UX Living

The Art of Designing for People

I just listened to a fantastic podcast/interview by Dorm Room Tycoon featuring Ryan Singer, from 37Signals.

Ryan talks about the importance of solving the human problem first (the interaction and the UI) and finding a way to make it work on the back-end.

On building something intuitive for new users, he asks, “How [as a designer] do you make things familiar even though it is new?”

When you have a spare 38 minutes, you can find it here: http://www.dormroomtycoon.com/ryan-singer-37signals-interview-the-art-of-designing-for-people/

Review: Bound Custom Journals

I have loved to journal, doodle, and sketch-out ideas on almost anything paper (and some not) for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been meaning to order a notebook from Bound Custom Journals (boundforanything.com) since I came across their story on Kickstarter last summer. Today, push finally came to shove.

1. Getting Started. Getting started with my custom journal is incredibly easy. There is a big, fat “Get Started” button in the middle of the homepage. In fact, each image on the promotator links to the next step, a nice touch. “Build a Journal” in the top navigation works as well.

2. Select a Journal. There are currently three journal options available to choose from. I like mine small, so went with the Bound Memo. The description is extremely helpful - I can practically feel the book in my hands already.

• I love how the copy says it “slips easily into a shirt-pocket”.
• The iconography provides a nice visual break while highlighting further features.

Nice to Have: I believe a nice little addition would be to shows tool-tips when mousing-over the icons. I don’t have a clue what “100% PCRF” means nor do I understand the benefits of acid-free paper. Educate me why this is unique or important.

3. Time to Customize. This process is a wonderfully intuitive and visual experience; I feel very in control of the whole process. The mouse hover states offer extra information and easy direction.

• Within each Section, there are multiple ways for further customization with previews for each look. 
• By default, each section contains 20 pages, but you can add or subtract to liking with a few clicks, and follow the progress bar as your journal nears completion.

Nice to Have: I really craved the ability to repeat a customized section. I originally wanted to repeat every other page, but I quickly became too frustrated at having to add each section from scratch and gave up.

4. Review Order. Pretty standard and visually consistent experience here. The Big 5 actions on review pages are present: Edit Order, Delete Item, Update Quantity, Continue Shopping, and Checkout.

Nice to Have: One little bug I found is that if you click ‘Back’ in your browser, your cart is empty and your builder progress appears lost. Clicking ‘Forward’ in your browser displays the saved data, but I was nervous for a second.

5. Billing Info and Shipping. The billing information form is one of the nicer ones I experienced recently. Very standard in terms of length, but a had much cleaner layout than most. A slick, little feature (called out here) is the dynamically generated shipping options. Upon entering a zip code, price quotes are displayed in an easy-to-read fashion with most cost effective on top. 

6. Confirmation. Confirmation pages are typically less than memorable, which is usually not a big deal. However, they do provide great opportunities to add to branding or solicit feedback.  As a huge fan of feedback, I can honestly say this is one of the best executions of the feedback form I’ve ever seen.

With ‘Name’ and ‘Email’ pre-populated from my billing information, two steps have been removed from this process. This simple adjustment makes the form significantly more inviting - all I need to do is type in my thoughts! My inner dork is going nuts with this genius rendition! I’d love to A/B test this same form without the pre-populated data and compare the results. On a slightly less enthusiastic side-note, this simplified take on a bot fighter also makes me smile. 

Conclusion. Overall, my first experience with Bound was thoroughly positive. The site is loaded with great UI and UX. For a first-time user, I navigated with confidence. While I eagerly await my finished product, I suggest checking them out for yourselves.

RECAP: Criticism and Two Way Streets

I recently read a fantastic post by @destraynor on implementing a criticism discipline for design reviews. I passed it along to my team and consider it a must read for all designers, UX/UI analysts, product managers, developers, or hell, anyone who considers themselves a problem-solver (check it out here). Here are my two takeaways:

Try, Try Again Your first solution will not a be 100% perfect. Please accept this. It may be close, damn close even, but it certainly will not be perfect. Make a first stab at it, take a coffee break, scour the web for other ways to approach it, come back, and revise.

Developing a MVP (minimum viable product) takes a similar approach and has become extremely popular. It takes on this notion of exploring for the best solution, not settling for a good one.

(img taken from article)

Open Yourself Up For Criticism  My favorite bit of the post was the regiment around critiquing your own work and complementing someone else’s. Force yourself to poke holes in your solution and promote great aspects of others. This creates a conversation about the problem at hand rather than a competition to see who can muster the most pull.

The best problem-solvers don’t care where/who the idea originally came from. For them, it’s all about finding that ideal end result.

Dear ATM, For the 1000th Time, I Speak English.

Assessing a user experience is based around managing expectations. When a $100 pair of headphones work just as well today as they did two years ago when you bought them, you’d be pleased with your purchase. Conversely, when the $8 steak you ordered didn’t taste so great, you shrug it off.  

When it comes to using ATM’s, expectations should be sky high. My bank knows an awful lot of information about me: where I live, who I work for, and how I like to spend my money. Not only that but I trust this machine to securely access my bank account, deposit checks, and keep track exactly how much money I have.  How can it not remember that I speak English?

Here are two simple solutions to make a better experience at the ATM:

1. AN EASY WAY: Assume English (or the native language) - Is it crazy to expect that an ATM in the United States should default for an English-speaking user? I think not. Pair this with a translation button easily accessible in the corner or every page, and you should have some happy customers.  Non-native speakers are more willing to take an extra step to make their experience more personal.

2. THE PREFERRED WAY: Ask and Remember - When I activate my card for the first time and select my language, remember it! Store that little piece of information, and have it be the first piece called when I swipe my card for the rest of time. Someday, when I decide I’m feeling extra confident in my Spanish, and want to bank that way moving forward, remember I made such a change.

The subtlety of this preferred method won’t get American users to dance in the rain; rather, it will make the archaic need to withdraw cash slightly less annoying. That is a win in my book.

Now imagine how pleased a Chinese-American would be if an ATM remembered they prefer to speak Mandarin.  In a world where personalization is an ever growing expectation, that’s a major win.

Subtleties Drive Loyalty

Such subtleties can greatly improve a user experience across all industries. Anything from courtesy calls for irregular purchases to remembering a regular’s coffee order add the special touch and will keep your customers coming back.

What little touches made your experience that much better? Where would you like to see improvement?

RECAP: Why Pinterest Is So Dang Amazing

A great read from Design Shack on the success of Pinterest.

Here are some takeaways that strike home with me:

1. just because it’s been done before, doesn’t mean you can’t make it better
2. avoid pagination whenever possible; long live the infinite scroll!
3. content is king - it’s either: A) so good, you never want to leave or B) so accessible, you are in and out in no time

Enjoy: http://designshack.net/articles/business-articles/addictive-ux-why-pinterest-is-so-dang-amazing/

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