BREAKING GROUND ON USER INTERFACES

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9 2003 @ 06:28 PM

During my research for a new project, I found Hellocode (via NoMaster). They have a few cool examples of non-conventional navigation schemes, though some of them may not convince usability advocates out there. I think a product's target audience is what ultimately determines whether we have green light for innovation or are to respect conservative standards.

I've been asked to design an innovative interface for a company's portfolio, and although they don't want anything too complex, a unique experience has to be delivered. Unfortunately, a 'unique experience' is a very subjective concept. Our idea of uniqueness is tied to what we have been exposed to. This is specially true with clients, since they don't do the kind of research we do nor are up to date with the work produced by our colleagues, not to mention that we are already contaminated with our own productions.

So, now I'm trying to introduce some new concepts slowly. I remember when I developed a drag'n'drop shopping cart a few years ago, and the poor thing got so much critique, that even I started to look bad at it. Now I look at this example over at Hellocode, and wonder where the hell is my source file! (my cart wasn't limited to only 3 items :)

Share your thoughts, or any resources related to innovatve interfaces and navigation schemes.

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JESTERXL

DECEMBER 9 2003 @ 07:42 PM

:: takes objectivity and throws it out the window ::

There are many overally concerned with subjectivity as there are with people concerned with objectivity. A blank slate vs. a requirements doc.

To me, a quick link train to 2advanced, billybussey.com, mustardpot.com, and deviantart.com.

Frankly, I find better ideas for innovation hanging around people who want to try to get to the moon on a tricycle, who want the application that does everything, artists, man, artists... the crazy creatives locked in rooms full of executives spouting of ideas to further their marketing initiatives.

:: looks at site you mentioned ::

Hmm, great start!

However, I think they need to break it one step further. To me, when I'm being creative, I try to break for the current paradigms, and come out of left field. Usually, I just communicate like I'm from left field, but the point is; like they did with scrolling text. Let's scroll some text... yeah, just you know.. down.. hey, my mouse indicated I motioned down... how could I capture that? Does it even need to scroll?

Approaching interfaces from an experience metaphor, what do you want your user to feel when they use it. What metaphor are you using; what is your theme?

After you get some crazy, cool, un-implementable idea, then you whittle down into how to actually accomplish it.

Your on the right path:
- Research (still doing)
- Organize (ok what is realistic, what isn't)
- Outline (cool, I'm gonna do an interface based color, and using it convey a feeling for each section; since the client is high-end, we'll use warm colors (toned down pastels)
- Draft (make 10 million prototypes, and find the one you like)
- Revise (can I see?)
- Deliver da mug

HTH!

OSCAR TRELLES

DECEMBER 9 2003 @ 08:32 PM

Jester, I love when you comment my posts... even when I don't completely agree with you, I always enjoy reading your reactions, you always take my posts to the next level :)

Well, in this case I couldn't agree more with you. When in need of inspiration, brainstorm with the most unexpected creatives. But, people like 2advanced are the ones contaminating the web with these techno/machine-like interfaces that everybody and nobody wants, because they're everywhere... They do a great job, but it's always the same stuff over and over again... I think I wrote about this before, but can't remember when (if you care about it, you can try an use my little search engine :)). And now that you mention billybussey.com... last time I was there, the wait wasn't worth that crappy video/animation, completely useless and slow like hell (i.e. not even eye candy)

I get the feeling that the guys at Hellocode are trying to bring some balance between innovative and usable. Ultimately, for us to sell a product, it has to be useful for the end-user, meaning the clients of our clients.

So, yes.... I was having all these crazy ideas, then the hard work was to take the really worthy ones, and try to figure out the production, considering that I'm doing it on my own, alone.

JESTERXL

DECEMBER 9 2003 @ 08:38 PM

Thanks, I try!

I don't have it anymore, but Vidal Sassoon, or one of them hair product peeps had this great Flash site. It was a bunch of sliding tabs. Now, being half developer, I immediately think of a tab replacement, or a phat looking mod to the Accordion...although, it was way more than a mod.

Or, this one site that was all black, and you navigated by sound. They were espousing usability for the blind for some product.

Or some of Phong.com's other work, that had organic like Pod stuff... vir2l.com had that stuff once in their forum... no idea where.

Some of the simplistic + 3D implementations are great, but if you don't know a 3D prog or have a creative animator you can dish some dough too, then usually I emulat via After Effects.

...again, though, it's not about technology, but the feelings it invokes. I hope the 2 (3?) above give you some ideas other than cyborg/techno.

SCOTT BARNES

DECEMBER 9 2003 @ 09:27 PM

I think man we are at a time when most are schooled up on the basics of UI interaction. I think majority users know about the right-click context menu, the top/side system and so forth.

If you look at how new operating systems prototypes are being upgraded, you are starting to see more UI concepts coming from the "Left field" - I say this to make one single point. Give the user some credit, they aren't as dumb as the UI "experts" say they are.

Take a look at "Project Looking Glass" from the SUN folks, its taken a simple over-done concept and applied some gr00vy 3D effects to it, subtle but simple to follow.

I think as long as there is a short learning curve and the average user can associate a UI with a pattern, the rest will take care of itself. Things like "ScrollBars" or "Buttons" in reality shouldn't be radically changed as we depend on these control inputs way more then anything else (human UI nature i guess).

I loved that mouse click menu effect, where you click on the screen and a context style approach appears. UI experts would rant about it being not intuitive enough and that the user won't know to click - I say this, if your presented with a screen of no clear navigation elements on it, what do you think the first thing a user does? - he/she would click somewhere / anywhere to see if the window has focus even or that something hasn't stalled (Hell a monkey would do that off the bat).

Simple concept, easily shot down, yet still effective? Point is, trail-blaze, leave it for a month or so and then come back and diagnose it - you'd be suprised at what you can in fact get away with.

Also note this, if a user has a set Objective, he/she will be the one complaining if you do not allow them to get from Point A to Point B in minimal time - If a user has no objective is in what we call here at my work "Mossy mode (explore friendly)" then they will imho be happy to explore the site.

OSCAR TRELLES

DECEMBER 10 2003 @ 12:36 AM

Scott, you are defining differences between users, and that was one of my original points. Usability experts usually underestimate the user, putting them all in the same bag. But we all are users as well, but at a different level, given our exposure to all this technology. I usually call us 'superusers', not only because our familiarity with different interfaces, but also because of our involvement in their development.

So, what we have out there is a mix of people with a diversity of backgrounds, exposure and positions. That's why it is so important to work our demographics in the early stages of any project.

Other thing to have in consideration is that by taking many different approaches to user interfaces, we are limiting the space for standardization. Again, as you say Scott, it will be up to the user's mood whether he/she finds an non-standard interaction fascinating, or rather frustrating.

DOMINICK

DECEMBER 10 2003 @ 11:32 AM

Navigation is key! I think that if a user can pinpoint the information, then you have succeeded to a degree. So then the developer has to come up with some twist to a familiar navigation. Siftdev did a wonderful job of showing how simple and creative a navigation menu could be. http://www.swiftdev.com ... The truth is that they made a component and replicated it. That component has a simple trailing animation that gives the end user the illusion that something amazing is happening. I felt I should just post about how simple and effective the familiar menu could be. If the end user can't find the navigation they are probably going to skip over it. Another example. this one being a bad example. LOL its my own experiment too. However I have to admit that I was pushed to a deadline so I can't really blame myself too much. I had just a few weeks. After entering the world, i have a menu button that sits up at the top right. Well anyway, i submitted this to a contest. I included tons of cool features, however I noticed that the judges never logged into my network. Therefore they weren't able to see the full potential of my entry. Needless to say, the choice to join the network should have been clear and obvious. :-(

MIKE SIGOUIN

DECEMBER 10 2003 @ 08:27 PM

You are absolutely correct about Swiftdev's navigation Oscar. I have tried many ways to enhance navigation either through Flash or dHTML but the more I tried the harder it was to navigate! To me, this is pointless. I am an experienced web-surfer and know what to do if navigation isn't obvious but what about those that use the internet about 4 hours a week! 99% of the time they will just leave and go elsewhere. Swiftdev receives alot of traffic so making it easy to navigate was very important. Making it visually pleasing is almost as important without losing it's real purpose.
Thanks for the kind comments!
Mike Sigouin
Swiftdev

DOMINICK

DECEMBER 11 2003 @ 08:48 AM

Your welcome Mike, lol!

OSCAR TRELLES

DECEMBER 11 2003 @ 09:25 AM

Yeah Mike, those comment were Dominick's, but I agree. Swiftdev's navigation is simple yet artistic enough to provide eye candy. I would assume, however, that given Swiftdev's mission, most of your users/visitors are not so new to enhanced navigational schemes. Yet again there's no need for complicating things unnecessarily.

DOMINICK

DECEMBER 12 2003 @ 09:09 AM

Oscar, has this been a problem in the past with users mixing up comments. I'm sure you have put thought into this. Have you come up with any responses to the problem. Anything to differentiate would be good. Maybe white space, border, diff color. Ah, i know this has all been thought about before. I'm just wondering what your thoughts were on this.

OSCAR TRELLES

DECEMBER 13 2003 @ 10:47 AM

Well, to tell you the truth, this is the first time I notice this confusion happening. On some other sites, the commenter's info appears at the top, above the comment itself.

And yes, now I'm trying to figure out a better way to display all this to avoid any confusions. However, I don't think I will be able to make those changes before year's end.

To add to the discussion, an optimal solution to this particular issue will require non-standard thinking, given that every blog out there uses the same concept (or something worse :))

Anyway, thanks for your feedback Dominick.

CHRISTOPHER WIGGINTON

DECEMBER 15 2003 @ 06:54 PM

Scared and Intimidated Users

The company I work for just finished building a Flash presentation for a cosmetics company's sales team. The interface wasn't anything avant-garde or terribly innovative. It was a series of menu items at the bottom of the screen. Select a category and subcategories popup. Select a subcategory and that portion of the presentation will load and play. Nothing terribly complex. Pretty straightforward we thought. Many websites you go to have a similar kind of menu system, although it is usually at the top. Anyway, during one of our meetings the project head tells us that the sales team is intimidated by the presentation. This took us off guard. I guess, because it wasn't what they were used to -- PowerPoint -- they didn't know what to do with it. They were used to just clicking a PP file and paging down through the whole thing. We ended up going back in and adding this functionality into the interface.

POZYCJONOWANIE

FEBRUARY 23 2007 @ 06:08 PM

great