My Fortune
July 3rd, 2008
Let’s hope so. Of course the back of it says Ice-skating. I hope that doesn’t mean I need to give up design and buy a leotard.
When good forms go bad…
July 2nd, 2008
The form, with humble upbringings, was recognized early on for his ability to help people accomplish their tasks. Born with a servant heart, he accepted all types of input with little resistance. Occasionally he would have to remind someone they forgot to provide required information but he never got angry or upset. He always said thank you after they stopped by.
One day, the form moved to a new city. He quickly made friends since other people saw how helpful he was. One of his new friends, Web, introduced him to something he’d never experienced before. “JavaScript? What an unusual name,” said the form. “Just use a little bit. I think you’ll like it,” said Web while snickering.
Alert! What’s that sound? Alert! Alert! Why do I have a terrible headache. Alert! Something is different. “Alert! First Name Required. OK?” Did I just yell that? What happened last night? “Alert! Email Required. Zip Code Required. OK?
O.K. so maybe this fictional account of a form’s real life is a bit dramatic. But I think it’s important to note that sometimes we don’t makes the best choices with technology. In the form’s case, his friend Web introduced him to JavaScript. Now I’m not saying JavaScript is the gateway to bad usability but we should be careful with how we use it. In the form’s case, he used it to provide error messages in an Alert dialog when required fields weren’t filled out. A fairly common practice. One issue with this approach is on Windows-based web browsers it causes a loud system alert sound to play. Should we really yell at our users? Another issue is you have to click the “OK” button to make the dialog go away. If you try to click somewhere else, since the dialog is modal, it yells again.
So how can we stop this yelling? We can still use JavaScript but render the error messages on the screen instead of in an Alert dialog. We can also visually highlight the fields they didn’t fill in. This, in my opinion, is a much better approach than asking someone to figure out what they forgot. Server-side validation should also be used as a degradation strategy for those instances where JavaScript isn’t present or enabled.
To be continued…
Matt
July 1st, 2008
Matt Week - Day One Time Lapse from Carsonified on Vimeo.
Carsonified is building a web app, named Matt, in one week four days. Fun video. Can’t wait to see the end result.
Design IS the new black
June 27th, 2008
Yesterday I viewed an excellent presentation by Will Tschumy. I had originally planned to embed the presentation here along with the notes I made. But I started thinking, did I really want this to be one of those kind of posts or should it be something different? A lot of thoughts bubbled up as a result of viewing this so I thought I’d share those instead.
The content of Will’s presentation resonated with me. I think one of the reasons is it touched on topics and methodologies I experienced at UX Intensive. But the main reason is because he starts off by addressing the common misconception that design is, “just about making it pretty.” Those that know me have probably watched me cringe when someone asks me to make it pretty. Why? Design shouldn’t just happen at the end of a project. Saying make it pretty implies, at least to me, that a lot of work has already been done. It also implies that design is just about the aesthetics and shouldn’t be involved in other decisions and processes. I’m fortunate to work in an organization where design is recognized appropriately but I’ve also worked where it wasn’t. Trying to change this mindset is challenging.
Will states that “design seems like it may be the new black” and business leaders are starting to pay more attention to design and design thinking. I agree and will take it a step further by saying design IS the new black. But just like most trends, I hope design doesn’t get replaced by whatever comes next. As a design practitioner, I have the responsibility to use this business interest in design appropriately and help ensure it doesn’t go the way of tight-rolled jeans.
I noticed a couple of years ago that Microsoft was starting to be more open about their design group. I was glad to see them do this because it sends the right message to businesses that rely on Microsoft products (and what business doesn’t). However when I went to a Microsoft conference, there weren’t very many designers there. They gave out wrist bands for us to “tag” ourselves as: business people, developers, and designers. The Microsoft employees seemed genuinely interested in design and design thinking but I did get quite a few of those what is a designer doing at a Microsoft conference looks from other attendees. I was at dinner one night, having some of the best sushi ever, and I encountered a couple of developers from New York. We started talking about the conference and our respective backgrounds. When they found out I was a designer the conversation abruptly ended. They mentioned that they wanted to do more design work but weren’t sure what that meant yet.
Thanks toaster
June 25th, 2008
I love it when random useful things happen. Yesterday I was preparing a late night snack. When our toaster was finished it popped this bagel out. This is how it landed:
Thanks toaster.