Clean Design from Istock Photo

Clean Banners from Istock, originally uploaded by djteknokid.

Nice usage of gradients and rounded corner...

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Simplicity.. Going Back Back Back

How many times do we get overwhelmed by a new application that has hundreds of options on the dash board? Photoshop, AI, and even MS Offices look pretty hard to use for the first timer.
I feel as a user that my interest in usability and learnability have taken a huge toll because of the functionalities. We all know that notepad is easier than MS Word and MS Pain is easier than the Photoshop. How do we stay simple and have simplicity in our mind while developing architecture or designs? This article from UXmatters highlights some of the key elements we need to focus to apply simplicity in your project.

http://www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000284.php Share

Power to the People

So I have been creating a custom golf club tool for the project I have been involved in. I have to say this is a pretty complicated web application because there are so many variables to consider.

Granted, customizing one club shouldn't be that hard using a multiple page or using filed set & legend chunking tactics.
But what if the user wants to customize multiple clubs at once? For this B2B site I am involved in, one of the user story was to satisfy a customer who wants to order multiple clubs in one page.

Without further introduction, I will jump to the conclusion first.
Here is the re-design of the custom tool I have mocked up. This design originated from 6 usability tests and couple paper prototyping tests. I have not run a final usability testing with this module, but I am pretty confident that this interface could satisfy the user story.

So the BA group comes back to me and asks

• Why does the Duplicate Button reside outside of the table?


• People read from left to right. We need to move the Duplicate Button to the right so people can complete their task then 'duplicate' the configuration. Doesn't it sound more intuitive?

Not a bad reason to start up a quick discussion.


I believe that Duplicate Button will be more effective residing outside of the table on the left because

1. Duplicate Button is not a part of the club configuration. The button impacts the line item ( layout of the page ) not the content of the club.


2. It is on the left side to give more power to the people. Yes, people read left to right, and probably it is a right assumption that people will configure the club from left to right as well. But I wanted people to know that there is a Duplicate functionality even before they start customizing. This concept will grant the user with more power. Now they can Duplicate the configuration at any time of the process. They don't have to question themselves what they need to do to customize multiple clubs at once. As I am typing this blog on my word processor to copy and paste it onto the blog page, I have noticed that I am using the word processor because I know for the fact there is a Copy & Paste functionality. If I did not know this fact before I started typing on the word processor, I would have never used this method. By telling users what they can do in the beginning of the process, I believe, the user now have more control with this system.

Obviously, this module still needs more work. But I thought it was just interesting to observe that position of one button could change the way people perceive the whole picture.

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Using search engine for a quick usability decision

Case Study:
Empty Cart Button

When:
A user will click on the empty cart button on a shopping cart page to empty out the shopping cart.

Problem:
BA group wants to use the word "Cancel Order" label on the button.
Clicking on the Cancel Order button will prompt a user with the warning box that contains "OK" and "Cancel" button. Now user has to determine and distinquish the definition between those two cancel buttons he has faced.

Solution:
Changing the label from "Cancel Order" to "Delete Order" to relieve the confusion.

Violation:
Jacob Nilsen's basic usability rule - "Users spend more time on other sites than on your site"
Google Search Results
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of Results Keyword
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
33,400 Delete Order
464,000 Cancel Order
1,210,000 Empty Cart
212,000 Clear Cart
1,600 Cancel Cart
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recommendation:
Use the word "Epmty Cart" instead of "Delete Order"

Result:
Waiting for the approval.... we will see how this turns out Share

Eye Tracking

So when you look at my page, what do you recognize first? yes... a dude smoking a cigar. As much as I cherish the study that was done by Jacob Nielsen about eye tracking, there is always an exception.

This is one of the reason why I like the presentation of 4 products shots on the homepage of shop.callawaygolf.com. Some ppl here at CG have suggested to change the arrangement of the homepage so that we could display more promo and events, but we have to think from the customers' point of view. What they really want to see is CG products, not a promotion that isnt really relevant to them. These 4 product image shots will capture visitor's attention right away as a navigation tool.

Wow.. what a great idea.. Product images as a navigation tool. Share