Jared Spool iPod Apple Market Share

This week's popular search term is "Jared Spool iPod Apple Market Share". As I'm certain that Jared doesn't own a majority stake in Apple and didn't design the iPod, I think my visitors are looking for a fabulous UIE article, Innovation is the New Black, published on June 1, 2006.

At the time, SanDisk had the #2 digital music player and felt they were primed to compete with the iPod. In this UIE article, Jared points out an obvious flaw in their plan - Apple has the whole experience designed, so that even if the SanDisk player offers better performance, the iPod has supporting software, an online music store, and physical stores that customers enjoy visiting.

While you are visiting Jared's site, check out the full list of articles for your user experience educational enjoyment. Call it professional development and mark it down for your next annual review because it's okay to enjoy learning.

Mobile PICOLA

Project: Mobile PICOLA

Company: Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Philosophy

Year: 2005

Challenge

Working with the CMU Digital Media Lab for Applied Ethics and Political Philosophy, I led a team challenged to find a mobile solution for a deliberative poll discussion forum that could be used by anyone of legal voting age.

Research and Design Methods

Literature review

Retrospective interviewing

Contextual inquiry

Heuristic analysis

CogTool

Wireframing

Iterative design

Think-aloud usability testing

Solution

Applying HCI and design methods to this project, the team developed a unique, tabbed solution to the small PocketPC-based product. Users may expose the speaking queue and text chat windows on demand, or leave them hidden to identify the current speaker and communicate opinion with emoticons.

Results 

• Resolution of more than 70% of major usability problems identified
• Resolution of 80% of minor and cosmetic problems  
• Concept allows participation in deliberative discussion remotely

The poster I co-authored with Zachary Sam Zaiss, Striving for Ubiquitous Citizenship with Mobile PICOLA, is available for download from Sam's project website. We received the Best Poster award at MobileHCI '06.

Mobile PICOLA Mockup

Mobile PICOLA Iteration

Mobile PICOLA Cultural Model

Paint Shop Pro X2 HDR Photo Merge

Project: Paint Shop Pro X2 HDR Photo Merge
Company: Corel, Inc.
Year: 2006-07

Challenge
I was given the challenge of designing a high dynamic range (HDR) feature to stay competitive in the photography editing market. Most HDR applications are highly complex and technical but for Paint Shop Pro, I wanted to bring HDR to the masses.

Research and Design Methods
Competitive analysis
Sketching and wireframing
Heuristic evaluation
Iterative design
Think-aloud usability testing

Solution 
The HDR Photo Merge feature for Paint Shop Pro went through several iterations beginning with a tabbed design providing technical photo information and tone mapping similar to competitive applications. The more I researched HDR and what great results could look like, the more I wanted this to be as simple as possible so that anyone with a bracketing camera feature could use it. More and more point-and-shoot cameras offer bracketing or manual exposure adjustments so it was important not to limit the audience to the advanced digital SLR user.

The result is a simple dialog that allows the user to select bracketed photos (it can even auto-select images shot within a short time range), auto-align photos if they were not taken with a tripod, and merge them quickly. Brightness and clarify (local contrast adjustment) were added to allow users to reach the level of detail and quality often seem from applications with complex tone mapping adjustments. If you are curious to see what HDR can do for your photos, have a look at Flickr's HDR group.

Results 

• Positive feedback from industry reviewers
• Successful partnership with User Experience and Software Engineering teams
• HDR Photo Merge can be used by almost any amateur photo editor
• No need to understand technical jargon or complex workflows to make HDR images

HDR Screenshot


Sample Wireframe

Soap in Fisher & Paykel Washing Machine

I get a lot of visitors at this site who are definitely not looking for a user experience blog but I still would like to help them find what they are looking for. Each week, I will try to respond to a popular search term so my visitors will get the answers they need.

This week question:

"Where do you put the soap powder in a fisher & paykel washing machine?"

Answer:

Aquasmart

Use the dispenser on the front, left hand side of the top deck.

Ecosmart

Pour detergent down the center of the agitator, replacing the fabric softener cup (agitator cap) before starting a cycle.

This answer was taken from Fisher & Paykel user guides, available for download as a PDF from the company's website.

Recruiting people for a phone or AIM interview

It's research project time!

The first step to solving a problem is to find out what that problem is. To get there, @matto and I are looking to find out how people orient themselves to a new community after a move? If you have moved to a new city in the last six months and don't mind chatting by phone or AIM for 30 minutes, let me know. While we can't pay you for participating, know that we will use what we learn for only good, not evil.

Feel free to spread the word. Ten people should be enough to start.

Researching User Experiences

It is time for a research side project but selecting one of so many possible experiences is proving difficult. I'll be working with Matt Oliphant to identify problems with a selected workflow and provide recommendations for improvement. Matt and I decided to focus on something we don't like and brainstormed a few ideas:

• Using touchscreen devices in the winter (or if they are public, like ATMs)
• Booking air travel
• Reading a lot of news websites
• Using weather.com, both old and new to predict the weather for the next few days
• Reading most baby development websites because design is often poorly done
• Anything sharepoint, infopath, or oracle
• Shopping for a new car at various websites, some work and some don't
• That sometimes I get lost when organizing and browsing photos with Picasa
• That cashiers never notice my picture on my credit card until after they ask for ID
• Traveling
• Finding information from government agencies
• Going to the doctor
• Going to the dentist
• Brainstorming

We will have to narrow down this list to one actionable project and then will recruit participants for interviews and usability testing. Want to participate? Have a project idea? Leave a comment or send me an email.

Grocery Website Store Locator

Project: Grocery Website Store Locator
Company: SUPERVALU, Inc.
Year: 2008-09

Challenge
The client wanted to learn what visitors really expect from a large eCommerce site store locator:

• What link words do they look for?
• What are their frustrations with the current design?
• What does the website do well?
• How can finding a store be made more efficient and pleasant to use?
• In which ways can the design be made consistent across several brands?
  

Research and Design Methods
CogTool
A/B testing
Think-aloud usability testing
Competitive analysis
Contextual inquiry
Wireframing
Cognitive walkthrough

Solution
After studying why potential and current customers look for a physical store online, and how they navigate through the website to find a store, it was clear that there were too many pop-ups and ambiguous links. Information most important to the user was buried and information less important was too prominent. The new design offers a clean and simple layout with the zip code field near the top, active on load for quick keyboard-only searching. Functionality was consolidated to allow users who enter a full starting address the opportunity to get driving directions with fewer clicks. Critical information such as store phone number and hours were brought to the results page so users don't have to dig deep for what they want to know.

Results

• Finding a store is faster and more pleasant to use
• Positive feedback during final round of testing
• Successful fast-paced iterative design
• Stronger stakeholder buy-in with modified cognitive walkthrough technique
• Store locator better integrated with overall website design

Store Locator Screenshot