October 2011
19 posts
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September 2011
20 posts
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Extensibility
Eric Raymond’s Rule of Extensibility advises us to “Design for the future, because it will be here sooner than you think.” And while he was referring to data formats, protocols, and software architecture, the rule applies just as well to the design of the user interface. The first version is only the first version. Future releases are going to sport additional features. Design your navigation so...
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In Comparison: Duplicate vs. Step and Repeat
I hope I’m never one of the proverbial old dogs. I like new things, and I don’t tend to be overly averse to change. But there are so many things about the Adobe software I’m using now that just aren’t as good as the way Freehand worked a decade ago.
In Freehand, I could use the Duplicate command (command+d or option+drag) to make a copy of one or more selected objects. After dragging the new...
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Another Norman Door
We all know about Norman doors. If you don’t, stop reading my blog, and get yourself a copy of The Design of Everyday Things. Do it now!
My company moved into a new office building this morning. Our restrooms are single-use, so there are locks on the doors. In one day, there were multiple cases of the restrooms being locked while nobody was using them. The following memo had to be sent out to all...
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IxD Journals
As evidenced by my last post in this series, there are a lot of great books about Interaction Design and its sister domains. There are also a lot of excellent online journals.
Johnny Holland - “Johnny is an open collective talking, sharing and finding answers about the interaction between people and products, systems or processes.” Founded by Jeroen van Geel, it’s an online magazine, as well as a...
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In the Details: Double Tap
I just discovered that in the latest version of Safari, Apple has carried over another feature from iOS. Double-tapping an object, like an image or paragraph, zooms in on it, fitting it to the width of the window. Notice that I said “double-tap” rather than “double-click.” Given the touch-enabled input devices that Apple now sells, it is possible to tap the surface of a touch pad or mouse as an...
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Requirements are just a place to start
Working for a software development firm that builds enterprise applications, many of which are for the military, I’m not typically following what I would consider to be the ideal design process. Preferably, my customer would give me a problem statement or brief, and I would then work with them to understand the problem space, define goals, and write requirements. I have, on occasion, had the...
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I didn’t know it was hard.
From Wikipedia
When asked, “How could you possibly have done the first interactive graphics program, the first non-procedural programming language, the first object oriented software system, all in one year?” Ivan Sutherland replied: “Well, I didn’t know it was hard.”
Wil Wheaton relates a story about a Nebula Awards dinner where he and his wife, Anne Prince, sat with David Gerrold.
...
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We’re not wired that way.
I overheard one of my students talking with a classmate tonight about a project she was working on. She said that she didn’t know why she always picks the hardest thing to do, rather than settling for something easier.
“It’s because designers aren’t wired that way,” I told her. We want to do things right. We don’t like to settle for anything less. Sometimes this gets us into trouble, and I’ve...
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IxD Reading List
Those new to Interaction Design are hungry for books on the topic, as is evidenced by the number of threads you may find on IxDA.org asking for reading material. I’ve taken the trouble to do some tagging, so you can hit this link to get a lot of suggestions spanning the past six years.
I suppose I could leave it at that and let you do your own filtering, but the point of this series is to make...
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So you want to be an Interaction Designer…
Quite frequently, people post to the IxDA forum asking what they need to do to get into Interaction Design (or interactive design, or whatever they call it). They may have a background in library science or psychology or programming or instructional technology or technical writing or any other tangentially related field. They typically have questions about education options, books, resources,...
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Hanging by a Thread
Apple gave Rosetta its walking papers, and I was surprised at the number of “broken” applications I had lying around after installing Lion. Some I hadn’t been using, some I used occasionally, and others I relied on. The former, I purged; the latter, I replaced. I’ve been getting along just fine.
I just realized yesterday, however, that none of my Director projectors will run. Now, I don’t like...
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Diversity
Eric Raymond’s Rule of Diversity admonishes us to “Distrust all claims for ‘one true way.’” In the world of software engineering, the intent is to promote open, extensible systems, but the same rule can also be applied to Interaction Design. In fact, there are multiple ways to skin this particular cat.
One of the keys to a healthy design process is to have a diversity of ideas. The first solution...
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Tales from the Field: Learning the Hard Way
How can a multi-year, million dollar plus project get cancelled just before the product is deployed in the field?
The client won’t allow contact with actual users. “We know what they need.”
Requirements are dictated by one group of stakeholders while the needs of others are ignored.
Multiple versions of the product are implemented without any type of user testing being performed.
The end...
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Where the Rubber Meets the Code
With Lion’s adoption of iOS scrolling behavior comes rubber-banding. That is the little bounce that occurs when you reach the end of the scrolling content. You can actually push or pull the content past its end before it snaps back into place, just as if it were attached by elastic. It’s a nice little effect that clearly communicates, but I’m not happy with its current implementation in Safari.
...
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Interaction 12 Registration
Registration for Interaction 12 opened on Friday. It was a bit of a shock for us Americans. With the difference between the US Dollar and the Euro and Ireland’s VAT, the conference is rather pricey—much more so than past years. And then there will be travel and lodging, which I assume will also be more expensive.
That said, the conference is the premiere event for interaction designers and the...
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