All posts about
HCI

The study, planning, design and uses of the interfaces between people (users) and computers. (source: Wikipedia)

Grand challenges for HCI researchers

Added on 27 October 2016 Peter Bogaards

When the context changes, the challenges rise.

“The remarkable impact of human-computer interaction research and user experience design compels researchers, practitioners, and journalists to ask: What is the next big thing? Therefore, it may be useful for our community to lay out grand challenges that steer the direction of future research, design, and commercial development. As HCI researchers, we are profoundly aware of the immense problems of our age: Growing human populations consume natural resources, flourishing cities require housing and transportation, families demand education and safety, and rising expectations from patients put pressure on healthcare and social systems.”

Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant, Maxine Cohen, Steven Jacobs, Niklas Elmqvist, and Nicholoas Diakopoulos ~ ACM Interactions Magazine ★

Sensing the future of HCI: Touch, taste, and smell user interfaces

Added on 3 September 2016 Peter Bogaards

Using all the senses for information processing purposes.

“The senses we call upon when interacting with technology are restricted. We mostly rely on vision and hearing, and increasingly touch, but taste and smell remain largely unused. Although our knowledge about sensory systems and devices has grown rapidly over the past few decades, there is still an unmet challenge in understanding people’s multisensory experiences in HCI. The goal is that by understanding the ways in which our senses process information and how they relate to one another, it will be possible to create richer experiences for human-technology interactions.”

Marianna Obrist, Carlos Velasco, Chi Vi, Nimesha Ranasinghe, Ali Israr, Adrian Cheok, Charles Spence, and Ponnampalam Gopalakrishnakone ~ ACM Interaction XXIII.5 ★

The difference between UI and UX

Added on 6 April 2016 Peter Bogaards

Apparently, this delta needs to be addressed again, again, and again.

“In today’s creative and technical environment, the terms UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) are being used more than ever. Overall, these terms are referring to specialties and ideas that have been around for years prior to the introduction of the abbreviated terminology. But the problem with these new abbreviations is more than just nomenclature. Unfortunately, the terms are quickly becoming dangerous buzzwords: using these terms imprecisely and in often completely inappropriate situations is a constant problem for a growing number of professionals, including: designers, job seekers, and product development specialists. Understanding the proper separation, relationship and usage of the terms is essential to both disciplines.”

Code My Views ★

The Post-Mac Interface

Added on 26 February 2016 Peter Bogaards

HCI giants on whose shoulders we stand.

“In 1996 Don Gentner and Jakob Nielsen published a thought experiment, The Anti-Mac Interface. It’s worth a read. By violating the design principles of the entrenched Mac desktop interface, G and N propose that more powerful interfaces could exceed the aging model and define the Internet desktop. It’s been almost 20 years since the Anti-Mac design principles were proposed, and almost 30 since the original Apple Human Interface Guidelines were published. Did the Anti-Mac principles supersede those of the Mac? Here I reflect on the Mac design principles of 1986, the Anti-Mac design principles of 1996, and what I observe as apparent (and cheekily named) Post-Mac design principles of 2016… er, 2015.”

Adam Baker a.k.a. @twomonthsoff ★

How to balance design guidelines for children

Added on 23 November 2015 Peter Bogaards

Guidelines for specific groups must be very specific.

“Creating design guidelines for products whose users include kids requires an evolution in our thinking beyond the guidelines we typically follow. The users, content, and context dictate the appropriate design guidelines. For kids, you might start with the type of product.”

Jonathan Evans a.k.a. /jonathanhevans | @jhewiz ~ UXmatters ★

How Apple is giving Design a bad name

Added on 11 November 2015 Peter Bogaards

It’s lonely at the top. In the end, you only can look inward.

“Once upon a time, Apple was known for designing easy-to-use, easy-to-understand products. It was a champion of the graphical user interface, where it is always possible to discover what actions are possible, clearly see how to select that action, receive unambiguous feedback as to the results of that action, and to have the power to reverse that action—to undo it—if the result is not what was intended. No more. Now, although the products are indeed even more beautiful than before, that beauty has come at a great price. Gone are the fundamental principles of good design: discoverability, feedback, recovery, and so on. Instead, Apple has, in striving for beauty, created fonts that are so small or thin, coupled with low contrast, that they are difficult or impossible for many people with normal vision to read. We have obscure gestures that are beyond even the developer’s ability to remember. We have great features that most people don’t realize exist.”

Donald A Norman a.k.a. /donnorman | @jnd1er and Bruce Tognazinni a.k.a. /bruce-tognazzini | @asktog ~ FastCo Design ★

How to implement gestures into your mobile design

Added on 10 November 2015 Peter Bogaards

Gestures are based on sign language with a touch dimension. With AR is becoming real sign language with the Digital.

“Gestures are the new clicks. Every app, game or tool you open on your phone must includes a swipe, tap or pinch to function. These gestures are the secret to making great mobile apps work. And there’s a lot that goes into it. With clicks, designers and developers really only had to think about where they wanted the action to appear on the screen. With gestures, you have to consider the type of physical action, its location on the screen, and whether users can intuitively find and touch it.”

Carrie Cousins a.k.a. /carriecousins1 | @carriecousins ~ TNW ★

Very large touchscreens: UX design differs from mobile screens

Added on 24 August 2015 Peter Bogaards

At an abstract level, all design deals with users, context, domain (structure of content), and constraints.

“Only a few mobile-design skills and design recommendations translate well to designing for very large touchscreens, as found in kiosks and other nonmobile use cases. Users’ field of vision, arm motion, affordance, and privacy are a few of the different considerations for such screens with up to 380 times the area of a smartphone.”

(Kara Pernice ~ Nielsen Norman Group) ★

Sketch in Enterprise UX

Added on 25 June 2015 Peter Bogaards

As a matter of exception, a tool item in an interesting context.

“There is an old adage that says ‘Use the right tool for the job’. However, with technology and User Experience Design, knowing which tools to use can be a bit nuanced. Often there are many tools for the job, all of which have their strengths and weakness. I’ve been thinking about a recently popular tool, Sketch, and where it fits into our practice of Enterprise UX Design.”

(Jaron Frasier a.k.a. @frason ~ Designmap) courtesy of @BaardAard ★

Design with analytics

Added on 22 June 2015 Peter Bogaards

In God we trust, all others must bring data.

“When we think of analytics, we think of marketing campaigns and funnel optimization. Analytics can seem a little overwhelming, with so many charts and lots of new features. How can we use analytics for design insights? The best thing about analytics is that they can show us what people do on their own. The worst thing is that analytics don’t tell us much about context, motivations, and intent. Like any kind of data, there are limitations. But that doesn’t mean analytics aren’t useful. Working with analytics is about knowing where to look and learning which questions you can reasonably ask.”

(Pamela Pavliscak a.k.a. @paminthelab ~ UXmatters) ★

Practical techniques on designing animation

Added on 8 June 2015 Peter Bogaards

Animated UIs can improve the UX. I said ‘can’.

“Animation, like any other facet of the web, must be designed. As web developers, we think about the effects of typography, layout, interaction, and shifting viewports, but when incorporating animation we have another factor to consider: time. It’s not just an extra aspect to consider, either: it increases the complexity of each of the aforementioned parameters exponentially. Rather than viewing this as a heavy mass of ideas, we can bake animation into the core of our user experience process to create dazzling, exciting, and engaging work that pushes boundaries and collectively elevates the medium of the web.”

(Sarah Drasner a.k.a. @sarah_edo ~ Smashing Magazine) ★

The psychology of UX

Added on 22 May 2015 Peter Bogaards

Old and still relevant. Human characteristics are of all times.

“When it comes to designing the UX, we need to take into consideration the necessity for a social outlet within our website or application. Allow for greater social interconnectedness in your designs so that people can go to each other for guidance and advice within your application, such as with ratings, reviews, news and forums. Allow users to forge helpful relationships, be it with similar users or with customer support. Give people an awareness of the size of the community they operate in to give them a sense of belonging as well as the choice of where they want to fit in within the community by establishing their profile.”

(Vanessa Carey ~ Methods & Tools) HT janjursa ★

Why the Card UI is the next big interaction paradigm

Added on 12 March 2015 Peter Bogaards

There was a time when CUI meant ‘Character-based User Interface’. That time has gone.

“I think it’s safe to say that, going forward, the majority of mobile UI designs will be based on the card UI paradigm. The next logical step is marketing professionals and ad agencies starting to embrace cards. The larger platforms are already embracing it. The card UI is set to be the next creative canvas for online content and will consequently also be the next big ad unit.”

(Juntoo) ★

UI does not equal UX

Added on 26 February 2015 Peter Bogaards

When even the popular press gets into a DTDT conversation, we haven’t done a great job.

“The key can be found in ensuring that the UX is designed end-to-end from a core understanding of the user through to design and delivery, whereas the UI is the presentation designed to expose the power of that design process underpinning the UX for the user. Combined, UI and UX are the two different aspects that literally define the success of your product.”

(Sarah Deane a.k.a. @4HourUX ~ Huffington Post) ★

Showing passwords on log-in screens

Added on 22 January 2015 Peter Bogaards

The UX of security and privacy is a serious design challenge.

“Why show passwords? Passwords have long been riddled with usability issues. Because of overly complex security requirements (a minimum number of characters, some punctuation, the birthdate of at least one French king) and difficult to use input fields, password entry often results in frustrated customers and lost business.”

(Luke Wroblewski a.k.a. @LukeW) ★