Week 8 Reading

Chapter 12: “Help! My Boss Wants me to ____________. When Bad Design Decisions Happen to Good People”

Krug first goes into why it is a bad idea to ask for more personal information than what is needed when subscribing to an online newspaper. A full address, birthday, occupation, etc. are not required and are considered offensive to the user. It also brings up some problems like users being skeptical of your product and won’t provide real information, or they just won’t bother to fill it out at all. Krug suggests requiring the user to fill out the bare minimum of the necessities you need to know, don’t even bother with optional fields that make you look like you’re asking for more information that you need. Also, being very clear to what the user receives in exchange for their information.

When a CEO is asking for more “pizazz” or “sizzle” to the site, Krug validates the importance of a presentable, professional, and attractive site (and being able to do that without it being too flashy). Stated: “Most of the time on the Web, people don’t want to be engaged; they just want to get something done…” Not only do flashy splash pages and big pictures slow down a site, but they are an outdated tool.

Krug’s final note reminds us that all the things he has told us in his book and bad practices of web design and how to prevent them. The only reason we should be breaking these rules is a) you really know what you’re doing, b) you have a darned good reason, and c) you actually are going to test it when you’re done to make sure you’ve managed to make it work; you’re not just going to intend to test it.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book and it made me understand web design a lot more. Initially I was the designer that could complain about a website and suggest on how to change it, but I couldn’t start from scratch and build a website out of pure nothingness and making it user friendly. This book changed that.

http://www.teehanlax.com/blog/iphone-gui-psd-v4/

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/10/11/splash-pages-do-we-really-need-them/

http://slodive.com/web-development/animation-and-web-design/

eCommerce Final Critique

Pretty Parlor ReDesign

iPhone App Ideas

Kayla and I have come up with the following ideas for our smartphone app:

1. A Parking Assistant App - would indicate parking in the city you are driving in that is close to you or will be close to your destination. Would show nearby lots/garages as well as free street parking zones, areas that are not open for parking during certain hours, etc.

2. Event Seating App - Would show you where your seat would be at a concert, play or special event. You would be able to see a map of the venue and see the view that you would have from your seat.

3. Design App - Would aid designers in determining typefaces seen out in public. You could take a picture of the typeface and the app would tell you what type of font it is, if there are special adjustments such as kerning, leading, etc. as well as what colors are being used.

Week 7 Reading Response

Chapter 10: "Usability as a Common Courtesy". 

Krug describes in his first few paragraphs a frustrating scenario every web surfer knows and has experienced -- looking for information that is clearly 1. not there 2. not acknowledged and 3. ignored. And this is a problem that we as designers need to realize before the surfers realize it. We must fix the problem before there is a problem; we must anticipate what the user wants and give it to them before they ask. And we must have the courtesy to make it visible and easily accessible- because it’s what the user wants. It comes down the one rule: “the user is always right”. And this includes more that just information that is given to the user, it’s also information that is asked of the user. For example, contact information and personal data should not have to be configured by the user. The user wants a thoughtless process; therefore, we must give them the easiest configuration possible. In short, the designer must be one step ahead- at all times. Designers increase the “goodwill” to the user when the things they want are obvious and in the shortest route possible. And users notice the effort put into making them happy.

Chapter 11: Accessibility, Cascading Style Sheets and You:  Just when you think you're done a cat floats by with buttered toast strapped to its back. 

This chapter brings in the designer and the usability expert- and the challenge of merging both visions. While the designer seems to have the world at their feet to design this website, there is a box that limits the design capabilities the developer programs: it must be user friendly to all who use it, including the people with special needs. Essentially, the developer is the bones of the website- all of the intricacies and the way it breathes is the concern of the developer. The designer then puts a flare of creativity and overall aesthetics to the piece and enhances the skeleton the developer produces. It is difficult however to be creative while playing to a strict rule-book. And this is what Krug states as the “usability problems”.

http://www.gawds.org/show.php?contentid=263

http://ryanfait.com/better/usability-and-accessibility/

http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/training/online/webdesign/css.html

Preliminary Critique eCommerce Site

Preliminary Critique

ECommerce

Binder 1

Portfolio Interface

Holt Project1

Week 4 Reading

Chapter 7: The first step in recovery is admitting that the Home Page is beyond your control: Designing in the Home Page

What the Home Page accommodates:

-                Site identity and mission: a consumer should know right away what the site is for and shouldn’t have to wonder or search for the topic.

-                Site hierarchy: The Home Page is essentially an overview of what the site looks like. And where you can find what.

-                Search: An option to search exactly what the consumer wants is a must. And it must be shown predominantly.

-                Teases: Content/Feature promos are like the enticing hints on the cover of magazines- they must make the consumer want to explore more.

-                Timely Content: keeping the site up-to-date with upcoming specials to reassure the consumer that the site is active and constantly changing- this also entices them to visit again soon.

-                Deals: Space for advertisement of the product, cross-promotion, and co-branding deals.

-                Shortcuts: eliminates the need for hunting down a specific piece of information. And user friendly.

-                Registration: becoming a member of the site to make areas more accessible to users.

Home Page objectives:

-                Show me what I’m looking for

-                And what I’m not looking for

-                Show me where to start

-                Establish credibility and trust

Constraints:

-                The “waterfront” of the web real estate- lots of traffic.

-                Lots of opinions because everyone is using it.

-                The Home Page has to appeal to everyone who visits the site- no matter how diverse their interests.

The First Casualty of War

The best Home Pages involve compromise because they can’t be pleasing to all who view them. So, the Home Page must convey the big picture- the overall view, instead of squeezing every last detail into the page because it gets lost among the shuffle.

            It must answer four initial questions immediately:

o   What is this?

o   What can I do here?

o   What do they have here?

o   Why should I be here—and not somewhere else?

The hard part is you do need to impress, entice, direct, and expose the deals to the consumer- but in a way that will not be boring and will not take forever.

How to get the message across

-                Tagline: should be right next to the site ID, so they are received as meant to be in a pair.

-                Welcome blurb: a terse description of the site- visible without scrolling

-                The tagline and the welcome blurb are part of recognizing/guessing what the site is about.

-                Common ground between using the space you need and using too much space.

-                Don’t use a mission statement as a Welcome blurb- because no one reads them.

-                Test the product- self-testing the homepage will help you make improvements.

Taglines are:

-                Appears right below, above, or next to the site ID

-                Clear, Informative

-                Vague

-                Just long enough

-                Differentiation from similar products

-                A clear benefit of the product

-                Generic

-                Personable, lively, sometimes clever

-                They are not a motto- a motto expresses a guiding principle, a goal, or an ideal, but a tagline conveys a value of proposition. Mottos are lofty and reassuring but they don’t describe the product.

Where to start

            The consumer should say with confidence with they enter your Home Page

o   Here’s where to start if I want to search

o   Here’s where to start if I want to browse

o   Here’s where to start if I want to sample their best stuff

Best way to start is to make the entry points look like entry points.

Unique Home Page Navigation

-                Section descriptions: you can add descriptive phrases to each section name, or even list the subsections

-                Different Orientation: the Home Page often requires a very different layout from all the other pages- so it may be necessary to use horizontal instead of vertical navigation, or vice versa.

-                More space for identity: the site ID on the Home Page is usually larger than in the persistent navigation, like the large sign over the store entrance, and it usually needs some empty space next to it for the tagline, which may not appear on every page.

-                But the home navigation and the persistent navigation need to be similar enough so that they are recognizable to each other.

Pull Down Menus

They’re troublesome because:

-                You have to seek them out: scanning down a pull-down list doesn’t allow your eye to catch on anything.

-                They’re hard to scan: in standard HTML, you have no control over font, spacing, or formatting of the list to make it more readable, and there’s no really good way to divide the list into subgroups

-                They’re twitchy: the move so quickly they’re hard to read.

-                They are more effective for alphabetized lists of items with known names, like countries, states of products because there’s no thought involved.

Reflection:

This was a great chapter because it really gives a good starting direction with our new assignment for the ecommerce site.