#usablity

User Experience to doświadczenie użytkownika. Codziennie mamy styczność z tysiącami przedmiotów, produktów, usług, stron www, aplikacji, etc.  By chcieć do nich wracać, potrzebujemy pozytywnych skojarzeń, bodźców, bądź wymiernych korzyści. Nawet jeśli sięgamy po pilot od telewizora, musi być on odpowiednio zaprojektowany, by po chwili nie cisnąć nim w kąt i nie znaleźć jakieś alternatywy. 

Good.is

This website was brought to my attention when my college Dennis Barbosa and I were discussing a new design for The Campus Citizen. I enjoy reading on this website rather because the design aesthetic makes it interesting to look at. Very well solved in terms of online publication designs.

User experience is like any other types of experience (i.e. customer experience) where we need to deliver more value than expected.

Usability is bottom threshold of user experience. It's merely delivering what the product/service is supposed to.

A product or service that have no usability issue means users successfully complete the tasks they come to use the product/service for.

If your product/service has usability issues (not usable), then your users will certainly have bad user experience. The initial http://healthcare.gov is good example of this.

But that doesn't mean that if your users don't encounter any usability issue then they'll have a good user experience. 

Before iPod came into existence, there were many mp3 players that did not manage to grab significant market share because although those products didn't have usability problem (fully functional and work as expected), they didn't have good user experience because the loading up music to the device was a pain. Apple figured out the ecosystem with iTunes that made the ecosystem work.

I had a client as me about this the other day, so I thought I'd share the meaning of it here for those who are curious about it as well.

According to the Usability Professionals' Association, user-centered design (UCD) is an approach to design that grounds the process in information about the people who will use the product. UCD processes focus on users through the planning, design and development of a product.

Why is it important?

In order for your web site to be successful, users have to be able to find the information they are searching for as well as being able to accomplish specific tasks while on your site. Although business needs always seem to take precedence over anything else, it is the usability professional's job to help find a balance that not only meets business needs but the users needs as well. Because if your web site isn't meeting their needs, the business will suffer. Also, it is always best to follow a process that can guide you in taking the proper steps to delivering the best experience to users while meeting business needs and saving them money at the same time. 

Develop a process

Creating a user-centerd design means that you must think about the needs of your users throughout each step of the development process. This includes planning your site, collecting as much data from your users and competitors, developing prototypes, gathering content, and conducting usability tests with users. But before any of this even considered the first step is to clearly define what the organizational goals are as well as the users' needs, goals and objectives.

Dit is zo rottig he .. Ja we moeten 8 nummerkes invullen, maar moeten die nu persé allemaal een eigen kotteke krijgen? En als dat dan toch moet, is het dan zoveel moeite om daar een auto tab in te steken, zodat je na het invullen van elk vakje automatisch naar het andere gaat. Da's 2 minuten werk (ok, als ik het moet doen zal het misschien 5 minuten duren, mijn coding skills zijn een beetje roestig).

De vraag die ge u dan stelt is: waarom in godsnaam doen ze dat? Zodat mensen maximum 8 nummers invullen? Dat kan perfect gelimiteerd worden op een gewoon invulveld .. en trouwens, nu kan je even goed letters invullen ook. Ook dat kan je tegen gaan overigens.

People started using Twitter and Facebook for direct messages instead of E-mail because they require less physical manipulations to send a message. Future web designers will focus less on surface design but on speeding up processes by cutting [and] reducing physical manipulations. The best way to learn about speedy interfaces is to study everyday interfaces as doorknobs, drawers, shampoo bottles. Web designers need to learn more from traditional product designers.