Usability Research Applied to Immersive Interfaces
I’m a bit late on this, but there was awesome article in Boxes and Arrows this week titled Researching Video Games the UX Way. It’s a detailed write up of how Bolt|Peters performed usability testing on Spore.
The basic take-away is that the team had to rely on a much more open-ended…
Content is the real ‘meat’ in our websites
This is what our websites are like if we have the visual hierarchy just right, with clear navigation, enticing images, seamless front-end user experience, and some fast loading pages with great response, all the while ignoring content. - Felicity Evans, from her article Putting Contents Back on Top
The structure of an interaction design pattern
An interaction design pattern usually consists of the following elements:
- Problem: A Problem is related to the usage of the system and is relevant to the user or any other stakeholder that is interested in usability.
- Use when: a situation (in terms of the tasks, the users and the context of use) giving rise to a usability problem. This element describes situations in which the problem occurs.
- Principle: a pattern is usually based on one or more HCI principles such as user guidance, or consistency, or error management.
- Solution: a proven solution to the problem. A solution describes only the core of the problem, and the designer has the freedom to implement it in many ways. Other patterns may be needed to solve sub-problems.
- Why: How and why the pattern actually works, including an analysis of how it may affect certain attributes of usability. The rationale should provide a reasonable argument for the specified impact on usability when the pattern is applied. The why should describe which usability aspects should have been improved or which other aspects might suffer.
- Examples: Each example shows how the pattern has been successfully applied in a real life system. This is often accompanied by a screenshot and a short description.
- Implementation: Some patterns provide implementation details.
10 Most Common Misconceptions About User Experience Design
Article on what UXD is not. Likely a good read if you’re gearing up to explain to someone what exactly it is you do.
Best of breadcrumbs and how they enhance your website.
Breadcrumb navigation offers a visually enticing way for users to keep track and know where they’re specifically located as they navigate your site. Overall, it increases the usability of your website, especially if it has various pages that need to be organized and structured in a certain hierarchical order.
52 Weeks of UX: Email, the Glue of UX
With the rise of social networking, email has taken a back seat to tweets and wall posts as the hip message format. But email is still a huge channel for messaging, and serious business messaging has not yet mingled much with pokes, favorites, or other social message types.
There are many…
The Dirtiest Word in UX: Complexity
Interesting look at practical uses of simplicity and complexity in interface design.
Online music, the death of Lala, and how subscriptions may now be ok
I enjoy music. I’ll admit it, I cannot rattle off song names, bands, or artists from the last 25 years, but I know what I like. My favorite is that one that goes like do doo da dat dat and that other Desperado song, sung by Linda Ronstadt… not the one by that flying bird group. Oh and I like…
User Experience v Features
Functionality is commonplace and cheap; great user experience is rare and valuable. I buy UX, not features.
Short and sweet.
pims:
The central premise of user centered design is that the best designed products and services result from understanding the needs of the people who will use them.
The UX Design Process for the Boxee Beta
Whitney Hess writes about designing the new Boxee interface.
Can You Say That in English? Explaining UX Research to Clients | A List Apart
Very handy guide to describing User Experience Research in an intelligible way.
