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4 Strategies for Working With Designers Without Killing Each Other

Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:35:07 +0000

Fourteen years ago, in my first job where my title was “Information Architect,” I clashed with a designer. We were working at a large advertising agency that was known for stunning design work. The art directors wielded a level of power at the agency that I have never seen anywhere else, and the result over the decades was a portfolio of gorgeous print and TV ads. The design-first method had worked well for this agency, winning them awards and a long roster of Fortune 500 clients, so they naturally decided to use this approach in their newly launched web department, too. Things went well for a while, until I attended a kickoff meeting for a new website project. The designer came to the meeting with an already completed graphic design , before any information had been provided about who the site was for or what it would do. This designer had been at the company longer than me, and she had been happily designing sites without an information architect for several months. As far as she was concerned, this was a process that worked well for her, and why shouldn’t it? She had complete control of the site, her designs looked lovely, and they were not in any way influenced by user needs, site goals, or reality. What followed was a long, drawn-out battle for control of the site between me and the designer. This battle usually sounded something like this, played out again and again: Me: And when you click on this button where does it take you? Designer: I haven’t worked that out yet, but it’ll be fine. At the time, I thought I had encountered a particularly obstinate designer, but in fact I had just bulldozed my way into the biggest challenge in information architecture (IA): navigating the line between beautiful design and usable IA. Because this was early in the web world, the agency had yet to learn about this balance between usability and design, and I hadn’t either. And in the intervening years, things haven’t changed much. Designers still want to make things beautiful, UXers still want to make things usable, and those two goals are frequently at odds. What has changed for me, though, is the approach I now take to working with designers. 1. Get the Right Designer on the Project We don’t always have the luxury of selecting the designer who will bring our wireframes and prototypes to life, but on occasion this happens. All UXers should have a roster of designers who are UX-friendly who they can call when the opportunity arises. More and more frequently, I have clients who either ask us to handle design or ask for designer referrals. When this happens I always feel like I’ve won the lottery. I have a collection of designers I’ve met over the years who are great at working with highly functional sites; if you have the opportunity to influence the designer selection, you need to be ready to jump in with names and portfolios. 2. Don’t Just Throw Wireframes Over the Fence Last year, I worked on an unusual project where the timeframe was so compressed that there was no time for wireframes. Instead I spent many, many hours each day on the phone with the designer discussing the interface, working out where each element should go and exactly how it should function. While I wouldn’t recommend this process as a rule, the end result was a beautiful working relationship and an interface that we were both thrilled with. Many agencies are structured such that designers are just handed a stack of wireframes and told to execute on them. The end result tends to be either a site that looks like a very pretty version of the wireframes, or one that is only very loosely based on the UX design. To strike the right balance that prevents designers from either taking an overly literal interpretation of wireframes or from developing their own new interaction models, designers need to be involved early and often. As soon as you’ve got a few wireframes done, pull your designer in to start mocking up a visual design so you can work together through anything that needs to be rethought. 3. Give Designers Space to Do Their Thing People go into design because they want to express their creativity, to play with shapes and color, and to have fun doing it. In some ways, information architects just come in and rain on designers’ parades by imposing structure and preferring the obvious over the unique. But there are designers out there — more and more all the time — who look forward to working with information architects because working off of wireframes makes their jobs easier. These designers still want to play and have fun, and (in the right place and time) new and interesting designs and interactions can make people happy, so it’s a good idea to include a design-centric section on sites that warrant it, where the information architecture takes a back seat to the design. This works for areas of a site that needs to provide a visceral feel for a brand, or portfolio sections of sites that need to showcase work or case studies. If you respect the designers’ need to create something beautiful, they are more likely to respect your need to create something usable. 4. Don’t Discount the Importance of Design It’s important to remember, as Don Norman has famously said and Dana Chisnell recently reiterated , that beautiful design makes people happy. Good UX design is the backbone of good visual design, and one cannot exist without the other. Back when I was engaging the designer at my first IA job in thermonuclear warfare, I did it because I only barely registered design as something that mattered to the user experience. But the joy inherent in beautiful design is important as well, so sometimes when a designer overrides your UX design on aesthetic grounds, the designer is right. UXers need to weigh the pros and cons of all design decisions very carefully in order to determine where visual design should triumph over UX design, and vice versa. There are still struggles, of course, and there are projects where designers want to go one direction and the UX team wants to go another. But I do seem to encounter fewer and fewer all-out wars between design and UX teams. When designers and UXers work well together, the ultimate winners are the users, who get a product that is not only easy to use but lovely to interact with. Image courtesy of iStockphoto , JamesBrey , and Flickr, Phil Roeder More About: advice , design , mashable , tips For more Dev & Design coverage: Follow Mashable Dev & Design on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Dev & Design channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad

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4 Strategies for Working With Designers Without Killing Each Other

Apple Admits iOS 5.0.1 Did Not Fix All Battery Issues

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:52:05 +0000

Apple has acknowledged that the iOS 5.0.1 update that promised to address reports of poor battery performance on iOS devices has not, in fact, fixed the problem for some devices owners. “The recent iOS software update addressed many of the battery issues that some customers experienced on their iOS 5 devices,” Apple said in a statement to AllThingsD . “We continue to investigate a few remaining issues.” After the update was released Thursday afternoon, many device owners took to Apple’s support forums to complain that they were continuing to experience battery issues despite having downloaded the update and having reset their phones. “Installed the new IOS 5.0.1 two hours ago,” one user wrote . “Five percent battery drain in 45 minutes with Wi-Fi and location services turned on and me not touching the iPhone 4S. The new update doesn’t seem to help much.” In a poll conducted on Mashable Friday morning, more than 900 respondents (32%) said they were experiencing the same battery performance issues they had suffered before the iOS 5.0.1 update. Another 350 (12%) said performance was even worse. Six hundred respondents (21%) said the update had fixed the problem. Users started complaining about the battery life of their iPhone 4Ses immediately after they were released. Owners of other iOS devices made similar complaints after upgrading to iOS 5. Apple claimed the problem was a software issue, and the iOS 5.0.1 update was issued to address it. The recent round of complaints suggests, however, that not all iPhone 4S owners are having software-related problems. Some of the more serious cases — particularly those that haven’t been improved by the iOS 5.0.1. update — could stem from hardware issues. We’ll have to wait for further information from Apple to know for sure. iPhone Owners: Have You Had Battery Problems After Installing iOS 5.0.1? Start the Update Tap the Settings icon, select General, tap Software Update. If you need the update, here’s where it’ll let you know. Click here to view this gallery. More About: apple , battery life , iOS 5.0.1 , iphone , trending For more Mobile coverage: Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Mobile channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad

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Apple Admits iOS 5.0.1 Did Not Fix All Battery Issues

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Goes to War … With Modern Warfare 3 Sales

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:30:14 +0000

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim , the latest game in Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls franchise, has been released, adding to the general excitement and mayhem of a blockbuster Autumn for the video game industry. The big fight taking place right now is between the world’s top-selling first-person shooters, EA’s Battlefield 3 and Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 . While those two giants have been lobbing grenades across the trenches, a slew of triple-A games have given fans a glut of options. Skyrim is a first-person, open-world role-playing-game that drops the player in “Skyrim,” a fantastical nation more-or-less constantly besieged by dragons. It’s the players job, nay, destiny , to rise from a lowly commoner to a hero of legend. There are a bevy of skills, spells, projectiles and weapons placed through the game. There is also an in-depth character creator allowing every player to create a person, or creature, that suits them. Each of these can be improved and leveled up through in-game experience or merchant shops. Think of it like a massive, medieval-themed Grand Theft Auto where the goal is to save the world rather than control it. The game has already generated a ton of buzz and positive reviews. Skyrim currently holds an average score of 96% on Metacritic.com . Industry analysts are predicting the game will be one of the biggest sellers this season. While some say Skyrim has no shot of overtaking Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3 , the game’s pre-order numbers show promise. PunchJump reported that Skyrim was one of the top three pre-ordered games at Walmart. The game even became the number-one best-selling pre-order game at Walmart.com the week before its launch. SEE ALSO: 10 Epic YouTube Videos That Will Get You Pumped for Skyrim Game companies sometimes shy away from releases that coincide with others. Bethesda, however, has entered the fray and seems to be competitive with both Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 . It will be interesting to see first-week sales for all three games to see just how each fared. It might help that Skyrim is a vastly different game from the two blockbusters. Where those shooters favor Hollywood moments and close-quarters, Skyrim prefers sprawling vistas and near-infinite side-quests and narratives. That breadth, however, is causing some graphic problems with the game. Kotaku reported that installing the game onto an Xbox 360 can actually cause graphics not to load properly or a drop in resolution due to the sheer processing power the game demands. Bethesda has acknowledged the issue and is working on a fix but is recommending Xbox users hold off installing the game for the time being. Is Skyrim at the top of your wish list? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Concept Art from Skyrim Click here to view this gallery. More About: game , Gaming , skyrim , video game For more Entertainment coverage: Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Entertainment channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad

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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Goes to War … With Modern Warfare 3 Sales

World’s Fastest-Growing Facebook App Will Scare the Crap Out of You

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:44:26 +0000

I became forever terrified upon discovering “ Take This Lollipop ,” an interactive video that launched two weeks before Halloween, yet still continues to haunt millions on the Internet. After giving the application permission to access my information (something my generation often doesn’t think twice about), a blue lollipop appears on the screen with a razor in the middle. Slightly concerned, but mostly intrigued, I click the piece of candy. Let’s take a tour of the video. 1. Hallway After clicking on the lollipop, you’re led down an eerie hallway. Click here to view this gallery. As of this morning, “Take This Lollipop” has been liked by 9,976,146 people, making it the fastest-growing Facebook application ever — a result the video’s creator never expected. Jason Zada is also responsible for “ Elf Yourself ,” a viral online campaign for Office Max that has earned than 164 million views. “I’ve never seen anything grow this fast that isn’t hugely supported by something,” says Zada, who hoped around 100,000 people would enjoy his side project. He threw the script together in about 30 minutes, and with the collaborative efforts of his production company, Tool of North America , and developer Jason Nickel, completed the interactive video in four weeks. It was simply a side project for Halloween. “I just wanted to scare people. It’s kind of a horror movie that has no blood, no guts, but there’s this person that you don’t want looking at your information,” says Zada. “And that to me was the scariest of all.” Scary indeed. Ironically, you cannot share your experience with the video on Facebook, the most powerful sharing network in the world. People can only see their own information and photos in the video. However, some have uploaded their own reactions to the video on YouTube . Those top four videos have each outdone Zada’s original 100,000-view goal, creating an additional viral layer. Zada unintentionally created a snowballing viral sensation. “It really started as a social experiment — the old adage ‘don’t take candy from strangers,’” explains Zada. “People did the hard part for me — they convinced each other to try it. You have this lollipop that you know you shouldn’t take, but if your friends tell you to try something that’s potentially really scary, would you do it?” Although much of the video’s press coverage has addressed the issue of invading privacy online, Zada feels otherwise. “There are a lot of headlines that it’s scary, how social media is a scary place. On one hand I guess so, but Facebook is very secure — it’s not like your information is being put out there against your will. You have to create your profile. You’re in control of the information you put out there.” Facebook privacy is not a new concern. But the fact that more than 9.5 million people choose to take that stranger’s candy is something to think about. Is our generation reckless with that choice, or are we just more trusting? For those audacious enough to take the lollipop, what was your initial reaction to the video? Share your opinions below in the comments. More About: Facebook , features , interactive videos , privacy , Social Media , trending , viral videos , web apps

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World’s Fastest-Growing Facebook App Will Scare the Crap Out of You

Veterans Day 2011: Google Doodle Salutes Troops

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:28:58 +0000

Google is remembering troops this Veterans Day by flying a yellow ribbon on its homepage. Its latest Google Doodle, a watercolor-style pastoral scene, swaps the “l” in the Google logo for a tree with a yellow ribbon tied to it. Displaying yellow ribbons is a tradition that predates the civil war in songs and folklore as a symbol of loyalty to loved ones welcomed home. “In recent years,” says the website of Yellow Ribbon America , “it has been displayed to show our support for our service men and women to keep them first and foremost in our hearts and prayers.” SEE ALSO: Top 10 Animated Google Doodles [VIDEOS] | Where Do Google Doodles Come From? Veterans day, originally named Armistice Day, is celebrated in the U.S. every Nov. 11, the day fighting between the Allied nations and Germany officially ended in 1918. Google last honored the holiday with a Doodle in 2009 . The annual National Veterans Day Ceremony will take place on Friday at 11 a.m. ET in Arlington National Cemetery. Regional sites for Veterans Day activities can be found at the Department of Veterans Affairs website . BONUS: More Google Doodles The Christmas Google Doodle Each package gets larger with a mouse-over, and a click on it returns search results pertinent to a specific country or the particular items featured in a scene. This one is from December 24, 2010. Click here to view this gallery. More About: google doodle , Veterans Day For more Dev & Design coverage: Follow Mashable Dev & Design on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Dev & Design channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad

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Veterans Day 2011: Google Doodle Salutes Troops

Cyborg Vision iPhone App Is 100% Pure Useless Fun [Apps]

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:20:00 +0000

I love Cyborg Vision, an augmented reality app that recognizes your Facebook friends’ faces and overlays their information like the vision of the Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Series 800. Yes, this $1 app gives you Terminator’s vision. More »

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Cyborg Vision iPhone App Is 100% Pure Useless Fun [Apps]

Alien Invasion Not Imminent, White House Says

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:17:13 +0000

Well, perhaps not an invasion , but the White House has issued an official statement saying that there is no evidence that life exists outside of Earth. The statement came in response to two petitions on We The People, the White House’s experiment in crowdsourced petitioning and public opinion. Any petition that gains at least 25,000 signatures will be passed along to a top policymaker for a response. The petitions asked the White House to “ formally acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race” and to “ immediately disclose the government’s knowledge of and communications with extraterrestrial beings.” Both petitions claim that extraterrestrials exist on Earth and that the government has gone to lengths to hide this information. The White House, though, says: The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye. The combined signatures don’t add up to 25,000, so it’s odd the White House would respond to this petition instead of others on the platform. Here are some pros and cons of the decision . Pro : Despite the seemingly outlandish petition, the White House responded with a respectful and fairly lengthy response penned by Phil Larson, who works in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. In it, Larson says that while aliens aren’t on Earth, “that doesn’t mean the subject of life outside our planet isn’t being discussed or explored. In fact, there are a number of projects working toward the goal of understanding if life can or does exist off Earth.” He lists three programs — SETI, the Kepler spacecraft and the Mars Science Laboratory — as examples of the search for life on other planets. Con : The White House chose to answer this petition instead of handling more controversial topics such as those addressing the electoral college , Keystone XL Pipeline or same-sex marriage . Pro : This response is encouraging to the validity of the We The People platform. No matter the petition, if it receives enough popular support, the White House will take it into consideration and respond. Con : Occupy Wall Street is picking up speed and influence. The 2012 election is top of mind. The job market is still dismal, and there are tensions running across political and economic divides. While space exploration is certainly an important element of the U.S.’s tech history, the decision to handle this petition, titled “Searching for ET, But No Evidence Yet,” seems like a case of bad timing especially since it has fewer than 25,000 signatures. Now it’s your turn: Did the White House make the right decision by responding to this alien inquiry? And are your Area 51 beliefs crushed, or do you still hold out hope for alien life? BONUS: Our Favorite YouTube Videos: The Space Edition Space Jam Trailer Adam Ostrow: Space Jam , an essential movie in the sports star meets cartoon character meets outer space genre. Click here to view this gallery. Image courtesy of Flickr, Markusram More About: crowdsourced , government , obama , White House

Audio-Technica AT-LP24 Direct Drive USB Turntable Is Your Wicky Wicky Wicky Deal of the Day [Dealzmodo]

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Everyone wants to be a DJ. The parties, the women, the men, the drugs, the illegal drugs, the little napkins they wrap your glass in, those tiny stirrers that you can also sip through, the lights, the lasers, the abrupt knife attacks, the sex, the lack of sex, the bloodshot eyes, the condos, the penthouses, the pet mice, the iPads, the MP3s, the Jay-Zs, the sticky floors, the cocaine, the clean bathrooms, the chewing gum. And of course, the music. Scratching without knowing what you’re doing will probably ruin it, but the Audio-Technica AT-LP24 Direct Drive USB Turntable will at least make you look like a DJ—and it’s just $270 with free shipping. -SB More »

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Audio-Technica AT-LP24 Direct Drive USB Turntable Is Your Wicky Wicky Wicky Deal of the Day [Dealzmodo]

Vivid’s Streaming HD Porn Channel May Save Google TV [Video]

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 19:49:00 +0000

Remember Google TV ? Me neither. Maybe now you will: mega-porn producer Vivid Entertainment is launching a 24-hour porn HDTV channel, available for free to subscribers of vivid.com. Vivid says they have spent a year developing this. Whatever. ON WITH THE DEMO. More »

5 Essential Tips for Managing Your Users’ Social Profile Data

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 21:40:59 +0000

Vidya Shivkumar is director of products at Janrain and has built and shipped consumer, B2B and B2C products and services for over a decade. Online behavior tracking has been successfully employed for nearly a decade, but its tools do not uniquely identify users, and rightfully so. Tracking was only designed to group users into audience segments; for example, golden retriever owners who live in San Francisco, CA, or baseball and wine enthusiast females in their 30s who live in Seattle, WA. Of course, certain laws restrict combining offline data sources with online user behavior tracking. Therefore, how do brands get to know users individually, rather than as one of many in an audience segment? Require a social network login to access your website. You request permission to access visitors’ social profiles and, when approved, you’ll have an opportunity to build a wealth of knowledge on the individual user. Learn about their hobbies and interests, friends, likes, age, marital status, places visited and alma mater. And the best part is that your users have consciously opted to share this information with you. Obtaining the user’s social profile data is the first step. The following tips detail how to access rich social profile information, while avoiding some of the challenges associated with data gathering. Social profile data is complex and dynamic. Depending on the particular social network, the data can range from professional affiliations, education history, friends lists, current location and checkins. Social profile data is useful only if actionable. A copious amount of user data is worthless if you are unable to feed it to existing systems such as email marketing tools or content personalization engines. Social profile data is relevant only when combined with other data sources. Social does not have to replace what you already know about your users. The real win is augmenting existing intelligence with this new, valuable social data source. Let’s also look at five critical considerations for collecting, storing and managing social profile data. 1. Structure and Discipline Consider hosting data in a flexible and extensible schema. This will ensure that data has rules and constraints placed around it. For example, verify that an email address is unique and accurate, that date of birth follows a consistent format, that zip code and phone number, if mandatory, are present, etc. 2. Multi-Channel Support According to Nielsen, smartphones make up over 40% of all mobile phones in the U.S., and smartphone owners are three times more likely to access the Internet via their handsets. Brands are catching onto this trend by offering both web and mobile experiences for their users. Unify user intelligence across multiple devices and channels, for example, mobile devices, networked kiosks, trusted partner sites and campaign landing pages. Future-proof now, so you don’t need to re-architect when the next digital experience arises. 3. Availability, Redundancy and Backup Like any other user databases, social profile storage systems need to be available 24/7. They should be supported by enterprise-class service-level agreements (SLAs), be backed up so that data is not lost in the event of catastrophic disk failures, and most importantly, be redundant to minimize service interruptions. 4. “Don’t Make the User Think” Those of us who have conceived of, built and launched a registration system know that screens and workflow are crucial components to data collection. After all, a well-designed interface can make or break your data collection plans. But they take time to build and get right. (My company has estimated that a default workflow for capturing, editing and displaying social data takes up to 19 screens!) Today, no profile system is complete without a public and a private profile page. Users have come to expect a page in which they can manage their settings for the data they share with your brand. Also, if your site offers community features such as blogs, reviews or comments, users want to be able to manage their public persona via a public profile page. Last but not least, users expect branded interfaces so they know who is managing their data. 5. Third-Party Access Now let’s look at things to consider when making social data usable and actionable. Most brand marketers want to use social data, at a minimum, to power their targeted email marketing programs. Others want to use the data for onsite personalization, such as serving relevant news articles, displaying merchandise, or even promoting concert tickets relevant a user’s interests. When you combine social data with legacy or traditional user data, you build a 360-degree perspective about your users. However, not all third-party tools need to know everything in your database to operate effectively. For instance, an email marketing tool may only need access to first and last names, email addresses, interests and zip codes for a segment of mountain climbers in Portland, OR. Thanks to protocols such as OAuth , building such capabilities into a registration system is now possible. Given that marketers need to be able to customize and change their marketing segments often, this type of segment creation must be easy to set up via a dashboard, and should not require a database administrator, a web programmer and an operations team to roll out. Visitors to your site are showing up with a wealth of information that you can leverage to improve the onsite experience. The critical element for marketers is to have the right tools in place to request, store and manage users’ social profile data for meaningful purposes. The more ubiquitous these tools become, the more users will demand engagement and personalization on your site. Image courtesy of Flickr, Truthout.org More About: behavioral analysis , contributor , data collection , features , social data , Social Media

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5 Essential Tips for Managing Your Users’ Social Profile Data