Archive
Data Visualization
GUI of data visualization, decided to use the black background with semi-transparent glowing elements for fast identification and consumption of the data in a fast pace environment.
Digital Trends for 2013–According to Econsultancy and Adobe
Ecounsultancy in association with Adobe released their “Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing: Digital Trends for 2013” which it is a must read for any User Experience professional or company that cares about staying ahead of the competition or deliver better experiences to users. You can find the report along with a plethora of marketing resources at Adobe’s Marketing Cloud: http://www.adobe.com/solutions/digital-marketing.html
The predicted 2013 trends are:
1. The year of content – creating, optimizing and marketing content
The single most significant trend is the continued emergence of content marketing as a standalone discipline. Content, in all its shapes and forms, is core to everything we do as marketers. There is now a widespread realization that optimization of all types of content, both on-site and off-site, and across a range of different formats and devices, is absolutely critical. Click here to go to Adobe’s Digital Marketing Blog – Digital Trends for 2013
2. Capitalizing on engagement: increasing conversion from earned and owned media
3. Great content, spread through social channels and consumed anywhere
4. Inspired content + informed algorithms – excitement for 2013
5. CMOs and the role of marketing in customer experience management
6. Pi-shaped marketers shall inherit the digital earth
7. Omnichannel consumers on the march – priorities for a mobile customer base
Click here to go to Adobe’s Digital Marketing Blog – Digital Trends for 2013
| What do you regard as the most important opportunity for 2013, and why are you focusing here? |
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“Attempting to optimize content for mobile and how this might dovetail with offline data to form a single view.” “Joining up online and offline data – or leveraging big data and the many sensors that collect data – we only utilize 5% of what we collect.” “Getting some sense out of the digital nonsense. It all LOOKS robust, but there’s little meaning in all the clicks and visits and so on. Digital is just part of the mix, but the digital industry thinks it’s holy.” “Multichannel marketing, as they have previously heavily relied on separate disconnected channels, which have not provided real value to their customers and therefore have not been used by their target audience.” “Social media, but very little measurable activity has actually been done due to confusion of tools and methods, leading to upper management lack of interest and reduction in expenditure.” “The most important opportunity lies in optimizing digital channels through analysis, strategy and creative development. Being able to reach customers in their environment requires continual optimization, which includes bringing new channels in the mix and removing those that don’t perform.” |
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Survey respondents |
Samsung Smart Cube Game Task Flow Evaluation
A. Unnecessary Interaction, place “How to Play” as an extra option on main screen.
Reduces an extra interaction
B. All this section lacks “Calls to Action” such as learn more, view now, etc.
Increase Traffic and Awareness
C. The logo at the top left should be the link to the main screen, most users are used to the logo ID linking to the home page/screen.
Reduce Confusion
D. Ineffective visual cue, use a page corner flip and add a drop shadow.
Effective Visual Cues
E. User should be taken back to the app instead of leaving the user on the FB app screen, forcing the user to exit, navigate to game icon and touch the icon to initialize game again.
Effective User Interaction
The Key for Delivering Useful and Effective Solutions
The key for delivering useful and effective user centric solutions is simple. It is better to answer the “why” question and not the “what” question. Often I have found myself involved in projects that were already started only to discover that it was started by answering the “what” question. For example, an executive group may have made the choice to implement a mobile app, or they want to re-do the intranet, or re-design the website, or perhaps they want to be better connected in the social media arena.
Answering the “what” question is fine if you are trying to define requirements or goals but it is not an effective pillar on which to build the strategy for better User Experiences. The “what” tells us what to do with what exists or at least what is believed should exist within the constraints of our own perspectives. It however does not directly address what the needs of the user are and why those needs should be met. How would that translate into a better User Experience overall?
I remember a project that I worked on at Maxim. I was recruited right before they transferred 200+ servers, tens of thousands of users, and hundreds of thousands of files and documents. It was projected to take 3 months and about 12 resources (Developers, Server Administrators, Database Administrators, SharePoint 2010 Developers, etc.) working 8 – 10 hours a day. At the first meeting the complexity of this overwhelming task was discussed. When it was my turn I asked several simple questions: “Why do we have to move everything?”; “Is everything indispensable?”; “Has anyone checked the value and integrity of the folders, files, and user?”.
To my amazement, the project owner’s request to move everything was never questioned. This means they were answering the “what” question first (All files and folders for all users from all servers need to be move and replicated on a SharePoint environment.) instead of answering the “why” (Why is it so important to move everything?). This is especially bad when it is not known if the action that is about to be taken makes sense in the first place.
After working closely with the project manages, server administrators, and local IT administrator it was determined that what actually needed to be moved was only 20% of the files and folders and not 100% as originally thought. One reason was because some employees were no longer with the company. Another reason was because some folders and files had not been accessed in several years. Still another reason was that there were lots of duplicates floating around.
To remedy this, I created a 4 Step Strategy for the IT and server administrators for each office
Step 1: Back up everything
Step 2: Clean everything (If an employee had away from the company for more than 1 year, archive folders but do not transfer. Anything not accessed in 2 years or longer would be archived but not transferred. Utilize software that finds and compares duplicate files at the hex level and archive older duplicates but transfer the new ones).
Step 3: Develop a new site structure and create document, knowledge, archive, and template libraries to house commonly used documents.
Step 4: Identify user group types and create sub-master page templates tailored specifically to their needs.
By answering the “why” not the “what” the team transferred the files in 1/6 the projected time, using 1/3 of the originally planned resources, thereby saving the company a lot of money on man hours and equipment while delivering a much better user experience. So remember it is all about answering the “why” not the “what”.
User Interface Types
Direct manipulation interface is the name of a general class of user interfaces that allow users to manipulate objects presented to them, using actions that correspond at least loosely to the physical world.
Graphical user interfaces (GUI) accept input via devices such as computer keyboard and mouse and provide articulated graphical output on the computer monitor.
Web-based user interfaces or web user interfaces (WUI) that accept input and provide output by generating web pages which are transmitted via the Internet and viewed by the user using a web browser program.
Touchscreens are displays that accept input by touch of fingers or a stylus. Used in a growing amount of mobile devices and many types of point of sale, industrial processes and machines, self-service machines etc.
Command line interfaces, where the user provides the input by typing a command string with the computer keyboard and the system provides output by printing text on the computer monitor.
Touch user interface are graphical user interfaces using a touchpad or touchscreen display as a combined input and output device. They supplement or replace other forms of output with haptic feedback methods. Used in computerized simulators etc.
Attentive user interfaces manage the user attention deciding when to interrupt the user, the kind of warnings, and the level of detail of the messages presented to the user.
Batch interfaces are non-interactive user interfaces, where the user specifies all the details of the batch job in advance to batch processing, and receives the output when all the processing is done. The computer does not prompt for further input after the processing has started.
Conversational Interface Agents attempt to personify the computer interface in the form of an animated person, robot, or other character (such as Microsoft’s Clippy the paperclip), and present interactions in a conversational form.
Crossing-based interfaces are graphical user interfaces in which the primary task consists in crossing boundaries instead of pointing.
Gesture interfaces are graphical user interfaces which accept input in a form of hand gestures, or mouse gestures sketched with a computer mouse or a stylus.
Intelligent user interfaces are human-machine interfaces that aim to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and naturalness of human-machine interaction by representing, reasoning, and acting on models of the user, domain, task, discourse, and media (e.g., graphics, natural language, gesture).
Motion tracking interfaces monitor the user’s body motions and translate them into commands, currently being developed by Apple[1]
Multi-screen interfaces, employ multiple displays to provide a more flexible interaction. This is often employed in computer game interaction in both the commercial arcades and more recently the handheld markets.
Non-command user interfaces, which observe the user to infer his / her needs and intentions, without requiring that he / she formulate explicit commands.
Object-oriented user interfaces (OOUI) are based on object-oriented programming metaphors, allowing users to manipulate simulated objects and their properties.
Reflexive user interfaces where the users control and redefine the entire system via the user interface alone, for instance to change its command verbs. Typically this is only possible with very rich graphic user interfaces.
Tangible user interfaces, which place a greater emphasis on touch and physical environment or its element.
Task-Focused Interfaces are user interfaces which address the information overload problem of the desktop metaphor by making tasks, not files, the primary unit of interaction
Text-based user interfaces are user interfaces which output a text. TUIs can either contain a command-line interface or a text-based WIMP environment.
Voice user interfaces, which accept input and provide output by generating voice prompts. The user input is made by pressing keys or buttons, or responding verbally to the interface.
Natural-language interfaces – Used for search engines and on webpages. User types in a question and waits for a response.
Zero-Input interfaces get inputs from a set of sensors instead of querying the user with input dialogs.
Zooming user interfaces are graphical user interfaces in which information objects are represented at different levels of scale and detail, and where the user can change the scale of the viewed area in order to show more detail.
Skydrive doing a great job
WordPress blog post using Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer and dragging and dropping images to automatically be placed using cloud services for easy deployment.
The Beauty of Microsoft’s Sketchflow
When it comes to custom fast prototyping I believe Microsoft Blend with Sketchflow is one of the most powerful solutions on the market, the possibilities are endless and you can simulate mobile, surfaces, gestural, voice controlled and many more other interfaces.
Victor C. Gonzalez "The Experience of User Interfaces" 