Qworky - Creators of All In, The Meeting Agenda Web Application » user experience

Restarting My PC Stresses Me Out

Mikal Lewis — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:04:53 +0000

I know I’m in the not so minority group of people who struggle with organization. I simply don’t spend as much time, as I know I should- indexing and organizing information I consume and create. It’s just the organization requires so many decisions- and while I feel I’m relatively decisive, trying to figure out what to keep and what to throw away can be down right paralizing.

Today I wanted to restart my PC (running Win7 which I looove). No particular reason just to keep my PC healthy- well, I’m one of those people that has 30 browser windows or tabs open at one time- which makes my shutdown experience one big stressful window of decisions. What to keep, what to save, where to bookmark, a nomenclature that makes sense. In the past delicious has helped some- but overall I still struggle with these types of decisions. This time around- I took note of my emotions. I felt extremely pressured, and a bit stressed at the weight of this entire experienced- this got me to wondering am I alone?

And what do you think the cause is of this and other stressful software experiences? I’m beginning to think software causes me stress by an army of small decisions- many of which seem unnatural.

What do you think?

No More Selfish User Interfaces in 2010

Mikal Lewis — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:29:35 +0000

As a team that firmly believes that great software means great user experiences. We pay close attention to the subletleties of user experiences of software and the web so our customers don’t have to.

With that in mind here is one design trend that I hope doesn’t continue into 2010: The Feedback Tab. Over the course of 2009 the more web enthusiasts among us have probably seen it on more than a few sites (example here).

The feedback tab is what I call a Selfish User Interface. It prioritizes what the business ’wants’ over we the users want- as opposed to allowing the two to work harmoniously together. What do I mean by this?

Well look at how large the tab is, on most screens its the most dominant element on the page- the tab also follows the user, in a stalker like fashion, up and down the page. There is positive intent behind this tab, as businesses that implement it obviously want to hear from their customers. The reality is we (as website users) have more important things going on than to give businesses feedback. Interfaces should encourage feedback and make giving feedback painless- but demanding it? Thats going to far.

Perhaps a simple link along with the other top level navigation elements would do the trick. However, businesses shouldn’t kid themselves into believing the user’s top priority is to give their business feedback.

No more selfish UI in 2010.

HP First Run Experience

Mikal Lewis — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:39:18 +0000

Just got my new HP up and running. And I have to say their first run experience is beautifully elegant, and inviting. All until I actually landed on my Win7 home screen and saw how many applications were on this machine with no easy way to remove.

When uninstalling the HP Games application – I had to check the box no fewer than 20 times to uninstall all the pre-installed games. Not only that its impossible to discern true software enhancements (drivers, etc.) from redundant functionally (HP MediaSmart Music anyone?). Sadly I chalk this poor experience up to prioritizing business goals, over user experience- when they need not be in conflict.