert
Hoekman Jr.!
It's still on my To Read pile! (Sorry Robert, I know I'm behind!)
I didn't want to recommend anything I hadn't personally read.
Dan
Oh, this is a good one!
I actually intended to go to school in graphic design and ended up
with a social anthropology degree instead. Near the end of college I
had already regretted that earlier decision and quickly enrolled in
art school after getting my degree for web/multimedia design.
Katie said:
Transparency is more nearly synonymous with highly learnable than it is with
standard. For example, the interface of a book is so transparent we seldom
think of it as having one, but the process of learning to use it is quite
extensive.
*Brilliantly* illustrated in this hilarious
Jeff said:
In terms of usability and design both, the challenge I see again and again
is that most people create for themselves and their peers, with very little
consideration given to those invisible unknown people out there somewhere
who perceive and function differently. I've observed the
clarification.
At work (software company), we're wondering about the typical ratio of
developers to usability staff. I may as well go whole hog and do a proper
survey.
Is this an appropriate list of roles?
- Interface/interaction designers.
- Usability testers.
- Software developers.
It was basically from 2 parallel paths: one from my interest in art
and another from my interest in computing. Those paths met some day
after thinking that art in itself was not what I really wanted and
after investigating about Human-Computer Interfaces...
I searched and come up with Tog's we
I prefer the map divided with regions... drop-down menus are ugly. or
divide the website by languages if it's not necessary to have it
divided by countries.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://gamma.ixda.org/discuss?post=23593
For reviewing content it's preferable to have reviews than ratings...
if the point is to improve it. And after using an account on
wikipedia, it's preferable being able to change directly the
content.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new
My first inkling was eleven or twelve years ago when I created a Visual
Basic UI to the phone queues of a technical support call center. It was a
huge project - we thought it would be a simple integration exercise and it
turned into more of an invention (a year late, untested phone switch
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