An amazingly poignant paragraph that captures the subtle nuances of a solid UXer. This is just one of the many great slides from InspireUX. I highly recommend dropping it in your RSS Reader and checking it out when you need the occasional jolt of inspiration.
ps: It’s also an excellent resource for presentation-worthy design + process quotes.
Along similar lines, though not nearly as visually impressive, as Dopplr’s Annual Report, I noticed today that the Nike+ site gives you the option to get a “rundown” on 2008. Check out mine above. Seeing this now makes me upset that I took a few months off from Nike+. Damn you, wasted data! (If a run happens and Nike+ doesn’t capture it, did it really happen?)
It’s great to see so many people finally realizing that you can be clever about the data you’re collecting from the ongoing usage of your product. Giving this kind of info back to your users, if done right, can go a long way towards strengthening their connection with your product. Nike could have gone a bit further (and I bet they will next year) but this is definitely a step in the right direction.
The Digital Experience Group at the New York Public Library recently launched Infomaki, a “rapid-testing usability research laboratory” (check it out here). What does that mean you might ask? Well, here you go…
It’s not groundbreaking technology. Built on a Rails back-end (my rapid-prototyping framework of choice), it currently supports two kinds of tests: standard multiple choice (with optional “Other:” box) and a “Where would you click…?” screenshot (see image above) that records click locations. But it’s a bit different from the other tools mentioned above in that:
1. Each question is free-standing
2. The user can answer as many or as few questions as they want
3. It’s incredibly easy for the team to insert questions immediately
The main idea is to have a pool of dozens of independent questions available at any given time, from which a respondent will see a random selection.
I was presented with that very choice (pictured above) and answered not one but seven questions about their site. Not bad, eh? Granted, I’m someone who finds great satisfaction from rating countless Netflix movies with the hope of it someday knowing exactly how I feel about a movie before I even have a chance to think about it.
Anyway, i think there’s something to this new trend of quick hit usability testing rather than hitting people with a “Do you have 10 minutes to spare to answer questions about our site?” surveys. With this approach, people might end up spending 15 minutes helping you and they won’t even know it.
Try out the test here.
Read more about Infomaki here.
It’s great to see something that’s both highly functional and sensible at the same time. Clearly the result of observing people get pizzas delivered and have no plates to use. Not only that, the rest can be turned into a smaller box for leftovers. Love it.
Read more here. (via @jasonfried)
My mind = blown.
If you’re into this kind of stuff, please go check out the rest.
On that note, Information Aesthetics looks like a mighty fine data viz blog. Gonna give it a home in my Google Reader Purgatory folder and see how it fares.