February, 2009


19
Feb 09

The Vicious UI Circle

The user interface is important. It is the ambassador for your system, your advertisement, your customer service rep. So you need to make sure it’s customer-friendly. Put simply, your system needs to do what people expect it to do. When I click on a link with a roll-over effect, it will take me to a different page. When I click on a button, it should trigger an action. So we stick to these standards, even if they’re not the best usability-wise, because we are creatures of habit and even little changes hurt.

Continue reading →


6
Feb 09

People Should Eat Dog Food Too

A good friend of mine wanted to find out how a customer application process worked in his department. He didn’t grab his notebook and interview his colleagues. He didn’t draw up elaborate as-is process flows in Visio. He didn’t even write one word of documentation. Instead, he did something much more effective – he went through the application process himself.

14 letters and 5 weeks later, my friend had conclusive evidence of how the process worked, along with a set of recommendations on how to improve it.

Continue reading →