February 2012
1 post
6 tags
Measure confidence, not clicks. #usability #UX
“The worst thing you can do to an adult is make them feel stupid” - at least that’s what Roderick McMullen’s uncle Fred says. Bad usability makes people feel stupid. Which keeps them from using your product or service. And while there are many quantitative and qualitative methods to measure usability, McMullen suggests they are often complicated, hardly ever used to...
January 2012
2 posts
7 tags
Wait a minute... that feels familiar!
The 1 millionth video of the “shit xyz says” variety, and like most of the “me too” variants it’s not as funny as the first one, but still offers some uncanny parallels to, err, my life. Posted via email from hypercatalecta ♥ UX | Comment »
6 tags
Usability bugs that REALLY bug me. Today:...
I’m trying to buy a frame. I’ve bought one from Rahmenwerk before for a lovely print by Gavin Harrison I got for Christmas a few years ago. Now I received another print by Harrison and would like a matching frame. Found it on the website, put it in the cart. Since I was there I figured I could just as well look for a passepartout and a frame for Ms Muffinhead, who was given to me by a...
June 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Great presentation about "The trouble with...
via iakonferenz.org This presentation was held a month ago at the German IA conference. Enjoy! If you like this presentation, there are some others around this topic on Yiibu’s slideshare. via The Hot Strudel - thanks, Jan! Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
May 2011
1 post
2 tags
Vocabulary of the day: Satisfice (=good enough)...
[ˈsætɪsˌfaɪs] I don’t know how I can have worked in user expereince for over five years and not have come across this term! Basically, to “satisfice”describes the fact that users don’t make optimal choices but click whatever seems reasonable first. The term itself is a merger between “satisfy” and “suffice” - basically, it means something is good...
April 2011
1 post
March 2011
2 posts
4 tags
Greasy-finger enabled heatmaps for iPad
via news.designlanguage.com thanks @supersoon Taking all these greasy little fingerprints as a source of information is a great idea, and the photos George Kokkindis took have their own beauty (I wonder is the iDraft image a self-portrait ;-)?). Interestingly, the results mirror heatmaps that are often generated to analyise websites with expensive eyetracking tools. You can even sense how...
3 tags
UX designers: "Often mistaken for experience...
via vimeo.com Very cute video about what it actually is that a UX designer does. via Robert’s facebook (thanks for posting!) Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
February 2011
3 posts
Foursquare know what you did last summer
via 4squareand7yearsago.com Cute idea that was built at Foursquare hack day: Sign in with Foursquare and it will send you a daily mail telling you what you did on this date a year ago. (A bit of gushing: love the URL, love the little logo.) via @Mari18 Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
5 tags
Good read: Ten Principles Of Good Design by Dieter...
via inksie.com The principles were written in 1995, and the team at Inksie went out to illustrate these principles and put them into today’s context. (via) Visit Vitsoe’s website for a simpler overview Rams’ design principles. Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
4 tags
THE UX Hierarchy of Needs
A couple of years ago, Stephen P. Anderson - the guy behind the rather lovely mental notes cards that UX afficionados might have come across - created this hierarchy of UX needs. While some things might have changed in the meantime, I think the core of this is still absolutely valid. via howiechang’s tumblr Copyright 2006 by Stephen P. Anderson. Posted via email from...
January 2011
1 post
4 tags
If ad agencies planned kids' birthday parties
via adweek.blogs.com There you go: make everything pink and throw in a pony and all will be well in the end. Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
December 2010
1 post
4 tags
Amusing choice of shopping category: "Noch ein...
Not sure if Habitat is serious about naming this category of products “Noch ein großartiges Produkt” (“another great product”)…? Very amusing choice of words (to a UX geek, that is…). Sounds like someone forgot to take some dummy copy out of the navigation wording… Or used Google translator. Made me click it right away, though, so I’m wondering if...
November 2010
4 posts
Very cute: Build your own #gingerbread house for...
<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”><body xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”><div xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”> via ikea.com This is such a cute document - the recipe is in German, but the rest is the “classic” IKEA-style building instructions that don’t require translation. Everything is explained in 24...
3 tags
Nice post by @AbbytheIA: User Experience Rules for...
A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us” – Ralph Waldo Emersonvia abbytheia.wordpress.com Abby the IA has written a short memo about the role of user experience in the advertising world. Should be common sense for most of us UX practicioners working in this field. Considering what most of the advertising online looks like it seems one can’t stress this enough, though. So...
3 tags
Good read: "The Draper Cycle" by Caprice Yu...
via theknotcollective.com Caprice Yu’s thoughts about about working in and coming to terms with an industry that mostly evolves around itself and often asks people to compromise other aspects of their lives: “Do we need to do everything in the extreme to stay inspired? (…) I don’t want to think so. (…) So here’s a mini-two-month-early resolution that maybe you...
4 tags
Have your UX cake, and eat it too! November...
I like cakes, I like UX, so obviously this wallpaper design by Polish company Witflow has to go into the blog. Though I’m missing the joy of use bit in here. Shouldn’t that be the cherry on the cake? via @smashingmagazine Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
October 2010
3 posts
6 tags
Don't dine alone, save energy, be less lonely:...
via vimeo.com Interesting concept by Luong Lu for Vattenfall: Get neighbors to share their dinners and thus not only reduce loneliness and obesity, but help save energy. I think it’s a cute idea, integrating Foursquare and all so that the host gets something out of it, too. Though I’m a bit sceptical if this could actually be implemented successfully? I imagine it to be a bit...
3 tags
What's in a name? @Abby_the_IA about the #UX / #IA...
via abbytheia.wordpress.com “A hypothetical cocktail party conversation about labeling people when doing great work is all you’re really after. Setting: Every conference cocktail party this year… nerds everywhere, afraid of advertisers. Awesome Person willing to talk to Advertiser #1: Abby, I understand this whole User Experience thing you have going on at Draftfcb & the whole future...
September 2010
3 posts
4 tags
The tree's side of the story: "I'm a tree and this...
I quite like this little installation from EOS magazine: a 100 year old tree is telling us how it feels and sharing videos, photos and music. Here’s a summary from gizmowatch: “As a collaboration between EOS Magazine and Happiness Brussels, a 100 years old tree has been made to talk on twitter, Facebook, flickr and Soundcloud, just like us. However, the only difference here is that...
6 tags
Love books, Not sure I like what's in store for...
via vimeo.com I love reading, and I love having bookshelves filled to the brim with the novels I’ve read (friends and family who recently helped me move might not be so thrilled about that). So it won’t come as a surprise that I’m a bit sceptical (or downright conservative) about ebooks. Even though I think that the scenarios IDEO presents in “The Future of the...
August 2010
5 posts
2 tags
UX people are no superheroes: "UX Won't Save You"...
☞ Week 32 ☜ UX Won’t Save You I have this sneaking suspicion that a fair number of people are under the impression that User Experience is the hot new “silver-bullet”. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but I am afraid that just isn’t the case. While there can be no doubt that UX plays an important role in shaping,...
5 tags
Adorable: iPad dock in the shape of an old TV, by...
via boingboing.net Pretty! And finally solves the problem of how to use your iPad as TV substitute without having to hold on to it the whole time. Now I want an iPad too. And the dock. Designed by Jason Damon of @frogdesign. Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
3 tags
Research project about the post-digital brief by...
via davaidavai.com Insightful research by Jasmine Cheng (www.twitter.com/min_o).> Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
5 tags
Users imagine the future as a moderately updated...
via startupquote.com Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
4 tags
The magic cookie flavour simulator! (Thx, Sascha)...
via brightcove.newscientist.com One cookie, various flavours! Although i’d assume that all you taste is the part of the cookie that’s been burned… Hm. I think I prefer baking different cookies instead of making my guests wear headsets and fiddle with technology. Still, it looks like a fun, if somewhat odd, project! Wonder if they just play around with flavor simulation...
July 2010
9 posts
5 tags
Brilliant ad by #NikeWomen. The Dove campaign...
via tonygentilcore.com Love love love the copy! I think this is the first sportswear ad ever that I actually like. So refreshing after the Reebok EasyTone bullshit that only made me wince in embarressment. Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
4 tags
Ah, the joy of baking! Very cute ad for #Lurpak....
via youtube.com There’s nothing like baking cakes made with proper butter and enthusiasm! I think the ad has been around for a couple of months, but I only stumbled across it now and I really enjoyed it (as well as the other one on LurpakButter’s youtube channel). The spot reminds me of one of my favourite cartoons by Victoria Roberts: “I dreamed that butter and sugar and eggs...
7 tags
Recommended reading: Dana Boyd/@zephoria about...
The internet mirrors and magnifies everyday life, making visible many of the issues we hoped would disappear, including race and class-based social divisions in American society via gawker.com You can download internet sociologist Dana Boyd’s chapter on her theory about Facebook as digital white suburbia here: http://www.danah.org/papers/2009/WhiteFlightDraft3.pdf.> Posted via...
6 tags
Excellent presentations by @Padday: Bridging the...
via slideshare.net Paul Adams shows how our interactions with friends (and “friends”) online differ from interactions with friends and acquaintances offline, and points out what kind of challenges these differences pose when designing for social networks. Found this via Uli. Thanks for posting! Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
You're all a bunch of usability testers! #google...
Nice infographic sketching the inner workings of Google. Didn’t know that just about all queries are part of some kind of test or other. Come to think of it, it’s not really surprising. But considering that we’re all part of a huge usability test, one does wonder why so many people are opposed to testing. See - it’s THAT easy! You do it all the time!You can find the...
4 tags
Richard Saul Wurman: Being an IA means to...
I don’t think in terms of wireframes… I don’t think in terms of Information Architecture, I think in terms of understanding. I’m interested in understanding things that interest me and I am interested in the systemic rigger of being able to explain. I’m interested in communicating with another human being …and I am doing it with rigor and responsibility, and that is what information...
4 tags
Support: Adaptive Eyewear, a social enterprise to...
via monocle.com Adaptive Eyewear came up with a cheap pair of glasses for people in developing nations that can be adjusted by the wearer. They set themselves a first goal to provide everyone in Ruanda (10 mio people, 4 optometrists) who needs prescription glasses with a pair of these adaptive ones so that they can go to school and find or continue to work like everyone else. Considering my poor...
4 tags
Read more #books than #blogs? I'm trying, I really...
via yayeveryday.com More book goodness, this time by @AnalogSoulTees. Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
June 2010
10 posts
3 tags
New and improved print newspaper layout, now with...
via blog.stuttgarter-zeitung.de Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
3 tags
And thou shalt know thy user... Oh, the joys of...
via geekandpoke.typepad.com Oh Geek & Poke, how I love thee! Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
3 tags
Good read: 7 harsh realities about why...
via unterstrichjrg.posterous.com Thanks for posting, Jörg! Even if the presentation basically reiterates what’s been said in lots of other presentations: I like the change of perspective that speaks from an informed, realistic approach to Social Media, rather than offering empty promises. Social Media is not the saving grace of marketing, but works only if there’s a strong...
3 tags
Recommended Reading 2: "The fast Agency" -...
Jung von Matt Stockholm, the agency where I work, started out in 2006 and was thus a fully-integrated analogue and digital creative shop from start. Being ’idea neutral’ isn’t really enough these days as clients demand more for less – more creativity and more accountability for less money and less time. Since real compensation levels hasn’t increased in the last decade and the shelf-life...
2 tags
Recommended reading 1: "Service is the future of...
via slideshare.net Great presentation by nouvé, a German brand and innovation agency, about the necessity of “servitizing” products, i.e. to really understand how customers use a product and create value around this usage. Posted via web from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
This made me laugh: "I'm Comic Sans, Asshole." An...
Very amusing little monologue from the perspective of Comic Sans: “I am a force of motherfucking nature and I will not rest until every uptight armchair typographer cock-hat like you is surrounded by my lovable, comic-book inspired, sans-serif badassery.” Posted via email from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
4 tags
"Somebody S me from these fools!" Set of posters...
more posters on atmostheory.com via @brainpicker Posted via web from hypercatalecta’s posterous | Comment »
6 tags
Enchanting: Joon Moon's fantasy land of light and...
read more on Joon Moon’s website via @GaryPHayes and fastcompany.com There are lot of nice AR apps out there, but this one sticks out as one of the more magical ones. This is how Joon Moon describes it herself: “Augmented Shadow is a design experiment producing an artificial shadow effect through the use of tangible objects, blocks, on a displayable tabletop interface. Its goal is...
4 tags
I love, love, love Balakov's photos of classic...
via flickr.com The whole Flickr set is delightful, but I like this interpretation of Henri Cartier-Bressons “Behind the Gare Saint Lazare” in particular. Flying Lego!!! A shot of the the setup of the scene can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8258165@N07/1674327725/ Found these via @stribs. Thanks, Robert! Posted via web from hypercatalecta’s...
4 tags
That's my kind of a marathon running shoe: it's...
via nike78.co.uk Nike launched this great project where creatives worldwide received a Nike shoe and were asked to challenge its function. For those of you who know me a bit better, you won’t be surprised that I particularly like this edible version of the shoe by Erica Dong, who made the cake’s calorie count an equivalent of the calories burnt during a marathon. Posted via...
May 2010
15 posts
5 tags
What is Work? Insightful article about work +...
via good.is “Our work will at least have distracted us, it will have provided a perfect bubble in which to invest our hopes for perfection, it will have focused our immeasurable anxieties on a few relatively small-scale and achievable goals, it will have given us a sense of mastery, it will have made us respectably tired, it will have put food on the table. It will have kept us out of...
6 tags
Chair goodness - brought to you by Coke: Emeco 111...
read more on emowithcoke.com image from mnn.com So I love chairs, I love coke, and this project brings the two of them together in a project that’s all about recycling! What’s not to like?! Here’s what the project ist about: Coke wants consumers to be better about recycling their bottles. So they teamed up with Emeco and developed the 111 Navy Chair. 111? Well, it’s...