Being smart is hard. I do enjoy applications that surprise me by intuiting my intentions and automating things. Wunderlist is watching what I type.
That could be quite handy, if I had actually typed something like ‘next week’. The fact is, I was just listing some things that I wanted to remember to take with me when I headed off to CMU to set up for the MWUX15 workshops. There was nothing to create a due date from, and no due date was created. It doesn’t give me much confidence in the new feature.
My brother took his son to the orthodontist and while there noticed this switch on the side of the chair.
His first thought was, “How can opposite directions both move the chair back?” Then he realized that the label was indicating that the switch would move the back of the chair in either direction. I wonder if the word “back” is even necessary. Of course, there is room there for additional switches, so perhaps there are models of the chair with switches that move other parts of the chair.
It’s been nearly a month since I stopped trying to post on DesignAday, focussing instead on the conference, which ran October 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. It was an amazing success, if I do say so myself. My team of 20 organizers performed spectacularly, going above and beyond expectations. We’ve received great feedback from attendees. I’ve heard from first-time conference attendees and first-time MWUX attendees all saying that they’re definitely going to Louisville for MWUX16 next year. I’ve heard from attendees who were visiting Pittsburgh for the first time. Some of them said that they’ll be back to visit soon—one even said he is now considering moving here. Everyone was hugely impressed with the city. I’ve heard from experienced conference attendees who said things like, “That was the best set of keynote speakers I’ve ever seen at a conference.” and “That’s the strongest lineup of speakers I’ve ever seen.” Our speakers thanked us not just for the opportunity, but for the clear communication from our team. Everyone is telling us that the organization of the conference was superb. Sponsors are telling us that they are happy with the value and brand recognition they received. I had a veteran conference organizer and speaker tell me that we set a new bar.
We sold more tickets, brought in more sponsorship money, and had a more diverse and innovative program than previous conferences. Our costs were higher, but we doggedly maintained the same price for attendees. This ranks up there with the proudest accomplishments of my life so far.
You may have noticed that I’ve taken a short hiatus from writing on DesignAday. I assure you this is a temporary situation. I may not be posting much until the beginning of October. You see, MWUX15 is consuming a lot of time. We just published our full schedule. You should check it out.
This is the toolbar on the screen for balancing an account in iBank, the application I use to manage my finances.
Each of the document icons is a balanced statement. What would you press to add a new one? I repeatedly hit the “+” button in the top-left corner, but that adds a new record to the register below. The “+” button on the right side is the one that adds a new statement. And while I know that very well, I still go for the wrong one at least 50% of the time.
This is a significant usability issue. I would solve it by relocating the correct add and remove buttons to the left side. Then I would strongly consider moving the other set of buttons down below the statement icons, where it would be directly above the register. Finally, I would visually distinguish between the two with iconography.
A big pet peeve of mine is when a document has all of its figures placed at the end with merely references inline. It’s a real slog to have to flip to the back and find the right number. By the time you do that, you’ve forgotten why the author was referencing it. Edward Tufte has always done a great job of not only placing his figures in context, but even repeating them at a smaller size if he refers to them again later in the book. Even having to flip over one page to see the figure being referenced can be enough to throw you off.
UI design specifications should be extremely visual. Whenever you are describing a screen, show it. If you are explaining the behavior of a button, point it out. And I don’t mean put a little circle with a number on top of it with a corresponding number in your text. Don’t make me play ping-pong with my eyeballs. Draw an arrow right to the button. Label it. In fact, you may as well hang the specs for the button right off the arrow, like this:
The more you can show, the less you have to describe. The more direct you are in the showing, the more easily understood your specs will be.
In response to conference-related Twitter traffic, Erik Dahl, one of the founders of Midwest UX, laid out the vision that he has had for the conference.
This vision is exactly what drew me to the conference and the reason I wanted to bring it to Pittsburgh. We are doing everything we can to meet these goals. We have maintained the same price for both the conference and the workshops, even though our cost is higher In Pittsburgh than it has been in the previous locations. This was extremely important to me, as I know all too well how big a deterrent the cost of many conferences can be. We’ve successfully curated a diverse program that features many recognizable speakers, while at the same time providing several speakers their debut conference session. This was also an important goal of mine—it was Midwest UX that gave me my first speaking opportunity outside of my local group. And as for experimentation, we are taking the conference program in several new directions with the introduction of hands-on sessions, excursions, and a career track.
I’m proud to be a part of Midwest UX. I hope you’ll join us.
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