Andrew Wirtanen

Blind Man vs. ATM

Andrew Wirtanen — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:15:31 +0000

It’s good to see Tommy Edison, aka the blind film critic, receiving some attention for his YouTube video “Blind Man vs. The ATM”. ATMs are walk-up-and-use interfaces and should be easy to use for both blind and sighted users. A few of the issues Tommy encounters in this video would also improve the usability for all populations:

The left door entering the ATM should open up, not just the right one. The left door is closest to where the user swipes their card.
Cards should be able to be inserted any way the user wants. The technology exists.
The ATM should follow standards when entering dollar amounts, or make it obvious which format it is using (as Tommy points out, many other systems require the user to enter two zeros for cents, e.g. $20.00).

Click here to view the embedded video.

[via Laughing Squid and Small Surfaces]

Free Music for Summer 2011

Andrew Wirtanen — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:59:11 +0000

It’s been a while since my last free music post, but I just noticed that there is a lot of free music in my rotation:

All India Radio – Free Me
I learned of this Australian three-piece electronic band from an awesome video posted on Laughing Squid. The song (and video) are called “Rippled”, but that song isn’t on the free album I linked to.
Click here to view the embedded video.
The Rocket Summer – (free acoustic live album)
While it seems I am a bit older than The Rocket Summer’s target audience, I’ve liked them since 2003. Bryce Avery can definitely write some very catchy music. The audience sings along with Bryce throughout the set, and it’s very fun to listen to.
Mansions on the Moon – Paradise Falls
What does this list need? More lightweight electronic music. These guys opened up for Wiz Khalifa on April 1st in Raleigh. I didn’t go to the show, but I heard good things. They just released a free “mixtape”, so get it while you can.
The Hood Internet
If you like Girl Talk, you’ll like The Hood Internet. A two-piece from Chicago, The Hood Internet doesn’t mix as many songs as Gregg Gillis, but their mixes are just as good. I saw them open for Matt & Kim at Cat’s Cradle on June 2nd. All of their stuff is free download.

So, what did I miss–Are you listening to anything that was free?

iPad Predicted 17 Years Ago

Andrew Wirtanen — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 02:37:14 +0000

It’s hard to believe, but the newspaper industry knew from day 1 that they needed to figure out how to survive along with the Internet. This video from 1994 is actually kind of sad. The video demonstrates that newspaper companies were so invested in the Internet, that they actually made vision videos and conducted user research.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sure, it’s funny to see a tablet imagined 17 years ago. But, my main takeaway is a reminder that sometimes the public (or technology) isn’t ready for your idea yet. If your idea doesn’t test well or isn’t accepted by the public, then put it on the shelf. Don’t throw it away. Entrepreneur Philip Rosedale had the idea for Second Life years before technology could support a 3D environment.

“Filter Bubbles” violate usability heuristics

Andrew Wirtanen — Sun, 15 May 2011 18:54:13 +0000

Eli Pariser’s book “The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding from You” was released last week. Pariser coined the term “filter bubble” to indicate when websites customize content based on user behavior without informing them. The biggest websites on the Internet are doing this. For example, two people will get different Google search results when they search for the same thing. Or, two people with the same Facebook friends will have different looking news feeds.

Watch the nine minute TED talk to learn more (or watch on TED.com):

Click here to view the embedded video.

From a usability perspective, filter bubbles are doing more harm than good. Filter bubbles are breaking everyone’s mental model on how websites work. Before learning about filter bubbles, my mental model was that every website looks the same to every person, unless there are some customization options. In other words, every web page looks the same to everyone unless I do something to make mine different.

Nearly every usability expert has their own list of heuristics or best practices for interface design. Usually that list is based on the heavily cited Ten Usability Heuristics by Jakob Nielsen. And, that’s a fine starting point. Referencing this list, you can see that filter bubbles are attempting to provide “flexibility and efficiency of use”. However this comes at the expense of “visibility of system status” and “user control and freedom”. Filter bubbles attempt to solve the problem of information overload, but they’re going about it the wrong way. Users need to be informed when websites are changing based on things they do, and more importantly they need to initiate that change.

Inception with Folders (and Miller Columns)

Andrew Wirtanen — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:09:01 +0000

I was pretty sure the Internet was done with awesome Inception clips, but here’s another:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kotke picked up this video a few days ago, and The Human Factors Blog was quick to point out the OSX finder uses a visualization technique called Miller Columns (developed in 1980 by Mark S. Miller @ Yale). This is now my new favorite Inception clip, second to Inception in Real-Time.

Don’t mess with my nav!

Andrew Wirtanen — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 00:35:18 +0000

Sticky elements and stationary navs are becoming more popular on websites–and that’s fine, as long as they’re used with a purpose. They can be used in very useful ways, like always showing table headers at the top as the user scrolls down a long table.

Tonight, I ended up on ABC’s Player website. It took me at least 60 seconds to figure out how to find all their show listings. If I were to have thought aloud, it would have gone something like this:

I’m trying to find a specific show but I only seem to be able to look at the Most Popular, Most Recent, and Staff Picks. You would think ABC would have an archive of all their shows, but maybe they only have their latest ones. Weird. Maybe I can find it in there. Oh wait, there’s some options on the bottom. Oh, “All Shows”. That’s what I want. Wow, I didn’t see them before.

Here is ABC’s Player website:

So, what did ABC do wrong?

The nav was at the bottom, where I least expected it. The bottom is usually a site footer and the nav is usually at the top.
The nav blended in with the rest of the site. I can tell the designers are big iPhone fans because of the bottom bar (maybe Steve Jobs himself inspired it since he is on the Board of Directors). But, a website is not an mobile site or app. The bottom bar works very well on mobile phones, but just doesn’t translate well to a full website.
Oh, and if those first two aren’t enough… there’s an auto-playing video! Strike three, you’re out, ABC.

Logic is part of User Interface Design

Andrew Wirtanen — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:50:13 +0000

This afternoon I was casually browsing for sunglasses. On Oakley’s site I used their sidebar to narrow down my choices. When there were >5 items in a category, a “More” line appeared to allow the user to see more option. I thought to myself the design could be simplified by adding more visual emphasis to the plus sign.

Anyway, the real interesting thing I discovered is that the sidebar will always show the “More” line if there are 5 or >5 items. If there were 5 items, the “More” line would still show up (and do nothing–for real, try clicking on Len’s Color). If there were 6 items, the “More” line would show up and reveal the extra item.

I think all UI designers are guilty of writing guidelines like: “If there are >5 items, do this… If there are <5, then do this…”. But, why can’t we write guidelines with logic? For example, the guidelines for Oakley’s site could be: “If there are <7, then show all the items. If there are >7, then show 5 with a “More” link to view all of them.

As UI designers, we write specifications or design wireframes that are usually passed directly to developers. It’s not the developer’s job to add logic. We should.

Goodbye, Friday Night Lights. Texas Forever.

Andrew Wirtanen — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:48:33 +0000

As I said on Twitter, I can’t think of a TV series I enjoyed more than Friday Night Lights (FNL). I stumbled upon the pilot on iTunes in the fall of 2006, and watched every episode up until the finale on February 9th. There were 76 total episodes (2 1/2 days if you were to watch non-stop). While I enjoyed the 2004 movie with Billy Bob Thorton, I would take three episodes of the TV series over the movie any day.

The TV series won many awards over the years, and was called “the greatest sports show ever” by ESPN’s Bill Simmons. In 2007, Simmons led an effort to keep FNL on the air when news came out that NBC was considering dropping the show due to low viewership. Simmons said goodbye to the series on his February 11th, 2011 podcast. TV critic Ed Martin posted a great tribute on The Huffington Post (which, in non-related news, was recently acquired by AOL).

Why wasn’t FNL more successful? Essayist (and author) Chuck Klosterman thinks that the series would have been successful on CBS. He may be right, but I like to think that if a TV show is truly amazing, it doesn’t matter what network it’s on. Others think that football was the problem, but football is America’s sport (as much as I like to think baseball is). Whatever the reason, I think FNL will see larger success in its afterlife.

The final season airs on NBC starting Friday, April 15th at 8pm/7 central.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Things Real People Don’t Say About Advertising

Andrew Wirtanen — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:15:57 +0000

I’m loving Things Real People Don’t Say About Advertising. Originally targeted at TV commercials and print ads, the tumblelog also has submissions related to web design and web trends (e.g. “I can only refer 5 friends? But the rest will be upset!”). There was even a UX one:

Elevator Button That You Push With Your Foot

Andrew Wirtanen — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:06:06 +0000

I like the outside-the-box design approach to this elevator button.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Unfortunately, it’s not very visible since it is flat. I would angle it up and also make it larger due to the lack of dexterity we have in our feet. Otherwise, as you can see in the video, you have to stop and think about how to press it.

[via Neatorama]