by Scott on June 18, 2007
I love this photo – “Understanding how to use a remote is made easier by a friend” – as an example of the power of reduction to make something easier to understand and give people a better experience. Take away all the stuff people don’t need and suddenly instead of fumbling around feeling stupid, they easily start doing what they want.
Also, the instructions are written directly on the remotes. The friend didn’t write seperate notes on a piece of paper saying “press the up and down arrows on the slim remote to change volume”. Instead, the friend wrote directly on the remote: “Volume”. Similarly, seperate “help” files and manuals for software need to die. There are better alternatives such as inline prompts and making a design so obvious and activity-centered that people do not need help files.
Posted in Simplicity, Web Application Design | 6 trackbacks
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by Scott on June 17, 2007
Making of a Web App follows the design, development and deployment of a web application. This is the seventh article in the series. In this entry we pick a name for Synap Software’s new sales team collaboration application. Here’s the steps we followed:
- Wrote down the categories, benefits, and differences that describe the app.
- Used thesaurus.com to find words relating to these categories, benefits, and differences.
- Found word combinations that made sense, sounded right, and met all our name search criteria.
- Picked a few favorites and experimented (i.e. played around) with them.
- Picked a name, slept on it. Woke up and still liked it.
- Now we are sharing it for feedback.
Final Two Candidates
It came down to zPlaybook or PlaybookIQ. This blog entry shows how we arrived at those names. I’ll write more details on the in-progress logo development, but for now here is a sneak-peek.
Thanks to Michael McDerment
How to Name Your Company was the basis for our thorough product name selection method. We used different selection criteria, but similar methodology to that presented by Michael.
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Posted in Making of a web app, Web Application Design, Make a Web App | 19 trackbacks
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by Scott on June 16, 2007
Designing Interactions
is Bill Moggridge’s collection of interviews with the people behind great product designs.
One of those interviewed is Cordell Ratzlaff, senior designer at Apple for five years. Prior to OS X, Apple was an engineering driven company. Steve Jobs turned it around into a design driven company. That change; designing for the user experience, not for engineering expediency, is directly reflected in Jobs-era products such as OS X and iPod.
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by Scott on June 14, 2007
In this, the sixth entry in the Making of a Web App series, we take a look at choosing a name. There are two steps: pick criteria and then pick a name that meets those criteria. In this entry we look at the first step: what makes a good web application name. Key points:
- Descriptive names are a wasted opportunity to be different and memorable.
- Emotive names rock.
- The first choice of name probably will not work, because:
- you need the .com.
- A chance to verbally repeat the name to someone is ok.
Everyone will have their own criteria for what makes a good web app name, depending on industry, target audience, and personal preferences. Here are the criteria I used for Synap Software’s sales process app.
A good web application product name is:
- short
- available as a .com
- associative
- emotive
- unique
- not functionally descriptive
- memorable
- ok to repeat
- one that you like and like to say
Let’s look at each of these criteria in more detail.
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Posted in Synap Software: Design Decisions, Making of a web app, Web Application Design, Make a Web App | 9 trackbacks
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by Scott on June 13, 2007
Here is my kids’ school’s mission statement.
Acres Green Elementary provides a positive safe environment where best teaching practices are used to educate the whole child while honoring individuality and creativity.
Here’s another area school’s mission statement.
Copper Mesa Elementary is dedicated to excellence in education and is committed to being an exemplary community of learners. Every child is worthy of a positive, successful learning experience. Our dedication is to create a child-centered environment that encourages risk taking, embraces diversity, and validates the whole child. To promote educational excellence, we will share in the responsibility to foster curiosity and a love of learning. We will model, encourage, and inspire all learners to explore the possibilities of the world around them. Guiding students to reach their personal best, we will provide positive, supportive, challenging, differentiated opportunities for students to demonstrate understanding. We are committed to recognize, value, appreciate, and take pride by celebrating the achievements of all. As a community of learners, leaders, and partners, we are united in our goal to enrich the lives of each child, as he or she becomes a life long learner seeking to reach their fullest potential.
huh?
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Posted in Small Business Marketing | 24 trackbacks
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