“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 full potential, and rarely integrated in business strategies.

So McMullen proposes a simple approach to gauge a product’s or service’s usability. He says there’s really just one question you should start asking your users to find out whether your product

On a scale of 1 to 10, how confident do you feel using this system?

I rather like McMullen’s “can do” perspective. Read the full post here.

Via Susu’s Posterous - thanks for sharing!

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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 friend. Found the right size for the passepartout, put it in cart.

Was then shown this page, which told me that I can’t put something from a different brand in the same cart. WTF? And why does the cart list my order? Never mind, I need that first frame anyway, I don’t care if the passepartout is 3 or 5 bucks… Ended up choosing another passepartout from the same brand that made the frame. Add to cart. Same message. Double WTF.

So what’s happening now? I’ll take my business elsewhere, that’s what’s now, because this kind of stuff really irritates me. Ms Muffinhead will move into the old frame, and the Harrison prints, well, they need something new. So any recommendations for good online frame shops (or a proper shop in Berlin) are welcome.

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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.

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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 other users do the same and what the click rates for this navigation item are?!

PS.: The English page lists this category as “great value products”…

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A few strong instincts and a few plain rules suffice us” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

via 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 Abby’s main points are:
- Do unto others’ data what you want done unto yours.
- Design with, not for.
- Make the unclear, clear - or it won’t matter.
- Design systems, not stuff.
- Aim to be listened to, not just heard.
- We are all users.
- You are not your user.
- Accessible = available.
- The journey is the destination.
- Your mom is on Facebook.
Read the whole post here.

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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

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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 of Advertising thing — but your twitter handle is Abby the IA which stands for Information Architecture, so what’s the deal? Which are you?

Abby preferably after first drink consumed:
Great observation! You are not the first person to bring this up — in fact people have joked that since taking the job at Draftfcb I should become Abby_the_UX.

So to your point, what is the difference between UX and IA? I must be honest; it feels like this industry’s favorite thing to argue about these days. But here is my take:”

read on…

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