Solutions for a better Interaction!

Came across an interesting video that examines the benefits and limitations in the current mouse-based windows-oriented interfaces.  Here is a solution proposed by 10GUI - some of the concepts here are amazing, however some of them I really have my doubts.

Enjoy the video!

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

Did you personalize your application?

Personalization involves using technology to accommodate the differences between individuals. Applications are personalized based on the characteristics (interests, social category, context, etc) of an individual. (Wiki)

The concept of personalization when introduced took a while, but made a major impact in every industry. Today you find Websites, applications, devices, gadgets personalized. But the question still remains how easy are they to personalize. Today we see personalized dashboards (most common) or ways to configure your application, gadgets and websites to a certain extent which gives a feeling to the end user that yes its 'Personalized' for me.

But how easy it is to personalize? Applications today are personalized but to the extent where the Dashboard shows data that is relevant to you, allows to change shortcuts that is accepted by you, but what about personalizing the application to show data how and what you prefer easily?

Consider a scenario: Bruce (CEO) and Amanda (Sr. Manager) work for a retail company that deals in tools in Wisconsin Madison. Bruce started the company way back in 1985 with retail chains in 6 different states in the US. Later in 1996 he realized the power of the internet and started selling tools on ebay. Later in 2000, Bruce decided to go completely online with only one retail store in Madison. Amanda an MBA works closely with Bruce on maintaining the inventory to ensure they never run out of stock. Both of them have the same task - inventory forecasting and to do this they need multiple reports. So you build an application that gives them multiple reports in various formats - grids, graphs, pie charts and trend lines.

It looks simple when you build the application keeping Bruce and Amanda in mind since both of them want the same data. But what we miss at times is Bruce wants to look at data in a grid. Since his early years Bruce has been looking at inventory on print outs and excel. He is not comfortable with graphs and on the other hand, Amanda analyzes data based on graphs, she looks at bar graphs and trend lines extensively and for further details she takes a look at the data in the grid. So the application meets the requirements of both but both have to make an effort to get their data in respective formats on their screens.

This is where you would want to personalize. Allowing Bruce and Amanda to set their default views the very first time they access a report would be ideal. The moment they save their settings for a report they always open in the same view, with other options at low priority but still accessible.

It’s irritating rather confusing to show a list of massive settings and ask the user to personalize them even without showing them what the impact is.

Is Feature Prioritization a priority?

Any product/project development has a set of features that has to be developed at the end of the day. It is important to have the list/set of features however it isn’t a priority to prioritize them. This is a mistake that a lot of Business Analyst and Product Managers run into… for simple reason because its risk free. At the end one can blame it to the customer since the customer was the one who wanted the features.

One needs to understand what features need to be added to a product to meet customer needs by not prioritizing the features but to have a much broader view. One needs to know the underlying customer needs to the business model to the product road map to the go-to-market strategy. The ultimate goal for a product manager or business analyst should be Return on Investment.

Unfortunately, it is all too easy for product managers and business analyst today to fall into feature-focused development mode, especially for web applications and those developed using Agile methods.

A simple exercise can prevent help one break a trap. Ask yourself the age old and basic questions repeated time and again

1. What is the purpose?
2. What problem does it solve?
3. Who is my target Customer/Persona?
4. What are the alternatives to solve this problem?
5. How important it is to solve this problem?
6. Does this support the product strategy and roadmap?

It is easy and tempting to prioritize features and get the work done with a few extensions to your deadline; however it is important to identify the right feature to have a better Return on Investment.

Usability Tips - Your Home page

Home page is an organisation's face as many would have quoted and should have the most important information or let me stress once again MOST IMPORTANT information and not all the information. The home page needs to strike a blance between showing the range of information and simplifying the content to ensure that the majority of customers can easily embark on the most common tasks.

We all have guidelines and standards, however some of the things that you could keep in mind while making a wacky and impressive home page:

• Clearly focused user's tasks
• Too much content in your site - provide a search
• Provide CLEAR and visible navigation
• Make sure the Navigation is ordered logically or in a task oriented manner
• Navigation should match your design of the home page. Too much of jazz in your navigation is mistaken for advertisements.
• Useful and most important information should be available form the home page in a click
• Make sure your link in the home page have the most important keywords in the begining

So go ahead, get CREATIVE with your home page designs and keep these few pointers while you design your website.  

"If you find a home page interesting post it here in the comments section!"

Is User Experience crucial part of SEO?

There has been a lot of discussion going on whether UX or User eXperience is a crucial part of SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

If we consider the definition behind these two terms (Wiki):

User eXperience design, most often abbreviated UX, but sometimes UE, is a term used to describe the overarching experience a person has as a result of their interactions with a particular product or service, it's delivery, and related artifacts, according to their design.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.

So after the definitions why would one consider User Experience even part of SEO? Lets consider a simple example here about 404 Pages!

404 Pages have been the nemesis of internet users and are probably one of the most overlooked aspects of a website. Personally, it is annoying arriving at a website and being served a page stating, "Page not Found". So the User eXperience is awful and for any SEO a 404 page is a nightmare, since a typical 404 error page has a high likelihood of driving your visitors away. Well the good news is that there is a solution that will improve the user experience and will ensure that your visitors stay on your site. A custom 404 page can do that trick.

Alternatives - Visitors are obviously looking for something on your website before they stumbled upon an error. Give alternatives on the custom 404 page.

I am sure you can figure out alternatives for your website.

There is absolutely no reason to label your page "404 Error". The only thing the users know about a 404 error is nothing nor do they care. Its a technical jargon, and don't use it to scare away your visitors.

Google is intelligent and so are other web crawlers - A missing page (404 error) is obviously going to get your page rankings down.

Some Interesting and creative collection of Error 404 Pages!

Tagging Nicky - Thanks for suggesting the topic!