Making Use of User Research

Designing or redesigning a product often feels like a risky proposition, especially in today's business climate.

Anderson, Gretchen. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Usability>Research

Minimal-Feedback Hints for Remembering Passwords

Passwords are a widely used mechanism for user authentication and are thus critical to the security of many systems. Strong passwords (e.g., b5j#Kv!8N) are less vulnerable to attack but at the same time more difficult to remember. Minimal-feedback hints are introduced to support users in remembering their passwords and thereby enabling them to choose stronger passwords.

Hertzum, Morten. uiGarden (2006). Design>Web Design>User Interface>Security

Mobile Essentials: Field Study and Concepting

This paper describes a cross-cultural field study of what people consider to be mobile essentials, how those mobile essentials are carried and problems typically encountered.

Chipchase, Jan, Per Persson, Petri Piippo, et al. uiGarden (2007). Articles>Usability>Ethnographies>Methods

Mode in User Interface Design

Perhaps you had, once or twice, experienced the following: When you logon to a software system, you are required to input a user name and password. In most situations, the system remembers your last input and the system automatically pre-fills in the username edit box, and the cursor will be directly placed in the password edit box. You tried typing in your password several times, only to be complained by the system that the password is wrong.

Zhang, Liang. uiGarden (2006). Articles>User Interface

The Moment of Truth: How Much Does Culture Matter to You?

Whether we like it or not, offshoring is here to stay. 'If' or 'when' to offshore is no longer an issue. The heart of the discussion is 'how much' – how much we can afford to offshore or, more precisely, how much we can afford to keep. The User Experience (UX) profession has gone a long way in making the distinction between software design and UX design known. Will we be able to hold on to that distinction when it comes to offshoring?

Gorlenko, Lada. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Web Design>Outsourcing>Offshoring

Moving UX into a Position of Corporate Influence: Whose Advice Really Works?

Was documenting and evangelizing (i.e., explaining and advocating for) UX work considered to be a critical component of what it took to move UX into a position of corporate influence? It was in some companies, but not in others.

Anderson, Richard I. uiGarden (2007). Articles>Management>User Experience>Workplace

Narrative vs Control in the Online Story World

How much control should users be able to take over the system they are using? Within Human-Computer Interaction, the challenge is usually to give control of technology to users; be it through accessible design, or, more generally, by making paths clear and choices apparent.

Light, Ann. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Human Computer Interaction

Of Mice and iPods, or The Death of the Designer

Computing technologies are becoming so familiar it can feel as if they have always been here. It is strange to think that the mouse, for instance, was invented by Doug Englebart in the seventies. He must encounter a degree of incredulity when he mentions this to people. “You invented the mouse? Really? How nice. Did you also invent the pen?”

Blythe, Mark. uiGarden (2008). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design>Usability

On the Meta-Usability of User Interface Standards

Interface standards provide context-specific guidance for implementing a system based on the task goals and functions within it. A solid standard provides guidance at two levels. At the level of look and feel, it ensures consistency throughout the application or site. To be meaningful in usability terms, the standard also must provide guidance to support a consistent experience at the functional level.

Straub, Kathleen. uiGarden (2006). Design>User Interface>Standards

A Path to Success: Interview with Patrick Jordan

In addition to providing clients with top quality design work, it is also important to help them think strategically. It adds a great deal of value for your clients when you help them to understand more about their users and their markets and about what the implications of this are for their designs.

Lisney, Eleanor. uiGarden (2005). Careers>Consulting>Graphic Design

Perception of Fonts: Perceived Personality Traits and Uses

This study sought to determine if certain personalities and uses are associated with various fonts. Using an online survey, participants rated the personality of 20 fonts using 15 adjective pairs. In addition, participants viewed the same 20 fonts and selected which uses were most appropriate. Results suggested that personality traits are indeed attributed to fonts based on their design family (Serif, Sans-Serif, Modern, Monospace, Script/Funny) and are associated with appropriate uses. Implications of these results to the design of online materials and websites are discussed.

Shaikh, A. Dawn, Barbara S. Chaparro and Doug Fox. uiGarden (2007). Design>Typography

Perfect Usability: The One-Button Machine?

One of my favourite Dilbert strips goes something like:'I’ve done it! I’ve invented the world’s most usable machine. It only has one button… and we press it before it leaves the factory.’

Curzon, Paul. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Usability

The Place for Standards in Interaction Design (IxD) and UI Design (UID)

'Standards': the word strikes fear in designers around the globe, and makes engineers lives so much easier that they bow at its alter. (Yes, this is an exaggeration for affect, but an important one.) But before we can dig a big deeper into standards for designers, we need to do some definition work.

Malouf, David Heller. uiGarden (2006). Design>User Interface>Standards>Interaction Design

Product's Usability Testing in China

The usual reference to a product's usability is to its efficiency of use，learnability and satisfaction. With the current development of economy and technology, usability testing has been developed recently in China.

Lin, Qin. uiGarden (2005). Articles>Usability>Regional>China

The Return on Investment (ROI) for Personas

For a variety of reasons, persona efforts tend to peter out rather than end in a managed, measured, and organized manner. Consultants are usually not paid to stick around long enough to manage the personas at the end of a project and in-house teams are usually more concerned with ramping up for the next project than they are with tidying up loose ends from the previous one. Being first-in/last-out on projects means that you will probably end up with responsibilities that straddle two projects. You will be completing your work on project A even after you have begun your work on project B. That is no simple task. It is certainly easier to simply move on to project B. However, we argue that an organized approach to measuring and managing the end of a project can yield significant benefits.

Light, Ann. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Usability>Methods>Personas

Simplicity Is Highly Overrated

I am in favor of good design and attractive products. Easy to use products. But when it comes time to purchase, people tend to go for the more powerful products, and they judge the power by the apparent complexity of the controls. If that is what people use as a purchasing choice, we must provide it for them. While making the actual complexity low, the real simplicity high. That's an exciting design challenge: make it look powerful while also making it easy to use. And attractive. And affordable. And functional. And environmentally appropriate. Accessible to all. That's why I like design: it presents wonderful challenges.

Norman, Donald A. uiGarden (2007). Design>User Interface>User Centered Design>Minimalism

So You Want to Be an Interaction Designer 2006

Five years ago, Robert Reimann wrote a seminal article for the Cooper Newsletter called 'So You Want To Be an Interaction Designer.' Like many people, I read the article and said, yep, that's what I want to be. I took Reimann's (good) advice and found both work and training as an interaction designer.

Saffer, Dan. uiGarden (2007). Careers>Usability>Interaction Design>User Centered Design

So… Does the iPhone Live Up to its Hype?

At last. The usability test of the iPhone! Without doubt, the hype around the iPhone has managed to exceed most consumer devices in modern time. But… will it live up to the hype? We let some of our best usability experts run an inUse comparative usability test with four phones and five users. It is easy to fall in love with something so beautiful and sexy, but if the device is not easy to use the initial euphoria will quickly turn into despair and frustration. The results? Stunning. The iPhone has introduced a new interaction paradigm to the world, in an uncompromising way that proves that “less is more” when it comes to true user experience.

uiGarden (2008). Articles>Usability>Wireless Web

Starting a Career in User Experience

This article is based upon my own experience transitioning from a career in corporate-world project management into the field of user experience design. With dedication, some talent, a few classes, and a healthy dose of self-promotion, the transition was fairly easy, very enjoyable, and took about two years. I have outlined a few key points to consider if you are planning to start a career in user experience design.

Haid, Marcus. uiGarden (2007). Careers>Usability>User Experience

Stories are the Human Experience

Usability through storytelling, the theme for the UPA 2006 conference, was examined from many angles. Presenters looked at how stories fit into our work, throughout the entire user-centered design process.

Quesenbery, Whitney. uiGarden (2006). Articles>User Experience>Rhetoric

Story Telling

Story telling has been going on for millennium; it is a wonderful way to entertain and to engage others. Stories are not direct or personal, but they convey a message that can be interpreted by other world views. Various story-telling devices, such as films, novels and plays have become part of a vast entertainment industry that often reflects cultural ideals. Religions often use a book of stories, such as the bible, to convey moral beliefs. So it is perhaps not surprising that HCI has developed forms of narrative to convey stories and messages about people's lives that it wants other world views to hear.

Jones, Rachel. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Rhetoric>User Experience

Success with User-Centered Design Management

With the proliferation of digital products, including computers, desktop and Web-based applications, and mobile and embedded devices, the quality of the user experience (UX) has become one of the key determinants in the success of competing products. Productivity, entertainment, and business-application programs for non-technical users in particular must have 'intuitive' interfaces.

Ashley, Jeremy and Kristin Desmond. uiGarden (2005). Design>User Centered Design>Project Management>User Experience

A Summary of My Ideas about National Culture Differences

In the uiGarden forum there has been much discussion about cultural differences in the web design, especially in reference to animation and flashy elements. It looks right to offer Professor Hofstede’s ideas to readers here. These ideas were first based on a large research project into national culture differences across subsidiaries of a multinational corporation (IBM) in 64 countries.

Hofstede, Geert. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Web Design>Cultural Theory

Tag Cloud in Chinese Websites

Tag cloud displays tags in a website which emphasize some of the tags by showing them with larger font sizes, and/or in darker colors. Moreover, tags in a tag cloud are usually arranged in alphabetical order. Tag cloud seems to work in the English world as a means of visualization as well as an extra means of navigation - what about in the Chinese world or more specifically, what about in Hong Kong?

Wong, Rex. uiGarden (2007). Articles>Information Design>Metadata>China

To Flash or Not To Flash? - Usability and User Engagement of HTML vs. Flash

Of the many challenges facing developers of museum Web sites, usability and engagement rank high. Many developers have adopted Macromedia Flash as a useful tool that allows greater interactivity and multimedia compared to HTML pages. This paper reports on a comparative evaluation of Flash and HTML versions of a single site, focusing on user information-seeking goals, behavior, and responses to each version of the site. We then compare the two versions based on holding power, time on task, user satisfaction, and qualitative interviews. Testing found notable differences between the two versions of the site, and between youth and adult tester groups. The results provide valuable insights into the relative strengths and weaknesses of Flash and HTML. While we cannot draw broad conclusions from a single case study, these data can help us begin the discussion around developing preliminary standards and basic frameworks for suggesting rationales for choosing Flash or HTML in a number of typical situations facing museum Web developers.

Schaller, David T., Steven Allison-Bunnell, Anthony Chow, Paul Marty and Misook Heo. uiGarden (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability>Flash