I speak usability and developer to make amazing user experiences.
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I have been using a unique theme for a while now and have noticed something strange. It appears that many people don’t code in the background color because they assume that the default is white. Well this is a fallacy, as it turns out the default is set by the window manager and there fore your page may be broken. I know I am a minority but it is not that hard to add one line of code to ensure your site is always at its full glory.
Making logos accessible is actually much easier than many make it out to be. It is important to make your logos accessible as you want them to have a strong search engine presence.
For this tutorial you will need to have a basic understanding of XHTML and CSS.
First comes the HTML. Generally your logo is nested in the header like this.
<!--HTML Code-->
<div id="header">
<a href="home"><img src="yourlogo.jpg" alt="COMPANY NAME" /></a>
</div>
To make this more accessible and for it to degrade gracefully we really want to eliminate the “img” element and in turn use a text elements like this
<!--HTML Code-->
<div id="header">
<h1><a href="home.htm">YOU COMPANY NAME AND ANYTHING ELSE</a>
</div>
In the above case if a user views the page un-styled they will simply see an H1 header link with the name of your company and any other text you place inside. This allows search engines to read the actual logo in plain text and assign this text an important value (first H1 elements are seen as important). It also improves mobile device structure as many of them don’t like images.
Now we can use CSS to make the image based logo appear where we want it and more importantly how we want it (image). We only need to style two elements, the ‘H1′ and ‘a’ tags.
/*CSS Code*/
#header h1{
width:auto;
height:auto;
text-indent:-9000px; /*This removes the text from the screen*/
}
#header h1 a{
width:300px;
height:100px;
background:transparent url('path/to/your/image.jpg');
display:block; /*This is critical*/
}
In the ‘H1′ element you will notice that we gave it a text-indent of -9000px. This moves the the text far enough off the left side of the page that even with the largest monitor it is not visible. By doing this we ensure that pesky text doesn’t sit on top of our beautiful logo.
The next unusual piece you will find in the CSS is under the ‘a’ element. “Display:block;” renders the ‘a’ element as a block level element allowing it to have a fixed width and height.
Now you have a beautiful logo that degrades seamlessly and is extremely accessible both to humans and search engines.
A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the User Experience of Usability. Since then I have been consistently thinking about ways to improve upon usability’s user experience. As I stated in the previous post every organization is different so the methods to improve the user experience are going to be different.
I do believe there are somethings usability professionals can do as an individual to improve the experience of working with usability. The following list contains few ideas I have come up with and are only backed by my personal experiences.
Do not just stop with knowing the usability side of your industry but branch out to learning about the development and infrastructure sides as well. By doing so you create a deeper respect and understanding for what it takes to build those beautiful designs you created. It also can help build respect from the development/infrastructure group by allowing you to speak at their level regarding the various development/infrastructure problems.
Use as many applications as you can and more importantly use them regularly. Do not just use the product(s) you are assigned or even just the product(s) your organization creates. This will keep you up to speed on the problems arising in the industry and more specifically your genera of products. It will help you see problems before you are asked to find a solution and can give you an idea of features your company may desire.
Always be searching for new innovative interactions and tools that facilitate the construction of said interactions. This will help you create a mental library of various solutions. Utilizing this library will allow you to be more responsive and shorten your design time. Any time you save means more time for other members of the project to complete their work. Building a library of tools can come in handy when overcoming the “We cannot build that because it is not possible.” argument. It also allows you to lead developers towards a tangible example of how you want the widget to function.
Remember that when you are an expert in a field that others probably do not share your knowledge. This lack of understanding causes the stakeholders to not follow why you created the design as you did. To over come this you may need to explain in detail and provide research backing your decisions. This consistent validation can be tiresome but it has been my experience that stakeholders will learn that your decisions are not made on a whim and start respecting your decisions.
This might be the most important thing to remember. It is extremely rare that usability is the primary concern of the stakeholders. In many situations the stakeholders’ concerns directly conflict with creating a strong user experience. Each conflict can create a rift between you and them, therefore it is important to choose only the points you feel can make or break the experience. This will minimize the rifts creating a stronger relationship between you and the rest of the team.
These are just a few ideas I have come up with to help increase the user experience of usability. Many of these ideas may seem like second nature or old news but I find complacency comes quickly and easily. Therefore taking a moment to reflect on them is always a good idea.
I read some where you can tell a lot about a designer by the way their computer’s desktop looks. Interesting idea although something tells me it is not exactly accurate. Anyways I decided it could be a fun continuous post to show the various states of my desktop as they occur.It is also a nice way to demonstrate one of my favorite parts of being an Ubuntu user, I cancustomize it anyway I want.
[Update: 08/01/2007] This is a shot of my desktop looking like OSX. It isn’t perfect but pretty close. The window animations are similar to OSX as well thanks to Beryl.
What is the user experience of usability? This question has been rolling around in my feeble mind over the last several days and I am yet to find an adequate answer.Usability is like cellphone production. The primary stake holder is not always the end user. Cellphone manufacturersrarely sell their phones directly to the public. Instead they sell them to a service provider who in turn sells them to the public. Usability functions in the same way in that, those who usability must answer to are generally not the customer. More often it is the business group or development leadership for that application that ultimately prioritizes the value of usability.
This creates an interesting situation where the primary concern of a usability specialist (end user) is often not the primary concern for the person making the final call. The difficult piece is that users generally don’t understand all variables that go into building a product. If usability gets cut to meet a deadline or for simplicity in production the end user may get a lower quality product. In the end, the user doesn’t directly care if it was easier to build or makes it to market three days sooner. All that matters is that the product works as they desire.
With this in mind can the user experience of usability be improved there by improving the end product? I think the ultimate answer to this is – it depends on your companies protocol and priorities but there is always some room for improvement. Realistically usability must strive to find a harmony between what is right for the user and what is right for the business group. In my opinion this is the definition of a usability specialists. They become a mediator attempting to balance what is best for the business while safe guarding what is best for the end user. Unfortunately these two often conflict making the usability specialist the outsider when it comes time to deal with the stake holders.
What can be done to improve the user experience of usability? This is hard to say and perhaps a topic for another day.
I made it out of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness alive. I have upload a few pictures to my Flickr Account from the trip in case anyone is interested in what it is like to “rough” it.
Let me know what you think of the new site. It still has a ways to go but I think it is certainly more entertaining that previous versions.
For those of you in IE6 or less please use a better browser ;) as it will significantly change the viewing experience.
Ever get tired of typing the same long terminal commands over and over again. This is a short article that does a great job of explaining how to make those nasty terminal commands nice and easy to handle. Every Linux user should check this out as it could save you a lot of time.
via Jon
First off the thoughts below are constructed around stereotypes. If you are against stereotypes then there is no need to read on ;) In my opinion stereotypes can be a useful tool in interacting with people. The catch is to not let stereotypes impact your ability to give someone a chance. Now on to the good stuff…
I have met a lot of types of designers in my life. Many of them have had a common thread even though their fields of expertise have been wildly different. This thread is an air of arrogance. This is not to say that all or even most of them have this trait, but instead that a large “per capita” ratio does. I have often ponder why this phenomenon occurs and today I came up with my own hypothesis. Design is intoxicating, particularly a successful design.
In a broad definition design could be viewed as an outward expression of a solution to any given problem. The important part of this thought is that it is outward. This is to say that the audience(customer) can see the design in action, be it an interaction or some graphics that build a “feel” or “attitude”. This is in contrast to something like development where the user doesn’t see or consider the results of the hard work (unless it is broken). As a designer when the application is a success it is easy to take it personal.
Think of if in terms of “buzz.” Most of the time when people talk about how great a product is they say things like “It is so easy to use” or “I love the way it looks.” Rarely do you hear someone discuss how well it was developed or how there isn’t any bugs in it.
Even when the reverse happens and a product is deemed a failure it is often blamed on the design, not the construction.
The interesting part is that none of it would be possible if someone didn’t have the amazing amounts of knowledge to build it (be it by code or content). This alone should humble any designer. But some how this concept continues to be lost on many in the design community. Perhaps it is because many designers have never taken the time to learn how to develop the rest of the items needed to make a great application.
This weekend I decided to catch up on my geek news and watch the co-interview of Steven Jobs and Bill Gates. With in the first few minutes of the video I realized just how each of these men’s companies is the personification of the respective founder. Bill Gates is completely nerdy, he looks like a nerd, walks like a nerd and really talks like a nerd. By nerd I mean you can see his social awkwardness and udder lack of “cool.” Windows has struggled with this for a long time. Jobs on the other hand was smooth, elegant, and well constructed. This falls in line with the general publics view of Apple.
What if we extend this thought process of the product being a personification of the founder to Linux? Will it hold true?
I think it does. Linux is created by thousands of people, from thousands of cultures. Some are nerds and others are collected and smooth. The beauty is when you get to know Linux you can see that it is much the same way. It allows each user to easily make it there own, thus fitting to anyone and everyone. Some of the products on Linux are really nerdy and lack elegance. Others are extremely well designed and constructed.
Now perhaps this idea should extend to one more place. If you had a company/product and this idea where to hold true for you. What would your product/companies image be like? What would be your user experience?