Jerome

@FiveSketches
169 Followers
247 Following
298 Posts
Usability research, information architecture, and customer-experience design, often on large products and with teams of software developers.
websitehttps://fivesketches.com

If anybody in Europe wonders whether GDPR and other regulations work, …

The same vendors that provide services in North America omit "unsubscribe" links from sales emails that in Europe manage to include them.

Sending sales spam to existing customers without an opt-out choice must be intentional.

#UX #UserExperience #GDPR #DataUse #privacy #consent #regulation #marketing #Slack

I should also ask, for those of you who use them, what’s the most popular or best-functioning screen reader?

#Accessibility

A thing that struck me on re-reading this piece about the old Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet software is that 1-2-3 came bundled with a simple database, which is something I've thought spreadsheets should grow towards for a very long time.

Many many many people use Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets as a simple database. They're not great for that, but people do it anyway, because the interface is easy to understand and it's a tool they have at hand.

Imagine if there was a spreadsheet that could notice you were doing database-like stuff, and gently transition you into a real relational database

https://stonetools.ghost.io/lotus123-dos/

Lotus 1-2-3 on the PC w/DOS

VisiCalc started it, but 1-2-3 finished it. "It" being the discussion of what a spreadsheet can be, and also VisiCalc itself.

Stone Tools

Perhaps it'll take a change in government regulation to decree there can be no such thing as a "necessary" cookie.

#privacy #GDPR #EuGDPR #cookie #data

That thing where you wait 75 days for a popular e-book from your local library, but—because the app over-notifies and you've switched notifications off—you miss the short window when the book comes available.

#Libby #app #ebook #audiobook #library #online #UX #usability

When creating PDFs, avoid using "Print to PDF." A screen reader user may still be able to access the text of PDFs created this way, but heading structure, alternative text, and any other tag structure will be lost. Using "Save As" or "Export" can preserve these tags.

#Wrike seems to have more #ProjectManagement features than Trello, but it overwhelms a novice—too many views, options, and settings in many places. Wrike insists I need a "Personal" project (I really don't). The #MentalModel of its Projects and Folders is unclear. Wrike's online chatbot hallucinated wrong pricing for me—a potential customer. 😥

#Trello is familiar, with simple, elegant, and useful interaction. Its templates quickly spin up a #Kanban #board for a new #software or #IT #project. 🩵

Just discussing the usability issues that prevent widespread (mass) adoption of open-source social-media tools.

"You're right. Freeware built by open-source Devs tends to suffer from the same problem: Devs don't design for elegance, simplicity, or discoverability. They kludge together a massive number of features they think are cool. That's the way the engineering brain usually works."

#UX #UE #UserExperience #usability #IU #design #OpenSource #freeware #software #engineer #Mastodon #fediverse

Companies save lots of money by eliminating customer service. What they lose is contact with customers. But customers are experts in buying and using their products and they have a lot of very valuable intelligence about what works and what doesn't work on the product. Customer service once was a conduit for such wisdom but it's gone now. For a while interaction design research reopened that channel of communication, but IxD/UI/UX all appears to be dead. Products get lousier and business executives don't know it. But it's only a weakness if there's competition in the marketplace, so things just get worse.

Trust online refers to customer belief that needs will be met, and to the security and satisfaction they feel.

☑️ Does your website offer an easy, simple, and forgiving interface? Can customers easily recover from errors? Is your site helpful?

☑️ Is information clear and digestible, without barriers of unpleasant surprises?

☑️ Can AI interpret and represent your content correctly?

✅ Do you research whether your site cultivates trust?

#UX #UI #usability #content #design #trust #UR #UserResearch