Full Disclosure » UX

Up on a Hill.

Nate — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:48:05 +0000

Demo of Joe Hewitt’s Scrollability, photoblog Up on a Hill. Horizontal and vertical scrolling look great on the iPad, as promised.

FogBugz Marketing.

Nate — Fri, 27 May 2011 04:04:39 +0000

FogBugz recently took a look at their marketing and didn’t like what they saw. Useful wrap-up of the corrective action they took.

Prototypes.

Nate — Thu, 26 May 2011 02:24:49 +0000

Another prototyping application. This one for the Mac from Duncan Wilcox and Keith Lang. Prototypes.

InVision.

Nate — Sat, 07 May 2011 23:55:19 +0000

Prototyping that even Jay could handle, Invision. Check out Aarron Walter’s post for a video overview.

User Experience Resources.

Nate — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:19:04 +0000

User experience receives little formal attention on the blog, but it shouldn’t from you. If UX is something that interests you, you should check out UX Booth, UX Magazine (back from the dead!), and 52 Weeks of UX. Those have been my go-to sites lately.¹

Well, actually, via the magic of RSS, they come to me. But you know what I mean.

Alternative to Wireframes: Prioritized Lists.

Nate — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 14:23:49 +0000

The stage between gathering information for a site and creating designs in Photoshop is always a bit murky. Sometimes it’s wireframes, sometimes it ends up being just a laundry list of statements and concepts. Sacha Greif has, if nothing else, a term I had never heard used to describe that per-page list: a Prioritized List comprised of goals and elements arranged in a most- to least-important hierarchy. I’ll be trotting out this technique in an official capacity as soon as I can.

A List Apart #323

Nate — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:48:28 +0000

Despite new authors each week, A List Apart manages to maintain an approachable tone across a variety of topics. This week’s articles from Jim Ray and Debra Gelman are no exception.

Cross Platform Scalable Vector Graphics with svgweb by Jim Ray

Despite all the attention being paid to canvas, there’s still a place for good ole SVG, particularly for developers looking to replace plug-ins like Flash for data visualization.

Designing Web Registration Processes for Kids by Debra Gelman

Designing websites for kids is a fascinating, challenging, rewarding, and exasperating experience: You’re trying to create a digital experience for people who lack the cognitive capacity to understand abstraction. You’re trying to establish brand loyalty with people who are influenced almost exclusively by their peers. And you’re trying to communicate subjective value propositions to people who can only see things in black-and-white.

MeetUp Instructional Pattern.

Nate — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:53:36 +0000

Useful instructional pattern by MeetUp. Noted by Khoi Vinh.

What Are You Working On?

Nate — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:11:02 +0000

Stone Hill Time Card is the epitome of application design. It’s a flawless time tracker.

I found Time Card yesterday in a fit of frustration with TimeEdition, a useful little app and my previous favorite. Time Card has every single feature (save one) I need and none that I don’t. The premise is simple: answer the question “what are you working on?” as plain text at the top of the window. Previous chunks of time flow in a chronological list (like Twitter) below. Observe the magic syntax “task for project” and it knows to segregate the results by project. Begin typing and previous results auto-populate.

Leave notes with more specific tasks in the hidden but easily accessible notes field.¹ Any mistakes or oversights are easily corrected via the editing feature. Command-tab between applications and you’ll notice a badge indicating time spent on the current task. It’s thoughtful features like these that I love.

At the end of the day, you can review your time distribution with the slide out pie chart panel or the long term totals view. If there was a way to export data or save a report, this would be the most perfect application I have ever had the privilege of using.

I’m so head-over-heels for Time Card I can hardly contain my excitement. Every interaction is skillfully tailored to my exact needs. I feel giddy using it. Please check out Time Card. It’s absurdly good.

Would be great if I could close the notes tab with Command+Enter.

The Death Knell of OpenID.

Nate — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:08:29 +0000

It feels like just yesterday we were debating including OpenID support in a client’s application. Now, it’s been so thoroughly trashed the thought is anathema. 37signals on dropping support for OpenID:

We’re sad to see OpenID go. The promise was grand. Life would be simpler if we only had one login, but in this case, the cure was worse than the disease.

I was one of the people who used OpenID at 37signals to support multiple accounts. Now that single sign-on is handled by 37signals ID, I guess I can retire it. Not that they’re giving me a choice.