What UI for writers? Alternative to MS Word…

An article in the NYTimes lamenting the contrast of how writers think and how Word doesn’t cut it. Ultimately, it’s an entertaining article about crafting a UI for a specific usertype.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/magazine/06wwln-medium-t.html?

Scrivener for Mac
http://literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.html

MS Word was arguably created for everyone needing a word processor. But when addressing the experience of writing, particularly for writers, Word comes up short. Accommodating non-linear thinking with notes, outlines, metaphors and approaching the empty page as a canvas to minimize distractions among other things are what Scrivener employs to help writers write.

So is that why Vista…

Why does Vista Suck? Blame Automated Testing

“This isn’t to say that automated tests are useless… far from it. However, if your requirements for “tester” are the same as your requirements for “programmer,” then you’re not really doing testing.”

However, there were lively pro/con comments….

Use Cases for Process and Product

What if we took a use-case approach to defining our design and dev processes? Would that give us a different perspective of how we would like to work?

Sometimes a use-case needs to be documenting in text. Other times a workflow does the best. And in still other cases, would a prototype be more appropriate? When something is very well understood, do you need to textually define it or can you just build it?

A nomenclature (meta data) for a use case seems also to be a needed thing. Some are very finite others are at a high level. Some are self contaned (can be completed in one-sitting) others are extended across time and multiple steps.

Use-cases should be able to be used for products as well as software. Anything requiring user-interaction, could use use-cases as a tool.

Thoughts?

“Make it easy to be happy”

A great candidate for an ‘epiphany of the day’ found at a blog of Jesper Rønn-Jensen who gets at the heart of what User Experience is. I found this and other excellent UX links through Stephen Pautz’s site, who has inquired on our job posting and is a voracious reader of all things UxD.

http://justaddwater.dk/2006/06/21/user-experience-revisited/

Excerpt: (originally sourced from the excellent blog of Thomas Baekdal)

Focus on making it easy to be happy, and usability, user-experience and greatness will come all by itself.

Also, from the blog, check out this excellent User Experience chart (and also Poster!)

Apple User Experience Library

From the Apple Developer Connection, UX guides for Mac OSX, iPhone, etc.

http://developer.apple.com/ue/

About Consistency…

I read a great little post by Jason Fried at 37Signals about the placement of the iTunes icon on the iPhone. Instead of putting the new button in the next open slot in the grid (lower left), the icon, while still in the grid, was placed closer to the iPod icon in the lower right. The author was delighted that this was a great example of “Context over Consistency”. The rules may seem to have been broken, but upon closer inspection, you see that it was a balancing act between competing logic opportunities: consistency of the grid read vs. proximity to related major function (iPod).

I agree with this approach, however, in this case it is daring because if this is the new ‘consistency’, it will have challenges ahead as the UI fills up with icons (three slots left!). At some point, associations with the four major functions along the bottom will be lost on the user as icons compete for proximity. Add in right and left-handedness, and you’ve got quite a balancing act! But with context already a driver, maybe it will introduce new methods to accommodate a growing family of icons (see ‘Spaces’ or ‘Stacks’ in Leopard).

As designers, we all know that you have to know the rules and when to break them. If a ‘rule’ was apparently broken, you may be called on it. But as the author put it, “Consistency is the easy choice. Context is the thinking choice.” (Comments poster goes further and adds, “Performance above all”).

Top 100 User-centered blogs…

Comprehensive list of top 100 UX Blogs if you have the time to dig.

Adobe XD Team

The XD Best practices session at Max was quite interesting. A member of Adobes XD team spoke. Their framework broke things down into 3 areas: Team; Process and Principles. Go to their site at xd.adobe.com.

Team
1. Emphasis Making
* Deconstructing
* Generalist over Specialist
* Wholistic
2. Promote Trust and Freedom
3. Have Fun
* Personality and Fit are critical

Process
1. Communication is Critical
2. Process isn’t that important
3. Five ways to work (rules)

• Simplify the problem
• Trust your instincts
• Share everything
• Fail Fast (to succeed sooner)
• We are peers before the Object

Principles (How to Work):
Useful -> Usable -> Desirable (eg. washing machines)

4 Cornerstones:
What is the Point?
* Have a clear design objective
* Task first
* Keep it simple
* Focus and Emphasis

Content is King
* Content before Chrome
* Provide flexibility
* Enable direct manipulation

Create an Experience not an Interface
* Create a spark
* Make it personal
* Just enough is more
* Respond, don’t dictate
* Respect design objective

Choreograph, Sequence and Flow
* Design is a whole
* Establish hierarchy
* Motion has meaning
* Guide and orient
* Preserve context
* Be consistent

Conference in November by Jared Spool’s Company

Several of us saw Jared Spool at MAX at the excellent Intuitive Interfaces seminar.

He founded a UX consultancy called User Interface Engineering (be sure to sign up for the UIEtips newsletter) They hold a conference every year, the User Interface 12 Conference is November 5-8. Check out this seminar:

Interaction Design in an Agile World
Larry Constantine, Constantine & Lockwood
Utilize Agile Development processes to implement a shorter development lifecycle and encourage collaboration.

Pricey for four days but could be worth it.

Also check out their blog brainsparks

In praise of Outside – In

Designing from the outside in

Short O’Rielly piece.

Frameworks will emerge. Nice landscape architecture metaphor too.