Posts about design
Friday, March 10th, 2006
We’re trying to make this a regular thing so if you’re in the West Midlands area and interested in design, interfaces, websites, digital products and user experience in general then please join us for the UX Birmingham face-to-face. Last time the discussion encompassed train design, CSS layouts, documentary film-making and the new Post Office card payments system so it’s a pretty eclectic evening.
Where:
Bar Estilo
110-114 Wharfside Street
The Mailbox
Birmingham
B1 1RF
When:
From 6:30 PM on the 16th March.
The Mailbox is a 5 minute walk from New Street station and there’s plenty of parking there if you’re coming by car. Bar Estilo does tapas as well as a sit-down menu so there should be more than crisps and nuts this time (grin).
Look forward to seeing you there.
Posted in customer experience, design, methods, usability | No Comments »
Thursday, February 16th, 2006
We know that details are important. Just how important is underlined in this story from Warwick University. Researchers there have discovered that the feel of the switches on a dashboard can determine whether customers purchase a luxury car or can entice existing luxury car owners to (ahem) switch brands. And the preferred premium switches? Smooth and quiet, like everything else in luxury cars.
Posted in design | No Comments »
Friday, February 3rd, 2006
If you’re in the West Midlands area and interested in design, interfaces, websites, digital products and user experience in general then why not join us for the UXBirmingham face-to-face.
Where:
St Pauls Gallery
94-108 Northwood Street
Birmingham
B3 1TH
When:
From 6:30 PM on the 16th February
Look forward to seeing you there.
Posted in customer experience, design, methods, usability | No Comments »
Thursday, January 26th, 2006
I find dot graph paper great for sketching interfaces. The dots give you something to hang your designs on without interfering in the overall presentation.
Muji used to sell perfect A4 pads of dot graph paper, but discontinued them a few years ago for no apparent reason. Since then I’ve switched to squared graph paper (beautifully bound in Moleskine notebooks) but it’s just not dot graph. Now, thanks to Incompetech.com’s Graph Paper PDF generator, I can print my own.The system’s in inches so I had to do a bit of converting, but you can use this link to produce A4 5mm dot graph paper and then get sketching.
Posted in design, methods | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 25th, 2006
It seems like everything’s in beta these days so Writely’s Beta Meter is a breath of fresh air. A fun way of allowing users to rate the product and provide feedback on its progress.
At 50% beta, Writely’s pretty sweet so the finished product should be superb.
Posted in design | No Comments »
Monday, January 16th, 2006
There are a lot of desktop-style interfaces showing up on the web now that the hype about Ajax has opened the doors for JavaScript. Panic Goods’ shopping experience is a great example of what you can do in a modern browser with what used to be called DHTML. It’s simple, visible and most of all fun. (I bet you add more than one shirt even though you haven’t got any intention of buying them, and just wait until you try to remove one!)
Posted in design | 4 Comments »
Sunday, October 9th, 2005
Watching Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares the other night I was struck by how he practices his own form of user-centred design. For anyone not familiar with the programme, top chef Gordon Ramsay has a week to try and turn around a failing restaurant whilst swearing … a lot.
On arrival the first thing Ramsay does is to evaluate the existing setup. He samples the food and the service and then goes behind the scenes to check the kitchen. Then it’s out into the field to investigate the competition and talk with people in the street and other restaurant goers. With customer data and a guerrilla competitor analysis Gordon produces a vision which unifies the customer experience and drives the transformation of the restaurant, all the time evaluating progress and making changes based on feedback.
Sound familiar? Gordon Ramsay is in the business of creating unique customer experiences and the best experiences need passion and just enough process to succeed (and maybe just the odd swear or two).
Posted in customer experience, design, media, methods, usability | 4 Comments »
Friday, September 30th, 2005
I phoned an old colleague recently to ask his advice about introducing a starkly different design for the website of a fairly conservative organisation. His advice? Redesign based on customer data and communicate the evidence for your choices. The interesting part here is communicating the evidence. It resonated with something I read recently on Austin Govella’s thoughtful blog and an old post by Elizabeth Bacon on the Interaction Design Group list.
Austin points to an interview with Geoff Thull that talks about communicating the value of design:
But if the client doesn’t comprehend the nature of the problem, which is often the case, your elegant explanation of solutions just flies over the client’s head …
whilst Elizabeth draws on her own experiences learnt on an extension course:
Rather than putting forth your value proposition up-front, a powerful way to approach your situation is to make your supes FEEL THE PAIN of their current way of doing things *first*. It’s only when people recognize the *cost* of their behaviors that they tend to embrace change, accept risk, and otherwise look for new solutions.
As designers we often don’t realise the privileged position we’re in. We understand the problem intimately because we’ve built the solution. Take a step back and bring others into that position. Help them to feel the pain so that we’re more likely to succeed in making it better.
Posted in design, usability | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 28th, 2005
Looks like the lowly page footer is having a make over. For so long the preserve of the copyright statement, contact details and privacy policy, it’s becoming a bona fide destination in its own right. Peter Merholz highlighted Peter Van Dijk’s work way back in 2000 (scroll down the page) and it’s been picked up by some other people since. Why am I so interested? One of my new designs includes a big footer packed with lovely links. Am I going to be part of a new design trend? Imagine that!
Posted in design | No Comments »
Friday, September 23rd, 2005
In ‘Why We Buy’ Paco Underhill talks about sensual shopping – our desire to experience products before we buy them – and the positive impact it has on sales. I came across two great examples of sensual shopping recently for a product that you wouldn’t normally associate with this ‘try before you buy’ mentality … nappies!
As often happens when out with the baby, her nappy needed changing. We popped into the nearest Boots, fresh nappy at the ready, to find several packets of own-make nappies freely available in their baby room. This is great for everyone. We get a free nappy (and to try a different type to the one we’d usually buy). Boots get to expose potential new customers to their products and generate positive feelings about the shop.
Then, a few weeks ago someone came to the missues’ playgroup promoting the latest nappy designs. (Despite parental warnings about the bad old days the missus and I have wanted to try reusable nappies for a while to save money.) Birmingham City Council offer a ‘cash-back’ scheme for reusable so you can buy the nappies and then get a rebate of up to £30. (2 nappies and 1 cover is just under £30 so in effect they’re free.) And as if that weren’t enough, they run a washable nappy library where you can hire different reusables for a week to see if you like them. Amazing! The council promote a more environmentally friendly approach, save on waste collection and disposal and make me think that my Council Tax is being spent wisely.
Now if these organisations can do it for nappies what could you give away to get something more in return?
Posted in customer experience, design | No Comments »
