At our most recent South Florida User Experience Meet-up we discussed automated usability testing. I wanted to post the slides here for those who missed them and provide a brief description of the methodology for those who are unfamiliar. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently came across this great video interview with Nicole Lazzaro, Founder of XEODesign Inc. on bigthink.com. She provides a very engaging presentation on why games are fun, and what motivates us to play. It’s important in designing good applications not to get stuck in a usability box and forget about engagement and motivation especially in applications that might be considered work. It’s in our human nature to want a feeling of accomplishment, to see an end, and be rewarded for our achievements. Motivation like this is being built into many of the products we use, there affects on us are just usually sub-conscious. Lazzaro researched human engagement in games through emotions across ages, genders and demographics and found 4 key type of play that motivates us: Read the rest of this entry »

A couple weeks ago my email subscribers received a link for a “new post” that didn’t go anywhere. It’s not that the page was broken, or that the post didn’t exist. Instead the problem was that I was working on a new post that was not yet finished and accidentally hit the “Publish” button, instead of the “Save Draft” button. Of course, like any typical user, I blamed myself. Read the rest of this entry »

The home page of your web site is your online store-front. The inside pages are the equivalent to customer facing insides of your shop. So what kind of first impression are you giving to your customers? Are you a high end retailer on the posh side of town, a quaintly decorated boutique, or maybe a brightly lit warehouse with hundreds of products? Or are you a small building with plain white walls and price charts scattered amongst rows of products on metal shelving? Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s face it, you probably won’t be surprised if I tell you that you’re faced with hundreds, maybe even thousands of choices a day. We are all increasingly aware that our lives have become busy messes and decision making has become a mix of quick fix decisions and complicated painstaking choices. In addition, the number of decisions we make every day just get bigger and bigger with every year as technology advances and information becomes more accessible. So how, with all of this madness surrounding us, can you expect your users to choose between all of the options you are providing them and close on a sale amongst the hustle and bustle of there already over complicated day? Read the rest of this entry »

I’m testing out new functionality on Flickr, that allows me to immediately post Flickr photos to my blog. I thought I would test this out by posting a screen shot of a new website I recently stumbled upon (http://www.stumbleupon.com/). Read the rest of this entry »

Intrinsic motivation, it’s what makes us want to do something because the activity of doing it in and of itself is is enjoyable. Extrinsic motivation on the other hand, is when we are motivated by things outside ourselves, like money. It is typically extrinsic motivation that leads us to work every day, motivated by the paycheck that will result from our due diligence.  So, how as a website, can you motivate your users to do something that they may not extrinsically be motivated to do? Read the rest of this entry »

We are by nature social animals. This is one of the reasons social networking is so huge and has had exponential success. We like to know that others are thinking about us, wondering about us, concerned about our feelings. We also like to tell others these facts, we like to share. Because of this many people like to give feedback, and providing an outlet for that can be a huge resource of wealth for any website. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I came across the Visual Complexity website thanks to Adaptive Paths signposts for the week ending March 5th. A particular graphic by Christopher Hefele popped out at me called the NetFlix Similarity Map. Having written a paper on the intelligence of the Netflix recommender engine ‘Cinematch’ a couple semesters ago I found this visual to be particularly interesting. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently gave a presentation at the South Florida User Experience Meetup on the top 10 design and layout principles you should know when designing your website. Below is a summary as well as the presentation with some screen shot examples for those who could not attend. Read the rest of this entry »