Eyetracking Studies — 7 Traps to Avoid. The more I know, the less I need: Thoughts on web design. How usable is your website? Realtime user studies and analytics tools for your website - Mouseflow. Usability Testing Tool Review: Usabilla. We’re seeing a boom period in the development of new tools for usability testing, which is a great trend that foretells better web experiences in the coming years. Today I’m going to look at Usabilla, which my friend Keri Morgret and I used on her site Strike Models, which sells products for building remote controlled battleships. Service description: Usabilla shows screenshots of your choosing to testers and asks them questions which they answer by clicking and/or annotating over the image.
You choose what questions to ask from a preset list and/or provide your own. You can provide the screenshots or just input the URL and Usabilla will take the screenshots for you. Usabilla hosts the test (it appears in an overlay). What the service isn’t: Usabilla does not recruit users for you from a panel that they manage. Instead, they give you a link to send testers to, or offer some JavaScript code to place on your site, which will invite users to take the test. Some examples: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Usabilla - Transparent Usability: Lean and mean testing. iA » Designing for iPad: Reality Check. By Oliver Reichenstein Over the last two months we have been working on several iPad projects: two news applications, a social network, and a word processor.
We worked on iPad projects without ever having touched an iPad. One client asked us to “start working on that tablet thing” even before we knew whether the iPad was real. The question Are we designing desktop programs, web sites, or something entirely new? Has been torturing us until that express package from New York finally arrived. Even though we developed everything inside the black box of Photoshop, it became quite clear that iPad application design is substantially different from web design in many ways. 1. The obvious issue with the resolution gap is typography. Is the font big enough? …we had no choice but to print out 1:1 scale mockups. Reality check: Wow, this thing is sharp! After two months of printing, we did get the typography pretty much right, but there was another surprise waiting for us: The sharpness. 2. 3.
Internet Marketing Software - Performable. Where Is The Fold. The Value of Good Design. Drawar has published a couple of interesting posts about the importance of design and aesthetics for online businesses last week. The main premise is this: businesses succeed and fail on the web regardless of how well designed their sites are. An ugly website will succeed if their product or service is good, so why bother making something beautiful? Now, Paul Scrivens' position on this is that you should care, and that pushing out something that’s just good enough isn’t what web designers should strive for.
I agree. I also think that good design, and good aesthetics for that matter, oftentimes make business sense. It’s not difficult to find examples of businesses with beautiful websites but no traffic. Businesses with stunning websites that fail because the product or service they’re providing just isn’t good enough. Of course on the other end we have pig ugly websites that are wildly successful. The easiest example is of course Apple. Take the case of Facebook. Good design speaks. Andrew Parker - The Gong Show: Metric-Driven Design. Ethnio :: Recruiting for User Research :: Index. Realism in UI Design. The history of the visual design of user interfaces can be described as a gradual change towards more realism. As computers have become faster, designers have added increasingly realistic details such as color, 3D effects, shadows, translucency, and even simple physics. Some of these changes have helped usability. Shadows behind windows help us see which window is active.
The physicality of the iPhone’s user interface makes the device more natural to use. In other areas, the improvements are questionable at best. Graphical user interfaces are typically full of symbols. Most graphical elements you see on your screen are meant to stand for ideas or concepts. Details and realism can distract from these concepts. The image on the left is a face of a specific person. At the same time, it’s obvious that some details are required. The circle on the left clearly shows a face. Let’s look at a symbol we actually see in user interfaces, the home button. The thing on the left is a house. UserVoice - Customer Feedback 2.0 - Harness the ideas of your customers. Build great products. Turn customers into champions. Ambient User Experience. How do you perceive Walmart’s ambience? Next time you go into a department store, look for a couple of things: signposts (detailing where items are located throughout the store), cashiers (ready to assist you should you have any questions), and muzak (that oh-so-good, yet oh-so-bad “elevator music”).
Do you think you would find them? I imagine so. They’re usually not hard to spot. The point of this exercise isn’t the visibility/audibility of these things, but their utility in a different sense. These are the elements of the retail experience that don’t serve a “vital” function. Our societal notion of a good retail store is defined in large part by what has worked (and what hasn’t) over the course of iterative experience design. These are the sorts of elements which make up ambient user experience, the experiences that subtly align with user expectations.
How we experience Even “novel” ways of interacting with the world are themselves tempered by previous experiences. Mockingbird | Wireframes on the fly. 10 Beautiful Sketches for Website Prototypes – woorkup.com. Marriott Courtyard: Lobby Prototyping. By Jared Spool December 30th, 2009 Mark Hurst interviewed Brian King, VP & Global Brand Manager for Courtyard by Marriott about the new design of their hotels. It’s a great read, talking about how you revitalize a cash-cow business by creating a great experience. One of Brian’s comments jumped out at me: We took our knowledge and created, in a warehouse in San Francisco, an entire lobby made out of white foam core. It’s one thing to talk about the abstract notion of protoyping a web page or a dialog box. Not too different than what Apple did with the Apple Store. Read the entire interview. (Hat tip: Dana Chisnell) Essential Books for User Interface Designers. If you are looking to stock your library, you can’t go wrong with this list of books.
These are the books that are literally on my desk, listed in order from top of the stack to the bottom. The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide to the World’s Most Consequential Trivia By David Mccandless If you are a fan of Edward Tufte, you need this book. . Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide By Todd Warfel. These concepts completely changed the way we do business. Smashing Book The book is available exclusively from Smashing Magazine. Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions By Bill Scott and Theresa Neil. Yeah, I know this is our book, but it really is on my desk. Designing for the Social Web By Joshua Porter. Great, great read. Designing Social Interfaces: Principles, Patterns, and Practices for Improving the User Experience By Christian Crumlish, Erin Malone. Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks By Luke Wroblewski.
By Matthew Linderman and Jason Fried By Alan Cooper. Four Key Principles of Mobile User Experience Design. Prior to becoming a senior UX designer at Popular Front Interactive, I spent two years as a mobile UX researcher within the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Mobile Technologies Group – a lab tasked with both future-casting and then rapidly prototyping innovative mobile experiences. As I transitioned from academia to industry, I discovered that while mobile UX was discussed, it wasn’t discussed from the same broad frame of reference that I was used to within the confines of a research-based institution. Although more recent mobile UX conversations I have found myself in have undoubtedly benefited from the ongoing smart phone revolution, overall I still find these conversations to be needlessly driven by tactical adoration and lacking a conscious consensus regarding the fundamental principles of the mobile-user experience.
PRINCIPLE #1: There is an intimate relationship between a user and their mobile device. PRINCIPLE #2: Screen size implies a user’s state. Voice Messaging The Internet. 24 Usability Testing Tools. The myth of the page fold: evidence from user testing | cxpartners. As web professionals, we all know that the concept of the page fold being an impenetrable barrier for users is a myth. Over the last 6 years we’ve watched over 800 user testing sessions between us and on only 3 occasions have we seen the page fold as a barrier to users getting to the content they want.
In this article we’re going to break down the page fold myth and give some tips to ensure content below the fold gets seen. What is the fold? Above the fold is a graphic design term that refers to important content being on the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. Why we don’t worry about the fold People tell us that they don’t mind scrolling and the behaviour we see in user testing backs that up. BBC, Play, Amazon.co.uk and the New York Times websites showing the position of the page fold Adding evidence from user testing When we user test here at cxpartners we use an eye tracker. Scrollbars are used to assess page length and to indicate content below the fold Just some clarification. Microsoft Experimentation Platform. Johnny Holland - It’s all about interaction. User Interface Engineering - Usability Research, Training, and Events - UIE. UXmatters :: Insights and inspiration for the user experience community.
UX Exchange - Q&A site for user experience professionals. UI Trends. 10 UX Blogs You Should Be Reading. This page you were trying to reach at this address doesn't seem to exist. This is usually the result of a bad or outdated link. We apologize for any inconvenience. What can I do now? If this is your first time visiting UX Booth, welcome! Sorry for the circumstances under which we’re meeting. Here’s where you can go from here: Browse our articles or ourUX resources using the categories below. Browse by Category. Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design. Usability Post. Usability & User Experience Testing Tool | Online & Unmoderated | Loop11. ABtests.com - Learn. Share. Improve your conversions today. Clickdensity - Evaluate & Improve your Website: Heat Maps & More.
Flickr App Spectacular [Images]: Groups about apps to join on Flickr | Flickr is an interesting place. When we are all used to hanging out on our profile page or checking out our contacts’ photos, the sheer amounts of images available on Flickr means that it is probably guaranteed that you may never discover some photos or screens are truly amazing. When it comes to Apps, we may just be able to help a little. Here are some interesting groups, related to apps, software, creation and innovation in software design. If we have missed any, please let us know in the comments. Time to hit that ‘Join This Group’ button. User Interface Review User interface – Review, and be reviewed. Improving interface through peer review. UI DesignPost your screenshots of user interfaces you think stand out. Interaction DesignersAn essential User Experience discipline, because without interactions, there can be no experiences, Interaction Designers define how products and services behave in response to human action.
Mac Desktop ScreenshotFull size screenshot of your Mac OS only.Â. Mocklinkr. Quince / Home. ProtoShare: Website & Web Application Wireframe and Prototyping Tool. Balsamiq Studios, makers of plugins for Web Office applications. MockFlow - Online Wireframe Tool for Software and Websites.
Johnny Holland - It’s all about interaction » Blog Archive » User Stories: a strategic design tool. Collaborative design methods play a key role in aligning team members towards a shared and strategic project vision. In this article we describe how user stories stimulate and facilitate discussion and decision making with clients in the development of a User Experience Strategy. In our context (the development of online projects) the User Experience Strategy becomes an ‘in principle agreement’ on the shape of the project (what), its purpose (why), and provides potential implementation strategies (how).
It takes into account all perspectives (e.g business, technical, marketing, brand) but privileges the intended user experience. A collaborative approach enables clients to actively participate in the process, increasing the likelihood of achieving a collective vision for the project. This article focuses on the first step in the journey towards collaboratively developing a User Experience Strategy and is concerned specifically with how user stories are generated, themed and prioritized. FlairBuilder - Wireframes. Mockups. Prototypes.
Userfly — Web usability testing made easy. Remote User Experience Testing Solution for Web Sites and Software | UserVue by TechSmith. From focus groups to usability studies, Morae helps you gain insight into your user's experiences by providing you with powerful data. Record and remotely observe user interactions, efficiently analyze results, and instantly share your findings with anyone, anywhere. Customize Morae to Work for You Write your own Recorder, Observer, and Manager plug-ins with Morae’s pluggable architecture, which enables you and your development team to build features specific to your testing environment.
Get Great Insights with Morae Morae is the gold standard in usability and market research. Morae gives you the ability to set up, record, observe, and analyze usability studies, focus groups, field research, and product testing. You and others can watch the study or interaction remotely, take notes, and then analyze results to instantly share your insights with others. Software & Web User Experience Testing Morae provides you with hard data and undeniable examples of usability problems.
Silverback — guerrilla usability testing. LukeW Interface Designs | Web Application & Rich Internet Application Design. Web Application Form Design. "Input elements should be organized in logical groups so that your brain can process the form layout in chunks of related fields. " –HTML: the Definitive Guide Quite rare is the Web application that doesn’t make extensive use of forms for data input and configuration.
But not all Web applications use forms consistently. Variations in the alignment of input fields, their respective labels, calls to action, and their surrounding visual elements can support or impair different aspects of user behavior. Form Layouts When the time to complete a form needs to be minimized and the data being collected is mostly familiar to users (for instance, entering a name, address, and payment information in a check-out flow), a vertical alignment of labels and input fields is likely to work best. Each label and input field is grouped by vertical proximity and the consistent alignment of both input fields and labels reduces eye movement and processing time. Using Visual Elements Primary & Secondary Actions.