User Interface Engineering

We want to make designs simple, but we don’t want to make them dumb. There’s a difference. The goal is to simplify the design by keeping only the most valuable bits, eliminating everything else.

This is not easy to do. You really have to know something about the users, what they are trying to do, and how they go about doing it. Just having that information will likely push the team to add more features, not less, so you then need a solid vision of how simplicity will make it better. Finally, you have to be ruthless and stubborn, cutting all the unnecessary bits out and sticking to your guns about keeping to the essentials.

The designers of a new video camera, the Flip Video, have cleverly done just this. As a result, the camera is stealing market share from the big players and garnering great reviews in the press mainstream press. (Oprah even featured it on her show.)

In this week’s article for our email newsletter, I look at four ways the Flip has simplified the act of filming and sharing movies, while keeping the value in the design. These are lessons I think we all can learn from.

You can read my article here.

By the way, we think the Flip Ultra Camera is so remarkable that we’re giving one away to everyone who registers by May 20th for our User Interface 13 Conference. We thought a product with a great design was the right way to start out a great conference.

Have you been working to make your designs simpler? What lessons have you learned in the process?

SpoolCast: Creating a Web Experience from Scratch with Sean Kane
Recorded: December 7th, 2007 from the studios at UIE.
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
Duration: 33m | File size: 17.5 MB
[ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.]
[ Subscribe with other podcast applications.]
[ Text Transcript ]

 

 SpoolCast- Starting a Web Experience from Scratch with Sean Kane [32:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sean Kane. Sean helped build one of the world’s most successful web applications as the Director of UI Engineering at Netflix. Last year, Sean left Netflix to co-found Get Listed, a start-up that is going to revolutionize the job search business.

Moving from a mature organization that understands the role of experience design to a brand-new start-up environment without any of the same infrastructure or support can be a real challenge. A challenge that is not unlike the challenge that many UX practitioners face when trying to bootstrap their user experience efforts in a growing organization.

I asked Sean to reflect a little on his previous experience at Netflix and about the challenges he’s facing at Get Listed. We started by talking about Netflix’s culture of metrics and the impact it has on their design. We then discussed the culture shock he’s experienced as he moved to this new gig. Finally, we talked about building both a web app and and a web app team from scratch.

It was interesting to see how the impact of his experience at Netflix is reflecting the decisions he’s making while shaping his new startup environment. I believe anyone who is building out their own user experience efforts will find Sean’s thoughts inspiring.

I think you’ll enjoy this podcast. We look forward to your questions and thoughts. Let us know what you think in the comments!

[Note: We had prepared this podcast to be released earlier this year, but due to schedule conflicts, its release was delayed. As a result, the intro mentions the very successful 2008 Web App Summit as if it's still to come. But don't worry: we'll have another one next year, so stay tuned!]

One of the most questions we get in regard to our popular podcasts is,

“What’s that catchy intro music?”

Today, I thought I’d share.

SpoolCast: Mocean Worker - Right Now

SpoolCast Crew: Cal Tjader - Soul Sauce

Josh and Jared Show: Medeski Martin & Wood - End of the World Party

Usability Tools Podcasts: Medeski Martin & Wood - Mami Gato

All of these titles are also be available through iTunes, as well.

We license this music through ASCAP.

Every year, I ask each of my graduate students to interview four of their friends, finding what brands they love and what brands they really despise and the reasons for their feelings. These students, being engineers, all go into the experiment thinking that people will either love or hate the products made by the brands. However, coming out of the study, they reveal, without fail, that it’s the overall experience with the brand that makes a difference.

Many of the interviewees have strong opinions about car brands. And it’s rarely the craftsmanship or engineering of the car that gave them the strong opinion. Instead, it’s something the dealer did or didn’t do. In fact, in many cases, the car could have a problem and, if handled well by the dealer, the customer would come away with a positive opinion of the overall brand.

Many of our clients are working on improving their brand, yet they often overlook what can happen when a problem arises. If the experience in handling the problem is positive, that could strengthen that customer’s engagement with the brand. However, if they somehow make the customer feel worse, then the brand suffers.

In this week’s article for our email newsletter, UIEtips, I talk about how teams from FindTape.com, Netflix, and BestBuy.com designed for problems that arise. In each case, their design helped customers end up with an improved experience and a stronger brand.

You can read my article here.

Have you tried to anticipate your user’s problems in your design? What experiences have you had with your designs? Leave your thoughts and comments below.

[On the subject of how designers can strengthen their brands, this is the subject of our next UIE Virtual Seminar. On May 14, I'll be presenting "Strike Up the Brand: How Smart Design Can Strengthen Your Brand."]

SpoolCast: Design Patterns and Anti-Patterns with Bill Scott
Recorded: November 30th, 2007 from the studios at UIE.
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
Duration: 39m | File size: 20 MB
[ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.]
[ Subscribe with other podcast applications.]
[ Text transcript ]

 

 SpoolCast: An Interview with Bill Scott [38:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this week’s SpoolCast, I had a chance to speak with Bill Scott. Bill has been one of my heroes for years, having really pushed the envelope as an evangelist for the public Yahoo! Design Pattern Library. He then went on to work on the Yahoo! Teachers project, where he took his knowledge of Ajax and Web 2.0 techniques and applied it to a creative solution for educators. Most recently, Bill has become the Director of UI Engineering at Netflix, where he now is driving how technology can enhance the user experience at one of the companies that understands what it takes.

During our conversation, we talked about some of the innovative techniques he’s using at Netflix, what he learned from the Yahoo! Teachers project, and his most recent work on Anti-patterns — learning from what we shouldn’t be doing.

I think you’ll enjoy this podcast. We look forward to your questions and thoughts. Let us know in the comments!

[Note: We had prepared this podcast to be released earlier this year, but due to schedule conflicts, its release was delayed. As a result, the intro mentions the very successful 2008 Web App Summit as if it's still to come. But don't worry: we'll have another one next year, so stay tuned!]

My late spring / early summer isn’t as busy as the first 4 months of this year, but I’m still getting out and about. Here’s where we can meet up:

May 2008

May 5-6, Chicago

Web Design World/Chicago
Web 2.0: The Power Behind the Hype - 5/5 10:15-11:15am
Enhancing Experiences with AJAX, RIAs, and Browser-Side Intelligence - 5/6 2:00-4:15pm
Deconstructing… You! (with Jim Heid and Lance Loveday) - 5/6 - 4:30-5:30pm

I don’t get to Chicago too often, so this is going to be fun. Let me know if you’d like connect up while I’m there.

May 28, Boston

UPA-Boston’s Seventh Annual Mini UPA Conference
Web Apps: The Collision of Design and Business - 5/28 9:15-10:00am

The Boston UPA Chapter does an amazing job putting together a nice program for a great price: $135 ($75 if you’re a student) I’ve found the presentations here to be as good as those I see at conferences that cost four times or more.

June 2008

June 4, Philadephia

STC’s 2008 Technical Communication Summit
What Makes A Design Seem Intuitive? - 6/4 10:30-11:30am

Keynotes at this conference by Howard Rheingold and Richard Saul Wurman make it very attractive.

June 16-20, Baltimore

UPA 2008

I haven’t spoken at this conference since 2001 for reasons that nobody seems to know. However, I’ve been known to show up on occasion. Could happen this year. Stranger things have happened.

June 23-24, Boston

An Event Apart - Boston
Scent of a Web Page - 6/23 5:00-6:00pm

My second time speaking at An Event Apart, the conference put on my Jeffrey Zeldman and Eric Meyer. This is a great gathering of the some of the brightest minds in the design world. (And me.)

July 2008

July 15-16, Philadelphia

Higher Education Web Symposium - University of Pennsylvania
Cooking Up Gourmet User Experiences on a Fast-Food Budget - 7/16 9:00-10:15a

I’ll be presenting the keynote after full day workshops from Steve Mulder and Ricardo LaRosa (AJAX & Web 2.0), Eric Meyer & Stephanie Sullivan (CSS Tips & Techniques), Luke Wroblewski (Web Form Design Best Practices), and Usability Testing (Dana Chisnell). $299 gets you a full day workshop and the second day of great sessions. (As of last week, they were almost sold out.)

July 19-20, Boston

Podcamp Boston

I’ve gone to the last two podcamps and had a blast. I expect I’ll do something here again, at least on the 19th. (I have to fly to Seattle on the 20th.)

July 21-23, Seattle

Web Design World/Seattle
Web 2.0: The Power Behind the Hype - 5/5 10:15-11:15am
Enhancing Experiences with AJAX, RIAs, and Browser-Side Intelligence - 5/6 2:00-4:15pm

They are still nailing down the program, but this is what it looks like now. I expect I’ll be doing an evening presentation or get together while I’m here.

On April 12, I gave the keynote at the IA Summit. It was my second time keynoting this event and a real honor for me. The audience was great and it lead to some very interesting discussion, both at the conference and on blogs and discussion lists everywhere.

I’ve posted the slides above and have synched it up with audio from the conference. (Unfortunately, there was a mic-input problem during the recording and they ended up using the built-in mics instead of the sounds system. So, the recording is noisy and unintelligible in places. Sorry about that.)

Here’s the description of the talk:

Journey to the Center of Design

User-centered design was born in the 1980s, amidst a world filled with frustration with blinking VCR clocks and computer command lines. Up until this time, developers focused on making the devices work, giving little heed to how they’d be used. Terms like “user friendly” and “easy to use,” buzzwords for the UCD movement, soon became as common as “new and improved” on laundry soap.

We guarantee a journey that shouldn’t be missed.

| View | Upload your own

You can download the slides (without audio). On the Slideshare site, you can view this presentation full screen to see the details.

What do you think of this presentation?

We’re looking for someone special and I’m hoping you know this person. We’re growing our very successful Virtual Seminar program which currently delivers an information packed online webinar to 1,000-2,500 designers and user experience professionals every month.

We need someone who has the insight and right touch to take this program and make it sing. This person is going to know the design community, what they need, and how to craft a great online educational product for them.

If you know such a person, forward them this ad and have them contact us right away. We’d really appreciate it.

SpoolCast: Mental Models with Indi Young
Recorded: February 29th, 2008 from the studios at UIE.
Brian Christiansen, UIE Podcast Producer
Duration: 43m | File size: 22 MB
[ Subscribe to our podcast via iTunes. This link will launch the iTunes application.]
[ Text transcript coming soon ]
[ Subscribe with other podcast applications.]

 

 SpoolCast: Reviewing Mental Models with Indi Young [42:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In February we held one of our most popular Virtual Seminars ever, Mental Models: Getting Into Your Customer’s Head, presented by Indi Young. Indi explained her mental model method of organizing the beliefs and philosophies of users, then comparing them to the current and planned functionality, to see if the users’ needs align with the design.

When we were done with the seminar, we had a number of compelling questions left over from the seminar. In this Podcast, we got back in touch with Indi and discussed some of the more interesting ones.

Indi had some interesting opinions on:

• whether you use surveys for data collection,
• how long it will take to do a mental model assessment,
• how you ensure the accuracy of the interpretation of the data you collect,
• and much more…

[Note: Unfortunately, while we were recording, there was a motor running in the background and the mic was picking it up. Brian worked extremely hard to scrub this noise out as much as possible, but there are places where doing so would've made it hard to understand what Indi was saying. We apologize in advance if the recording is a little difficult to listen to in places.]

Later this month, Indi will be presenting her full-day workshop on this subject, Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior at our Web App Summit in Coronado, California. We’ve almost sold out, sign up now for one of the few remaining seats! You won’t want to miss it.

In the podcast and seminar, Indi expounded upon the information in her new book, Mental Models, Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior. If you’re interested in purchasing the book, enjoy a 10% discount with our compliments. Use the code FOUIE010 at checkout. (The code stands for “Friends of UIE.”)

This spring, our good friends, Steve Krug and Lou Rosenfeld, will offer a two-day workshop series on the topics of discount usability testing and site search analytics. If you haven’t had a chance to hear these two experts share their knowledge, I highly suggest you attend.

Cities, Dates, and Program Details

April 3 in Boston, May 16 in Chicago: Steve Krug’s workshop, Don’t Make Me Think: Discount Usability Testing

April 4 in Boston, May 15 in Chicago: Lou Rosenfeld’s workshop, Site Search Analytics for a Better User Experience

Special Discount for Our Readers

If you enter discount code UIEPAL, you will receive $100 off each workshop. If you sign up before the early bird deadline using promotion code UIEPAL, you will pay a discounted rate of $695 for one workshop and $1195 for both workshops — a savings of $100 off each day.

Sign up today for these fantastic workshops.