May 2012
19 posts
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Working with Developers: Old Dogs, Part 2
Following up on yesterday’s post, I have some suggestions for dealing with those senior engineers that are set in their ways and uninterested in, if not hostile towards, interaction design. Here’s a persona that may or may not be derived from developers I’ve worked with in the past.
John Stern Senior Software Architect
Holds a Ph.D. in computer science.
Knows he is smarter than you.
Philosophy...
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Working with Developers: Old Dogs
There’s a lot of content that won’t fit into the forty minutes I am allotted for my presentation this Saturday at Midwest UX. So, I might as well share it here.
One trend I found in my survey results supports my own personal experience working with developers. The older the developer, the more likely they will be difficult to work with. I realize that’s a very generalized statement, and it...
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Punishing the Innocent
One of the things I value most is my time. There’s never enough of it. I hate wasting it. That’s the reason I get really annoyed when I insert a DVD and am faced with commercials, previews, and yes, the FBI warning, before I can watch the film. Not only does it waste my time—it detracts from the artistic vision and experience of the film. It’s going to get worse.
The government is rolling out an...
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This is a Test
I noticed in my Twitter feed that yesterday’s post was tweeted simply as a shortened URL—no title, no snippet of the first sentence—nothing to let anyone know what I was linking to or why they should go and read it. I also notice that there is a new widget in my Tumblr dashboard. I’m guessing that I’m supposed to type into it what I want the tweet to say. That’s a little more work than the...
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In the Details: Field Promotion
I stumbled upon an interaction today on my iPhone that made me smile—kind of like finding a chocolate on my pillow. I don’t often edit people’s contact information on my phone, but I had call to do it today. Open the Contacts app and edit one of your contacts. Enter some text into the street address field. A second field slides down as soon as you enter the first character. Enter some text into...
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Workshopping
Did you hear? Registration for Interaction 13, to be held in Toronto from January 28th to February 1st, is opening June 15th. I must assume, then, that the call for speakers won’t be far behind. I’m going to have to figure out how to get my new company to send me. I also need to figure out what to submit this year. I suppose I could submit the same talk I’m giving at Midwest UX in a week and a...
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Choices
I’ve played a lot of computer games, but there are a select few that have captured significantly more hours than the rest. Diablo II is one of them, so it’s no surprise that I am currently engrossed in Diablo III. While I am very much enjoying the game, I am questioning the design of the leveling mechanic. Diablo II was famous for introducing skill trees, which are now staples in RPGs. Diablo III...
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Get your words out of my mouth.
As far as reasonably priced hotels go, I’ve been pleased with Hilton Garden Inn. I’ve been staying in one this week. I just happened to look at the small print at the bottom of the little folder containing my room key card. This is what it says:
“I have requested weekday delivery of USA TODAY. If refused, a credit of $0.75 will be applied to my account.” Please call the Front Desk or check here...
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Dependencies
Posts are going to be spotty this week. I’m up in Groton, Connecticut, training submariners on the software my team developed for them. It’s a robust application, and it’s very stable. However, it’s part of a large system comprised of applications from multiple vendors. When it’s all integrated, the impression of our software is dependent on how well all the other pieces function. That’s...
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Designer’s Toolbelt: Type Connection
I’ve found that one of the trickier typographical concepts to teach is the proper selection of multiple typefaces for use within a design. That’s where Aura Seltzer’s Type Connection comes in.
Type Connection is a game that helps you learn how to pair typefaces.
Start by choosing a typeface to pair. Like a conventional dating website, Type Connection presents you with potential “dates” for each...
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Like-Minded
There’s a relatively recent question posed on Quora asking “How do UI Designers work with engineers to ensure their vision is achieved?” Owen Otto, a UX designer at Google, gives a very thorough answer that is right on the money. In brief:
Figure out which type of engineer you’re working with
Skim all bugs and code reviews for the product
Do some front-end coding (but not too much)
Sit by...
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Less JS
As I have become more and more proficient with CSS, and as support for CSS3 selectors has improved, I have been making a concerted effort to implement as much behavior as possible through CSS rules, rather than JavaScript. Historically, it has been up to the developers to update UI element states through DOM manipulation. I have found, however, that I can do an awful lot with a single class placed...
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Hide and Seek
Final grades are due today, so I was submitting them last night through WVU’s STAR system. I entered the grades and pressed the “Submit” button below the table. There was a flash as the page reloaded and… looked exactly the same as it did before I hit the button. How am I to know if the grades were actually submitted?
Do you see it? No, it’s not the line in red, nor is it the line in blue. It’s...
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Midwest UX 12 Schedule
Midwest UX posted the schedule for the conference that will be kicking off in Columbus, Ohio, on May 31st. I’m pleased as punch to be on it, but I was sad to see that I’ll be presenting at the same time as Joe Sokohl, who’s presentation I was looking forward to seeing. Titled The Digital Place You Love is Gone: Mitigating Loss in the Ethersphere, Joe’s talk addresses the emotions people feel when...
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Kickstarter Trending
The New York Times published a great visualization this week representing three years of Kickstarter projects. It places each project in one of eleven categories and then plots the amount pledged on the x-axis with time on the y-axis. Particularly interesting projects, such as the Pebble watch, are called out and explained. It also compares the number of live or successful projects in each...
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IxD Podcasts
I’ve posted lists of books, journals, and blogs for the IxD n00b; it’s about time I do the same for podcasts. It takes a lot more work to publish a regular audio show than it does a blog, so there are a lot fewer of them, and fewer still with professional-level production values. Here is my recommended set, in alphabetical order. There are others, but these are the ones to which I subscribe and...
