With UI and UX, Two Wrongs Could Both be Right

“You’re folding it wrong…”

My wife spoke to me from the other side of the bed where we were folding the laundry. Looking down at my handiwork, the shirt seemed to be pretty close to a square and would fit into the drawer nicely, so I (foolishly) asked how it was wrong? She proceeded to pick up the shirt and show me the “right” way to fold it, step by step. I looked down at her “right” way, slightly confused that ultimately it was the same square but figuring it was smarter to go along with it.

(Quote: A married man can be right….or he can be happy.) (more…)

An Answer To: How can you run IE7 in Windows 8?

There is a relatively simple and free way to test older versions of IE thanks to Microsoft and Oracle. It’s by using free virtualization software and free Windows 7 disk images.

First, download VM VirtualBox from here (free):
Oracle VM VirtualBox

(as of this writing they’ve released some fixes to have it run better in Windows 8, ideally they’ll continue to improve).

Next, grab an “Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image”, an ISO directly from Microsoft created with the purpose of testing older versions of IE in a virtual machine:

Microsoft Download Center

Then, follow the steps from inside VirtualBox for creating a new virtualization and you should be good to test.

View Answer on Quora

Don’t let being a connoisseur ruin a good time (a post on Coffee, UI and UX)

As anyone who has come to know me has realized, I love coffee. I don’t write that lightly, I mean I REALLY love coffee. There is not a drink I prefer and cherish more, and few things make me happier than fresh beans roasted just so, applied to water at the right temperature and timing to produce that perfect cup. I’ve tried $15 cups of coffee, cups from the heralded Clover Coffee machine (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntbVGGMu_Ac), and had the joy of picking coffee beans myself while travelling through Colombia.

Despite this, and much to the surprise of the aforementioned people who get to know me, one of my favorite cups of coffee comes from simple, no frills Tim Horton’s.

(Don’t worry, this comes back around to UI and UX, I promise…) (more…)

The Next UI Innovation In A World With No Flash

Make it intuitive, design it beautifully, implement it intelligently – if you do this all of your users, no matter how they access it, will have an incredible experience.

The Promise of Flash

To me, that was always the biggest draw to Flash. At a time when so much energy was going into warring with the various browsers to obtain similar experiences, this platform had managed to propagate across them all and offered a safe haven, a way to ensure the user experience you envisioned was the same no matter how it was accessed.

The results of this was some really engaging experiences, coupled with innovative interaction decisions born out of a freedom from the nuances of the different browsers. TheFWA (http://www.thefwa.com) showcased these on a daily basis, and I can remember beginning to design with experience in mind first, execution second (knowing that Flash would enable it).

The Shadow of Implementation Rises Again

I won’t go through the demise of Flash (here’s one of my favorite infographics on it: http://www.wix.com/blog/2012/07/the-authentic-infographic-history-of-html5/), but once again the thought of implementation began to cast a shadow on the design process. “It’d be perfect if we could have it slide out here….oh wait, that’ll never work in IE” – almost overnight it seemed that all UI decisions were being put against the worst case scenarios in the browsers. Some design progress followed along, larger images, bolder layouts, but always the threat of implementation limitations remained. Menus at the top or left, thank you very much, and be careful with those animations, you could hurt someone.

An Answer To: What is the most useful design / workflow / tool tip that you learned recently?

Most of the workflow helps I've discovered have come in my UI design tool of choice, Adobe Illustrator
 
Placed AI Files for Backgrounds:
For the background and elements that are re-used within every screen, I'll design it out in a different Illustrator file, then place that file and copy it for as many different screens as I need. Then, if there's a change to the background color or tools on the top bar etc., you only need to edit one file and have all screens your designing update (huge time saver)
 
Artboards:
For sending out multiple concepts or multiple screens, defining many artboards and exporting them to PNG or one PDF file has been a very fast way to send files for review
 
Layers:
Obvious, but I was not using the layers as effectively as I should have been. Being able to control the locking or visibility for multiple layers, especially useful for pop-ups and other overlaying elements, has been a great help.
 
Creative Cloud Sharing
I have just started to use this in my design flow, but there is a lot of potential though. With Adobe's latest version, you're able to share artboards online and invite people to leave comments on particular pages. These are not only stored online, but also show up in the application which is useful and cool.
 
 
Otherwise I'd agree with many of the other answers on here, some great workflow suggestions.

What is the most useful design / workflow / tool tip that you learned recently?

An Answer To: How can I differentiate Online products vs “Offline” products on a website?

How can I differentiate Online products vs “Offline” products on a website?

Question on Quora:

I’m helping re-design a website which has some products that can be purchased online and some which can only be purchased offline in physical stores.

Both the products you can buy and can’t buy need to be shown on the site, but how can I present both in a way that’s not confusing?
The ’offline’ products are informational only, and we’ll list the stockists or have a nearest store finder, but we cannot guarantee that store will have the item in stock (problem number 2)

We could have a tab with ‘Products’ and one with ‘Online shop’ but I’m not sure this is very clear. Alternatively we could put the products within the shop and just note that these cannot be brought online but this can cause frustration and is pretty misleading.

My Answer on Quora:

There would be a number of options you could consider, and I think the best answer will depend on the flow of your site.

Option 1, your idea for having two tabs is not a bad one. Calling one ‘In Store’ and the other ‘Buy Online’ (or whatever combination of words work for you) will clearly indicate to the user the buying experience. With this option, I’d make sure to add some clear text at the top of each page to further clarify how purchasing is to be done.

Option 2, if you really wanted them all to be in the same location, you could add some visual elements to clearly show which are available online or not. I did up a quick example here:  (more…)

A Punch in the Stomach – Reading ‘A Short Lesson in Perspective’

It’s been a long time since I read an article that was so chilling and disarming with it’s honesty and intimacy. The fact that it hit so close to home didn’t help.

While I definitely don’t share all the cynicism in the article, and I count myself fortunate to find some levels of higher meaning in the work I’m currently doing and have done in the past, there were more than enough truths in the article that felt like a punch in the stomach. If you are a creative or are close to one, you should read this article:

A Short Lesson in Perspective – Linds Redding – The San Francisco Egotist

p.s. – in case your curious, yes, after reading the article I went home and kissed my wife