UX buzzspree

Safari 5, now with Extensions

gary — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:42:35 +0000

Even though I am a Mac user, one of the reasons Safari was never my primary browser was it’s lack of extensibility. In fact that was the main thing that drew me to Firefox. Apple has now opened a Safari Extensions Gallery. http://extensions.apple.com/

Firefox Tab Candy

gary — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:25:00 +0000

I just heard of a new innovation from Mozilla for Firefox. Tab Candy http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/tabcandy/ is a way to make groups of tabs and keep them in a desktop like space. It even allows sharing of the tab sets with other browsers and computers such as your iPod.

Currently it’s in Alpha and there is no word of exactly when it will make it into Firefox.

User Interface Design Patterns Wiki

gary — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:51:10 +0000

Pattern App http://patternapp.com/ is a wiki that allows UI patterns to be added and defined by contributors. For instance, there are lots of examples of “Spotlight Effect” and textual descriptions of the problem solved, when to use it, and other documentation (potentially including code).

This is interesting to me because I hoped to create a similar wiki for documenting corporate user experience design (beyond a style guide). It would be great to follow this example and contribute some of our patterns to the Pattern App if possible.

Google Images New Design

gary — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:42:48 +0000

I noticed yesterday, Google rolled out a new design for image search. [UPDATE: After an alert co-worker told me I was crazy, I found out the the new design so far only appears on Firefox(Mac and PC), Safari (Mac and NOT PC), and Chrome.]

The image grid is tighter, and the pictures scroll vertically while the next set of images is automatically loaded asynchronously. That’s much better than pressing “next” and waiting for the next page to load. At some point, you reach the end of a large group of images with a “Show more results” button. Hovering over an image will cause it to enlarge with details.

http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&biw=1440&bih=745&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=landscape&aq=0&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=lands&gs_rfai=

Clicking on the image shows it on a page larger, with the source-site in the background. (They used to show the image in a frame above the site.)

I’m sure there’s more but overall, I’d call these user experience improvements.

Invisible Mouse

gary — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:26:45 +0000

MIT shows their experimental invisible mouse, which tracks your hand on (presumably) any surface. It picks up on finger taps both, right-mouse and left mouse actions. Now, if it only had a scroll button, I’d be happy.

Read about it at Wired.

This video shows the mouse in action, along with scenes from a Tom and Jerry Cartoon.

Fun and Amazing Lego Creation

gary — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 19:06:09 +0000

I ran across this today. Yes, it is not directly related to user experience but who doesn’t like Legos?

A Showcase for Wireframes

gary — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:57:28 +0000

Wireframe Showcase is a new site, just launched allowing UX designers to upload share their wireframes and final designs. Others can leave comments about the designs.

What great idea! I might dig through some old work and submit something myself.

Jakob Nielsen on iPad

gary — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:42:26 +0000

Jakob Nielsen on iPad. He has the results of some testing he did on the iPad interface.

iPad by byrion

Most of the insights relate to app design and not the iPad itself. In other words, most of the usability is within the app designer’s control.

To exacerbate the problem, once they do figure out how something works, users can’t transfer their skills from one app to the next. Each application has a completely different UI for similar features.

Usability truth in humor

gary — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:00:22 +0000

Ellen DeGeneres created a parody of an Apple iPhone commercial that humorously illustrates the typical non-geek experience with technology.

This is why we do usability testing. The UI looks perfectly reasonable and obvious to us technophiles but not to the “normal” people out there.

Skinput: Skin-based touch screen

gary — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:17:30 +0000

Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University demonstrate body acoustics technology which can turn your skin into a touch screen. They call this “Skinput.” Clever name.

Skinput: Appropriating the Body as an Input Surface (CHI 2010)