April 2010
2 posts
Another Example of More Helpful Auto-Completers →
These types of auto-completer suggestions are really catching on. For another example check out my Save My Clicks post on Hulu’s nice auto-completer.
Help with my afternoon tea
I like to have some tea in the afternoon. When steeping recently I noticed the new Ahmad tea my wonderful wife bought me had an extra convenience. Ahmad cuts a tiny slit in the paper tab. Wrap the string around your mug’s handle, pop the string into the slit, and it holds the bag in place—it doesn’t slip back into the cup and require you to dig it out with your hands.
Such a simple...
March 2010
3 posts
SXSWi Badge
The lanyard is some putrid, bright green. I can find it anywhere!
Printed on both sides, so when it inevitably turns around, no problem.
The company name is small. Googlers and other popular folks aren’t as likely to be bombarded with job inquiries.
There’s a QR code, which enables quick contact gathering, sans business cards. Just scan the code with your mobile phone camera and QR...
Which Copy Can I Throw Away?
Barnaby’s Cafe in Houston staples their copy of the credit card receipt, the one I have to sign, to the check. At restaurants there is often confusion over which copy is which, and people inevitably write out a tip, calculate the total and begin to sign before they realize they’ve written on the wrong copy.
Barnaby’s simple solution is to staple the receipt to the large customer...
Photosynth and a Cappuccino
If you haven’t seen Photosynth, check out Trg Ban Jelacic in Zagreb, Croatia on Bing. There are a lot of great interaction mechanisms in Photosynth. Among them, you can click right where you want to look, there are lighter-colored and related images close to the current one so you feel the context of the image, and the angled, 3-d jumps you into the scene. Zagreb feels just like that.
...
February 2010
6 posts
GitHub and Heroku
WARNING: The following post may contain material not interesting to some audiences. Reader discretion is advised.
Yesterday on a Mumboe hackday, @norobotdiving and I worked on a JSONP exploratory project. We produced an HTML/JS page that processes JSONP requests and a rails app that serves up JSONP.
I am no unix/linux/ruby/rails/git expert—I have a light to decent working knowledge of...
Gap Zoom
Go to Gap’s site and find a product you like. Mouse over the image and you are given a big zoomed-in version of the picture that updates with the mouse position as you move the cursor over the image. It requires no click to activate, just a mouseover.
The zoomed in version covers up supporting information about the item, but that doesn’t bother me at all since the feature is...
Good Interaction with a Microwave?
Here’s my microwave’s control panel. I imagine GE engineers designed this interface to satisfy all kinds of use cases (look at all those buttons):
However, I just use the “ADD 30 SEC.” button:
It’s an extra feature, but I use that button almost exclusively. Here’s the interaction:
Press it
It displays 30 seconds
It waits a half second or so
Starts...
Mouse Gestures in Gmail
Not too long ago I decided to try out the labs feature Mouse Gestures. It seemed like such an unconventional idea—a non-keyboard shortcut—one that I would surely at some point remove due to lack of use. You see I have this problem with shortcuts; I don’t put them to enough use to the point that they become second nature.
This shortcut mechanism stuck with me, though. I have no...
Had a flat last night
As promised, here’s another VW post.
Last night my family and I decided to head down to Home Slice for pizza and then Jo’s for coffee. At one point in the evening, we parallel parked, after which I heard ssssssssssssss. Awesome…a flat tire.
It was night and thus dark. I pulled out the jack, tools, and spare and got to it. The good interaction came when I had to position the...
Facebook's To: Field Messaging
Facebook’s To field in the Compose Message dialog is helpful without getting in the way. When you focus the cursor on the field, instructions popout below the field.
Lot’s of sites and apps do this sort of thing, but I believe Facebook gets it right. The subtle differences that set this apart are:
Instructions only show up when you’re focused on the field. Too much on the page...
Got 40 minutes? Do your taxes.
I have a child, my wife does private tutoring in our home, we bought our first house, and we have a few of the other usual suspects in deductions. Using TurboTax it took me about 40 minutes to do my taxes. That’s some good interaction.
January 2010
7 posts
The Rear Wiper (aka The First Post About My VW...
Scenario
I’m in my VW Rabbit in the Target parking lot—about to leave. It’s raining. I turn on the car and the wipers. I shift into reverse and…
Stellar Interaction
My rear window wiper turns on! The Germans earn 3 interaction points for this one.
Point 1: They know it’s raining, cause I put my front wipers on. I didn’t turn my back one on, but I put the car...
WatchThe file manager at Weebly.com is quick, requires no refresh, and for such a small and simple interface, does a whole lot.
Gmail's Floating, Inline Expander
I love progressive disclosure mechanisms. This one from Gmail is one of my favorites. What makes it so great is that it overlays in place. When you click “7 more” in the example shown, the more items show up exactly where they would if they were inline, but they’re floating and temporary. The inline look makes the items appear as more of the same. Excellent attention to detail,...
Tonka Remote, Designed for a 2-year Old
This is a remote for a Tonka remote control car. The car itself is a fantastic product, but the remote especially caught my attention.
The toggle button moves the remote control car forward when the button is pressed down on the right side, moves backward and to the left when pressed down on the left side, and stops when not pressed. The button is big, but the remote is small enough to easily...
Save My Clicks
Search results like these from Google help searchers get where they need to go within a site without having to go to the site—it saves a click at least. I like it:
But then Hulu.com improves it one step further. I only need to begin typing my search for them to help me get exactly where I want to go—no search results page needed and one less click:
Riverwalk Directional Arrow Tree Thing
Recently my family and I were down in San Antonio at the Riverwalk, and I saw this gem of design and usability. From multiple angles, in a simple manner, this sign well-directs traffic.
Check it out next time you’re in San Antonio.
