Why Engagement and REALLY Good UX Matters

posted in UXA, blog, usability

I have a Wicked Problem as a work project right now. For inspiration and a general sense of groundedness, I pull out books and immerse myself into other people’s postulations and ideas. As Moore’s Law, Hick’s Ideas, The Magic of 7 and Tesler’s Law of the Conservation of Complexity dance around in my noggin, I am pulled back to one central shuffle-ball-change: User Experience is really important.

One of the books that keeps me tethered to the design dance world is, Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software by  Jonathan Anderson, John McRee, and Robb Wilson. This lovely infographic sums it so splendidly.

Oldy but a Goodie(s)- Usability Principles- Heuristics

posted in blog, design thinking, usability

Jakob Nielsen’s heuristics are probably the most used usability heuristics for user interface design. Nielsen developed the heuristics based on work together with Rolf Molich in 1990. The final set of heuristics that are still used today were released by Nielsen in 1994. The heuristics as published in Nielsen’s book Usability Engineering are as follows:

Visibility of system status:
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

Match between system and the real world:
The system should speak the user’s language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

User control and freedom:
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.

Consistency and standards:
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

Error prevention:
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.

Recognition rather than recall:
Minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

Flexibility and efficiency of use:
Accelerators — unseen by the novice user — may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

Aesthetic and minimalist design:
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors:
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

Help and documentation:
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

Although Nielsen is considered the expert and field leader in heuristics, Jill Gerhardt-Powals also developed a set of cognitive principles for enhancing computer performance. These heuristics, or principles, are similar to Nielsen’s heuristics but take a more holistic approach to evaluation.

Automate unwanted workload:

• free cognitive resources for high-level tasks.
• eliminate mental calculations, estimations, comparisons, and unnecessary thinking.

Reduce uncertainty:
o display data in a manner that is clear and obvious.

* Fuse data:
o reduce cognitive load by bringing together lower level data into a higher-level summation.

* Present new information with meaningful aids to interpretation:
o use a familiar framework, making it easier to absorb.
o use everyday terms, metaphors, etc.

* Use names that are conceptually related to function:
o Context-dependent.
o Attempt to improve recall and recognition.
o Group data in consistently meaningful ways to decrease search time.

* Limit data-driven tasks:
o Reduce the time spent assimilating raw data.
o Make appropriate use of color and graphics.

* Include in the displays only that information needed by the user at a given time.
* Provide multiple coding of data when appropriate.
* Practice judicious redundancy.[5]

Texas on the Brink… Turning My Rose-Colored Glasses Red

posted in blog

Living in Texas has been a mixed blessing. My husband and I moved here so we could be close to his Cuban family, which is very important to both of us. I started my first Art Studio along the River. We  bought our first house together in a very exceptional historic neighborhood- a hidden enclave for artists and gardeners in the middle of the city. We ride our bikes Whole Foods and I have met people who will be friends for life.

However, I can’t say that I have ever felt at home here or had a deep connection to the larger community. And, I could never clearly identify what caused my very “meh” regard for Texas other than the super hot weather, flat terrain and lack of Trader Joe’s… And then, I saw this…

The following stats of how Texas compares to other states:

50th=Lowest, 1st=Highest

• Air Pollution Emissions 1st
• Pollution Released by Manufacturing Plants 1st
• Amount of Green House Gases Released 1st
• Amount of Toxic Chemicals Released into Water 1st
• Amount of Toxic Chemicals Released into Air 4th
• Amount of Recognized Cancer-Causing Carcinogens Released into Air 1st
• Amount of Recognized Cancer-Causing Carcinogens Released into Water 7th
• Number of Clean Water Permit Violations 1st
• Number of Environmental and Civil Rights Complaints 1st
• Number of Hazardous Waste Spills 2nd
• Amount of Hazardous Waste Generated 1st
• Number of Hazardous Waste Sites on National Priority List 9th
• Amount of Carbon Dioxide Emissions 1st
• Consumption of Energy Per Capita 5th
• Consumption of Electricity Per Customer 10th
• Open Space Protection 50th
• Drinking Water Quality 38th

I strongly believe in taking responsibility for and contributing to my community and environment- jumping-in to create positive change whenever and wherever possible- not just sitting back and whining like many of my lefty friends. On that note, I attended GreenCamp Houston and helped create, run and fund GreenCamp San Antonio. But, after reading the above facts I finally understand why my ire is raised when people tell Carlos and I that we would like Texas better if we would just move to Austin. My rose colored glasses turn red and foggy. Meanwhile, I convince myself that I can affect change in this strangely materialistic, largely uneducated part of our Great Country.

My attempts and small involvement will not create a single positive change to the above numbers.

Maybe Bill Maher is correct, “We ought to change our motto from E Pluribus Unum to I Am Sam?” His other point of absolutely requiring government involvement (and dare I say, guidance?) as we try to extract ourselves out of the deep economic-environmental shit hole in which we currently swim starts to make a lot of sense too.

It’s not hard. Sustainable businesses making a profit, growing the economy without killing the earth. Why can’t we get it right?

Clean, Healthy Water a Fable of the Past?

posted in blog, green, sustainability

Recently, I saw a person get out of their truck and throw 3 aluminum cans and 4 plastic bottles in the trash can in front of a gas station. While happy to see that they did not liter, I still got out of my car, rummaged through the trash and added this waste to my trash bag in my car. Why? As I was watched, I started thinking about my clean water awareness project. I have been researching recycling, plastic water bottles, the “true cost” of bottled water and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Facts that I found very interesting:

Plastic Patch the Size of Texas
According to the United Nations Environment Program, more than 20 billion pounds of plastic ends up in the ocean every year. It has been estimated that 80% of the garbage comes from land-based sources and 20% from ships at sea. Pollutants range in size from abandoned fishing nets to micro-pellets used in abrasive cleaners.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Eastern Garbage Patch or the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean and estimated to be twice the size of Texas. The patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of suspended plastic and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre.

Toxins that Change Your Physiology Added to the Ocean and Food Supply
Some plastics decompose in the ocean within a year of entering the water, leaching potentially toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A and derivatives of polystyrene. Bisphenol A (BPA), a compound in hard, clear polycarbonate plastics, is under official scrutiny—and things are looking less than rosy for the controversial chemical. The U.S. government’s National Toxicology Program recently agreed with a scientific panel that expressed concern about physiological changes that occur in people when they ingest BPA that has leached from plastics into their food.

At a Molecular Level? Yep!
Unlike debris which biodegrades, the photodegraded plastic disintegrates into ever smaller pieces while remaining a polymer. This process continues down to the molecular level.

As the plastic flotsam photodegrades into smaller and smaller pieces, it concentrates in the upper water column. As it disintegrates, the plastic ultimately becomes small enough to be ingested by aquatic organisms which reside near the ocean’s surface. Plastic waste thus enters the food chain through its intense concentration in the neuston.

And, Producing Bottled Water Leaves a Huge Carbon Footprint
In addition to the 17 million barrels of oil used in production, bottled water consumes gallons and gallons of water. Three gallons of water is required to produce one gallon of what you will happily pay a dollar for, largely because of the length and complexity of the various “purification” processes and the evaporation loss that takes place while the water is in the plant.

Besides the extravagant amount of oil used to make the bottles and large volumes of water used in the bottling process, there is also an environmental impact from production. For every ton of PET plastic produced for the bottles approximately 3 tons of carbon is created–adding 2.5 Million tons of carbon dioxide emissions to the 17 million barrels of oil.

Action to Take Now

• Ditch the Plastic: stop buying bottled water and purchase a stainless steel, re-usable water can: www.ecocanteen.org
• Make your own cleaning products: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-your-own-non-toxic-cleaning-kit.html
• Recycle everything you can- http://www.sanantonio.gov/swmd/solidwaste/recycling.asp?res=1280&ver=true
• Inform yourself: http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/think-outside-bottle/
• Buy Minimally Packaged Goods

Design vs. Art

posted in blog, design thinking

In preparation for a User-Centered design seminar that I was leading for a local non-profit, I got to thinking about the difference between art and design. Of course, I Googled “design vs. art”. Surprised, as always, by the amount of results- I started sifting through…

Design vs. Art: is an interaction, experience and product design blog of a design agency based in Munich, Germany. An entry on this blog went into great detail about the high-tech train doors in Europe and their contrary design to instruction feature. Big door handle, little yellow button- large sign that says- “don’t use the handle, push the button.”

I was asked how I would define the difference during the User-Centered Design seminar from one of the more cheeky participants. I answered: Art is about individual freedom expression (push) and design is about creating an accessibility of ideas (pull).

If you have to give the user instructions on how to use your design, whether it is a door-opener or a website, you have missed the mark. In the design world, we call it “bad usability”.

Impact, metric of success, inspiration… when creating an art piece, my goal is to impact a person emotionally and to question parts of their reality. In design, I am trying to offer a solution to a problem. A successful art piece would make a person laugh, cry be filled with hope, want to make a change or contribute. A successful design creates a more effective, efficient and satisfactory user experience that would lead to higher degree of use with a more comfortable thought process.

So, with art, do we create cognitive dissonance on purpose? In design, we try to reduce the stress of the interaction. What about the synthesis of the two disciplines- usable art?