Blogging on User Interface and experience

Last night, I was zapping trough the channels on my TV, looking for something to occupy my mind or empty it (depending how you view your TV), after a quick round of channels, I discovered that there is nothing good to see (expected) and just left the TV on a random channel – some music or show and took my computer to read RSS feeds.

My girlfriend always complains about the way I zap trough the channels, she says she can’t see anything like that.

Well, for me it’s good enough.

After some reading I found out I am listening to a great music concert – Tori Amos (she is great!).

Now, how didn’t I notice this when doing my channels round?

Continue reading →

Lately I tried to buy a laptop. I searched online for hours and hours and most of the product I found raised an eyebrow and a - “It looks nice, but I don’t know if it’s for me?” response.

Most ads had a lot of technical terms as the kind of the processor or the amount of memory, but I could not translate most of the details into information I can use.

A lot of consumer products have that problem, all the technical terms are very impressive, but users usually but what someone who they think know more than them is telling them to buy, usually using the line– “this is for you, it’s what you need”.

Wouldn’t it be great if I could just know what I need without the help of superior minds?

Well, it can be done.

A nice solution to this problem is found in some surfboard sites. These sites add a little matrix that gives you a range to place yourself on –

Am I a novice surfer or a pro?

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In ergonomics there is a basic concept called knowledge transfer. It relates to transferring knowledge from training situation to real world (work / production) situation. In addition it refers to transferring knowledge accumulated from using one device to another device. Knowledge transfer is especially relevant when introducing new products to the market and divides into two categories, positive transfer which is good, and negative transfer which is bad.

A simple example for positive transfer is the computer keyboard which transferred knowledge user gathered while using a typing machine. It is much harder to fined examples for negative transfer; some think that the method of shifting gears in automatic cars is a negative transfer, in buses it is done by pressing buttons (no knob).

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We wish you all a great productive, peaceful and excellent year.

Allot of interaction and swift recovery from errors.

שנה טובה ומתוקה

lately I been to some job interviews and I was asked in some to present some of my work.
Have any of you UI people ever been asked that?
I am always trying to figure out what “show us some of your work” means for me.

I guess there are 3 ways my work can be presented:

heuristic evaluation, wireframe design and a complete product.
Each of these is lacking .

1. Heuristic evaluation - above all, heuristic evaluation is trash talking some other guys work. It is the easiest to show because it is not really my design, its just criticizing. Heuristic evaluation is a big part of the job, and it teaches you alot about how to design and create better user interfaces, but is it your first choice as the work you wanna show? Continue reading →

On the front panel of my all my sound system components, which are about three years old, there are large ON/OFF buttons. The remote controls have them too. The amplifier remote control even has a separate buttons for ON and OFF.

When I got my last mobile phone I could not find an ON/OFF button. “Start Call” and “End Call” functions are very salient, the number pad too, but how do I turn this device off? I feel that the ON/OFF function that was one of the most important and some times was even safety related had lost its significance and this is an act of interests. The service providers wish to keep my phone ON, making the act of turning it OFF hidden in the only menu that is reachable by long press on the “End Call” button. Continue reading →

A tale of two bad experiences, one of UI and one of UX
Not long ago I got a message from a friend:
Join me on Plaxo – standard experience for community services.
Immediately I searched news for this new service, looked at the service youtube movie, it looked like a cool service so I got back to that email and clicked the link to started the process of signing in.
After entering all my personal details for several steps, Plaxo informed me that I can get the full service (premium) for a fee or get a limited service (basic)-
that was a show stopper for me.
That’s when I quit the registration process and forgot about plaxo.
Users like to be informed, If I am told the service is free and then I am told that I get a limited service if I don’t pay, well, that’s kind of wrong.
Now for the ways they did it so wrong (look at the attached image):
If I get to registration from the email notification, I do not see the website and then start with limited information.
No middle bundle – black or white – limited choice range. Continue reading →