This Plus is a Minus

Sometimes people can't leave well enough alone.  This search function is a little odd to say the least. 

First of all there is the circle with the plus in it. Does this have anything to do with the Quick Search box. It's not a standard, expected symbol for launching a search. Plus signs most typically indicate that there is more information available upon click - folders, links. I suppose one could argue that more info (e.g. Search results) will follow but it's hardly a well established metaphor. But - turns out that's what it is. 

Not only that but if the designer thought that this symbol was a good idea and users would know how to use it why didn't he/she at least put it close to the input field so it looked like it was part of the whole process.

C'mon folks !!

Luckily I've Got Another Foot

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! This is a portion of the home page of a new CMS application. Perhaps they should have perfected it just a bit more before launching. Looks like content on their own site is not all that "managed" - but hey buy it anyway!

I don't know what else to say......

Utility vs. Usability

The other day someone posed the question – “What is the difference between utility and usability?”

At first glance there doesn’t seem to be much difference. But looking closer you can see it.

In general Utility is serviceableness, applicability, appropriateness, advantageous. This suggests that whatever the object is (e.g. software application) there is an advantage to using it.

What Utility doesn’t state – is the ease with which the object can be used.

That’s where Usability comes in. Of the many definitions of Usability that I encountered one seems to sum it up quite nicely - “The ease with which people can employ a particular tool ..in order to achieve a particular goal”.

Good products have both components – it is essential that the tool provide some advantage otherwise why have it. But if it is so difficult to employ that users are discouraged from using it then it’s value is greatly diminished and the advantages are lost.

So the equation not :

UTILITY = USABILITY

But rather

UTILITY + USABILITY = ADVANTAGE

Tabbing and then what!

I got an email from an industry associate asking about something that this site had implemented and what was our opinion. In the process of looking at the issue I came across some other interesting tidbits.

Tabbing through the nav bar I noticed that when the tab hit one of the facet buttons the text contrast all but disappeared. Sure - it is now in contrast to the overall appearance of the other buttons but one would think that bold reinforcement of where you just landed might be a more appropriate action.

I only spent about 3 minutes on this site and found not only the problem above but another not-so-good design item. Once I had landed on the "Baby" button above I thought I would just tab through the other buttons. Well, apparently the designers didn't think I would want to do that so they moved the start of the tab process right up to the top of the page. So instead of continuing on I started over.

Gentlemen - Start Your Engines - or not

 I got this offer to view videos of business software. All I had to do was sign up. 

So I went to the create account section and there was this nice red text and button inviting me to get started. 

Only problem - it was inactive - clicking did nothing. And, right below this area of the page was a form for signing up.

So I'm wondering

1. Since the form is right there why do they need this kind of prompt?
2. If they feel they need it - why did they make it look like an actionable element? No action is required (yes I know - other than fill out the form)
3. I know it's a call to action but the text would have been sufficient. Like I said, the form was about half an inch below. 

Why do I have a problem with this? Because people have preconceived notions about what certain things on a web page represent. The downward arrow looks like it should be clicked to get started.  Some users might interpret this as a necessary action even though the form was close by. 

So, choose icons carefully. Use graphical elements that clearly do one of two things

1. Prompt the user to click to take the next step  OR
2. Direct the user to continue on without having to click on anything

How to make friends even if you don't want to

Social networking tools are really cool. They help us to find old friends, make new ones, locate companies, see who's doing what etc.

One of the more popular ones has this interface. It opens if you click on a name connected to one of your linked "friends" and offers you the opportunity to connect with this friend of a friend, in this example Glenn B..

My question is, why would I need to go through the process of connecting with Glenn when I don't know anything about him except he knows my other friend.

But these folks seem to think I need to connect with Glenn in order to read his profile, see who we both know, and consider sharing details with him before I'm sure if I want to be connected with him at all -I haven't seen his profile, only know of one friend who knows him and haven't shared any details with him yet. 

Gotta go - I have to hook up my horse to my cart, or is it my cart to my horse or...

If you build it they will come

I got into the whole software design/usability world by accident. Never thought about doing it before and sure didn’t know I had a talent for it. 

Starting my new job as Manager of Telecom Planning 9 years ago was supposed to be the crowning achievement of my career of more than 20 years in telecommunications. Too bad that the other department already doing that work didn’t feel like giving it up. So after an 18 month dance my group lost out and my beloved position was dissolved. 

Now what? Turns out that the audit department had developed quite a hate for some of the documentation practices of one of my colleagues. So, without further adieu ladies and gentlemen, I was given the task of fixing it up – a decision based more on my availability than on any identified capability. 

Pretty soon it became apparent that some kind of tool was going to be necessary to manage all of the documents in the fashion the audit guys cherished. We didn’t have one and none of the senior executives saw any reason to help us buy one. But, through a stroke of good fortune, I met an independent developer and we convinced my management team to give us a small fund to start building something. 

Based on an existing web-based CMS application written by my new colleague we began the process of creating an electronic document management system. Up to that point I had never seen or used one so I had absolutely no idea how they worked. And that my friends is the moment at which I began my incredible journey into designing software. 

We did the most extraordinary thing – we asked our user community what they needed – sounds like USER CENTERED DESIGN (I’d never heard of it!). We didn’t even look at any existing DMS systems for ideas. We just built on the basic methods the users already had and added in the things that they needed. 

We asked, they told  us, we designed a working model, they kicked the tires, we added/subtracted/changed things then asked them again. “Better this time!” they said – sounds like AGILE DEVELOPMENT (something else I had never heard of!) 

This went on every day/week/month for about 2 years – from day one the system provided value and with each new iteration it got better and better. At the end we had a highly functional system which rivaled many commercial offerings. It cost us $63,000 to build and it stayed in production for 3 years until one of the senior executives got the bright idea (not from us) to buy from one of the industry giants. 

I actually helped implement the new system, kind of a sad time. But, it was most satisfying to hear many of our users say “I like the old one better!” 

So out of the ashes the Phoenix rises. One failure led to an incredible new beginning. I moved into a field that required the kind of instincts I had about technologies and humans. Build it for them and they will come! 

I went on to design other things, again using the same customer focus and got similar results. And, I’m still at it today- helping to build useful, usable tools. Just what the Dr., and the customer ordered!

 

Brand versus Bland

One of the interesting software tools I use offers this login.

The colours are in keeping with their site style and branding and in general that is a desirable goal.

Problem is that sometimes the user experience is diminished, as in this case.

Neither the colour contrast nor the luminosity meet minimum standards. In short, this is hard on the eyes (especially for old guys like me) and really doesn't enforce the brand to any real degree.

Why not use the old tried and true black on white for such things. Sometimes bland is more important than Brand!

There's No Pause for Alarm!

I was watching a product demo and noticed this interesting design quirk (in my mind anyway).

The playback controls did not include a Pause function, just Play and Stop.

Small thing but most of us think that using the Stop function will halt playing the video and return to the beginning. Not so here. It actually pauses and holds the position then resumes if the Play function is selected.

Not conventional and for some users it will be confusing. Why not go the extra little bit and remove any possibility of a diminished user experience.

Why Bother!

I heard an ad on the radio for a tax relief bank account.

Cool idea but the web site was short on usability.

The vertical scroll bar promised the usual up/down arrows and presumably also auto scrolling by placing the cursor in the vertical scroll path itself.

NOT SO MUCH!

The only way to scroll the window was to to select and hold the scroll widget and move the text up or down.

So the question is, at least for the scroll arrows - WHY BOTHER!

Would You Know What to do?

Someone sent this to me recently. I don't know the company so I'm unlikely to use their services. If I did know who they were I'm unlikely to be able to use their services.

Do you have any ideas how to use this?? I don't!

I Have Control Issues

I was doing something at work the other day and was required to watch an on-line tutorial.

I had the link and got to the video quite easily. Then the fun began. I couldn't figure out how to start it. There was the usual Volume slider at the bottom of the page but no start/pause/stop controls.

After a little bit of non-intuitive searching I found them - not at the bottom where everybody else puts them but above the viewing area - this may not be the only time this has been done but it's the first time I've seen it.

Why oh why do some folks think that they can just move things because it suits their design layout strategy. Afterall they aren't the ones who are going to be playing the video. But of course we all knew to look way up there didn't we.

Small misses can be big messes

Nice Button - good size, noticeable, purpose well defined, it was even strategically well placed

What's not to like?

Clicking on it didn't do anything!

The folks who own this site sell products which optimize your registry. Techie stuff - requires lots of savvy and customers want to be confident that this company knows what it is doing - messing up their registry is not the goal.

So how can they miss this little detail and still retain customer confidence?

Maybe they can but it does raise the question "If they can miss something this simple, what have they missed in their product design?"

Who Told Them Failure Is Funny?

Our favourite search engine has a very popular free email service. It's flaky but it's a beta so I guess we just have to accept it failings - except for one!

I don't know about you but when I'm in the middle of doing something and the system I am using crashes I don't think it's all that much fun - OOPS is not an acceptable message.

If you work in product development for a software manufacturer like I do - just try that on your customers!

I don't hear the laughter!

My First Day as a Blogger

Well, here I am with my very own (sort of) blog. Old guy joins the the "connected" era.

I'm a usability guy - I like to look at things and figure out if they work really well already or how they could work better. So some are Hits and some are Messes.

When I find something worth commenting on I'm gonna do it here.

If you see something you think I would enjoy looking at, let me know.