Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Blippar - augmented reality app

On the back of the Lucky Charms cereal box there was a game board and advertisement for a mobile app, Blippar. I had very low expectations for any app that advertises on a cereal box. It was really impressive. The only downside is that I have not seen any Blip-purtunities since then. Seems to be popular in Europe. 

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Password reset - Firefox

Password reset process for Mozilla

Enter email address

Check email
 

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Firefox - Make Google your default search engine


While using Firefox browser I visited google.com.
I was prompted to make Google my default browser.

This was the view above the fold:
Clicking Get started scrolled the page down to the first section.
 

 This was the full page view:

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

iPhone iOS 8 Spotlight Search

I recently upgraded to iOS8 on my iPhone 5s. 
When you swipe down on any home screen it reveals a Spotlight Search bar. There is a paragraph explaining the expanded functionality.



"In addition to searching your iPhone, Spotlight now shows suggestions from the Internet, iTunes, Apps Store, movie showtimes, locations nearby, and more. You can change this in Settings. Learn more..."

I don't know how many times it was there, but now it is gone. If I had to guess, I would say 20 times, or approximately a month. Not sure which determined it, but now it is gone.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

User Interface on Harvard Business Review article page

The article treatment on Harvard Business Review is pretty slick. 
There are four stages of the header. 

Default

Promotional

Utility navigation

 Article title

 Progress bar (dots)



Progress bar is full when you reach the footer (it includes reader comments)


Link to the article
https://hbr.org/2015/01/the-capabilities-your-organization-needs-to-sustain-innovation

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Crash screens

Here is the screen on Apple machines.

Here is the crash screen on a Windows machine.

By offering the simple communication, "You need to restart your computer." and the simple instruction, "Hold down the Power button until it turns off, then press the Power button again." this user at least has a sense of what to do going forward.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Open Recent modifier

One of my favorite features is the Open Recent... menu item. 


When two files qualify for the Open Recent menu there is a modifier added, folder location.
This is an excellent feature!

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Ok is not a word, ok?

Sorry, ok is not an acceptable word
Button: OK

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Twitter user survey

These screens are captured during a web survey by UserZoom. 

The message does in fact say, UserZoom Privacy Policy. It does not link to anything. 


Seems strange to only be able to choose one option. Maybe asking about the the user's primary hope for visiting. Otherwise checkboxes would be more appropriate. That would allow the user to select all the actions they were hoping to do. 

User selected option 7: Find a specific Twitter account (@) or Tweets associated with that account.



Moderately and Slightly options are so similar. 

Personal note: The third option makes me laugh. Mostly because in today's world of so many online accounts it is possible that someone could have an account and not know it. 

This is a really good question and I would be interested to see the results. 


Not sure if this is optional or not. 
This helps us understand what type of user you are. 

(I have misplaced screen shots for questions 8 and 9, sorry)

The last sentence is not necessary. 


If link is clicked again, it leads to this page.  

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Taxonomy defined

Taxonomy: The fine art of stuffing words with meaning

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

"Click Cancel to continue"

The classic 'Are you sure?' message can be a great warning post when things are irreversible. Yet if seen all the time can be a tiresome barrier to productivity. 

Recently I came across this one:

Buttons should be labeled with clarity and brevity. The message has to clarify that the OK button is used to go back. Change the label to Back. The Cancel button is used to continue. Change the label to Continue.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Updating taxonomy - Evernote

Evernote updates what they call Favorites. Now it is called Shortcuts. 


Thursday, January 1, 2015

User Experience Design and Usability Guidelines and Principles

This blog article is a collection of guidelines and principles for the practice of User Experience Design and Usability. 

Note: This is a work in-progress

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

iTunes Quick Tour

The first time the iTunes application is launched a Welcome screen appears by default. 
There are four primary options, Learn more; Take a quick tour; No Thanks; and, Agree.

When the Learn more link is clicked, A browser window opens a Sharing Information About Your Library with Apple webpage, which is consumer-friendly page. The content is brief and to the point. It outlines the benefits of sharing your information with Apple. For users who like to read legalese, there is a link to their privacy policy. 




From the Welcome screen, when the Take a quick tour link is clicked, iTunes Quick Tour appears in a new window























Once the last slide is reached the Next > link disappears. 

I hoped to see some sort of Get Started or even Close button appear in place. Instead user must close the window using standard window controls in top left corner.  

The iTunes Quick Tour can be accessed via the iTunes Help menu, however this information is never expressed to the user.