It’s my birthday tomorrow so today I made this blackforest chocolate cake – yum! I had planned to get the big blackforest gateau that i’d seen in Lidl at the end of the road but unfortunately bloody inconsiderate rioters went and set fire to it. Anyway, i’ve had fun baking today and the good news is Lidl will reopen (hooray!).
Do you like my cake?
I was in Manchester recently and couldn’t believe it when I saw a Peugeot car parked on top of the library! This is a really prominent location in Manchester with lots of passing traffic and pedestrians, including a tram stop directly opposite. Accompanied by a couple of large banner posters, it became immediately apparent that this was a deliberate marketing campaign.
You can see in the picture the people stood opposite the building. You get a lot of people congregating here as it’s a major tram stop. People have got nothing to do but look at the car and see the banner. It’s an ideal location chosen well by the marketing team.
The major call-to-action is to visit the website spot3008.com so what do you think people passing by or stood waiting for a tram are going to do? Yep that’s right, they’re going to get their phone out and have a look at the website.
So curiosity got the better of us. Rich got on his iPhone to check out what it was all about. What did we find? This:
What is the point in spending extortionate amounts of budget on marketing to not support the very platforms people will be using to access the call-to-action? What a waste!
Oh dear… Facebook have gone and done it again… they’ve upset their users once again! This happens so often it makes you wonder if it’s a deliberate marketing ploy to make the news (even if it’s bad news).
It seems they’ve only had one engineer working on the iPhone Facebook app and the latest version has been released with numerous major bugs that have really pissed off their users. So much so, that tens of thousands of iPhone owners around the world have been posting one star reviews on the app store. They include comments about its ‘diabolical”, “rubbish” and “awful” recent performance.
Roughly half of all iPhone and iPod touch users have the Facebook app. Last year, Mark Zuckerberg claimed that mobile was his top priority for 2011. You’d think he’d put more than one person on the case then wouldn’t you?
Facebook have apparently declined to comment on this latest mistake, which just makes it worse. The best companies admit their mistakes, apologise, gain more respect for doing so and learn not to mess up again.
It seems to me that Facebook act in many ways as though they can ‘do no wrong’. Let’s see what happens with Google+ shall we. The users will revolt Zuckerberg, don’t think for one second that you’re immune!
This quote from one user, I believe is just the start:
“I’m glad to see the new Google+ app is now on the iPhone … This means we don’t need Facebook anymore.”
Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from, it’s where you take them to.
Seriously do some designers and developers think users are mind readers? I’ve just tried to signup for visual.ly and believe i’ve filled out the form correctly, yet I continue to get this annoying and ridiculous ‘helpful’ dialogue:
Oh how useful! Jeez… I can tell you now that i’ve checked over the form and it looks ok to me, no obvious errors so I’m betting they have some tight password restrictions that they’re neglecting to inform the user about. Yep that’s right, there is no help or error text on the form when you go back to it. Not even a little red asterix anywhere to give you the teeniest of hints where you might need to focus your efforts. Needless to say i’m giving this one a miss. One less user for visual.ly due to poor error handling and total lack of help text.
Whilst i’m on the subject, here’s another lovely worded piece of error text. It’s so friendly, understanding and helpful (not!).
Referring to a person as ‘this user’ is never a good thing and you’re sure to annoy them by de-peronalising them in such a way. It’s also not helpful to say the number of errors. Why does that help the user to complete the form in any way?
It’s much better to be informative in a readable manner. Don’t be afraid to be informal – speak the user’s language. Lighten it up a bit, maybe you should even apologise so the pressure’s off them – it’s not that they made an error, it’s more than likely the form was poorly designed which caused the error in the first place.
Forms are generally boring. People hate having to fill them in. So why not ‘fun’ them up a bit. Try some of the following:
– Use colour
– Use informal language
– Use transitions to make the form feel nicer to use
– Think about whether you could add some funky graphics. Careful not to hinder the form usability though – it still needs to be focussed without anything distracting rather than contributing to completing the form.
Don’t forget to follow usability guidelines too!
– Apologise
– Say what the error is AND how the user can fix it
– Show the user which fields needs correcting. They should be visually different to the other fields.
– Put errors in place, rather than waiting for the user to press the ‘send’ button. Less pain, more gain!
– Avoid technical language at all costs. Use words your audience will understand.
Try and keep the form itself short and painless too. Really think about the info you’re asking for. Cut it down, sleep on it and cut it down some more. Be ruthless! Form design isn’t easy and you should always perform usability testing on your form to ensure there’s nothing you’ve missed that could result in major drop-offs. Happy designing! 🙂
I’m not the type to boast (or ‘headwank’ as my ex-manager used to say!), indeed I left a local group recently as people were throwing their credentials around like a game of tennis to try and score points. I really can’t be doing with that, my passion is usability and design. However, I thought some of you may be interested to hear that I picked up the award for Entrepreneur of the month yesterday.
I’ve been working on several projects over the last 2 years. One I will hopefully be able to divulge the details of very soon! Another is keepitusable which I co-founded with my partner Ricardo in September last year. And more recently I setup catloves a fun site for people who want to enjoy browsing cute pics and vids of cats. Interestingly, I read in the telegraph yesterday that 1 in every 10 uk pets has a social network profile so I think catloves has got a good future ahead of it. People certainly love their animals!
Don’t worry I’ll be back to posting about usability very soon! In fact I started my next post yesterday, so be sure to pop by in the next few days!
usabilitygal x
I’m pretty sure that majority of you guys and gals are coffee lovers, right? Yeah, me too! Especially Whittard’s vanilla infused coffee… mmmm my mouth’s watering just thinking about it… anyway, don’t ever think of giving up the magical beans. This video proves just how great coffee is and why we need it!
Just for fun and because it’s a Sunday I thought i’d share with you what’s on my desk right now. Hope you find it interesting! Here we go:
Ramos
You’ve probably noticed the cat deliberately lying right in the way of me attempting to do any work (he’s still here now and i’m leaning over him to type this!). If he’s not on the table, he’s sat on my chair (literally as soon as my bum is off it, his bum is on it). It’s all some part of his grand scheme that no doubt encompasses opposable thumbs too…
iMac and MacBook
Yes i’m a Mac girl. They’re so much easier to use and last a hell of a lot longer than Windows machines. I used to go through a computer a year, seriously. Plus there would be lots of time wasted on trying to fix missing .DLL files, viruses, annoying random popups…
My MacBook which was my first Apple computer has now lasted about 3 years so although you may think they’re more expensive, in my opinion their reliability and longevity far outperforms other computers, which makes them the best value for money.
Moleskines
I’ve built up a number of Moleskines now, my latest being the red one on the right. I just love the way they lay open flat without you constantly having to fight them and bend the spine, as with other notebooks. If you’ve not heard of them they’re the notebooks that greats like van Gogh and Picasso used to use, the implication being that you’ll be as great as they were if you use Moleskines 😉 They really are quality frustration-free notebooks. Anything that aids the flow of creativity is a good thing in my opinion.
Oh thank God the cat’s finally moved to the side!
Starbucks mug and vanilla coffee
I find it really strange that people in the digital industry and geeks in general are forever going on about coffee on Twitter, blogs, their websites, etc. However here I am about to do the same! I swear coffee tastes better from a Starbucks mug – there’s satisfaction gained from the big handle and thick build quality. This mug would hands down beat other mugs in a fight! My favourite coffee is vanilla filter coffee from Whittards. It tastes only slightly of vanilla (not sweet, no sugar) and smells divine. Make this and suddenly everyone in the office will want to be your friend.
Cat Loves website
This is a site I created very recently just for fun because I love cats and wanted to try out some illustration work too. If it becomes popular that will be an added bonus so please share the link www.catloves.com if you know anyone who might enjoy browsing through all the cute cat pics and videos on there.
Cat ornament
I bought this whilst on holiday in Thailand several years ago now. I just think it’s cute 🙂 By the way if you’ve not been to Thailand, make sure you do at some point. It’s amazing!
Filing stuff
A trip to Ikea a couple of weeks ago, ended in purchasing these filing trays and stands. Actually I also bought this office chair (not in the picture) which is surprisingly comfy for only £59!
P.S This is where Ramos is now… it’s so considerate of him to move to the side so I can type.
Lisa Duddington 
