Wednesday, August 24, 2005

User InExperience has moved!

Well, I figured it was time to ditch blogspot and put my own stake in the ground. Between this new "flagging" business and the spamblogs hurting my ranking among search engines, I figured I'd move to greener pastures.

Say hello to www.UserInExperience.com. I've set myself up on my own domain and I'm now running WordPress (which is cake, by the way)

So come on over. I've got things set-up and I'm already posting new stuff.

If you're reading me via a nifty feed-reader, then be sure to drop the old link and add this one:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/userinexperience/tYGT

See you on the other side! Since I now have full control over my site, feel free to give me feedback on how I can craft a better experience for you!

posted by Brandon Satrom at 5:53 PM 7 comments

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Broken links, branded 404 pages and defensive design

Here's an email I received just now from Koss:

Hot Off The Presses!
Be the first to experience the new UR21 Koss Stereophone. Lightweight with deep bass.
Order before 8/31/05 and receive free shipping.

To take advantage of this offer:
1. Click on the link below.
2. Add UR21 to your cart.
3. Enter coupon code 081605 at checkout.

Offer expires August 31, 2005.
This offer valid in U.S. only. Not valid with other offers.

-------------------------------------------------------
http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/04ProductDetailCall?ReadForm&Home+Stereophones%5EUR21

Heck yeah, I want to be one of the first to experience the new UR21 Koss Stereophone. Here's what I got when I clicked on the link:



Looks like Koss has an amazing email promotion system. It so good, in fact, that it sends emails even before products are added to the website. Ouch...

What do you think are the chances of a typical user trying this link again and again until it works? Slim to none? I'd be willing to bet that conversion hurts for this, even if they do send another email.

And I'm not just picking on Koss here. I like their stuff, or I wouldn't ask for emails from them. The point is that, for many companies, email referrals represent a large segment of traffic to a site. Mistakes like these can be expensive, and the broken link isn't even the biggest problem. I think the biggest issue here is that Koss doesn't have a branded 404 page to keep me on the site.

Here's what I mean:
A friendly message, a link back to the home page and even some product recommendations are what make this an ideal 404 page for Amazon. It's called defensive design. And it works.

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posted by Brandon Satrom at 1:33 PM 0 comments

What makes for a great search experience?

This morning, I started working on a couple of posts that will pit the search experience of two competing sites against each other. I plan to finish and publish these in the next few days, but I'd like to get the comment-mill going in the meantime. The question is:

What are the things that make for your ideal search experience?

If you can, please comment on this post and list a few things you think ypur ideal search needs to have. It doesn't need to be comprehensive, just a few ideas off the top of your head. Also, feel free to link to a site or sites that you think do search well. Finally, since I'd love to get as many comments as possible, feel free send this post around to friends, family, search experts, etc so they can comment as well. I'd love to get a long list of the things people are looking for in their search experience.

Here are some of mine to start things off:

1. Ubiquitous (or uniform) search box
2. Results easy to identify, even on a crowded page
3. Ability to refine or start over

This is by no means complete. So what do you think?

posted by Brandon Satrom at 7:01 AM 1 comments

Friday, August 12, 2005

Human-Centered Design vs. Activity-Centered Design

Donald Norman says "Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful."

Abstract:

"Human-Centered Design has become such a dominant theme in design that it is now accepted by interface and application designers automatically, without thought, let alone criticism. That's a dangerous state - when things are treated as accepted wisdom. The purpose of this essay is to provoke thought, discussion, and reconsideration of some of the fundamental principles of Human-Centered Design. These principles, I suggest, can be helpful, misleading, or wrong. At times, they might even be harmful. Activity-Centered Design is superior."

-Donald A. Norman in Interactions, 12. 4, (July + August, 2005). Pp. 14-19.


The idea expressed above may seem controversial on the surface, but I think it makes perfect sense. In my Design for Context series (now long overdue for a third installment), I've talked about undertaking web design in a context that works. I think there is a flavor of that in the paragraph above. What need is there to consider the whole person (Human-centered design) when your design needs to cater to what that person wants to do with your product (Activity-centered design).

Norman summarizes a key problem with HCD:

"If it is so critical to understand the particular users of a product, then what happens when a product is designed to be used by almost anyone in the world?"
according to Norman, HCD has resulted in a continuation of complex and confusing products because they try too much to cater to a vast array of human idiosyncrasies.

Another interesting point Norman makes is that though ACD sounds like something lesser in scope than HCD, it actually requires all of the user-sensitive concerns of HCD, but also "...requires a deep understanding of the technology, of the tools, and of the reasons for the activities."

There's a lot more to this article that I don't have time for now. This is one to print, enjoy and mark-up.

Thanks, as always Don, for turning us all on our ears.

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posted by Brandon Satrom at 7:32 AM 0 comments

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Say Hello to Goognorati

Hold on to your butts everyone! B.L. Ochman seems pretty confident that technorati.com is about to be cherry-picked. Anyone want to venture a guess who it is? Starts with a "G"... ends with an "oogle."

Let the consolidation begin. Who thinks that MSN or Yahoo! buys IceRocket next?

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posted by Brandon Satrom at 5:18 PM 5 comments

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

The User Experience of Catharsis

I achieved an empty email inbox today:

It's a pretty amazing feeling to get that sucker emptied out. And even though it doesn't mean I don't have any actionable email right this minute (you can just make out some unread and marked for follow-up email in the image), it's nice to know that for a brief moment, there is nothing vying for my attention outside of what I have on my own task list.

Do you think Microsoft ever considered what "The Empty Inbox" would mean to a user in their design? I'll bet they didn't. I would hope that a little WAV of the Hallelujah Chorus would spin up each time if they had.

And yet, if you read anything on self-organization or Lifehacks (43Folders, GTD, etc.) you'll hear about the catharsis of the empty inbox and what it can mean to a person.

Moral: Sometimes the side-effects of a design can mean more to your users than most of what you intended to do for them.

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posted by Brandon Satrom at 10:49 AM 3 comments

A Dump of things I'm reading

posted by Brandon Satrom at 7:37 AM 2 comments