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Usability & Experience

User Experience

Everything that governs the overall experience the user feels when using a product. In order for a product to achieve the most satisfying user experience, it needs to be usable, useful, desirable, accessible, credible, findable, and valuable.

Minimalist Thinking: Steve Jobs Interview

By: hm on July 22, 2011 at 10:53 am, in: User Experience

"Design at other companies is not there. It is buried down in the bureaucracy somewhere… In bureaucracies many people have the authority to say no, not the authority to say yes. So you end up with products with compromises." And here's the full excerpt of the interview: http://www.cultofmac.com/john-sculley-on-steve-jobs-the-full-interview-transcript/63295

Quote: The Paradox of Choice

By: hm on April 26, 2011 at 11:22 am, in: Usability,User Experience

"A large array of options may discourage consumers because it forces an increase in the effort that goes into making a decision. So consumers decide not to decide, and don't buy the product. Or if they do, the effort that the decision requires detracts from the enjoyment derived from the results. Also, a large array of options may diminish the attractiveness of what people actually choose, the reason being that thinking about the attractions of some of the unchosen options ... read more

Quote: Great Proportions Melt Away Impurities in a Design

By: hm on August 24, 2010 at 4:11 pm, in: Usability,User Experience

From 37signals: "Great proportions melt away impurities in a design. So if you have buttons and there’s too much space between them, the space between them is another element that you have to comprehend. So if you have two buttons, you now have three objects. You’ve got the button, the button, the space. But if things are the right proportions, you just have two items, the two buttons. And I think over a big screen, if you get the proportions right, you could ... read more

UX Books: A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making

By: hm on August 10, 2009 at 2:13 pm, in: Usability,User Experience

uxdesignbook This book is very much recommended for anyone who are just learning about UX design and for those who are already in the field. Buy it on Amazon! Product Description “If you are a young designer entering or contemplating entering the UX field this is a canonical book. If you are an organization that really needs to start grokking UX this book is also for you. "  -- Chris Bernard, User Experience Evangelist, Microsoft User ... read more

The Spectrum of User Experience

By: hm on July 23, 2009 at 1:25 pm, in: User Experience

spectrum Here is an interesting article from the Information Architects blog involving three different aspects of product development: how designers, engineers, and businessmen should work together. I'm sure all of us designers, developers, and business people have all been in this position before where we sometimes feel that we don't need to communicate with each other.  That things will just work out in the end if everybody is assigned a certain task that ... read more

Facebook Rolled Out a New Friends Page – FAIL?

By: hm on May 2, 2009 at 2:27 am, in: User Experience

facebook_friends_page After a long meeting with my colleagues last night at about 10:35PM, I went on Facebook.  As usual, I did a status-update-checking routine on the homepage, scrolled up and down the page some more and finally clicked on the Friends link up top.  Then I paused. Instead of finding a list of recent status updates, I was greeted by a brand-new "Find your friends" page.  Hmm...  I've been a Facebook user for ... read more