User Experience « Tyesha Snow

User Experience

June15th

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UX Tip: Use Content Examples

Posted in: User Experience

A great way to make sure a revision to a wire is noticed is to change the example you are using ALSO Using relevant examples (text and photos) can go along way in expressing strategy and the strength of the design.

Here’s How it Works

Versioning:

In versions 1-3 you used Ginger’s Dance studio as the example for a Business Detail page, now you have a major revision to make and want to make sure no one accidentally uses the old versions. Change the example business to Hot Dogs Hot Dogs!

Now you can say, “Be sure you the are using the Hot Dogs! Hot Dogs! version”. So much better than “Are you using version 4?”

This works great for big changes but also for small ones would be easily missed.

Demonstrating Strategy:

I know many of you still use Lorum Ipsum but I’ve switch over to “real” example text/photos as it is a tool for testing the design and expressing the strategy to the team. Don’t get me wrong I don’t write copy for all places copy appears just for the places that are pivotal to understanding the design.

You can often find the perfect copy or photo out on the the web so you don’t even have to spend a bunch of time writing copy when you should be doing one of the other hundred things on the UX plate.
January4th

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Web Video: What, why, how long and illustrate

Posted in: Success Measurements, User Experience

As a user I’m not much into watching video online. So many of them are too long, don’t provide enough value and make me feel less in control of my site experience. As a User Experience professional I know I’m not a typical user but I think we as designers could do a bit better when it comes to presenting video on websites.

I like the idea of using video to illustrate how things work and express complicated ideas. Video is also a great way to introduce new, less understood products and services. The problem I often see with the use of video is the lack of set up, context and definition of expectations.

If you would like a a user to watch your video a great way to do it is to:

1. Tell them what it’s about

2. Tell them what they will get out of watching it

3. Tell them how long it is

4. Design a still image that starts to tell the story

I was reminded of all this by visiting the Wistia site. Although they don’t hit points #3 & #4. They totally nail points #1 & #2.

The product is also really interesting, I wrote about this topic and the importance of defining success measurements for video a while back here. Looks like this could be a great tool for that.
December30th

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Remember Romania

Posted in: Design, Inspiration, Interaction Design, User Experience

I am having a positive reaction to this site

for the following reasons….

.

.

The bookmark metaphor

The color coded medium identifiers (colored dots, key in the top left)

Getting a nice preview of the work

Navigating with arrow keys

It mimics the experience of walking through a gallery.

It utilizes the wide screen (i have one so I like it)

I’m so so about the audio announcing each artist. As a an English speaker I enjoy hearing how to pronounce the names. It is a bit futuristic and creepy though.

(I found the site via SiteInspire)
December23rd

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Center nav, pleasing colors

Posted in: Design, Information Architecture, User Experience

I like this site.*

1. The colors and texture are really pleasing and unexpected for a staffing site.

2. I’m a fan of using the main navigation to tell the story. By placing it in the middle of the page what’s inside the site is elevated to something worth exploring not just a bunch of links pushed to the side or up in the corner.

This placement allows the eyes to bounce through each navigation label and build a quick understanding of what the site and/or company has to offer.

3. The subtle animations in the hero and the headers of the sub pages are smooth, interesting and add to the experience.

*Yes, there are places it falls apart, especially on some of the internal pages, but I suspect the final comps and interaction plan before development and months of little changes by various business interests, were really great.
December16th

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let it breath

Posted in: Inspiration, Interaction Design, User Experience

Anyone else tired of consuming their media, art and news in a cluttered environment? I am.

If you know me you’ve probably heard me say many times, that I just can’t use online tools, sites or resources that aren’t pleasing to my design and to a certain extent aesthetic sensibilities, although a do appreciate anything well designed even if it isn’t really my taste.

Behold…..FROM THE BASEMENT

Besides the bad ass content, including, photos, well shot HD video and great sound. The space in which the videos live is simple and let’s you do what you came to do. Rock out, tear up, get inspired, enjoy the music. I even like how a featured video starts when you land on the site. Never thought I’d say that but it envelopes you right away and I guess it just feels good.

If you haven’t checked out the site….have fun….

The Kills
December11th

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shapes are good

Posted in: Design, User Experience

Related to my last post about icons. This is from 101 Things I Learned in Interaction Design School. Awesome site.
November20th

5 Comments

Managing “User Generated Opinions”

Posted in: Content, Social Media, User Experience

There are many ways to engage your users, one of these ways is to allow them to register their opinion in a quick and simple way. This trend is a nice way to engage the majority of people will never actually construct a written comment or craft any other type of content. It’s the “low barrier to entry” User Generated Content (UGC).

You often see this done with a nice set of buttons that range from approval to disapproval depending on the social environment of the application. Facebook for example only allows you to “Like” something, which is perfectly appropriate, as there is no sense in giving people tools to be mean spirited with. A person can do plenty of damage with the current set of features. Although, it would be nice to have a range of “nice” or constructive” opinions you could register via a simple button.

One thing to remember when designing this type of User Generated Opinion (UGO) functionality is that you must have a scalable plan.

The plan needs to consider the effect of these opinions at project launch and a year later.
It needs to envision how will they impact the experience when you have 100 participates, 1000 participates or tens of thousands.

How can these ratings establish and maintain value, usefulness and creditability over time?

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November16th

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Bringing Stakeholders into the User Experience Plan

Posted in: Deliverables, Research, Strategy, User Experience

I recently worked on a project that ran into a few issues when we got to the design comp phase. Essentially when the comps were circulated internally, a number of stakeholders felt their needs where not being met. You may ask how we got all the way to comps before this came up and I could talk through the entire project identifying places where the process could have been improved, but I’d like to bring the focus to the beginning of the project where I think we missed an opportunity to succeed.

The responsibility of a User Experience Designer are vast. We take a leadership role in project definition, we gather, validate and nurture the needs of not just customers but of the business and the stakeholders. I’ve distinguished the business from the stakeholders on purpose because I think this is where the problems on the my project began. Read More | Comments