Archive for December 2006

28 Dec 2006 2029H

Design, Globalization, LukeW: a rant

Y’know, I generally like Luke Wroblewski’s stuff, but there are times when I’m reading his blog that I’m left shaking my head. For instance, there’s this paragraph from his article on the Complexity of Simplicity, which goes probably 90% unchallenged by the predominantly white American audience:
In many Asian countries, for example, congested spaces are quite [...]

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22 Dec 2006 1843H

Microsoft to begin making amends for XBox 360 tech problems

Dean Takahashi of the San Jose Mercury reports that Microsoft is responding at last to users and bad PR on the XBox 360’s tech problems and so, the warranty’s being extended to one year, retroactively, and the $140 Microsoft was asking for in order to repair their poorly assembled hardware will be reimbursed to us. [...]

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22 Dec 2006 0953H

Information design: less is more, only show more when I need it

It’s funny where you learn lessons about designing information. I was playing GRAW the other night and there’s a sequence when you’re flying above Zocalo Plaza in Mexico City, gunning down soldiers on rooftops trying to bring your bird down. Now when you do this normally, there’s so much detail whizzing by (and you’re being [...]

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19 Dec 2006 0019H

Sears.com Appliance Checkout

It’s not everyday that you run into a piece of your past. I bought a fridge today, it was rated highly by Consumer Reports, it’s a Kenmore, and I’m giving it as a present to my parents for Xmas. They don’t read blogs or much online so I’m safe saying this out loud. Anyway, back [...]

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18 Dec 2006 0738H

Weekend learnings in information architecture (and other things)

I really like the user interface for the electronic payment system at Trader Joe’s, just beats the pants off Ikea’s — a lot of good things happening with it, explicit options, progressive disclosure — but the cashier let me in on some user observation, which is that the system does not reflect state. So apparently, [...]

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15 Dec 2006 1722H

What is this progressive disclosure?

Progressive disclosure is a fancy interaction design term for chunking complex tasks into easy-to-digest segments. You see it all the time, most likely, but you probably never had a word for it until now. Progressive disclosure is the design principle that lies behind wizards, for instance, or search engines like Google, or print dialog boxes. [...]

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14 Dec 2006 0602H

Some information architecture tidbits

Okay, okay. . . some IA tidbits here to get us back on track.
Last week, just like I learned from Steve Krug, I did some usability testing with eight users who matched the description of the personas we’re using for our site. I used a Logitech webcam, my corporate issued laptop, and some software [...]

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11 Dec 2006 2010H

As hopes are fading, GM turns to Design to save the day

I’m taking a slight pause from this week’s Monday Night Football, featuring Da Bears at St Louis, to feed the blog. I’m hoping the Bears are who we think they are, which gives me a little time to talk about GM, who is not and has not been for sometime the company that we have [...]

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06 Dec 2006 0215H

One size does not fit all: McDonalds in East Asia

In the winter of late 91, early 92 I was a frequent visitor of the McDonalds in Kowloon and the New Territories in Hong Kong, mostly, as a lonely young expat who found it a little intimidating to eat alone in restaurants in Hong Kong and wanting to get a sense of Home. I did [...]

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01 Dec 2006 0014H

User centered design roundup (and Tivo-bashing)

Yesterday was a bonanza for user-centered design related news. When I cracked open my USA Today this morning, aside from the prescription label story, a judge has ordered the US Treasury to make currency more accessible to the blind. This will likely entail a redesign that should make the size of the bills different [...]

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