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!

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.

Tags: Defensive Design, 404 Pages, User Experience, Koss, Amazon

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?

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.

Tags: user-centered design, activity-centered design, ACD, HCD, Donald Norman, Usability, User Experience

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?

Tags: Technorati, Google, MSN, Yahoo!, IceRocket

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.

Tags: Outlook, lifehacks, 43Folders, GTD, Getting Things Done, The Empty Inbox

A Dump of things I'm reading

There's no rhyme or reason, but here are some of the things I've thrown into del.icio.us of late:

The List: http://del.icio.us/thesatch
The Feed: http://del.icio.us/rss/TheSatch

The Links:

31 days to better blogging
Tags: blog howto problogger

How to get into blog-reading
Tags: blog blogging blogs howto reference rss web

Getting started with "Getting Things Done"
Tags: 43folders gtd lifehacks organization productivity reference

Web 2.0
Tags: ajax distributed internet rss web web2.0 wikipedia xml

A brief history of Blogging 1.0
Tags: blog blogging blogs killer app web

More Web 2.0
Tags: Web2.0, blog blogging blogs web

A Word about the Double-Click

Let me ask you a question: What do you expect from a double-click of your left mouse button? (One-button mouse users and Mighty Mouse devotees are excluded from answering)

Your answer is probably "It depends on where I am and what I'm doing," right? A double-click on your desktop or in explorer will open a file. In quick-launch it will restore a minimized application. Many other applications perform functions that are designed along the context of the application.

And that's a valid answer, so let me refine the question: In an interactive map application, what do you expect from a double-click on a point on the map?

Since this isn't a chat room, I'll just have to answer for myself: (If you have a take, feel free to throw in a comment) When I double-click on a point on a map, I want the application to center and zoom. I used to think that I was the only one that felt that way because Google Maps (Pictured below) doesn't do that. It simply centers the map, then I have to click on the zoom-bar to get more detail.

Once I used MSN Virtual Earth, though, I realized I was not alone in expecting the double-click to center and zoom because it does actually that.

My point is not that I prefer Virtual Earth over Google Maps. (I'm not ready to make that call yet because I've been using Google Maps since day 1 and I'm trying VE alongside it for comparison.) I'm also not suggesting that my expectation is the one that Google should have yielded to.

My point is that, sometimes, two sets of usability tests on the same application can sometimes yield drastically different results and lead to different conclusions. I know that Google and Microsoft extensively UT their software. The irony of it is that, in the world of User Experience, there are no answers that meet the needs of 100% of your users (There must be someone out there that honestly expects for a double-click on a map to show him his house), so we seek to find answers that satisfy either a majority or 70-80%. Such is our world.

And in this case, Microsoft and Google appear to have each drawn from a different 80%.

Tags: Google Maps, MSN Virtual Earth, User Experience

Getting used to the pain

I was speaking with a friend yesterday about an intranet application that has been something of a headache to us. Neither of us built this application, but we reviewed both the UI and the technical design because all web work must be reviewed by our team before development can begin. During the process of our design review (which, due to the lack of preparation by the development team, ended up as a design brainstorming session), we suggested that they try three different approaches at the UI for review by the customer. They agreed. I found out a week later that their manager overruled us and told them to go with option 1. Option 1 was my least favorite, but just so happened to be the original idea the team had as well as the most flashy (in a developers eyes, mind you). So off they went and abandoned the design review.

In the last few weeks, my friend, who has been code-reviewing work by this development team, discovered some flaws in the implementation of this intranet application (which ultimately feeds form data on a public website). He wisely used this as an opportunity to revisit the design (technical and non-technical) issues with this application. During the course of these conversations, my friend was speaking to one of our customers, who just so happens to be trying this application out in development. My friend asked how it was going and the customer responded with:

"I'm getting used to it."

If you are a person passionate about creating the best possible User Experience for your organization, those words should make you ill. Ask yourself honestly, does that phrase speak well of a design to you? When you hear the phrase, "I'm getting used to it," don't you think it applies more to:

• Having to wear a suit to work every day;
• A new toupee;
• A persistent rash;
  

rather than an admin tool that is supposed to aid in the automation of a manual process?
I can't say enough about how much it bothers me that most of us in the IT world don't see the difference between "This is so easy to use, it's like second nature" and "I'm getting used to it." And that's why I think that phrase is a death knell for an application and a virtual guarantee that one of two things will happen:

1) Drastic enhancements will be requested 1 minute after the application is deployed.
2) The application will be abandoned and old, familiar, manual processes will resume.

It seems to me that "I hate this, it doesn't work for me" is a better thing to hear because your manager will see the benefit of doing some UT and a redesign. In this case, the busy, over-worked IT world sees an "I'm getting used to it" as close enough to the bull’s-eye to move on. But then again, maybe I'm just trying to create broad observations from one incident. Thoughts anyone? Maybe you can back me up or tell me I'm wrong...

Tags: Usability, User Testing, User Experience, UI, Design