design portamento

UX Week 2008 Rocked!

2008-08-18T14:53:00.001-07:00

a sticky note love seat featured at UX Week 2008

Last week I spent some time at the Adaptive Path UX Week Conference in San Francisco. I learned SO much while I was there and met a lot of great Experience Design folks. Some of the highlights:

Don Norman who kicked off the week and talked about UX in general.

Jensen Harris who talked about designing the MS Office interface(s) (The Ribbon).

The Neo-futurists from Chicago.

TCHO - a new chocolate company in San Francisco who let us beta test their chocolate.

This was the second Adaptive Path conference I've attended. I must say, these people know how to put on a conference. They really understand that we're attending a user experience conference so they pay attention to details.

Location: UX Week 2008 was at the Palace Hotel. A beautiful spot. A wonderful user experience. Beautiful surroundings. Good food. Wonderful service. Attention to detail.

Events/Program: Not your usual conference stuff. UX Week offered several great hands-on workshops as well as some fun and pertinent entertainment (a performance by the Neo-futurists). One of the workshops I attended was called "How to Be A Sticky Note Ninja". (More on that in another blog post).

Adaptive Path employees. Approachable (they don't walk around like arrogant designers with a capital "D" on their chests). Friendly. Helpful. Interesting.

My rating of the conference: Thumbs up!

feeling prolific

2008-08-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

wow! i haven't updated this blog in awhile. i've been working so hard i haven't had time to think about writing about design. just to be clear, i've been thinking about design -- just haven't been writing about it.

i've been thinking and acting quickly. it's actually been kind of fun. no time to second-guess my design decisions. design and move on to the next feature or project.

maybe it's a good thing -- to not over-think the user experience... but then again, i don't want to overlook something important. so before i actually move a design forward i take a second look (after i've walked away from the design for a bit). fresh eyes and all that.

anyway, this design pace has been good. it's working for me. what works for you?

what is this thing?

2008-06-06T18:36:00.001-07:00

have you noticed that some websites are using this little do-hickey thing in form fields now? i first noticed it on Blogger (see below). at this point i'm voting against them. the do-hickeys are so tiny you can barely see them. and when you do notice them, they kinda look like dust specs on your laptop screen. isn't a cursor enough?

examples of the do-hickey on Blogger

how about a nice cup of coffee...

2008-05-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

and a poke in the nose!!!

I love my Starbucks travel cup because it's shiny and orange and looks really cool.

I hate my Starbucks travel cup because it pokes me in the nose when I drink from it.

Did anyone test this thing before manufacturing it? How about some user experience studies Starbucks? I'm paying $3.25 for a cappuccino... surely you can afford to do product testing.

The next time I buy a travel mug I'm going to test drive it first.

Ouch!

swatch packaging design is fun!

2008-05-06T15:34:00.000-07:00

My partner was given a new Swatch watch for her birthday this year. She got a limited edition 2008 Year of the Rat Swatch. This was a very appropriate gift because she happened to be born during a Rat Year. The unboxing experience was wonderful -- nice job Swatch!

the swatch watch box -- you can't tell that there's a watch in here

the open box: a watch and a chinese purse

year of the rat watch by swatch

how to be creative

2008-04-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

I'm always interested in reading people's lists about "how to be creative". Some of the lists I've run across are complete b------t or let's just say that I disagree with much of the content. Others are worth checking out. Here's a link to a list that I like The How to Be Creative List. An explanation of the listed items are below the list. Disclaimer some explanations contain explicit material so be forewarned -- now I know that you'll read them :)

My personal favorites are:

Number 5 - You are responsible for your own experience.

Number 10 - The more talented somebody is the less they need the props.
Number 27 - The best way to get approval is not to need it.

Get it?

2008-04-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

Nikon calls me a User not an Owner. I like that!

I'm always amused when I find myself behaving like a regular user rather than a designer... Case in point, I just bought a new Nikon digital SLR camera (thanks for the 2007 bonus Yahoo! Inc.). I eagerly opened the box, pulled out the camera, looked at it and thought "Hmm. I better read the owner's manual first. This thing looks pretty complicated." Then, I grabbed the owner's manual; the big several hundred page owner's manual. Ouch! I really wanted to use this thing sometime in the next hour. If I go through the manual it will be days before I can get started.

Thankfully, Nikon gets it! They know that I want to play with my new camera now. So they've provided me with a lovely Quick Start Guide. Wow! Everything I need to know just to get started is in this guide. Looks like I can take some photos within the next hour after all. Thanks Nikon. Thanks for paying attention to User Needs and User Behaviors. Thanks for getting it!

a personal brand

2008-04-03T10:26:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new all things design-related blog. Today I'm thinking about branding and design. I've been using this photograph of me as a Brownie for several years now as my image for my personal brand. I rediscovered the image when I was a student at San Jose State. I was working on an installation piece called Implications which was about identity and text labels. I used the Brownie image as one of the panels and have incorporated it into a lot of my work since. Thus, it has become the image of my personal brand. I didn't really make a conscious decision that it would be my personal brand... I just started using it and it stuck. Now people tell me that they see the image and think of me and my work... so I'll keep using it.

Introduction

2008-03-07T11:07:00.001-08:00

This blog contains several examples of my User Experience Design work from the past few years. You'll see examples from my work at Adobe Systems and Yahoo! Personals. Thanks for stopping by!

Yahoo! Personals Signed In Home Page (old)

2008-03-06T21:58:00.000-08:00

This is a screen shot of the Y!P Signed In Home Page as it looked when I started at Yahoo! The design hadn't been updated in four years.

Y!P Signed In Home Page (new)

2008-03-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

Here's the new and improved Signed In Home Page implemented under my direction. It has a completely updated color palette, wide page format, 'one-click matching', and a new carousel interaction for browsing profiles. The underlying design principle was to bring important and popular functionality closer to the user (i.e. things that had been buried in the site and were therefore difficult for users to find were now surfaced on the home page).

Y!P Search Results Gallery View

2008-03-06T21:55:00.000-08:00

This is an example of the Gallery View. It allows users to see as many as 10 profiles without scrolling. The profiles are also highlighted with items used as filtering categories: We Match and New.

Y!P Search Results

2008-03-06T21:47:00.000-08:00

This example shows a Search Results page with Profiles in the default view. Prior to the new design changes this page showed search results/profiles with a horizontal orientation. Therefore, the user would usually only see two profiles above the page fold. The new design allows the user to see four profiles without scrolling. The updated profile display format is also easier for users to scan.

Y!P Profile Details

2008-03-06T21:46:00.000-08:00

This is the updated Profile Details Page. A user gets to this page by clicking on a Profile from Search Results.

Y!P Tell Me About

2008-03-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

"Tell Me About" is a feature that was recently implemented on the site. It helps users start conversations with other users.

Y!P Photo Features

2008-03-06T21:44:00.000-08:00

Photos are a very important feature of an online-dating site. Profiles with one or more photos are far more likely to be successful than those without. However, users had problems uploading photos using the old site design. Therefore, the upload experience was improved. The number of photos a user can upload for their profile was also expanded and users can now add captions to their photos. Captions are searchable as well.

Y! P Content (1)

2008-03-06T21:40:00.000-08:00

The content area of the Y! Personals site had also not been updated in several years. Yet, the content area was a heavily trafficked area of the site. The content area was updated last year with a completely new look and feel as well as an updated Navigation design. The navigation design that was used was based on a common User Interface model used by several different Yahoo! properties including the Y! Food site.

Y!P Content (2)

2008-03-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

This is an example of a second level page on the Content area of the Y! Personals site.

Adobe Acrobat Pop-Up Notes Evolution

2008-03-06T21:32:00.000-08:00

The design of the Acrobat Pop-Up Notes (used with the Commenting feature) needed some major work. Here's an example of the Acrobat 5 pop-up note. It was basically just a note on a page. There was no special functionality in the note.

In Acrobat 6, the Pop-up Notes were updated with new functionality and a new look and feel. (see example below). Users could now take advantage of a Commenting tab that allowed them to manage all of the comments associated with a document.

In Acrobat 7, the Commenting features including the Pop-up Notes were further refined. (see example below).

Update Concept for Adobe Acrobat Pop-Up Notes

2008-03-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

This is an example of the way that Acrobat's Pop-Up notes could further be refined and improved both from a visual design aspect as well as an interaction design aspect.

Adobe Acrobat UX Design

2008-03-06T21:19:00.000-08:00

From Tools to Tasks

acrobat 5 toolbar

(based on Adobe's Creative Pro Tools Based interaction model)

acrobat 6 toolbar

(based on the new "From Tools to Tasks" interaction model)