How guys will use Google Glasses (Project Glass)
Posted: March 19, 2013 Filed under: Fun, UX (User Experience) | Tags: google glass, google glasses, Usability, user experience, ux 1 Comment »I just had to share with you this video on how guys might use Google Glass (or should that be glasses?) in the future. Pretty funny! Maybe we shouldn’t laugh too soon though as it may well become the future! People are distracted enough as it is, it’s just that the glasses may make the distraction harder to detect. At least right now you can see if someone’s using their mobile whilst they’re supposed to be listening to you.
I find it amazing the number of people who walk down the street looking down, eyes glued to their handset, using only their peripheral vision to navigate their way through the world. At least with Google Glasses they’ll at least start looking up once more, even if they are still not paying attention to the world around them.
Interview with Whirlpool’s UX Manager
Posted: February 7, 2013 Filed under: Design, Research, UI, Usability, UX (User Experience) | Tags: behavioural insights, contextual enquiry, contextual inquiry, ethnographic, in-context research, interviews, products, sam gosling, snoop, Usability, ux, whirlpool ux Leave a comment »
In my spare time I love baking (I love eating cakes), I run a local baking club and I absolutely love KitchenAid products. I love the industrial user-centred design and the attention to ease of use. So, for the Keep It Usable blog this month, I decided to interview my friend Brandon Satanek who is the UX manager at Whirlpool.
Not only is Brandon a great guy, but his knowledge and passion for UX is something you should learn from. If you’re unsure how UX can benefit your business, Brandon will reassure you with some fantastic examples. I especially like his example of how Whirlpool created innovative product concepts simply by sending their researchers into people’s homes to observe them doing their laundry and interviewing them.
After seeing people adopt rather uncomfortable postures, an idea was developed to create a platform to raise the products to a more convenient height…it shows how contextual user research can lead to user-centered innovations that directly impact the bottom line.
There are several names for this type of research; ethnographic, contextual inquiry, in-context. It’s my personal favourite style of research as you gain true insights into the user and their behaviour. Have you ever stepped into a strangers home and been able to make instant judgements on their personality, hobbies, interests, activity levels, family life that turned out to be accurate? Research has suggested that these judgements we make, which are based on our experience of life and people so far, are often accurate. If you’re interested to know more, I recommend reading Sam Gosling’s book Snoop: What your stuff says about you.
Many UXers shy away from contextual research as it is true research that requires a certain level of skill, and a lot of people who conduct usability testing aren’t specialist researchers.
Research conducted in the context of use is imho the best you can get. You will find out rich information and behavioural insights giving you those ‘why didn’t we think of that!’ moments that just can’t be gained through lab testing.
Read my interview with Brandon, it may just change your business…
Science of Persuasion
Posted: January 31, 2013 Filed under: Psychology, UX (User Experience) | Tags: Interface, nudge, persuade, persuasive design, psychology, Robert Cialdini, science of persuasion, Usability, user experience, ux, video Leave a comment »Featured in The Guardian
Posted: January 11, 2013 Filed under: Usability, UX (User Experience) | Tags: guardian, keepitusable, the guardian, Usability, usability agency, ux, ux agency Leave a comment »
What better way to start the year than a guest appearance in The Guardian!
They seem to have cut the photo in a way that looks like my head’s been chopped off, so erm, just ignore that and read what I say instead 
Read the article and check out my chopped off head on the guardian.co.uk >>>
Motorola announces the HC1, Headset computing.
Posted: November 15, 2012 Filed under: Accessibility, Design, Usability, UX (User Experience) | Tags: ergonomic, hands free, hc1, head gesture, head set computer, headset computing, kopin, mobile computing, motorola, Usability, user experience, ux, voice control Leave a comment »Information Architecture (IA)
Posted: October 26, 2012 Filed under: Design, Research, UI, Usability, UX (User Experience), Web | Tags: card sort, card sorting, content structure, IA, Information Architecture, site map, software, Usability, user experience, user research, user testing, ux, website 3 Comments »Have you ever been to a website specifically to look for something and no matter how hard you look you just can’t find it? Most people will give up within a few seconds, hit the back button and go to a competitor. This is why your Information architecture is incredibly important – get it right and you will keep more people within your site, lowering your bounce rate and improving your conversion.
What is information architecture?
In simple terms, it’s about structuring your content to feel intuitive and logical to the end user.
An example of how not to do it
Tesco Direct have placed Halloween items within the heading ‘Christmas’ on the navigation bar. Users will struggle to find this as it makes no logical sense – halloween and christmas are completely separate occasions.
If a visitor to your website has the intention of browsing halloween things, they will already have expectations of where halloween things will be. Your aim is to try to understand their expectations of where they’ll find halloween related products. Only when you understand this, can you position it in the optimal place.
Card Sorting to create intuitive IA
One of the methods I employ to help create intuitive Information Architecture is Card Sorting. It’s an activity carried out with users (i.e. your target audience) using labelled cards to group and organise pages of content. Users categorise the pages in the way that makes sense to them and they can use existing grouping or create their own. What this enables us to do is to see the structure of your site or software from the user’s point of view – we can see and understand their mental model.
Card sorting exercise in action:
If you’d like to understand more about how reviewing your IA can help your business or if you’re curious about card sorting please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Intelligent UX: Washing Machines
Posted: August 20, 2012 Filed under: UX (User Experience) | Tags: intelligent ux, products, technology, Usability, user experience, ux, washing machine, washing machines Leave a comment »Free ‘Getting Real’ book by 37signals
Posted: May 29, 2012 Filed under: Books, Web | Tags: 37 signals, 37signals, business, Design, digital, free book, Getting Real, Rework, Usability, ux Leave a comment »
37signals are most well known as the creators of Basecamp. I love their approach to business and highly recommend you buy their book Rework. It’s packed full of really useful business advice that’s incredibly down to earth and makes much more practical sense than any other business book I’ve read.
They’re now giving away free copies of their book, Getting Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application.
On Amazon this book currently retails at £15.89 for the paperback and £6.99 for the Kindle version, so I recommend you download your copy whilst it’s free!
BBC Home page research and redesign
Posted: May 27, 2012 Filed under: UI, UX (User Experience), Web | Tags: bbc, Design, home page, homepage, interface design, keepitusable, manchester, redesign, ui, usabiity, user experience, user research, ux, ux agency 3 Comments »I conducted a quick piece of research on the BBC Home page as part of an event called BBC Connected. Did you know it’s the third most visited home page? Yet only a very small percent of visitors actually use it? As our research discovered, most people bypass the page completely, preferring to use the navigation bar or a direct url (usually saved as a bookmark). Here, we share our findings and a few of our design proposals to improve the user experience of the BBC Home page, in particular under-served audience(s).
How do you use the BBC website? Do you ever look at or click on items on the home page? Have you used it more or less since the last redesign? I’d love to hear about your experience. Share your story using the comment box below.
Research by Keepitusable.com
Nice Predictive Text Entry Method by Blackberry
Posted: May 1, 2012 Filed under: Accessibility, Design, Mobile, UI | Tags: Blackberry, hardware, smartphone, text entry, touchscreen, user experience, ux Leave a comment »I started my UX career as a Smartphone Researcher. I remember when we took the plunge to remove the hardware keypad and go full touch. Users complained that they wanted and needed a hard keypad to enter text. They saw T9 as vital to quick text entry – it could be done one handed and even blindly by many users. I admit myself to being able to text without even looking at my phone, it was great for multi-tasking, like shopping whilst texting 
But users can adapt to change very quickly despite their initial reservations and look at everyone now using full touch devices to enter text. How far we’ve come! But, there is still the problem of longer text entry times, needing to use two hands and being more prone to errors. So I’m rather impressed by Blackberry’s approach to improving the touchscreen text entry user experience to be faster and more intuitive. Check it out and see what you think…
