I spent the weekend in bed with my favorite Kleenex with Vicks. View high resolution

I spent the weekend in bed with my favorite Kleenex with Vicks.

Completed Bubble Tea… Ready to go. (Taken with instagram) View high resolution

Completed Bubble Tea… Ready to go. (Taken with instagram)

#18 – Strategies of influence for interaction designers

Apps that update on start

Why don’t programs like Firefox and Adobe Air update on close instead of open? The initial experience that I have while opening these products sets my mind to whether or not I enjoy using them. I am happy to know that these products are continuously updating, however, when I open an application up, it is because I want to use it. I try not to use any apps that have to update on start because I find the experience so annoying.

Usability tests using Fivesecondtest.com

I stumbled upon a clever website called Fivesecondtest which allows for “Simple, instant feedback on your designs.” Using the site affords users quick multiple variance tests of static page designs. What I like about this site versus Omniture Test and Target or Google Website Optimizer is users do not need to be an Analytics experts or developers to use and understand how to upload and interpret testing results. In a matter of seconds you literally feel like you can contribute to the site.

One setback of testing is that you will not be able to target specific user types with these tests. So tests should be for measuring things like strong Call To Actions (CTAs) or the most prominent focal points on a page.

Key features of the site are:

  • tests are quick and simple to take part in
  • community model ensures that it is desirable to submit and take tests
  • It’s free and easy to use
  • straight forward CTA on home page gets users envolved quickly
  • fun, fun, fun!!!


Props to Angry Monkeys for seeing a need and solving it in a smart and clean way.

inbflat.net collaborative music and spoken word project I am more excited about the ingenuity and creativity behind this concept then any structural or design implementation on the page. The creator of this project has found a meaningful way to exploit the browser’s ability to play more than one Youtube video at a time on a page. inbflat.net has enabled its users to create an online orchestra in the most simplistic and understandable of ways. I find the beauty and minimalism inspiring. I also like the fact that the user-generated samples come from multiple users, and not just the authors. I imagine a business model based off of this where users work together to create and sale songs and tracks. For example, a bassist puts up a 3 minute track and asks for someone to submit a guitar track over it. Then they collaboratively offers to sell the track to a singer that is looking for inexpensive samples. Maybe this already exists? View high resolution

inbflat.net collaborative music and spoken word project

I am more excited about the ingenuity and creativity behind this concept then any structural or design implementation on the page. The creator of this project has found a meaningful way to exploit the browser’s ability to play more than one Youtube video at a time on a page. inbflat.net has enabled its users to create an online orchestra in the most simplistic and understandable of ways. I find the beauty and minimalism inspiring. I also like the fact that the user-generated samples come from multiple users, and not just the authors.

I imagine a business model based off of this where users work together to create and sale songs and tracks. For example, a bassist puts up a 3 minute track and asks for someone to submit a guitar track over it. Then they collaboratively offers to sell the track to a singer that is looking for inexpensive samples. Maybe this already exists?

Archie Comics User Experience Review Growing up I never really “enjoyed” reading until I entered 3rd grade and my mother introduced me to Archie Comics. The vibrant colors, soft playful fonts, simple lines and easily structured sentences kept me enchanted from the first dose of Archie and his silly friends. I am now likening that first experience with a comic book to a website or application user’s first experience with a product. In my scenario, I came to the product because I had a user need and curiosity: literacy. I looked at the product overview to see what value it had for me, and because I grasped the concept easily and felt that it was useful, I explored it further: reading every Archie Comic that the local Quick Stop mart brought in. Over time, as my need for, and use of the product grew, I became an expert user: ordering Archie products, writing to the editor and watching the 1990 Archie movie. And just like with Friendster… eventually, I outgrew the Archie product and moved on to similar products that were more relevant to my ever-evolving self: indie comics and actual books.If a user persona was made of my 4th grade self, it would likely show a child beginning to engage in and enjoy reading as well as creating his own comics and characters, had developed a skewed view of what colors humans should actually wear together (purple pants and turquoise shirts… seriously), and that it would be close to impossible to keep me as a life time user but that in the future I would hopefully steer others toward Archie Comics because I had maintained a positive user experience. The moral of this post is two-fold: Great user experiences can change lives for the positive, and comics can be a great tool to motivate reluctant readers.

Archie Comics User Experience Review

Growing up I never really “enjoyed” reading until I entered 3rd grade and my mother introduced me to Archie Comics. The vibrant colors, soft playful fonts, simple lines and easily structured sentences kept me enchanted from the first dose of Archie and his silly friends.

I am now likening that first experience with a comic book to a website or application user’s first experience with a product.

In my scenario, I came to the product because I had a user need and curiosity: literacy. I looked at the product overview to see what value it had for me, and because I grasped the concept easily and felt that it was useful, I explored it further: reading every Archie Comic that the local Quick Stop mart brought in. Over time, as my need for, and use of the product grew, I became an expert user: ordering Archie products, writing to the editor and watching the 1990 Archie movie. And just like with Friendster… eventually, I outgrew the Archie product and moved on to similar products that were more relevant to my ever-evolving self: indie comics and actual books.

If a user persona was made of my 4th grade self, it would likely show a child beginning to engage in and enjoy reading as well as creating his own comics and characters, had developed a skewed view of what colors humans should actually wear together (purple pants and turquoise shirts… seriously), and that it would be close to impossible to keep me as a life time user but that in the future I would hopefully steer others toward Archie Comics because I had maintained a positive user experience.

The moral of this post is two-fold: Great user experiences can change lives for the positive, and comics can be a great tool to motivate reluctant readers.

Caps.Fool.com - great site for all levels of investors

I learned about The Motley Fool site when I first started using online investing tools and research sites like Investopedia and Yahoo’s Interactive Chart. I like the balance of bravado and humble playfulness that the articles and even site name have. Imagine a product called dumb thing, that made the user feel smart from the get go… that’s ingenious.

I am very happy with the way that the site has evolved to show more content and features. The navigation and information grouping is predictable and the visual style is clean and legible. The two things in particular that I enjoy about the site are the search pattern and the stock overview page.

Search Results: I love simple search boxes that work and present me with organized results. On the results page, the search entity is high-lighted obviously in each place that it appears within a results for easy scanning. I do hope that they find a way to integrate CAPS Reviews onto the search results page, allowing me to also see how other users think of a specific stock or investing option.

Stock Overview: What I like about the stock overview is that I feel like I have access to everything I could ever want to know about a stock from this one page. On the quote tab, I have access to the typical graph view and important stock numbers, as well as articles, user ratings, written summary, user comments, and Wall Street ratings. I typically only view the Quote tab, but I feel comforted knowing that I have access to the information on the 9 other tabs if I want to investigate further.

Is this navigation or search? Recently, I have been researching navigation methods and I have noticed that I never use the navigation elements in LinkedIn’s top header. I have happily been using LinkedIn for over two years and have always used the left nav bar elements to navigate to my personal information or search within the search box to find specific information. I have used the search box to find: people, jobs and companies… though never for answers. I have never pressed the “People, Jobs, Answers, Companies” links in the navigation and I am curious to know if I am alone on not using this interaction. It seems misleading to have these buttons as navigation element when, with the exception of “Answers” they do not lead a user to meaningful non-search result page. Why add more user clicks to the simple task of entering a query and searching? What if the user was still informed about the contents of the site via a tag line and the search pattern was brought back to the forefront as the main way to search for people, jobs, answers, companies and more?Obviously, I do not have the benefit of knowing the requirements, limitations, and usability testing results that the gurus at LinkedIn are privy to, but this seems like an issue worthy of furter research and iterations. View high resolution

Is this navigation or search?

Recently, I have been researching navigation methods and I have noticed that I never use the navigation elements in LinkedIn’s top header. I have happily been using LinkedIn for over two years and have always used the left nav bar elements to navigate to my personal information or search within the search box to find specific information. I have used the search box to find: people, jobs and companies… though never for answers.

I have never pressed the “People, Jobs, Answers, Companies” links in the navigation and I am curious to know if I am alone on not using this interaction. It seems misleading to have these buttons as navigation element when, with the exception of “Answers” they do not lead a user to meaningful non-search result page. Why add more user clicks to the simple task of entering a query and searching? What if the user was still informed about the contents of the site via a tag line and the search pattern was brought back to the forefront as the main way to search for people, jobs, answers, companies and more?

Obviously, I do not have the benefit of knowing the requirements, limitations, and usability testing results that the gurus at LinkedIn are privy to, but this seems like an issue worthy of furter research and iterations.

Simple Account Creation The steps I went through: Open Tumlblr site —> Enter 3 fields of info for new account —> Account createdWhat I like about this registration process is that the user is instantly able to use the Tumblr site and is not forced to retrieve an email or view a tutorial in order to start blogging. The introductory information is presented in a clear and concise way, and it is designed so that I can get to work right away instead of learning special site specific coding or “UI trickery”. I also like the fact that the icons are labeled. I believe in labeling icons or using labels alone unless the icons are obvious and/or known user patterns. This site is very UX and aesthetically pleasing to me. View high resolution

Simple Account Creation

The steps I went through:

Open Tumlblr site —> Enter 3 fields of info for new account —> Account created

What I like about this registration process is that the user is instantly able to use the Tumblr site and is not forced to retrieve an email or view a tutorial in order to start blogging. The introductory information is presented in a clear and concise way, and it is designed so that I can get to work right away instead of learning special site specific coding or “UI trickery”. I also like the fact that the icons are labeled. I believe in labeling icons or using labels alone unless the icons are obvious and/or known user patterns. This site is very UX and aesthetically pleasing to me.