Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
We love to talk, hate to read... Chapter 5.
I know I am one of "those" people who writes like I think. My brain is cluttered and I am sure I could really get my point across if I actually edited what I am thinking/saying. As I get older, I notice I get more interest in engaging in conversations if I just shut up first and talk later.
When it comes to anything in the way of writing, I was taught a great lesson. In the mid-late 90's, I was in charge of production, I had to do a lot of copy writing, HATED IT. I would always have a huge problem with it running over 1 minute or running over 30seconds because the scripts too long for a natural read. When I was the news editor for a morning show, I had to work the timing of the story out with the commercial break times, running over is a huge NO NO. It wasn't until I had a General Manager tell me, "blah blah blah. Just tell me... you have one sentence with no comma, to tell me the story." He wasn't mean, he made it click. Any story could be told in one sentence. The same applies to the internet.
The general person looking at a poster will not sit there to dig visually for the information, you need to tell them what you want them to know with in one sentence. The internet is interactive, the person using the internet doesn't want to read the banter in order to complete a membership or fill out a questionnaire. The person really just wants a blunt answer to an easy question... How do I get there from here. As a designer, I have to figure out how to tune out the static and leave the person using the net with the blunt, honest answer with in very few words.
Instructions are a reminder that the internet is in control of the user. The user wants to be in control after the monthly wireless bill and then the money spent on the nice computer. An internet user will want to be invited on the underlying psychology, of the internet use. So the rule for most sites should be, less clutter with words and directions and invite them to share the information needed to follow through. It has to be easy, inviting and short of static or directions.
What is really funny... It took 3 paragraphs to get the point across.
When it comes to anything in the way of writing, I was taught a great lesson. In the mid-late 90's, I was in charge of production, I had to do a lot of copy writing, HATED IT. I would always have a huge problem with it running over 1 minute or running over 30seconds because the scripts too long for a natural read. When I was the news editor for a morning show, I had to work the timing of the story out with the commercial break times, running over is a huge NO NO. It wasn't until I had a General Manager tell me, "blah blah blah. Just tell me... you have one sentence with no comma, to tell me the story." He wasn't mean, he made it click. Any story could be told in one sentence. The same applies to the internet.
The general person looking at a poster will not sit there to dig visually for the information, you need to tell them what you want them to know with in one sentence. The internet is interactive, the person using the internet doesn't want to read the banter in order to complete a membership or fill out a questionnaire. The person really just wants a blunt answer to an easy question... How do I get there from here. As a designer, I have to figure out how to tune out the static and leave the person using the net with the blunt, honest answer with in very few words.
Instructions are a reminder that the internet is in control of the user. The user wants to be in control after the monthly wireless bill and then the money spent on the nice computer. An internet user will want to be invited on the underlying psychology, of the internet use. So the rule for most sites should be, less clutter with words and directions and invite them to share the information needed to follow through. It has to be easy, inviting and short of static or directions.
What is really funny... It took 3 paragraphs to get the point across.
Chapter 4... Wow that was quick.
To click mindlessly requires thought. People using the internet have enough to think about, as a web designer you shouldn't torture the person using the internet by evoking too much thought. So, a rule I have learned in e-portfolio is "Make your product available within three clicks." The only exception to this rule is a heavily stocked e-commerce web sight. Even then, it should only take... Maybe twice as many clicks.
That rule isn't in the book however in my mind, I feel it's a way to show decorum in helping the customer using the internet. They keep cool while they are perhaps frantically searching out their needs and desires and the client I am designing for is reaping the benefits from my web design.
That rule isn't in the book however in my mind, I feel it's a way to show decorum in helping the customer using the internet. They keep cool while they are perhaps frantically searching out their needs and desires and the client I am designing for is reaping the benefits from my web design.
Chapter 3 of Krug’s book, “Don’t Make Me Think”
Billboards
What comes first and what is secondary. From what I understand, you need 2.5 seconds to get the message across to your audience when they are driving and you are displaying the message on a billboard. No problem? Uh, not so fast, not so easy. A company has a list of services, the company has a history of what has been done in order to establish itself. How do you explain with a phrase, a tag line, how do you explain the integrity of a company with in 2.5 seconds? Krug explains it well with hierarchy… Visual hierarchy. Buy me, on sale, bring a coupon.
Random thoughts
I am sure that an advertising firm or the company itself would invent the tag line. But as a designer, the job is to decide the visual hierarchy and which “thing” would be the visual hierarchy… The company? The tag line? Do you use the same type from the logo, for the tag line? Do you use Helvetica!!!! The choices are endless. How would I space it all out properly? Should I make it centered? Oh my God, no… 3rds rule. Thinking about it... I am freaking out. (not really).
Web based
Organizing is the key. As I read the book, I understood the fact that the viewer needs you to keep it organizing as a designer. So when the user is going through the systematic scan for an object they desire as an infant to bananas, the designer needs to map it out… Books, subject & authors. Simplified in it’s display, make sure you use the visual hierarchy and show what secondary information is there for that customer….BOOKS, art, modern.
I realize the conventions of the newspaper is probably the best way to explain the theory of visual hierarchy. It was a great way to explain the use color, placement, pictures and page breaks.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
SCRATCH WHAT I JUST SAID...
http://www.efooddepot.com/
http://www.nopudge.com/
http://www.yourgrocer.com/main_new.asp?sid=ok
Try this...
http://www.nopudge.com/
http://www.yourgrocer.com/main_new.asp?sid=ok
Try this...
3 sites that need some help.
Des Moines Cinema
desmoinescinema.com
Soggy Doggy
soggydoggy.com
Annie*s Attic
asattic.com
desmoinescinema.com
Soggy Doggy
soggydoggy.com
Annie*s Attic
asattic.com
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Chapter 1&2.
Making a web site easier to use seems to be easier said. I have read through to chapter 6 so far, but something hit me when I was reading chapter 1. Rapid eye movement. He didn't write it in the book, but I was thinking it. Humans are a lot like infants. When we are a sophisticated society, we are tech savvy and we are interface savvy, yet personally we still get to the infancy of a person (outside of geniuses like Steven Hawkings). People will rapidly scan or view the target they need or desire. They know what the want, they will scan it and desire it much like a baby.
Babies are very direct with what they want, they see it and they reach for it. It has to be simple and it has to be a direct point from here to there. I guess it would make sense in this analogy, for Internet users who are basically like big babies, it needs to be click #1 here and click #2 there. If it takes more than that for the baby, they will go elsewhere, Grandma always brings you the cookie. The same rule applies to the Internet user, the competitor will attempt to bring you what you desire with less clicks. In the end, don't lead the user to a question mark, lead them to what they want without guess work.
I found that the search engine problem solving to be very interesting. I have been victimized by the guess work before and I cussed really loud and scared my cat Jethro. The Internet was invented to bring the world home, and somewhere along the lines... The mass population really wanted the instant gratification of getting the world with in 2 clicks. Funny part about that... It's sometimes hard to design it well and dumb it down for the mass population.
Searching for what we want has become easier and in the end I think the Internet has signed on to not waste the milliseconds of your day lost in thoughts for what you used to click on. The simplistic view on a search engine is seemingly simple however I do hope the testing runs well for the average user in the hermetically sealed vault at the International Bureau of Standards in Geneva.(page 18)
Krug did hit the nail on the head... My mom still thinks AOL is the internet. I nearly peed myself.
Babies are very direct with what they want, they see it and they reach for it. It has to be simple and it has to be a direct point from here to there. I guess it would make sense in this analogy, for Internet users who are basically like big babies, it needs to be click #1 here and click #2 there. If it takes more than that for the baby, they will go elsewhere, Grandma always brings you the cookie. The same rule applies to the Internet user, the competitor will attempt to bring you what you desire with less clicks. In the end, don't lead the user to a question mark, lead them to what they want without guess work.
I found that the search engine problem solving to be very interesting. I have been victimized by the guess work before and I cussed really loud and scared my cat Jethro. The Internet was invented to bring the world home, and somewhere along the lines... The mass population really wanted the instant gratification of getting the world with in 2 clicks. Funny part about that... It's sometimes hard to design it well and dumb it down for the mass population.
Searching for what we want has become easier and in the end I think the Internet has signed on to not waste the milliseconds of your day lost in thoughts for what you used to click on. The simplistic view on a search engine is seemingly simple however I do hope the testing runs well for the average user in the hermetically sealed vault at the International Bureau of Standards in Geneva.(page 18)
Krug did hit the nail on the head... My mom still thinks AOL is the internet. I nearly peed myself.
Read Me First... yup, I finally did.
I recently found out... I HATE READING BOOKS ON THE INTERNET, so I bought Steven Krug's "Don't Make Me Think." So I started from the beginning...
Well the introduction turned me off from the beginning. The word consultant instantly pisses me off. I have worked with consultants before and I have to say, not all of them were bad, but all had to do with radio. I think of consultants as the "know it all" that comes from Chicago, New York and any other metropolitan area that had nothing to do with MY MARKET. The uniqueness of the market and the people I catered to, lived around, and worked hard for their attention didn't listen because we had a big time consultant, they listened because we gave them the comfort that we were one of them.
Places, environment and people are different everywhere. Consultants look like a huge amount of money and have been a severe pain in my ass. To get paid to implement cookie cutter rules for a subjective audience leads to a gaping hole with creativity. In my experience, the subject matter that made a person stay a in car to take 15 minutes off his/her paycheck was either radical, erotic, sensitive or a proverbial train wreck was the biggest complement I could think of.
I would like to say this consultant, Steven Krug, has a purpose. I wasn’t looking forward to reading this book after reading the disgusting job title, however… I like this guy. He seems to implement the thought process of common sense. I think with the Internet there does have to be a cookie cutter standard to the user being from Chicago, Ill., Encino, CA., to Pataskala Ohio… From the concept of the thin book and business people being far too busy for meaningless words. I also like the thought of not bad mouthing bad web sites, do something, to something well and do it better after you have done well.
I love the references at the bottom! He seems to understand people are flighty whether he was on the phone with clients who are distracted by donuts or listening to his wife saying she wants to find what she is looking for with in two clicks. His preventive strike with who's who and who you are, on page 8 is hilarious. He seems to know he's gonna confuse you if he doesn't lay down the rules right away.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
I have been thinking A LOT
I have been thinking about what to say on this new thing... MY BLOG. I guess it would have to do with interface designs or the subject of how interface design has made an impression on my life or education. First of all I want to say, my views are probably skewed and the view I have, will read as cynical. As an "old" lady, I find myself sounding like a resident of a Florida retirement home. Hey, I can't help it.
Interface design has effected my life in many ways. When Napster had a peer to peer network, that allowed the college community to exchange songs in the form of WAV's and MP3's. Some genius had the knowledge and the money to invent a way to make the portable radio a thing of the past and portable CD players look prehistoric. So as a former broadcaster in radio, I was interested in the new device. The invention of that device would bring a generation to the newest technology & some of the biggest court cases involving naive fans to the poor house. It would affect my job.
As a music director and program director working with record labels and rep's I found it quick and swift to understand the business of CD sales. When the availability of MP3's came out on the the Internet with your favorite tracks for 99 cents, CD sales fell. Record companies lost money. The record companies would lack in promotional giveaways, the trade magazines would cut the count of spins by market size due to the loss record label support for advertising in those trade magazines. This would hinder my radio station. Less money in, more availability for the general population. Good? Bad? I waiver on bad for my job in radio, good because I was able to see the shit music deflate from the top of the charts and watch the struggling indie music rise in popularity. Bad in a target tempo for my station, good because I didn't get the promotional bribes from record labels that were knowingly giving me crap to program. So my question doesn't really get an answer in this department.
The record companies are going for the throat to recoup the losses while victims of of being a "music lover" are piling up in the courts. For that, greed is the center of this little thing... a little MP3 player, and sharing the music.
Another way I see interface and the use of it... It's in my social setting. I have more friends via text than any other way these days. I wasn't the most social person in high school. I was the dark artist in the art room while pep rallies were going strong and loud. It wasn't until I was 17, I graduated high school, moved to Maine and started working in a credit office. there I would find my very best friend. She was a co-worker...Hilary. The center of my life was meeting her at a coffee shop called Scooters in Old Port, Portland, Maine. We would have a bagel & coffee, we would talk with no cell phones ringing in the restaurant, no text.
In 1987, you could have a conversation. There was no wireless availability so you could chat via Internet or do work and talk at the same time. There was a solid focus on the task at hand, listening to my very first and favorite friend. I wouldn't e-mail or text her my problems, we exchanged words verbally, we exchanged expressions, we consulted one on one over our emotions. We bonded. To this day and forever that solidified my bond with her.
These days, I have more friends. I don't know there phone number by heart, I don't know what exact emotions they are feeling when they text me, I don't know their e-mail by heart. I guess it makes my life easier. But what if I lose my phone? What if my computer gets a virus from the chain e-mails sent.
I would never worry about that in 1987 at Scooters coffee shop. I know I am sounding like I have blue hair and arthritis is setting into my joints. With that I have to say there is nothing more genuine then a person to person conversation. The only people I feel I can say I do that with, is Hilary and my mom. My mom is 66 and text might as well be a foreign language. That's why I call her almost everyday and I call Hilary every two weeks. If I want to get my friends on the phone, I have to practically text them a warning. If I e-mail something, I don't know if I became a part of the shameful "spam" file.
Interface design is a necessary part of comfortable living for my husband... that remote controls every part of his entertainment center (I think he's more attracted to that thing than me). My twelve year old can't walk her dog without charging up her MP3 player first. My 21 year old daughter is addicted to text (1,734 text in the last monthly statement) and she only calls when she is walking to her next class or is at the grocery store asking me what teeth whitening solution is the best in my opinion. My 19 year old son is also attached to the cell phone, claiming the hot babes are beckoning for his company.
I don't know how I will do in this class. I know I have lied awake at night thinking about what to write on this blog when it comes to interface design, sometimes I found myself mad, sometimes I was trying to think in the respect of the devils advocate in the subject matter. But what I can't deny is this, it's not going away, it's not going to help me to fight it... But God how I mourn the thought that my kids won't experience their "Hilary". The life they live will be fragmented with half of their attention on the phone and the other half on the person trying to talk to them. It kind of leads me to think A.D.D. might be a self inflicted condition.
Interface design has effected my life in many ways. When Napster had a peer to peer network, that allowed the college community to exchange songs in the form of WAV's and MP3's. Some genius had the knowledge and the money to invent a way to make the portable radio a thing of the past and portable CD players look prehistoric. So as a former broadcaster in radio, I was interested in the new device. The invention of that device would bring a generation to the newest technology & some of the biggest court cases involving naive fans to the poor house. It would affect my job.
As a music director and program director working with record labels and rep's I found it quick and swift to understand the business of CD sales. When the availability of MP3's came out on the the Internet with your favorite tracks for 99 cents, CD sales fell. Record companies lost money. The record companies would lack in promotional giveaways, the trade magazines would cut the count of spins by market size due to the loss record label support for advertising in those trade magazines. This would hinder my radio station. Less money in, more availability for the general population. Good? Bad? I waiver on bad for my job in radio, good because I was able to see the shit music deflate from the top of the charts and watch the struggling indie music rise in popularity. Bad in a target tempo for my station, good because I didn't get the promotional bribes from record labels that were knowingly giving me crap to program. So my question doesn't really get an answer in this department.
The record companies are going for the throat to recoup the losses while victims of of being a "music lover" are piling up in the courts. For that, greed is the center of this little thing... a little MP3 player, and sharing the music.
Another way I see interface and the use of it... It's in my social setting. I have more friends via text than any other way these days. I wasn't the most social person in high school. I was the dark artist in the art room while pep rallies were going strong and loud. It wasn't until I was 17, I graduated high school, moved to Maine and started working in a credit office. there I would find my very best friend. She was a co-worker...Hilary. The center of my life was meeting her at a coffee shop called Scooters in Old Port, Portland, Maine. We would have a bagel & coffee, we would talk with no cell phones ringing in the restaurant, no text.
In 1987, you could have a conversation. There was no wireless availability so you could chat via Internet or do work and talk at the same time. There was a solid focus on the task at hand, listening to my very first and favorite friend. I wouldn't e-mail or text her my problems, we exchanged words verbally, we exchanged expressions, we consulted one on one over our emotions. We bonded. To this day and forever that solidified my bond with her.
These days, I have more friends. I don't know there phone number by heart, I don't know what exact emotions they are feeling when they text me, I don't know their e-mail by heart. I guess it makes my life easier. But what if I lose my phone? What if my computer gets a virus from the chain e-mails sent.
I would never worry about that in 1987 at Scooters coffee shop. I know I am sounding like I have blue hair and arthritis is setting into my joints. With that I have to say there is nothing more genuine then a person to person conversation. The only people I feel I can say I do that with, is Hilary and my mom. My mom is 66 and text might as well be a foreign language. That's why I call her almost everyday and I call Hilary every two weeks. If I want to get my friends on the phone, I have to practically text them a warning. If I e-mail something, I don't know if I became a part of the shameful "spam" file.
Interface design is a necessary part of comfortable living for my husband... that remote controls every part of his entertainment center (I think he's more attracted to that thing than me). My twelve year old can't walk her dog without charging up her MP3 player first. My 21 year old daughter is addicted to text (1,734 text in the last monthly statement) and she only calls when she is walking to her next class or is at the grocery store asking me what teeth whitening solution is the best in my opinion. My 19 year old son is also attached to the cell phone, claiming the hot babes are beckoning for his company.
I don't know how I will do in this class. I know I have lied awake at night thinking about what to write on this blog when it comes to interface design, sometimes I found myself mad, sometimes I was trying to think in the respect of the devils advocate in the subject matter. But what I can't deny is this, it's not going away, it's not going to help me to fight it... But God how I mourn the thought that my kids won't experience their "Hilary". The life they live will be fragmented with half of their attention on the phone and the other half on the person trying to talk to them. It kind of leads me to think A.D.D. might be a self inflicted condition.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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