Category — Website Wireframe Software

What are some things that smartphone OSes can learn from each other?

Any of the would-be challengers (here’s looking at you MeeGo, WebOS and Bada) wishing to gain a sizable chunk of the smartphone pie is going to have to try and emulate these aforementioned strengths in their respective OSes. The iPhone still remains the OS to beat proving that a great user interface design, solid usability and positive user experience will be a winner with consumers. While the bare-bones Android’s interface design is not the most pleasing (Motorola Droid/ Milestone users can attest to that) it can be tweaked as shown by HTC’s Sense User Interface design (which is based on the TouchFLO 3D user interface design) to enhance  user experience. The iPhone would also do good to pick up some of Android’s tricks such as allowing tethering effectively turning the phone into a WiFi modem. The iPhone also needs to improve cloud functionality to match Android as, for example, if you download apps for the iPhone on your desktop the only way to transfer them is through a pesky cable.

Facebook’s staggering rise to prominence (if it were a country it would be one of the most populated) has seen its privacy settings shortcomings becoming truly globally contentious issues. The backlash has even lead to the creation of Quit Facebook Day, which is effectively a call for alternatives to sprout up and teach Facebook a lesson in consumer power in a world of perceived corporate hegemony! Taking on Facebook is a David vs. Goliath situation. For starters Facebook is just oh so convenient. There are nearly 500 million people on there making the chances of connecting with your friends and family much higher, and thus the value users get from using Facebook ever greater – a phenomenon known as network effect. Facebook Connect also allows all these users to use their accounts to login to, ‘like’ and share content and many other websites. This automatically makes users more dependent on the service as they can centralized a large chunk of their online lives and interactions with a singular account rather than constantly having to register for a gazillion websites for added features and functionality. Facebook’s interface design and usability, for the most part, is also great. People new to the website can register all in one step with very little information required thus creating a low barrier of entry.

How does portability enhance user experience?

It is also worth noting that the web apps, being built with standard web tools, would function on any web browser supporting these technologies. What will set Chrome apart from other browsers is the ability to easily find and create convenient shortcuts to access these apps. According to Glen Murphy, a Chrome user interface design team developer, another important UI design principle of Chrome is “cutting Chrome back to absolutely nothing… moving towards this simpler, high performance approach”. This approach is going to open many opportunities for web developers and interface designers to create enriching apps that will make browsers even more ubiquitous and useful, at least as far as the desktop is concerned.

One interesting fact about Google’s encrypted search option is that users in China or other regimes characterized by internet surveillance will be able to search the web without the government knowing their search terms — assuming the original connection is not blocked. So there is a certain level of investigative freedom inherent in Google’s new privacy feature.

Drawbacks?

While the new search feature is safe and secure, Google acknowledges that it will also slow down the initial connection that the computer makes to the Google server.  In addition, the security features only apply directly to the search engine field; as soon as a user clicks on a link and relocates to a new site, the security features are no longer valid.  The encrypted search feature will not apply to any data stored on your computer and will not protect users from various internet scams or viruses.

In my opinion, the safe search option is a great step forward, especially in an age when online observation has become rampant. And to be honest, the clean, reductionist interface design without all the advanced menu options is a nice return to what used to be one of the simplest and most powerful interface designs in the world – and still continues to be.

This is part two of my three part Usability Spotlight on Google Wave. Enjoy.

What are the benefits of Google Wave?

Using Wave, all those emails, including the instant messaging, would be one thread within an interface design not unlike current webmail interface designs. The entire team and other stakeholders (or whoever else you wish) would have access to it. Users can edit their comments with updates or even delete them altogether if deemed unnecessary. Latecomers to the party can utilize the handy playback feature that replays the creation and evolution of the wave, which is a quite unique usability feature that should be adopted by other Internet platforms. Extensions can also be added to check spelling/grammar, do quick polls, embed objects such as YouTube videos, and even games quickly and easily into a wave with drag and drop simplicity. Just imagine, embedding wireframes as you discuss ideas for your next interface design… Furthermore, waves can themselves be imbedded into other websites, such as on your blog, and if made public can be edited by anyone, if you so wish.  Another neat usability feature is in the noti
fication system where you can set Wave to send you an email when a wave has been updated. Yet, as the wave continues to be updated, you receive no further emails until you log in once more, which means that if the wave happened to have 10 updates you don’t receive 10 separate emails.

What are the usability drawbacks of Google Wave and its interface design?

According to the Internet consultant Martin Seibert, Wave is riddled with a number of usability gripes. Thus far, Wave does not offer markup editing like in wikis for power users to control appearance etc… Each wave is given its own URL but in this age of bit.ly they are just far too long and cryptic, case in point: “Wave.google.com″ which could be shorter and more self-explanatory. Although Wave features an RSS extension that allows you to watch your feeds within Wave you may, however, not follow waves through an RSS reader. Wave also lacks a more robust revising system, meaning if someone edits your wave and you wish to undo those changes you must do so manually by using the playback feature and copy/pasting your edits. Wave was designed to come into its own with mass adoption but thus far the service is in preview mode and invite only. So, a lot of users who get their hands on an invite find themse
lves unable to use Wave with a large number of people who don’t have an invite, which decreases the value of waves. Until now there is still no option to export waves (not an embed) to, for example, a wiki and this lack of portability could frustrate some users.

More to come in part 3 of this blog post.

Google Docs the imperfect: Downsides to the web interface design

Unfortunately, Google Docs is not heaven.  There are various aspects of Google Docs that decrease its usability, but the biggest pitfall of Google Docs is that its document and spreadsheet formatting features have performance limitations. This decreases the efficiency of use and can be a source of great frustration for users as the process of reformatting documents can be annoyingly time consuming. Google Docs also lacks the ability to perform simple functions such as copying and pasting images (you can insert them, but then you must reformat them) and users beware: if you want to find and replace text, don’t do it in Google Docs.  There is a find and replace function, but it is labeled as ‘experimental’ and using it will replace all instances, because you do not get to choose what to replace.

In terms of error frequency and efficiency of use, Google Docs may be at a disadvantage still: Users who expect the Google Docs interface design to behave exactly like the quasi standard Microsoft’s Office are sure to be disappointed.  Not only do documents uploaded onto Google Docs from Office usually not retain their original format. The user interface design – despite some broad resemblance – differs in its details substantially from desktop-based MS Office. Some searching will be necessary. Another thing that in my opinion could be improved is the setting of text or cell colors. Unlike with MS Office applications, color settings are not preserved and thus need to be set anew each time.

Google Docs: A flawed bastion of usability

Google Docs may be imperfect, but overall it remains a bastion of usability in the arena of online office suites. Yes, it fails to provide many of the useful and detailed formatting features that are familiar from Microsoft Office, but this does not harm its overall usability. What Google Docs lacks in design detail, it makes up for in practical accessibility.  Google Docs’ main usability strengths are its dynamic approach to real-time collaboration and its ability to meet the needs of diverse groups of users, providing them with instant access to their documents and co-workers from any location.  Overall, Google Docs is an application that merits mention as a good example of a user-friendly piece of software.

How do the new enterprise features improve usability?

One of the ways the new OS uses enhanced enterprise functionality to increase usability is by allowing users to distribute apps “wirelessly” without having to rely on iTunes for synching. This is good news for enterprises (especially large ones) as iTunes is designed and optimized for use by a singular Joe Public in mind. Businesses that apply iPhones can now cut out the middle man and directly supply their workforce with the necessary in-house apps.

How will the new Game Center improve user experience?

The iPhone has been heralded as a milestone in mobile gaming. The new OS will now offer a platform for gamers to connect in order to play with and against each other by using the Game Center “social gaming network” as an interface. Unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360, the iPhone has never had a centralized social gaming network with a number of 3rd party networks springing up all with their own sign-up and login processes and their own user interface designs. By introducing Game Center, a consistency will be achieved, improving on user experience.

How do Folders improve usability?

One of the iPhone’s major usability flaws has been the home-screen user interface’s lack of management features. Downloaded apps randomly fall into place and remain forever that way until they are purged! Furthermore once you have reached the limit of apps (currently 180) that can be displayed on the Springboard any further apps are simply invisible and require search entry to locate it. What happens when you don’t remember its name? Tough luck, computer says no! OS 4 takes several steps to rectify these usability issues. For starters, up to 2,160 apps can be accommodated on the Springboard. Apps can also now be organized into folders of your choosing with drag and drop simplicity resulting in a much better user experience!

For developers the new OS offers many usability boosting tools such as automated testing through the new UIAutomation Instrument among others. Several of the new APIs include the ability to compose SMS messages from within apps thus streamlining usability. New Quick Look APIs now enable apps to present previews of documents without having to launch another app just to know what that photo looks like etc… Improvements like these serve to prop up the iPhone OS’ successful user interface design and improve its overall usability and user experience allowing you to develop great apps that users love to use! The only question that remains for me: Is the new OS also advantageous for using wireframe software applications like Pidoco?

Our conclusion of Rapid Digital Prototyping: It’s got the look and feel of pen and paper, but adds interactivity (making wireframes clickable) and accelerates developing speed through re-usable elements and layers. Many (real-time) collaboration features enable interface designers to new ways to work with higher efficiency, leaving more time for the creative process that really counts.

For the people who are into screen design, Rapid Paper Prototyping is an old hat! But ever considered doing interface design on screen?

With pidoco’s web-based interface design software, designers and web developers can save valuable time, easily integrate other stakeholders and build better interfaces for the web.

Rapid Paper Prototyping has already been in the know for a while to get a web-application started. The idea is to sketch the basic concept on paper to be shared and iterated within the team. This design will then go through an iterative design process by integrating feedback from different stake holders. This paper prototype will eventually act as a rough guide for the whole project – from beginning to the end (but is there a real end?). Some web designers even use these basic sketches for running usability tests. Revealing usability issues in an early stage of development can save a lot of time and budget, since later alterations in the so called ‘finished’ web application are minimized.

Anyway, there are some drawbacks to Rapid Paper Prototyping.  Prototypes are difficult to add to the project documentation and also difficult to collaborate on over different locations. Scanning paper prototypes and making them ‘clickable’ for web testing is also a time consuming task as we all know!

That is why many companies create their prototypes directly in MS PowerPoint or MS Visio and have them shared to the relevant sources. True, that way one can share the data more effectively but it is not really more interactive than making copies of a piece of paper handing it to colleagues. The digital sketches still do not show the real functionality:  links, dynamic menus and combo-boxes etc. cannot be reproduced effectively and need to be explained individually in long paragraphs. Again, more time and effort has to be invested to get the message across.

The fancy startup pidoco° has spotted this problem and made it their mission to tackle it by providing a fast web-based interface design software.

Our conclusion of pidoco°: It’s got the look and feel of pen and paper, but adds interactivity (making wireframes animated) and accelerates developing speed through re-usable elements and layers. Many (real-time) collaboration modules enable interface designers to new ways to work with higher efficiency, leaving more time for the creative process that really counts.