Service Design - Is the Next Big Thing...

So many touchpoints and so many devices. Digitallism is all over, may like.. huh putting an honeycomb on the universe is on its way. Service design is the next buzz that would self-service humans in a different way. A virtual UI created that acts as a 24 X 7 service enabler. You can pick and drop your service touchpoint and ask them to serve you at any given point of time.

Heuristic Checklist – Usability Guidelines

These are ten general principles for user interface design. They are called "heuristics" because they are more in the nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines.

Visibility of system status

The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

Match between system and the real world

The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

User control and freedom

Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.

Consistency and standards

Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

Error prevention

Even better than good error messages is a careful design, which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.

Recognition rather than recall

Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

Aesthetic and minimalist design

Dialogues should not contain information, which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

Help and documentation

Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large

Putting People First - The UX Framework V3.0

The goal of this article is to build intuitive user interfaces that are straightforward and concise.

This article would help in building consistent user interfaces with clear language where the terminology is unambiguous and help text is readily available. The article additionally also provides a framework of re-usable elements on the web interface and the interface conventions in general.

The User Xperience practice would also measure the 5 human factors central to evaluate the user experience like

Time to learn – How long does it take for typical users to learn relevant task?

Speed of Performance – How long does it take to perform relevant benchmarks?

Rate of errors – How many and what kinds of errors are made during benchmark tasks?

Retention over time – Frequency of use and ease of learning help make for better user retention

Subjective satisfaction - Allow for user feedback

Multi-Modal Windows

The World-Over the way interfaces are getting designed is changing, simply for the fact that an user need various simple modes to complete his task or activity.

Basically, we are looking for windows of opportunity to make our life simpler and better.

With Multi-modal windows and integrated interaction the communication messages would be clear and fast making the process end quickly

Introduction - Jaydeep Savant

Me is a, User Experience and Usability Practioner who started his career in technology as web analyst for a start-up company Extra Connect Inc. in the year 1995. With product management responsibilities and experience design as the key have progressively deployed usability solutions and methodologies on softwares and web-interfaces. With a background in ergonomics, anthropology and human cogntion, presently aiming to build better information architectures that are easy to use and efficient.