Visicog

A couple of interesting stories this past week regarding accessibility. Facebook is making efforts to be more accessible to the visually impaired, as announced in their blog by the president of the American Foundation for the Blind. The blog also nicely summarizes some of the problems created by inaccessible websites.

Google also announced it’s accessible phone dialer for their Android phone platform. It has a pretty wicked gestural interface that looks very intuitive.

Details, details. They take forever to get right, and in the web medium, you need to know the web’s capabilities cold in order to really push into new interaction territory. Thats why I’m particularly impressed by this collection of UI gems which not only shows great examples, but also shows the chops needed in order to implement them. 10 Creative & Rich UI Interfaces & How to Create Them is an article definitely worth checking out.

Welcome, class. You can check out the slides and assignment for the Monday March 23rd class, and also see what lies ahead by browsing the classes from the top navigation.

Should be a very fun class on Tuesday night. I have a great night planned.
I’ve also posted a new set of slides for the lecture.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Here’s an update to this week’s homework:

1. Bring in a URL of a site that you think is innovative and usable.
   Best 3 sites will win a prize!
2. In the last class, Nicholas stepped up to bat and discussed his own usability issue at work. Following the class, I asked him if he would be willing to make a sketch of the problem and he was more than happy to oblige with a mockup and description. This is what he had to say:
   The site will have 10 different categories (sports, politics, finance, arts & entertainment, etc.) displayed in one column. Each category will have it’s own container with an accordion style interface with a max of 4 article titles in each.

   
   Click for Full Size Image »

   Open items for discussion:
   How can we promote sharing of articles?
   How do we indicate that the story on top is the most popular?
   Are the tag/share/email links distracting? Is there a better way to present these user actions?
   How do we indicate that the user can get more info about the story next to the image?
   How do we signal to the user that they can click on any blue bar to get more details about the next title?
   How do we show that these containers can be re-ordered? (drag the container above or below another)
   How do we indicate that the user can pick from a list of other categories to add to the screen?
   What should we display if the user clicks on the X button to close a category?

   Write a half page and be prepared to discuss the usability problem in the next class. How would you categorize the issue(s)? What steps could be done to resolve them? Where else have you seen similar issues? Please take free reign on your approach. Your approach could discuss interaction design, process, business goals, usability testing, etc. Sketches appreciated. Use some creativity and analysis.

   As an alternate to addressing Nicholas’s usability dilemma, you can write a report about your usability test. Did any of the user’s behaviors surprise you? How did the task go? What would you want to do differently in a real test? This alternate is is only open to those students who completed the Usability Test Worksheet from the second class homework assignment<

Remember, the next class is on a Tuesday!

The class 3 page with the slides, links and homework for the December 22nd class have been updated. Don’t forget to bring a printout of your test plan, and the tasks for your usability test written out on index cards!

I just happened to be making a simple utility pattern in Photoshop when I realized my eyes started to bug out. Thought I’d share the weird optical effect with you. Stare into the center of the pattern for about 30 seconds or so.

See you there.

We got our top pick for our make up date, on Monday December 22nd. It’ll be in our regular class room.