USE DESIGN blog

Concept d’interface pour un table de DJ

Vivien Gauthier — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:30:57 +0000

Concept d’interface pour appareil photo numérique

Vivien Gauthier — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:31:33 +0000

Spokeo: new trend in internet privacy

Vero Toumanova — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:42:25 +0000

Find a person on Spokeo (USA residents only for now) and you might immediately learn his/her age, relationship status, family situation and family members, how their house looks like and… how much it costs. For free. If you decide to pay, the website promises to let you know much more about this person: his virtual social life, income, hobbies, pictures and so on. With all our information being dispersed everywhere on the internet there comes inevitably a point that someone connects the pieces together and your profile comes alive, in all its detail.

You can see this as a threat to your privacy or you can find it a logical and in a couple of years probably perfectly acceptable development. What is slightly disturbing is that your profile is there by default. You can remove it, if you don’t want it to be seen. For now you can do it for free. The information is also said to be largely inaccurate. For now…

Zones d’activité sur iPhone et iPad

Vivien Gauthier — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 12:52:28 +0000

Peu de concepteurs d’interfaces semblent se préoccuper de la prise en main des smartphones ou tablettes tactiles.

Ainsi, nous avions abordé récemment l’inconvénient du poids de l’iPad, son impact en terme de prise en main et donc ses corolaires en terme de design d’interface.

Dan Saffer fait écho à cette problématique dans son article sur les zones d’activité. Il propose plusieurs schémas qui montrent les zones d’accès dites « facile » (easy) et « plus difficile » (reach) sur les iPhones et iPad.

Pour ces schémas, il présuppose que l’on saisit l’iphone à une main (droitier) et l’iPad à deux mains. Bien entendu, lorsque l’on prend l’iphone dans une main et que l’on utilise l’index de son autre main, le problème ne se pose pas.

Je trouve çà dommage d’être obligé d’utiliser son téléphone à deux mains.
Néanmoins lorsqu’on consulte leurs guidelines, on serait tenté de croire qu’Apple veut que l’on utilise leur produit à deux mains.

The feel-good interface

Vero Toumanova — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:39:24 +0000

After passing the security control at Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam), I stumbled upon this interesting device.

The figures in large font are the cumulative rating the airport visitors give the security procedure they just have been through. The rating is done with a delightfully simple touchscreen interface:

Caption reads « Please rate the speed at security »
This device left me wondering about its true function. Of course, the obvious one is to gather feedback from the travelers on how quick the security control is working. But in an already very optimized process and with the current amount of security regulations is there really so much to be improved? So what is the meaning behind this little console? I believe it is « relief ». After you have spent time in a long queue, has been told to remove all your belongings and shoes, forced to expose your luggage and probably hand-searched as well, this interface is like your own little personal revenge. So that you walk away satisfied.

UX Magazine Collection

Vivien Gauthier — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:25:21 +0000

Mark Vanderbeeken has made a nice collection of recent interesting articles in UX Magazine.

Getting more from analysis
By Jared Lewandowski & John Dilworth / December 16th 2010
Analysis is a key part of the design process that assures the right problems are accurately resolved. When integrated tightly into design processes and teams, analysis can improve understanding of the problems that project teams are challenged to solve. It can also bring clarity to the detailed and often complex requirements that solutions must meet.

Social seen: analyzing and visualizing data from social networks
By Hunter Whitney / December 15th 2010
Emerging social network analysis and visualization techniques can fundamentally change the way we see our relationships with others. These perspectives offer new ways for companies to operate more effectively, for marketers to delve deeper into consumers’ minds, for law enforcement to tracking criminal enterprises, and for individuals to help manage their online reputations.

Is multiscreen enough? Why ‘write once’ shouldn’t be the goal
By Kevin Suttle / December 13th 2010
Though the idea of “write once, deploy everywhere” is enticing to developers and project managers alike, should that be the goal? Granted, productivity is paramount and time is money, but simply resizing the same application to fit on multiple devices doesn’t necessarily ensure the best experience for users.

10 surefire ways to screw up your iPhone app
By Jeremy Olson / December 9th 2010
Ten common iPhone app design and usability mistakes that can shatter hopes of success on the App Store.

The coming zombie apocalypse: Small, cheap devices will disrupt our old-school UX assumptions
By Scott Jenson / December 8th 2010
Designers think of new technologies in terms of yesterday’s tasks, failing to clearly see the real potential of the new technologies.

> More

Commencez par concevoir l’application mobile !!!

Vivien Gauthier — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:54:01 +0000

Depuis l’arrivée de l’iPhone, les préconisations des designers d’interaction telles que :

. « faites simple pour commencer »,

. « laissez le temps aux utilisateurs de s’approprier votre service »,

. « quelles sont les 3 fonctionnalités clés de votre application »,

… semblent trouver échos chez les concepteurs de services web.

En effet, le format mobile contraint les concepteurs à simplifier, à se concentrer sur l’essentiel. Il facilitent les négociations entre designers et chef de projet lorsqu’il est question de rajouter une fonctionnalité ou un bouton à chaque réunion. Quand on s’exprime dans 320 par 480 pixels, l’effet de foisonnement est immédiatement perceptible.

Cette petite révolution en marche nous amène à penser que finalement la solution consisterait à commencer par l’application mobile, plutôt que par l’application web.

On aurait ainsi :

Avoir une idée,
Concevoir l’application mobile, obtenir la validation des utilisateurs, et ainsi valider l’ADN du service,
Concevoir l’application web sur la base de cet ADN.

Je me risquerais presque à dire plutôt que de réaliser un service web, puis son « compagnon » mobile, réalisons l’application mobile puis son compagnon web. Ce compagnon web serait alors plus riche, mais au moins l’essentiel / l’ADN serait indiscutable.

Sur l’exemple ci-dessous, on sent bien que l’ADN du service n’a jamais été extraite sur la version web, alors que sur la version mobile…

Bien entendu, cette approche tomberait forcément sous le coup d’exceptions, bien qu’à mon avis elles seraient finalement rares.

Luke Wroblewski partage cet avis et argumente cette approche dans cette présentation (PDF, audio, vidéo)

The future of mobility by Mozilla – Seabird

Vivien Gauthier — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 10:32:33 +0000

Yours faithfully

Vero Toumanova — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:26:34 +0000

How did the wealthy and educated of the past – say 18 or 19 century – usually begin their day? Just like we do: by reading their mail. After that they sat down to write the replies, which were lengthy, calligraphic, grammatically impeccable and of the finest style, so this activity often occupied a large part of the day. The most personal thing about these letters was, of course, the handwriting: perfected day after day, a skill that is rapidly being lost in our times as the communication is replaced by computerized text.
Now there is a service allowing you to retain some of that original, personal quality: Pilot Handwriting.

But it comes with a problem. When opening a handwritten letter that looks like the one in the video one would naturally expect it to be – well, impeccable and of the finest style. And we are not used to caring much about our style, grammar or punctuation nowadays.
By the way, do you know that in 18th century they sometimes used to write « cross-letters » to save money? Smaller letters were cheaper.

Culture Web 2.0

Vero Toumanova — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 14:20:41 +0000

Every time I feel like taking advantage of Paris rich cultural life I am confronted with information websites that do not satisfy my needs, are not easy to search or do not show the kind of information I want to see. Now it seems that I have found a website quite answering my needs: 75.agendaCulturel.fr. It has a strong Web 2.0 flavor, a clear layout with large user-friendly typography, enticing visual design and, most of all, simple and effective search. Sometimes the design seems almost too « friendly », with huge typeface and a lot of white space, giving an impression of being still « under development ». But it is definitely a good start… of my cultural weekend.

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