HALF BAKED IDEAS http://www.gavinwye.com by Gavin Wye posterous.com Fri, 15 Jul 2011 03:34:00 -0700 Agile UX – How To Avoid Big Design Up Front By Pretending Not To Do... http://www.gavinwye.com/agile-ux-how-to-avoid-big-design-up-front-by http://www.gavinwye.com/agile-ux-how-to-avoid-big-design-up-front-by
via slideshare.net

Here is a very good presentation on Agile UX

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:49:42 -0700 The best project (process) ever! http://www.gavinwye.com/the-best-project-process-ever http://www.gavinwye.com/the-best-project-process-ever I was talking at work recently about Jared Spools comments about designers coding and it sort of spawned this post about how I used coding to my advantage in a really small project. It's not really related to the argument of should designers code or not. I'll post my thoughts on that later.

When I was freelance I worked on a fairly long but ever so small project. I produced HTML wireframes using the Blueprint CSS framework. The client was the end user so that made it fairly easy. They loved it as they could see it evolving right before there eyes. I'd build something and put it up and they would play and feedback.

I never had a conversation with them about signing stuff off they just kept asking for more functionality. Sometimes I'd say I don't think that will work, but I'll prototype it for you and we can see if you want. But they paid for the work and then we had something to talk about. Sometimes I'd be right sometimes they would be right, but It's never about who is right. I got paid because I estimated work in small chunks. They got to try out their ideas on the cheap don't forget this was a prototype. A win win.
 
When it came to the time for visual design I got the designer to work from the HTML. There was a bit of a problem here as they initially preferred the HTML wireframes and asked for the visual style to be toned down a bit. But that was it.

Then at the end of the project when we had the functionality that we all wanted in place I got the back end guy involved in tying it the back and front end together. I'd been talking to him along the way so he knew what he was getting in to but there was no documentation for him, apart from some comments in the HTML. Now this site wasn't that big and didn't have that much interaction. But there was also no formal sign off the client just took the site and owned it. Everyone was happy.

The important thing here was they came on the journey they tried things that didn't work and they tried things that did. But they knew what was happening. I didn't disappear and come back to them with a solution. I didn't start doing that until I started working in an agency environment. But that's another story.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Tue, 03 May 2011 10:49:00 -0700 An Event Apart: What Every Web Designer Should Know | Luke W's write up of Zeldmans Keynote http://www.gavinwye.com/an-event-apart-what-every-web-designer-should http://www.gavinwye.com/an-event-apart-what-every-web-designer-should

In his opening keynote at An Event Apart in Boston, MA 2011 Jeffrey Zeldman talked about the skills and opportunities that should be top of mind for everyone designing on the Web today. Here's my notes from his talk on What Every Web Designer Should Know:

  • Increasingly on the Web, everyone can create content and share through social media. What does it mean for how we design Web sites when people can control the presentation of content within your designs?
  • It’s not just the visual experience that you might not be able to control. Through tools like Instapaper and Readability, people are time and design shifting to experience your content the way they want.
  • But this isn’t new. People have always been able to experience the Web in different ways through different devices, browsers, and even their own user style sheets. We’ve always had to account for this but it’s more apparent than ever before.
  • It’s not just how we experience sites that’s in flux. It’s how we define what we do as well. Every year the AEA survey uncovers many different names for the same job: webmasters and creative directors are often doing the same job. People in this profession love to argue about what to call themselves.
  • Design that does not serve people does not serve business. When you do things that are anti-user, you are designing anti-user patterns. Example: services that spam your address book without you knowing it.
  • Content precedes design. Design without content is decoration. It used to be that you worked on look and feel before you thought about content. But it’s actually very hard to do design without content.
  • When the Blogger team asked for design templates, it was really hard to create anything appropriate devoid of content. Doug Bowman made a universal template that was minimalist and ended up on 20 million blogs. It was the best solution for the problem of designing where you don’t know the content. But it’s one of the only success solutions to this problem out there, which illustrates how hard it is to design without content.
  • Websites are simply delivery systems for content. Even something as simple as a little call out needs to have actual content in order to test out how it will work in layout.
  • You can’t solve a problem until you can define it. And you probably can’t solve it alone. To help you can turn to design testing with users. But ideas can also come from within. Innovation does not have to come from asking people for ideas.
  • We all have to learn many things about building Web sites. In advertising people kept secrets from each other but on the Web people share what they learn. We’re all interested in each other’s techniques so we can learn.
  • Right now is the best time to create Web sites and applications. New opportunities like Webkit & mobile, html5 & css3, UX & content strategy.
  • Many times when we say mobile we are often talking about small screen. Small screen design adapts by adjusting layout and media to fit on smaller viewports. If you are primarily a content site, you might need a small screen strategy not a full mobile strategy.
  • Real Web designers write code. Always have. Always will. You need to at least understand the principles of semantic mark-up and know what is possible with HTML and CSS.
  • Progressive enhancement is a universal smart default. Most of agree that it’s a best practice to create an experience that can reach everyone.
  • HTML5 has design principles that also apply to Web design. Pave the cowpaths = make things work based on how people expect it to work. Find a way to make things work even if people try to “wrong” thing. Fail predictably.
via lukew.com

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:11:06 -0700 Cry Wolf - email marketing. http://www.gavinwye.com/cry-wolf-email-marketing http://www.gavinwye.com/cry-wolf-email-marketing Really is this message important? I don't think so. If it was really that important would you be trying to get me to follow you on Facebook. This is the cry wolf of email marketing.

How can I now distinguish between what really is important and all the other marketing messages that you send me? You just lost my trust. If there really is something important in this email (which I doubt) I'm missing it and to be hones I'm fine with that.

Gavinwye

Admittedly this example is see in gmail where I can see the first line of the email but you should be checking that. It's your job.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:31:00 -0800 Journal of Information Architecture http://www.gavinwye.com/journal-of-information-architecture http://www.gavinwye.com/journal-of-information-architecture

From Eric Reiss's Editorial

“ The mere fact that you are reading this Journal tells me you're different. You will inherit the earth. Not because you are meek, but because you recognize the importance of information architecture. ”

Read Issue 2, Volume 2 of the Journal of Information Architecture »

via journalofia.org

Made me smile. I don't think it's true but it made me smile.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Thu, 20 Jan 2011 11:16:42 -0800 A Common Visual Language http://www.gavinwye.com/a-common-visual-language http://www.gavinwye.com/a-common-visual-language
Img_1014

I sketch a lot in the early stages of a project. That's not really anything to be surprised about any more most UX'ers sketch nowadays in the early stages of a project.
Sometimes a page goes through 10-20 iterations. I try not to think about structure at first and just sketch let the ideas flow it's kind of using my hand as my brain. It's done it lots of times before so it knows what to do and I trust it. I have come up with (almost by accident) an copied lots of different styles for drawing things. Boxes, headings, links, drop-downs, overlays.
At times a wireframe will just be a series of lines and I show this to the people I'm working with. I often wonder if the people I'm showing sketches to understand what they are looking at. It's very hard to talk about ideas such as "when you click this it transforms in to this" if you don't have this shared understanding. For this reason I thought I would document my visual vocabulary. There really isn't a lot it its a few elements that I use over and over again. Here they are not very sophisticated but they work for me.
I have tried slightly higher fidelity versions using color to pick out links (blue), errors (red) and success (green) but it always feel like I'm getting in to the territory of marker visuals when I do this and that's not a sketch If I want to do something like that I'll jump in to InDesign, Illustrator, Omnigraffle or whatever other app I feel like using that day.

Oh and if your keen to know how I'm getting on in my resolutions just look at the date of this post. Not exactly what I was planning but better late than never.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Sat, 08 Jan 2011 05:15:00 -0800 Resolutions http://www.gavinwye.com/resolutions http://www.gavinwye.com/resolutions

Here's a few to kick of the new year.

  • Learn about fine Scotch Whiskey and how to differentiate the good from the bad.
  • Learn about Oysters and eat more of them.
  • Forage for more food including going fishing every now and then.
  • Write at lease one post here every week.
  • Do things that are productive and add value.
  • Don't be a slave to email.
  • Don’t moan about things instead frame the problem and find a solution.

I'm writing all this down so that I can look back and see how I did at the end of the year. I think it will give me impetus to do something about it. I did this when I gave up smoking and that worked. It also helps me set some constraints to write within.

Tip: I smoked for quite a long time, and giving up was really really hard. The best tactic that I found when giving up was to tell as many people as possible that I was giving up. Then you have to do it. Not following thorough would have meant letting those people down.

So back to the point… I'm going to write something here once a week. Hopefully it will be fun, informative and punchy. It will probably be about User Experience Design and sometimes about working culture and the ways that knowledge workers can be more productive. there is a possibility there will be a bit about customer service.
I'll try and limit myself to 500 words. I’m also not going to spend a lot of time composing these posts. I’ll do a couple of versions have a read through and then set it free. I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and hide things away until they are finished; this often means that things don’t get finished at all or get left to rot.
I’ll try not to rant or moan so I’ll try to suggest a solution. I’ll try to be reflective of things that I actually have experience of. I’ll do my research first before I write something so that what I write is informed.
I’m not going to worry about if what I’m saying is completely the right thing to say at the right time. It’s about forming and articulating my opinions as I go.
So that's at least one quickly written researched 500 word post a week that is fun and informative. Yes I do like a challenge, and for the record I don’t think I’m very good at writing.

I feel like I should say a bit about what motivates me to write. It is primarily to educate myself and solidify my ideas, I always find that once you start discussing things and hear how they sound you can rationalise them. It’s also to make me a better designer, I’ve always thought that as a someone who works in the web industry I should share my thoughts.

I think a lot about this stuff so here goes.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Tue, 11 May 2010 00:39:00 -0700 A content out approch http://www.gavinwye.com/a-content-out-approch http://www.gavinwye.com/a-content-out-approch
Since reading Content Strategy last summer I've been thinking loads about how I go about designing sites that are informed by a content strategy and even those sitest that are not.
A content out approach…
So heres where I've got to so far. How can the process that we use to design and build websites empower the content. How can we ensure the the people we are designing sites for, get the content they want. How can we convince clients that this is the content that there customers want.
Well in my opinion it goes a lot further back in the design process than the content actually it starts with research. Take your resurch and boil it down in to things (tasks or goals) that people want to do. Make sure that the content that your commissioning or that your client is providing fulfils these goals.
 
Start designing from the content out. Start with real content in your wireframes and make sure that from the ground up the content is structured well. First on paper and then creating documents I'm thinking about doing this in html and just start creating links between the content. You don't have to have complete finished content it can be really sketchy at the moment but the content should always aid your customers in the goals or tasks that you said you wanted to acheve.
The good thing about this approch is that you cant help but design it inclusivley. Your not using any CSS at the moment or javascript this is just building a very simple old fashined website without any fluff. So now you have something that is designed inclusivley. It's going to work fore people without javascript and for people who dont have flash.
The good thing about this content out approch is that you can start thinking about how all the contnet fits together right from the start. I'd advocate putting this in front of clients very early and letting them ask questions of the content.
It's very early days for me with this approach and I'm yet to use it in a live project but I'll post back here when I've been working it a bit and let you know how it's going. I'd be interested to know if anyone else is using a similar approach to this or even if I'm just stating the obvious.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:16:06 -0700 This UX magic is remarkable http://www.gavinwye.com/this-ux-magic-is-remarkable http://www.gavinwye.com/this-ux-magic-is-remarkable I've been using this really sweet app called Alfred for a while. It's in beta and they released a new version the other day.
I'm falling in love with this app for a couple of reasons.

  1. They released a new beta version approximately two weeks after they released the first. With only three people in the team that built the app thats nice and quick and you get points for reacting quickly in my book.
  2. The app is filled with magic. Look at the screen shot below. First of all there is a tab labeled experimental. They are setting my expectations right from the start. and then at the bottom of the window there is a button that says special do not press. Of course I pressed it I had a hunch what was going to happen, I'm not going to tell you. You can probably figure out roughly what happens. And that led me to tell Pete who sits next to me.

And thats why I love it. Because it's remarkable, it's a great app but most of all I love it for being remarkable. They could have done nothing they launched something and it worked. But the very fact that they took the time to do this makes the app remarkable Seth Godin's remarkable as described in his book purple cow the type of thing that makes people want to talk about it.

You can't buy that kind of marketing.
Picture_4
 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:39:11 -0800 Tesco club card app http://www.gavinwye.com/tesco-club-card-app http://www.gavinwye.com/tesco-club-card-app Tesco recently launched their Clubcard App for the iPhone, Ben Dodson tweeted about it on Monday and summed up how effective and simple the app is. I'm in complete agreement with him about the effectiveness of the app but what I think is more interesting is the fact that customer will have to hand their iPhone over to a complete stranger in order for them to scan the barcode. In my opinion thats a big ask. I'm okay lending my phone to close friends but handing it over to a stranger thats a prized possession they now have in their hand a thing of beauty that I cherish. What if they drop it? I haven't tried this yet but I'm going to tonight. so I'll report back.

This app paves the way for mobile payment systems. I've been thinking about this recently at work and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered about how you actually get consumers to feel safe using this kind of technology. It needs some very good interaction and product design combined to come up with an effective solution.

Back to the app, it's quite nice to set up the only thing that I think they could have done better was to go and get the card number for me once I had put my name in. It's relatively long card number and not split in to manageable chunks like a credit card number so I had to get it read out to me.

Anyway I'm off to Tescos to try it out.

Home_screen Info_screen Edit_screen
See the full gallery on Posterous

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:35:00 -0700 Overly accessable http://www.gavinwye.com/overly-accessable http://www.gavinwye.com/overly-accessable

I was on a southern train the other day and noticed this. The effort to make all signage accessable is great but when it relates to another visual que imagane the frustration of the reader.

Photo

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:08:44 -0700 Why I dumped Wordpress http://www.gavinwye.com/why-i-dumped-wordpress http://www.gavinwye.com/why-i-dumped-wordpress Around about May this year I stopped writing my Wordpress blog and started using Posterous. 

Wordpress is a very nice blog but has far to many features for me I had been running my blog with it for a couple of years but it hadn't really taken off. I just spent to much time worrying about what it looked like and trying to get to the bottom of all those design problems and not writing.

Then along came Posterous it's simple just post from it you can't change the theme (you couldn't at the time they have since added theming) it's easy to setup and just works. It's elegant not over complicated. I would have probably written this about Wordpress a couple of years ago.

I just hope they don't start adding features in a bid to compete. It will be interesting to watch how Posterous develops over the next year and the amount of features that get added.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:47:45 -0700 The Spectrum of User Experience - Rev Mentor http://www.gavinwye.com/the-spectrum-of-user-experience-rev-mentor http://www.gavinwye.com/the-spectrum-of-user-experience-rev-mentor
via revmentor.com

What more can you say

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:39:29 -0700 50 Influential Designers & Developers to Follow on Twitter | Graphic Leftovers Blog http://www.gavinwye.com/50-influential-designers-and-developers-to-fo http://www.gavinwye.com/50-influential-designers-and-developers-to-fo
Check out this website I found at graphicleftovers.com

I have been thinking lately about the value I get (and give) from twitter, this looks like an interesting place to start if you want to get more value. Of course this depends on your definition of value.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:33:10 -0700 From findability.org - The Real Information Architect - Adam's posterous http://www.gavinwye.com/from-findabilityorg-the-real-information-arch http://www.gavinwye.com/from-findabilityorg-the-real-information-arch
via adamburke.posterous.com

I was wondering around posterous and found this I started off disagreeing with the whole IA thing while reading the definitions but by the end of the slide show I was sitting there nodding and agreeing. I still think I do more than just IA though

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:21:12 -0700 My Dog http://www.gavinwye.com/my-dog-47 http://www.gavinwye.com/my-dog-47 My dog's name is Alfie here is a phot of him

Img_0058

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:10:00 -0700 What is a wireframe? http://www.gavinwye.com/what-is-a-wireframe http://www.gavinwye.com/what-is-a-wireframe

Found this description of what a wire frame is though it was quite nice.
 
It's from boagworld
 
---
 
"Fundamentally a wireframe is a tool for rapidly prototyping a website. They roughly approximate the layout, content and hierarchy of a web page as well as the relationship between pages. Effectively you are building a rough version of the site.
 
Wireframes don’t look attractive. They are not designed as such. Rather they give a sense of how things will be organised on your site. In many cases they lack colour and imagery, although there is no reason why they should. However, they do show visual hierarchy through layout, font size and shading."

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/876110/me2010.jpg http://posterous.com/users/1bjA2Dwfysp Gavin Wye gavinwye Gavin Wye