In the early days it was email and today it’s the online profile. It seems these days that if you don’t have a profile on a social network you don’t really exist, at least in regards to the Internet–even my dad has one. I’ve had profiles on too many sites to remember, many of which were before the days when we called them social networks.
“You Looked Hotter On MySpace”
I was a hold out on MySpace–due to its utterly poor design. As someone in the field of user experience I felt disgusted in myself for not only finally signing up to use it, but to also promote it. Don Norman had stated in his classic book, The Design of Everyday Things that we are to send a message to companies who make unusable products by boycotting them. I knew very well I was breaking this rule when I signed up. But much like the early days of email, when people would ask “What’s your email address?”, everyone started asking “Where’s your MySpace profile?”.
Salvaging What I Could
I did everything I could to make my profile clean, trim, and easy to use. But still, I could not bare to sit through some of the most obvious user experience design problems (e.g., clicking a link to a page that requires you to login, after login should send you to the requested page!). To compound such problems, the use of third party design layouts made profiles almost outright unreadable. Autoplaying profile songs, slideshows, autoplaying movies, animated backgrounds, and countless full resolution photos; it’s like a 13 year old girl’s scrapbook but fully animated with accompanying audio. I soon identified which friends’ profiles I would never visit again. Sadly, even my own sister was on that list.
The issue with MySpace though is that they truly see no reason to solve any of these problems. They are not in the business of providing any kind of enjoyable user experience or new innovative features. Just by looking at the constant marketing AD takeovers of the site you will understand MySpace’s true goals–a marketing mouthpiece. It is not a place for friends but a place for advertising executives.
Good Bye
I may no longer be up on what new movies Twentieth Century Fox is releasing or what new beverage I should be drinking, at least I will have ended that momentary lapse in judgment.
08.29.07 — Design, User Experience
It’s apparently a good time to be the CEO, according to Portfolio.com. Most recently CEOs have been making 465 times the salary of their average worker. Compared to only 23 times in 1970.
I think this sums up the response to that age old interview question of where you want to be in 5, 10, or 15 years.
08.21.07 — Work
I’m a photography hobbyist, always have a camera in my bag. I’ve got lenses that range from 18mm to 135mm in zoom length and they all suit me pretty well–still on the look out for an ultra wide but that’s besides the point. Every now and then I find myself coming back to my 50mm prime lens (no variable zoom, it is what it is). I can only explain this due to that there is something about working within a specific set of constraints which inspires me. With no ability to stand in place and twist a zoom ring to adjust the frame of my photo, I’m on my feet a lot more getting closer to objects, standing on whatever is accessible. To put it plainly, I feel that I’m more creative with my shooting–less susceptible to that dilemma of greatness in choice. I have to work with what I’m given.
Similarly, I find that when designing a user experience, having constraints evokes a more stimulating thought process as you try to maneuver within what is possible. Can it be frustrating, yes, but that frustration is the basis of what spurs ideation. When it comes time to design, I’d rather have the 50mm at hand.
08.16.07 — Design
Almost 10 years ago a startup screen which my brother Mike and I had designed was featured in the Japanese magazine Mac People. When I was approached to have the startup screen featured in the magazine and included on their CD, I had requested that they send me a copy of the issue. Long after my exuberance about being in a magazine at age 15 had passed, having assumed they passed on including our work, a package from Japan filled our mailbox.
My 15 minutes of fame has occurred and I suppose I’m at liberty to say, I’m Big In Japan I Was Big In Japan.
08.14.07 — Etc., Personal, Technology
Instructions on how to operate a mouse are fairly rare these days. But there was a time when the mouse was a new method of interaction and we had to inform people on the mechanics of its operation. In a 1984 Apple brochure for the Macintosh they outlined how to use a mouse and what it could be used for. Reading it today, it sounds like a set of directions for something as pedestrian as a door handle.
08.06.07 — Design, User Experience
User experience professionals seem to be in fairly good demand it appears. I only say this due to the amount of recruiter calls I receive. Typically 1 every other day. Lately though they have really stepped it up–calling my mobile phone, calling my office phone (by way of dialing the company switchboard), and emailing me.
Everyone gets the call saying that a friend or colleague had referred them and by the way they want to remain anonymous. But recently I got a call that topped that them all simply by being as ambiguous as possible.
Hi Bryan, this is Ron Gold. I’ve got something important to talk to you about. Call me back at 1-888-555-5555 ext 106
08.01.07 — Work
My old college roommate, Kevin, sent me a link today about a story of a woman who has started a pet rental service called Flex Petz. While in school Kevin and I, fond users of the ZipCar service, often joked about the idea of creating a company around the same model but with dogs–ZipDog (aptly named for the assumed buyout offer from ZipCar that was surely to come).
The idea was simple; not many people want to own a dog or can’t due to building rules, but do like to play with them. We envisioned package deals with ZipCar for weekend getaways to the beach where you not only rented the car but also a friendly companion to throw the frisbee around with. Most people balked at the idea, citing many reasons as far as people renting dogs simply to abuse them. All issues aside, it certainly was a missed business opportunity.
Word is Flex Petz is expanding to New York City in the fall. This will surely be interesting to see how it pans out. Although I know a fair amount of New Yorkers who would gladly lend their pet for a day or two, especially during the week days.
07.30.07 — Ideas
You almost can’t buy a TV today that isn’t a widescreen, yet the majority of our TV programming is still broadcasted in the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio (square shape) format. But you’ve got that nice widescreen tv so you got to use that all too common stretch feature, which more often than not produces a poor image and is not at all flattering for our favorite celebrities.
What was originally designed to be a feature to handle legacy content is unnecessarily making its way to the web. CNN, who broadcasts in 4:3, has just recently updated their web site and has implemented a new video player. Oddly, they have opted to replicate this stretching effect on their web site.
Maybe their assumption is that people are used to seeing CNN stretched or they are trying to give the impression that they shoot in widescreen. This is nothing new to CNN as Chris Fahey points out, they also stretch the video on the TVs in their studios.
07.29.07 — Design, Media
Having recently listened to the NYC CHI talk on UX career paths, I heard some interesting revelations on the perceptions of IA portfolios and gauging ability.
The greatest issue with IA portfolios seems to be that an IA can do many different things and as such their deliverables can be an assortment of artifacts. We see everything from a swath of wireframes to requirements documents and sitemaps, possibly personas or interaction flows–all of which are not necessarily glitzy. There is no one set of expected portfolio elements.
In fields such as graphic design, industrial design, as well as writing there are those portfolio pieces which are a given that they will be shown by any prospective candidate. Not to mention the context is often simpler to grasp for those fields. Attempting to briefly describe the interaction flow of a financial application to a layman can be complicated, unless reduced to simple constructs, at which point a fair amount of relevance is lost.
Kevin Kearney, of Razorfish, spoke of this portfolio issue in terms of hiring, stating that many times it is kind of a toss up and that you hope you make the right choice. But how you make that choice has a lot to do with seeing how a person performs, not necessarily just by looking at previous work. While probably not sitting a person down and asking them to design an application, at the least discovering how they tackle the common design challenges that arrive daily. This is even a time to determine how they work collaboratively, as a great part of designing is the discussion and how well someone handles that.
Similarly, members of the IxDA mailing list have spoken of this matter too. Noting the fact that a lot of great candidates may be passed over as a flashy portfolio is needed to even be considered.
What matters most is very simple, how a person thinks. They need to have the desire to learn, to be annoyed by things and have the drive to want to solve problems.
07.13.07 — Work
Google has just released, Street View, its latest feature to the Google Maps product. Essentially an enhanced version of Amazon A9’s now defunct block view. While impressive, I could not help but notice the lack of image quality of the panoramas. Although surprisingly, it seems this is a New York specific issue.
Shown below are two views of Apple’s stores in both San Francisco and New York City; of note is the difference in image quality between the two. San Francisco Street Views also have another additional level of zoom detail.
Figure 1. Google Maps Street View of SF Apple Store
Figure 2. Google Maps Street View of NYC Apple Store
I cannot envision what Google’s reasoning is for offering lower quality images of New York’s streets. My assumption is that identical equipment was used in shooting the panoramas for both cities. Security and privacy seem to be the only logical explanation (i.e., lower quality images mean in a city as populated as NYC you will reveal fewer recognizable faces).
Update: It appears that Google subcontracted their image capture work for New York out to
Immersive Media, while their San Francisco imagery was done in-house. This is solely based off the subtle copyright notice which is displayed in the lower right corner of the Street View image.
05.29.07 — Technology