Progression

Well It appears to be that time… we are closing the door on 2008, and preparing to enter through a new door entitled 2009, what lies beyond this door we can not be 100% sure of. What we can be sure of is that there will be new adventures, new challenges, new successes, and most definitely new failures.

This last year held all of the same and as I look back I am amazed at how quickly things can change over time. From responsibilities at my job, to starting a blog, and pushing towards the goal of doing what I love on my own terms. Starting TIAL was just the beginning of a path that I hope to travel for many years to come, and it is off to a great start thanks to those of you who read, support, and interact on this blog. I look forward and am motivated to write relevant, helpful content that contributes to the design community as well as provides great opportunities for discussion, and growth.

Looking Forward

I am very excited to see what the new year holds, in an effort to provide better articles I have enlisted the editing services of Jacqueline Geary to assist in making sure that I am actually making sense when I am convey the chaos that ensues in my mind, be on the lookout for her blog launching in the beginning of 2009.

I plan to continue to write for other blogs such as WAJC and Local Search News(Launching Beginning of 2009), as well as guest posts as they become available.

I hope to find new balance between personal endeavors, and work(which is another article in itself) along with the goal of implementing a firm understanding of standards, good experience design, and quality progression to our team, it is not enough to simply see and express frustration, we must work to make it better for ourselves and those we work with by being flexible and communicating effectively.

I plan on failing, it is a necessity for quality growth and learning.

If we intend to improve in the new year we must fail, and use our failures as a launching pad for progression.

The new year provides the opportunity to learn, to grow, and do things better than the year before, I look forward to seeing where the new year takes us, and again thank all of you for your support and interaction on this blog.

What are your plans? Do you have any? I would love to hear what you a plan on improving, and even more so if you have any suggestions on how TIAL can improve.

~ Aaron I

We started this series by conducting a poll to see what readers had to say about what they thought made a good user experience. We had 4 options; Usability, Visual Appeal, Emotional Response, and Help Features, these were followed by the common All of the Above, and None of the Above.

The results were as follows; we determined that the defining factor of a good user experience was usability (33.59% of the votes), a well balanced approach based on a combination of all of the elements (Usefulness / Usability, Media Quality / Visual Appeal, Emotional Appeal, Support Interactions (help features)) was the second most important approach, and visual appeal came in a distant third (mostly due to being included in the all of the above selection).

In part 1 of the series, we discussed a balanced approach to our creating a good user experience. Initially I said… 

I do believe that usability is the top priority when creating a user based design/product… but we must be wary of setting usability out there on it’s own as if it were the Lone Ranger while the other valued components that make a good user experience are left to play sidekick (Tonto). 

I still believe this to be true… but in doing research and listening to others on the topic I think it is important to note that usability is the foundation upon which any good user experience is built, it can survive on it’s own. I was initially trying to convey that what we think users want isn’t always what users want. We must guard against relying on what we think we know. Obviously we must use our knowledge and skill set, but each project must be approached with fresh input from users.

In part 2 of the series we looked at Usability. We talked about three simple ways to incorporate usability into our web design.

1. Make sure that the user can navigate through the site to the desired end results efficiently. Is the navigation clear and easy to follow? Are the links/buttons easy to click? (you would be surprised) Does the link text properly define the page it is linking to?

2. Make sure that the content is given proper value. Is it concise? Does it tell the story? Is it lost in the style/look and feel of the site?  We must remember that the content is why someone has come to the site in the first place.

3. Will the usability marry well with the style? Can you make the site a great visual experience without sacrificing the desired end result? Will it still function well in all browsers? Is it accessible? If you can marry these two elements you are almost guaranteed a great end result. 

In part 3 of the series we looked at Visual Appeal. As we looked at this we came to two conclusions.

1)    The shoe has to fit.
The design has to fit within the intended scope of the project.

“With anything that has value, especially visual appeal, it’s value is found within the context of it’s purpose”

2) Don’t sacrifice comfort for beauty.

If we are sacrificing usability for visual appeal we are chasing the wind. No matter how cool something looks if you can’t use it it’s value decreases. We must strive to find the balance in creating beautiful interfaces/designs that people can use easily.

To wrap this series up I would say that we have to strive to improve our understanding of experience design if we are going to provide good user experiences. For some of us this comes easy we can simply look at sites/products and come up with different ways that the overall experience can improve. For the rest of us we need to work at it, I would suggest becoming a student, read blogs, watch conference videos if you cant attend learn from the people that are leading the way in experience design now.

By no means would I even consider myself to have reached the level of most in this arena, but most if not all of what I have written in this series has come from listening to and reading the thoughts of the experts, and failing, yes failing, you can never really grow and learn if you are not trying and failing. Aside from this another key to developing experience design knowledge and skills is to diversify your skill set don’t just learn one aspect, learn as much as you can from every angle you can. 

Thanks for tuning in to this series. I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on user experience

~ Aaron I

Holiday Wishes From The Irizarry Family

I just wanted to take a quick moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and  a Happy New Year. Wether or not you celebrate this as a religious holiday, or just time to spend with your family it is always good to reflect and think about all that you have, and are blessed with. From our simple everyday freedoms, to the family and friends that we enjoy everyday.

During this season I would encourage all of us to think about our families, and show them some appreciation and love. I wold also encourage us (especially those in the design community who are constantly behind a computer) to unplug for a bit, and recharge our batteries so that we can start our new year refreshed (don’t worry twitter will be here when we get back).

I would also like to say thank you, and send a note of appreciation to those of you who read and support this blog with your input and comments on the articles I write. To my friends on twitter thank you as well for your support, help, and just making each day at work that much more enjoyable, it has been a pleasure to get to know all of you over this last fall. I look forward to our helping each other reach new heights in the coming new year.

So thanks again to all… have a safe and wonderful holiday.

Aaron I

Visual Appeal

So in our poll when this series started we determined that the defining factor of a good user experience was usability (33.59% of the votes), a well balanced approach based on a combination of all of the elements (Usefulness / Usability, Media Quality / Visual Appeal, Emotional Appeal, Support Interactions (help features)) was the second most important approach, and visual appeal came in a distant third (mostly due to being included in the all of the above selection).

We talked about having a solid balance, and we talked about the importance of usability, so now we are going to look at visual appeal.

Most of us have an idea of what we like to see in a website design, or what our favorite style of design is whether it is clean minimal design, very illustrative design, Grid layouts, Metallic, or Abstract, we may like these styles but that is simply a matter of opinion, any one of these design styles can excel in the area of visual appeal if executed correctly. Technically no one of these design styles is better than the other; each one has it place, which I believe is the first key to a site having a quality visual appeal.

The shoe has to fit.

No matter how slick or stylish a design is if it doesn’t fit within the scope and feel of the project it’s visual appeal is worthless. What makes a lot of designs visual appeal succeed is the fact that it represents the message and vision of the business, or project.

For example a really cool grungy/illustrative design probably wouldn’t fit for Wells Fargo, or TD Waterhouse. Just the same an indie or metal band wouldn’t want a very plain simple/corporate design. Both of the designs may look awesome in and of themselves but they will not appeal to the majority of the audience that each party is intending to reach.

With anything that has value, especially visual appeal, it’s value is found within the context of it’s purpose

Don’t sacrifice comfort for beauty.

My wife always complains about certain pairs of shoes hurting her feet. My response is always “Well why did you buy them if they aren’t comfortable” Her response follows “they were so cute that I just had to have them”.

If we are sacrificing usability for visual appeal we are chasing the wind. No matter how cool something looks if you can’t use it it’s value decreases. We must strive to find the balance in creating beautiful interfaces/designs that people can use easily.

We do our client no favors when our designs (as cool as they may be) do not help the targeted audience accomplish the goals that the client has in mind for them. We will go further in our careers as designers when we are able to deliver stylish designs that are easy to use capturing the vision of our clients/bosses.

These are what I would see as two of the most important aspects of visual appeal as it relates to a good user experience. I know there are probably other aspects, but I enjoy getting information in bits as opposed to being overwhelmed by tons of information. Next week I will post a wrap up on this series summarizing the major points from each article.

If you have any input, feedback, or can add something that I missed or left out, I would love to hear it.

~ Aaron I

If we start to lose our passion, we can lose sight of why we do what we do, and that is one of the beautiful things about being creative, it is a job that requires passion, and the reward(non monetary though that can also be nice) of breathing life into someone’s vision is very satisfying.

All of us are in different positions (in-house, part time, independent, all off the above) so finding resolution to keep from losing focus, passion, and the enjoyment that comes with what we do can be difficult. So my resolution is that we value our design, in my recent reading and experience I have come across some principles and practices that are a great standards to set in an effort to value our design.

Below I have listed 5 things that when put into play can make our careers/pursuit of careers as creatives more fulfilling, and when we work form the position of being more fulfilled in what we do we increase our chances for success, growth, and the ability to have a positive influence in our design community, jobs, and with our clients. These points are gathered from reading, experience (failure and success),and conversations. They are not a magic solution,it is up to each of us to apply them to our own situation.

1) Work on Things That Matter.
We all have projects that we get excited about, and then there are those projects that we would rather not think about. Either way as I have said before we offer a service that is not as common, and from time to time we will have the opportunity to use it to give back. I am not promoting spec work but  what I am endorsing is using our talents to support something of value.

I recently had an opportunity to participate in One Day For Human Rights, now my involvement wasn’t huge, but I had the opportunity to educate others about a humanitarian crisis that we all can help with. I simply wrote an article and put a graphic on my site, but to see others like Anca Foster work diligently at getting others involved, was inspiring to think I am able to support something worthwhile with my trade and abilities is very fulfilling and I highly recommend it.

2) Work with people you like and respect.
This sounds simple, but working for and with people that you do not respect for whatever reason is just not worth it no matter how big the money or prestigious the project. It will take it’s toll. So as much as you have the opportunity work for and with people that you respect. Even if you don’t know the people you work with all that well, find common ground, get to know them keep it professional but getting to know about them will really help in building respect for them, or learning that they may not be the type of people that you would like to work with. I am very fortunate to work for a boss that I highly respect, and during the hard times it makes it that much easier.

3) Set the Bar High.
If you constantly challenge your self with reasonable goals you will continue to grow as a designer/developer. Take pride in your work, it feels good to have preformed a job well done.  As much as you have the influence, don’t settle for second best.

4) Have a sense of humor.
There is nothing more damaging to our fulfillment then taking ourselves to seriously, learn to laugh at yourself, and enjoy what you do. You can do this and still approach your job as a professional I promise. It will make your job more enjoyable, and most likely improve your relationship with those you work with. This is a nice way to continue the process of being fulfilled in your job.

5) Be Open to Change
I know that we strive to be experts… and some of us very well may be experts, but even so we can always learn and grow as creatives. Be willing to try a path you hadn’t originally planned, be open to the ideas of others, it will broaden your perspectives and you might learn things that you wouldn’t of learned otherwise. Along with having a sense of humor being open to change makes you easy to work with, and definitely lends towards being more fulfilled in what you do.

I am sure there are other things that we can do to value our design/development, I would love to hear what you may do that helps you to value what you do and can lead to a more fulfilling experience. I know that this post was a bit long winded (i could have kept going) but i do think that this is a crucial element to our growth and enjoyment in what we do for fun or for a living.

Let me know what your opinions are, have I lost my mind? did i leave something out? I would love to hear your feedback.

~ Aaron I

The shirt is being printed and you can order yours here

Now that the shirt is off to the printers, I am getting started on the website design which I will post for feedback just as I did the shirt.

Thanks for tuning in

~Aaron I

In support of One Day for Human Rights I am writing about the Invisible Children in Uganda. Every day children are taken from their homes and forced to join the LRA (Lords Resistance Army). The LRA raids the villages killing, raping and stealing the young men to fight in their army (as recently seen on the TV show 24 Redemption). The children are forced to flee in the night hoping to find refuge.

Invisible children helps provide that refuge, as well as medical aide and education for these children who are now homeless, as well as without a family(many of them are forced to kill their own parents by the LRA).

Please visit the sites www.invisiblechildren.com, and www.onedayforhumanrights.com it is the least we can to to simply take some time out of our busy schedules and educate ourselves about the lack of human rights in the world and what role we might play in fighting for human rights.

I recently read a great article about failure on the UIE blog, it really sparked some thoughts about failure. The majority of us work from the position of trying not to fail, this sounds good initially but in reality it it puts us in the position to design/develop in fear.

When we work in order not to fail we are unable to tap into our true potential, and creative genius, most of work hoping that people like the designs that we have poured our hearts into. It is good to want to provide what our clients/bosses want and like, but is it ok to just give them what they want, or should we reach towards going above and beyond?

It is ok to fail… as long as we fail the right way…

Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgments.

Here are eight ways to succeed at failing…

Mistake 1: Operating without a clear vision. If the team doesn’t know what direction they are heading, it’s hard to know when they’ve made a misstep. With a clear, unified vision, everyone on the team can instantly detect a failure and make the necessary corrections to the course.

Mistake 2: No introspection after each failure. There’s a natural desire to quickly move .. something bad occurs. However, it’s important for the team to resist that urge and stop to ask, “What just happened?” and “What can we learn from this?”

Mistake 3: No communication of learned lessons. On larger teams, small mistakes (and some bigger ones) may escape attention by those team members who aren’t directly involved. It’s critical the lessons from the failure are communicated across the entire team, so everyone has a chance to learn.

Mistake 4: No time allocated for iteration or experimentation. The mantra, ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’ only works when repeated. Teams exhibiting excessive optimism without planning for failures find themselves backed into a corner when something does go wrong. As in the Amazon approach, leaving time to iterate and experiment will give the best results.

“Experience is the name everyone gives their mistakes.”

Mistake 5: Inflexible platform. We frequently hear comments such as “We’d love to try that, but we can’t make our content management system do it.” Teams that lock themselves into a platform that doesn’t give flexibility will have trouble reacting when a failure occurs. Teams that build on a flexible platform (and have the skills to take full advantage of that flexibility) are in the best position to recover from a failure.

Mistake 6: Building too much before a feedback cycle. Too much code locks teams into a direction that’s hard to change. The best teams get feedback early in the cycle using a variety of quick prototyping tools. They don’t start coding until they’ve collected substantial user feedback to know they are heading in a solid direction.

Mistake 7: Not instrumenting the design. Many teams don’t think about how they’ll tell if the design is working. They launch without measures in place. The best teams conceive and build in their instrumentation from the start of the project. We’ve seen some that start with the measures as part of their vision.

Mistake 8: Not enough depth in feedback. “Was this helpful? Y/N” is an interesting question, but what does it tell the team? If a large percentage say no, what should the team do differently? The best teams ensure they are going deep when collecting feedback from users. (For example, Netflix combines both live site A/B tests with in-lab usability testing, so they can see design issues from both a quantitative and qualitative viewpoint.)

How do you view / handle failure?

I would love to hear your experiences, as well as your thoughts on failure, and how it can hurt or benefit.

~ Aaron I

As designers and or developers we often work in one of a couple environments, we “work from home (independently)” or work in house at a company or agency. In both situations there is a level of stress and frustration that comes with the job, and at times we can be put in positions (though in hindsight they probably could have been avoided) where we are not able to put our best effort into what we are doing. Sometimes it can be the pressure to bring in more money, or the pressure to meet deadlines (unrealistic or not), but in most cases there is a common push to cut the necessary corners in an effort to “just get the project done”.

Lets look at a couple of examples of how mediocrity is ruining the modern day designer and design culture.

1) “Quantity over Quality” aka “The Just Add Water Approach”

One of the major ways that mediocrity has crept into the design world is through the notion that the more projects you are working on and the more work you do you are a success. There is nothing wrong with striving to put as much solid work out there as you can, but we must ask ourselves if we go out there and line up bunches of work are we really able to handle all of the work we take on.

“ Will we be able to provide design/ development at a level that we are proud of and even more importantly the client can get excited about.”

I understand that we all need to make a living and financial pressures can be very frustrating, I would venture to say that if you put out a consistent amount of well thought, and well designed projects you will get to the point where you are able to charge what you are actually worth (or close to it), which will most likely lead to not having to take 30 projects a month to make ends meet.

When we fall into the mode of taking on tons of projects (quantity not quality) we find ourselves needing to turn projects around quickly which leads to the “Just Add Water” approach. We fall into using templates to complete projects, or even charging the client for a web site knowing all along that we just plan on getting a template (it’s not like they will know the difference) and customizing it for them. I believe this keeps us from reaching our potential and is just bad for the design community.

What sets us apart in our trade from other trades/jobs is our ability to provide a custom service that most others are unable to do themselves. We have a unique opportunity to empower others in accomplishing their vision.

This applies in both the in-house, and independent environment if we start chasing the dollar at the expense of a quality “product” then success, if any will be short lived. This is very prevalent is so many of those $99 dollar website in 2 hours!(said in annoying announcer voice) companies that pop up over and over again I work for a company like this… and it became miserable, it took all of the enjoyment out of design, it was like a design sweat shop.

The more we allow this type of work/mentality to slip in the harder it is going to be for talented designers to get appreciated for what they do, our trade will get watered down, and it will definitely become harder to find work as independents, and in-house designers will slowly fade away being replaced by off shore out sourcing in the name of saving a couple of dollars, and before you know it you can find yourself addicted to mediocrity.

2) Lack of Setting Goals / No Passion to Perfect Our Trade

This may sound “Motivational Speakerish” but we work in an ever changing environment and if we are really passionate about what we do then we need to set goals in an effort to grow as designers, and even as people (which is another article in itself). If we don’t set goals we will stagnate, and the design world will pass us by, once we set those goals we cant give up on them. I have set personal goals as a designer, but I have also set goals to hopefully speak about some of the more intangible aspects (client relations, etc.) of design. I know that these things aren’t necessarily a possibility now, but they give me a target to reach for which keeps me hungry as a designer.

I am sure we can all look at today’s leaders in our industry and if asked they would talk about having a consistent passion for what they do, setting goals and going and doing them, even if they failed along the way they kept going.

We will all experience some stressful seasons, and times where we feel like we are trudging uphill through knee deep mud, the key is to consistently trudge and not give up. The season will pass and we will have grown as designers and people by pressing through it.

Everything I am writing in this article comes from personal experiences and the beauty of hindsight. We need the challenges to keep us fresh, if we just sit back and slip into cruise control we will be come addicted to mediocrity.

How can we avoid becoming addicted to mediocrity? Take pride in our work, don’t settle for second best, as much as you are in control of balance your work load so that the work you do is your best, and not cramped by too much work. Set goals, challenge yourself to be better, step out of your comfort zone, remain teachable, and just keep at it.

I would love to hear your feedback, and thoughts on this topic.

~ Aaron I

*Authors note - part 1 of this series was lost when the server my site was previously hosted on went down.

So we have determined that a balanced approach is necessary to provide a quality user experience for our users. Lets look at the first foundational aspect of a good user experience.

   1. Just a note hear my primary focus is on web design, and user interfaces, but this process can apply to web based products, or most products for that manner.

   2. To save excessive typing when I use the term client it can also refer to those you would work for in an in-house environment (Bosses, Marketing dept., Art Directors etc.)

Usability - Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. Usability can also refer to the methods of measuring usability and the study of the principles behind an object’s perceived efficiency or elegance. Or simply put - A site/product is available or convenient for use, and capable of being used to reach a desired goal.

So what makes a web site, product, or user interface usable?Available or Convenient for Use / Capable of Being UsedIs the site available? Does it work? Can people use it as originally intended? Aaron Gustafson makes a good point that we need to consider how people will be accessing the site/ interface we are building when he says;

    On the web, we don’t know anything about the person coming to our website. We don’t know what browser she is using. We don’t know if she is hitting our site from her cell phone. We don’t know if she prefers using her keyboard over her mouse. We don’t know if JavaScript (or even CSS) is enabled in the device she is using. We don’t know if she wants to print the page. We don’t know if she is using a screen reader. We really don’t know anything.

If Aaron is right (and i think he is) then it is really up to us to anticipate what our users need, which isn’t always easy, but it can be achieved by opening the lines of communication, find out what the desired result is for the project and set up a process for defining what the user experience should be.A couple good things to remember in the process courtesy of Indi Young.

    “When creating one, turn off your internal problem-solver and just listen to people”"Thinking from the potential customer’s perspective is a Zen-like exercise.” ~ Indi young

Here is what I suggest;(these are just a couple of basic points dependent on site needs there could be more)

   1. Make sure that the user can navigate through the site to the desired end results efficiently. Is the navigation clear and easy to follow? Are the links/buttons easy to click? (you would be surprised) Does the link text properly define the page it is linking to?

   2. Make sure that the content is given proper value. Is it concise? Does it tell the story?Is it lost in the style/look and feel of the site?  We must remember that the content is why someone has come to the site in the first place.

   3. Will the usability marry well with the style? Can you make the site a great visual experience without sacrificing the desired end result? Will it still function well in all browsers? Is it accessible? If you can marry these two elements you are almost guaranteed a great end result.(We will talk about this more in part 3 of the series “Visual Appeal”)

Starting with those three elements as a base will offer a good foundation for building a great user experience that is very usable and convenient. I realized that Usability can be it’s own series, and that I am really just touching on the tip of the iceberg. Hopefully this will inspire us to look deeper into defining a good user experience starting with Usability, and as we look at each aspect we can build a good foundation for creating well-balanced high quality user experiences.

Please feel free to post your thoughts, comments, and additions and or mention anything I may have left out.

~Aaron I