Matt brought a small team in to analyze the usability of WordPress. Their goals were to improve findability, consistency, and "unconscious design." They developed user personas and learned that users don't care about designer intentions, most ignore parts of pages, and prefer clear verbs for navigation over nouns. Their redesign tests showed people like to be understood and prefer whole truths to surprises. Their recommendations were to anticipate user needs, show don't tell, and avoid dead ends.
We all have ideas about the design and usability of WordPress, but what happens when actual testing gets applied to the problem. A presentation from WordCamp 2007 shows Happy Cog's work on the information architecture and usability for WordPress.
Here are some of the stuff I learnt while making it, and if you are working on responsive design, you should probably keep this as reference. Note: You are free to download, edit, distribute and use this work in any way you want.
"Responsive Web Design: Clever Tips and Techniques". Vitaly Friedman, Smashin...Yandex
Responsive web design challenges web designers to apply a new mindset to their design processes, as well as to techniques they are using in design and coding. This talk provides an overview of various practical techniques, tips and tricks that you might want to be aware of when working on a new responsive design project.
Responsive Web Design: Clever Tips and TechniquesVitaly Friedman
Responsive Web design challenges Web designers to adapt a new mindset to their design and coding processes. This talk provides an overview of various practical techniques, tips and tricks that you might want to be aware of when working on a new responsive design project.
We all have ideas about the design and usability of WordPress, but what happens when actual testing gets applied to the problem. A presentation from WordCamp 2007 shows Happy Cog's work on the information architecture and usability for WordPress.
Here are some of the stuff I learnt while making it, and if you are working on responsive design, you should probably keep this as reference. Note: You are free to download, edit, distribute and use this work in any way you want.
"Responsive Web Design: Clever Tips and Techniques". Vitaly Friedman, Smashin...Yandex
Responsive web design challenges web designers to apply a new mindset to their design processes, as well as to techniques they are using in design and coding. This talk provides an overview of various practical techniques, tips and tricks that you might want to be aware of when working on a new responsive design project.
Responsive Web Design: Clever Tips and TechniquesVitaly Friedman
Responsive Web design challenges Web designers to adapt a new mindset to their design and coding processes. This talk provides an overview of various practical techniques, tips and tricks that you might want to be aware of when working on a new responsive design project.
Improving Your Website's Usability for Happier Visitors & Stickier User Exper...Adam Dunford
When designing a site or developing an application, the questions you ask--and the answers you give--about your users will make all the difference in your project's success.
Usability is "user ability" and this presentation explains its importance while giving essential interface design principles for better user experiences on the web.
First presented at WordCamp Utah 2010 (http://2010.utah.wordcamp.org/)
Running Great Design Reviews With Clients & PartnersCraig Peters
No matter how great your designs are, the way you communicate with your clients/business partners can make or break your engagement, especially as design challenges and organizations become more complex.
But what actually makes some meetings go well, and others not? We’ve heard “Be storytellers,” “Provide the right context,” and “Set expectations,” but what does that look like in practice?
I’ll provide real-life examples of how we’ve done this in our presentations for client engagements. We’ll include examples of our fundamental concepts we live by. No surprises. Over-communicate. Tell them how to be and what to do in the meeting. Design every slide of a presentation, not just the “designs.” Tell a story. Assume your clients have no idea what your meeting is all about (put yourself in their shoes).
It always goes better when you’re well prepared; we’ll help you get there.
Improving Your Website's Usability for Happier Visitors & Stickier User Exper...Adam Dunford
When designing a site or developing an application, the questions you ask--and the answers you give--about your users will make all the difference in your project's success.
Usability is "user ability" and this presentation explains its importance while giving essential interface design principles for better user experiences on the web.
First presented at WordCamp Utah 2010 (http://2010.utah.wordcamp.org/)
Running Great Design Reviews With Clients & PartnersCraig Peters
No matter how great your designs are, the way you communicate with your clients/business partners can make or break your engagement, especially as design challenges and organizations become more complex.
But what actually makes some meetings go well, and others not? We’ve heard “Be storytellers,” “Provide the right context,” and “Set expectations,” but what does that look like in practice?
I’ll provide real-life examples of how we’ve done this in our presentations for client engagements. We’ll include examples of our fundamental concepts we live by. No surprises. Over-communicate. Tell them how to be and what to do in the meeting. Design every slide of a presentation, not just the “designs.” Tell a story. Assume your clients have no idea what your meeting is all about (put yourself in their shoes).
It always goes better when you’re well prepared; we’ll help you get there.
This is the Google Tech Talk that I gave August 17th, 2007 on building a JavaScript library. I derived much of the talk from my experiences in building the jQuery and FUEL JavaScript libraries.
Paris Web - Javascript as a programming languageMarco Cedaro
How to setup up a stable javascript continuous integration environment and why you need it. Through a real life example, the talk explains all the benefits of having a development process that brings real control over javascript codebase. A deep analysis of developer and webapps needs and of the tools that fit those requirements.
Style Guides Are The New Photoshop (Fronteers 2012)Stephen Hay
A slightly modified version of the talk I first presented at Smashing Conference, now presented at Fronteers 2012. (http://fronteers.nl/congres/2012)
Use of image editors for creating web design mockups has worked until now, but responsive design is forcing us to find alternatives, as we can't simply create more mockups as we design for more screens. Have no fear, there is at least one method of replacing Photoshop for web design. Let's take a look at one of the most important aspects of this method: the creation of clear, semi-automated, self-updating style guides.
Scaling Confluence: From Performance to PeopleAtlassian
A good wiki grows — more people and content, uses and demands. What begins as a simple experiment in collaboration, explodes into a new Intranet or a mission critical web application. This session focuses on how to architect Confluence for scale and configure it for growing user needs.
Atlassian Speaker: Charles Miller
Customer Speaker: Tim Colson of Cisco
Key Takeaways:
* Best practices in tuning and performance
* Administrative tips-and-tricks for improved performance and management
* Lessons from customers
6. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Matt brought a small team in to analyze WordPress.
7. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
“That’s when I know
WordPress is doing its job:
when people aren’t even aware
they’re using it because
they’re so busy using it!
—Mark Jaquith, 21 February 2007
http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/engine-awareness/
8. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Our goals were simple:
9. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Findability,
10. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
consistency,
11. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
and something called
“unconscious design” or
“transparent design.”
12. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
To start, we could have looked at other models.
13. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Solo Blogger Power User Pro Admin
Consultant Teacher
But instead, developed personas based on research.
18. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Most visited screens by numbers
index.php
index.php?page=stats
post.php
post-new.php
edit.php
themes.php
widgets.php
page.php
edit-comments.php
options-general.php
19. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Most people we talked to ignore most of the page.
21. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
So we considered a redesign like this.
22. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Global Navigation
Dashboard
Right Now Recent Comments See All | Edit Blog All | Edit | RSS
You have [19] unpublished posts, [27]
scheduled posts, and [31] comments in
[9] categories.
Write a New Post
You use the [Hemmingway] theme.
Change your Theme
You're using WordPress [x.x].
Update to WordPress [2.2]
Stats See All | Edit Incoming Links See All | Edit Plugins See All | Edit | RSS
But research showed that more was needed.
23. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
People don’t like surprises.
24. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
“You have to show people
something they've
never seen before.
And if they've seen it,
you have to show them
in a new way.”
—Lorelle VanFossen, yesterday
34. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Users didn’t get it.
35. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
“Refer or relate an old post
to a new one” “Post excerpt”
“Moderate comments
(approve/disapprove”
“Add image to post” “Write a new blog post”
“Post author”
“Post a video”
“Respond to comments”
“Post a photo from
my flickr account”
“Change my
password”
10
9
8
Activity
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Manage Create Posts Comments My Profile Plugins
Blog administrator Advanced users, 2+ years Novice to mid-range, 1 year or less
36. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Clearer verbs as navigation worked.
37. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
People got it.
38. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Drafts are not drafts
most of the time.
39. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Working on it
Working on it In progress
Working on it
Starting idea Saving for reference
Saving for reference
In progress
Removed from blog
Removed from blog
49. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
People tend to have one
thing to say at a time.
50. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
After publishing a post, users see a new Post screen.
51. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
But they have nothing more to write.
52. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
They need suggestions. Nexts. And reassurance.
53. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Be voyeurs.
Don’t surprise people.
Anticipate what people need.
Don’t be brief at the cost of clarity.
Show, don’t tell.
Never stop at a dead end.
54. How *Not* To Get Noticed WordCamp 2007
Get Unnoticed.
www.happycog.com
www.bobulate.com