February 2006 Issue
Trust and Blame
Published: February 20, 2006
I lost my address book recently. It was one of those near-death computer experiences where you see your data pass before your eyes and start searching through the trash, then the Web, hoping to find the information you need right now. The experience made me think about blame—and trust.
Here’s what happened. I was running late for a meeting and plugged in my Palm for a quick HotSync. You know the drill: one hand on the mouse, the other stuffing things into my briefcase, all while shrugging on my coat. Then, I got an error message. Something about having too many records and suggesting that I delete a few and try again. Distracted, I try removing old, completed tasks. A few quick clicks, and I’m hotsyncing again. That’s when it all went wrong, and I lost all of the information in my address book.
Okay. Before we go any further, did any of the following thoughts pass, however fleetingly, through your mind?
“I bet you didn’t have a good backup.”
“Why would you do anything like that when you are in a hurry?”
“What did you really click? Maybe you made a mistake.”
“Are you sure you don’t have a recent backup?”
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Topic: Columns | User Experience (UX)
A Glimpse of China’s Future at User Friendly 2005
Published: February 20, 2006
The taxi jerked to the left suddenly, and my life flashed before my eyes—yet again. Narrowly missing a truck’s bumper, we careened past it at 60 mph and dashed into a small opening between two vans. In the back seat, Daniel and Jo from Apogee exhaled with relief as we burst into an empty stretch of highway for a few moments and could relax our grip on our seats. Before long, however, our taxi driver plunged back into the fray, driving at breakneck speed away from the Pudong airport toward downtown Shanghai.
Upon reflection, this was an incredibly appropriate introduction
to one of the most dynamic cities in the world and the setting
for the User Friendly 2005
conference. Shanghai is reportedly one of
the world’s top five most populous cities—and is
developing so rapidly that locals sometimes find its changing
landscape disorienting. After participating in UF2005, I’m
left with the impression that the design and usability professions
in China are developing at a similar rate.
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Topic: Conference Reviews | User Friendly 2005
Live by the Mockup, Die by the Mockup
Published: February 6, 2006
Mockup… The term itself brings to mind the duality inherent in this omnipresent design artifact. It’s both a direct representation of a product experience and a shallow portrayal of an interactive system at the same time. Perhaps the term originated with engineers or product managers intent on pointing out that the mockup was just that: a superficial representation that could never compare to the real product they had to build.
Regardless of what you call it, the mockup can either sell your design or plummet you into a cyclical tunnel of churn. That’s why, like it or not, interface designers often live and die by the mockup.
Live by the Mockup
“How would I summarize the importance of design vision
communication deliverables? He or she who owns the drawings, [mockups, storyboards, or wireframes] owns the vision.”—Jim Leftwich
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Topic: Columns | Communicating Design | Deliverables
The Role and Evolution of Design in Software Products
Published: February 6, 2006
Design professionals often decry the lack of importance and
investment their companies place on design. After all, most
software projects revolve around a product’s engineering,
to the ongoing detriment of its design—not to mention
the chagrin of so many designers, who wriggle uncomfortably
toward the bottom of the food chain. But there is a good reason
for this: products can be very profitable without investing
a single penny in interface design—at least, beyond the
user interfaces the engineers build. Indeed, at least in the
early stages of a market or company, resources dedicated to
intentional interface design are often a bonus rather than
being viewed as a necessity. Sound crazy? Consider the natural
and normal evolution of a software product.
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Topic: Columns | UX Strategy
