Balsamiq for Wireframing

I'm always looking for new ways to sketch and wireframe my GUI ideas, searching for something quicker than hand drawing and less refined than Visio and Illustrator. My rule for the perfect tool is that it has to be super fast to learn and quick to produce results.

Googling wireframing tools, I came across Balsamiq's website. What captured my attention was the fun appearance of the GUI and the statement that "life's too short for bad software". That's a pretty bold statement to make so I had to try this tool out immediately. Super psyched that I could run it on both my work PC and my home Mac, I installed it and had it running within minutes.

I fell in love with this software immediately.

Why Balsamic Mockups is fantastic:

1. It doesn't require much learning time. Drag-and-drop interactions are intuitive and consistent.
   
2. Work feels fun. I felt like I was sketching ideas and playing, rather than feeling like tasks are tedious and repetitive. The grunt work is done for me.
   
3. The primary GUI widgets are included. Containers for both web and software applications are included.
   
4. The elements are sketchy. In this I mean my wireframes really do look malleable and editable. It is clear that at this stage, a project can be critiqued and changed easily. This is sometimes hard to communicate with more refined wireframes and mockups. The focus is on the layout, not the visual design.
   
5. Having all the widgets in front of me helped drive me to some creative solutions my first try. Interaction methods I hadn't considered were sitting right in front of my eyes inspiring innovative solutions.

I believe my biggest reason for supporting Balsamiq's software is that it feels like a tool designed for users. As a usability analyst, I am a firm believer that software must be designed based on research and this tool feels like a company invested in user research. I see this in the little details - the notebook background that gives a sense of drawing in a sketch pad and the awareness of the common GUI elements that designers are looking for.

Of course, there's always the one big block to many designers looking for a new application - cost. This one's really reasonable, just $79. There's no excuse not to try it as the demo is free. I honestly believe you'll be hooked if you just try it once.

WUD Event: Usability of Social Networking

For World Usability Day (WUD), I spent some time at the University of Minnesota listening to speakers talk about social networking and touring the fantastic usability lab. Not surprisingly, the turnout was primarily students and faculty, most of whom arrived either just in the nick of time or incredibly late. It was a reminder of my time in school, rushing from one class to another, barely making it across campus. I imagine at the U, it's far worse than I had it. The campus is incredibly huge.

Usability Lab manager, Alice de la Cova, introduced the day's events promptly at 9:45. She pointed out that World Usability Day began as an initiative by the Usability Professionals Association in 2005 as a way to raise awareness for usability in software and websites. The goals are to make life simpler with good navigation and signage, a simple GUI, understandable language, and eliminating dead-ends. Alice encouraged the audience to think about how many "you can't get there from here" moments they'd had recently on the road, at the airport, on the web, in software, and using mobile devices.

Kristofer Layon and Kurtis Scaletta presented their talk, the Usability of Social Networks, for the remainder of the morning, citing the reference to this year's WUD theme as social networks are "the ultimate green form of transportation".

Some of the key points of their talk include:

Defining social networking

• posting profiles
• lists of friends
• blogs
• links, photos, songs, video sharing
• networks, groups, communities
• games, quizzes
• sharing stuff and leaving comments

Usability emphasis

• user-centered means developing empathy for people
• look at every decision from user-perspective
• usability is simple and agile - adjust as you go
• children make great usability testers

Twitter design

• twitter is lightweight - only does one thing, "what are you doing"
• no advertising or applications to manage
• multimodal (web, Adobe AIR, email, SMS)
• government reviews tweets from the middle east but most are fairly innocuous
• MinneWebCon has facebook page that led to 50+ people registering, 20% of attendance

Facebook and MySpace

• customizable vs consistent appearance
• typical myspace page is incoherent mess
• power over profile destroys usability
• facebook created tab system to dump 3rd party apps in one place

Follow Kris and Kurtis on Twitter
@skutir
@klayon

Related posts:
World Usability Day 2008
User Experience Events in November 2008

World Usability Day 2008

World Usability Day is just a few days away - Thursday, November 13. There are several events for Minneapolis-St.Paul residents this year. My recommendations:

9:00-10:00am Designing Navigation with Task Management
This webinar features speakers from Customer Carewords talking about ways to help customers accomplish tasks to increase productivity, conversions, and engagement. Pre-registration is available.

10:00-11:30am The Usability of Social Networks
This twitter-friendly talk is presented by Kristofer Layon and Kurtis Scaletta at the University of Minnesota's Walter Library (402).

12:00-2:00pm Usability Lab Tours
Take a tour of the University of Minnesota usability lab space. Tours begin at Walter Library (B26).

1:00-2:00pm Design Trends and Usability
Navigation Arts' Director of User Experience, Toral Contractor, present web usability topics in this free webinar.

3:30-5:00pm Panel Discussion on Writing for the Web
University of Minnesota usability staff, including Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch, Josh Carroll, David Rosen, and John Wooden host a Q&A on web content writing.

6:00-9:30pm Design and Go: Enriching Transportation with Human-Centered Design
Speakers such as "Road Guy" Jim Foti and Dennis Probst from the Metropolitan Airport Commission and delicious food from Christo's make this a must-attend event. This event will be held at the St. Paul Union Depot, 214 4th St. E. This event costs $20 for UPA members and $30 for non-members. Contact organizer Suzanne Currie with questions or comments about the event.

User Experience Events in November 2008

Check out some user experience and usability events during November:

Design and Go: Enriching Transportation with Human-Centered Design
A World Usability Day Event
November 13 from 6-9pm CST
St. Paul, MN

E-Learn 2008
World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education
November 17-21
Las Vegas, NV

How to Be a UX Team of One: Tips and Tricks for Successful User Experience Design With or Without a Team
Virtual Seminar
November 12 at noon CST

User Experience Lesson of the Day

For the past 4+ years, we have kept cardboard under our futon mattress. It's an old, inexpensive piece from a discount giant that came with a super thin mattress. By recycling the box that the futon came in, placing the cardboard under the mattress, the pressure from the metal supports was diffused.

About six months ago, my sister-in-law gave us a new futon mattress. Much nicer, thicker, even with springs, this mattress is incredibly comfortable. From force of habit, we left the cardboard down on the metal frame and went about using the new mattress.

old futon frame with new mattress

While comfortable, the new mattress seemed to have a major flaw - it would not stay put. Several times a day, especially when in use, the mattress would slip off the frame. We blamed it on the mattress thickness and continued months of this behavior.

This afternoon, when washing the slip cover for the mattress, I decided to remove the cardboard. Then I sat down and realized two things:

1. The new mattress is thick enough that I can't feel the metal support rods.
2. This mattress doesn't slip off when the cardboard is removed.

The lesson from this is that solutions are never one-size-fits-all. You have to look at each case individually and remember that some solutions must be adjusted over time and some problems aren't problems at all after an upgrade.