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Beau Gould (OSS | 1 Dec 2009 14:55
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[Sigia-l] [JOB] Front-End Web Developer, NYC (mostly telecommute) | 50/hour

This is a 3-6 month+ opportunity to work on a new website-based well-funded
start up. This is a largely telecommuting role with weekly or bi-weekly
meetings on-site in New York City.  

Responsibilities: 

Lead the design and implementation in one or more client-facing application
features. Define and write code for client side and (sometimes) server side
layers of the presentation tier. Implement amazing UI for our innovative
consumer web application Drive integration between the presentation and
logic tiers

Experience and Key Competencies: 

* JavaScript, DHTML, CSS, XML/XSL 
* Expert knowledge of at least one JavaScript framework (JQuery, Mootools,
Dojo, YUI, etc.) 
* Knowledge of internet communication protocols, languages and patterns
(e.g. HTTP, Web Services / SOAs, XML, REST, AJAX) 
* Very comfortable in an Agile development environment 
* Experience working with a PHP back-end developer (if you know someone that
might be available - let us know) 
* Must be current on UI technologies, development of client - server
applications with significant client-side software, performance and UI
issues 
* Experience with version control systems (Subversion preferred) and bug
tracking (TRAC) 

Pluses:
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Beau Gould (OSS | 2 Dec 2009 07:00
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[Sigia-l] [JOB] UX Design Lead in NYC to 125k

Our client, a Global Media Company is looking for UX Design Lead with 5-10
yrs experience.  This is a full time, on-site, salaried position located in
New York City paying to $125,000 per year + benefits.  Locals only please. 

DUTIES: 
* Mange the effort to research and analyze user characteristics and needs
through such techniques as user profiling competitive analysis contextual
inquiries, and task analysis. 
* Participate on a team to develop use case scenarios that support product
requirements. 
* Lead the effort to design innovative, conceptual prototypes that translate
product requirements into screen flows and user interactions that constitute
the user experience. 
* Lead the effort to prepare for, facilitate, and analyze the results of
usability tests of the conceptual and detailed designs. 
* Iterate, based on frequent user feedback, the conceptual designs into
detailed designs. 
* Collaborate with several functional areas to ensure the integrity of the
design and the translation of the design into a usable product. 
* Develop appropriate design documentation throughout the product lifecycle,
including UX strategy documents, user interface prototypes, user interface
specifications, site maps, flow diagrams, wireframes, and usability findings
reports. 
* Communicate design to all levels of the organization through facilitating
design sessions, conducting design walkthroughs, and presenting designs to
senior management. 
* Mentor other designers. 

SKILLS & REQUIREMENTS: 
* Bachelors degree in related discipline preferred.
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Jayson Elliot | 3 Dec 2009 20:29
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[Sigia-l] Video usability - chapter headers / timecodes?

I've designed a video player / page for a client's website which includes
chaptering, showing the timecodes for each chapter and a brief description
of what happens at that point in the video.
Nothing too revolutionary, Google Video's been doing it for ages, as have
many others.

Being an ultraconservative client who doesn't have a lot of web experience,
they've asked for user research / usability "best practices" / other
examples in order to make their decision.

Does anyone know of anything I could point to?

Thanks!
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April 7-11, 2010
Hyatt Regency, Phoenix, AZ 
http://iasummit.org/2010/ 
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Jonathan Baker-Bates | 3 Dec 2009 22:29
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Re: [Sigia-l] Video usability - chapter headers / timecodes?

On Thu, 2009-12-03 at 14:29 -0500, Jayson Elliot wrote:
> I've designed a video player / page for a client's website which includes
> chaptering, showing the timecodes for each chapter and a brief description
> of what happens at that point in the video.
> Nothing too revolutionary, Google Video's been doing it for ages, as have
> many others.
> 
> Being an ultraconservative client who doesn't have a lot of web experience,
> they've asked for user research / usability "best practices" / other
> examples in order to make their decision.
> 
> Does anyone know of anything I could point to?
> 

YouTube has the de facto standard UI for delivering video (not hugely
wonderful in my opinion, but that's life).You could do worse than to
look at the player that ted.com uses, which is quite nice, as is that of
Vimeo. Note the fact that the former also provides transcripts, which is
an accessibility best practice as codified in the WCAG. In fact I think
the WCAG has various other things to say about multimedia, but none of
it will be UI specific.

Personally, I would just bowdlerize Brunel:

"I am opposed to the laying down of rules or conditions to be observed
in the construction of video players, lest the progress of improvement
tomorrow might be embarrassed or shackled by recording or registering as
law the prejudices or errors of today."

paraphrased by Raskin:
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Jayson Elliot | 3 Dec 2009 22:41
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Re: [Sigia-l] Video usability - chapter headers / timecodes?

TED has an attractive player; the progress bar / playback head is nicely
sized re: Fitts and the separation of the Play/Pause button is excellent re:
Hicks.

They do provide chapter markers and subtitles when the video has such info
in it, so that's a great thing.

However, they also hide the presence of the chapter markers until the user
accidentally hovers over the area, meaning that the majority of the time,
the user will not realize the chapters are there at all.

A Google Video approach is better, in that the chapters are always visible -
although even that is sub-optimal, because the chapters are indicated by
thumbnails only, which have limited information value.

Jonathan - your Brunel and Raskin quotes are absolutely correct, and I
personally agree with both of them, but when dealing with a nervous and
conservative client, "innovation" will always be viewed with fear and
suspicion, whereas well-trodden paths will at least have a minor chance of
acceptance.

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 4:29 PM, Jonathan Baker-Bates <
jonathan <at> bakerbates.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 2009-12-03 at 14:29 -0500, Jayson Elliot wrote:
> > I've designed a video player / page for a client's website which includes
> > chaptering, showing the timecodes for each chapter and a brief
> description
> > of what happens at that point in the video.
> > Nothing too revolutionary, Google Video's been doing it for ages, as have
(Continue reading)

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Jonathan Baker-Bates | 3 Dec 2009 23:23
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Re: [Sigia-l] Video usability - chapter headers / timecodes?

On Thu, 2009-12-03 at 16:41 -0500, Jayson Elliot wrote:
> Jonathan - your Brunel and Raskin quotes are absolutely correct, and I
> personally agree with both of them, but when dealing with a nervous
> and conservative client, "innovation" will always be viewed with fear
> and suspicion, whereas well-trodden paths will at least have a minor
> chance of acceptance.

I don't blame you for taking the path of least resistance, and of course
you should never innovate for the sake of it. But innovate with good
reasons for doing so, on the other hand, and you'll get the acceptance
you need.

Which is far easier said than done, obviously. I can't help thinking
that if more people tried this we'd have rather more good design and
less "design pattern" lazy rubbish out there. Sometimes though, I think
that I might just have to accept that things can simply be "good enough"
and leave them at that. 

Pragmatism. Eugh.

Jonathan

------------
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April 7-11, 2010
Hyatt Regency, Phoenix, AZ 
http://iasummit.org/2010/ 
-----
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Jayson Elliot | 3 Dec 2009 23:25
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Re: [Sigia-l] Video usability - chapter headers / timecodes?

Trust me, after 15 years of interactive design for clients, I've learned
when to choose my battles.

On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 5:23 PM, Jonathan Baker-Bates <
jonathan <at> bakerbates.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 2009-12-03 at 16:41 -0500, Jayson Elliot wrote:
> > Jonathan - your Brunel and Raskin quotes are absolutely correct, and I
> > personally agree with both of them, but when dealing with a nervous
> > and conservative client, "innovation" will always be viewed with fear
> > and suspicion, whereas well-trodden paths will at least have a minor
> > chance of acceptance.
>
> I don't blame you for taking the path of least resistance, and of course
> you should never innovate for the sake of it. But innovate with good
> reasons for doing so, on the other hand, and you'll get the acceptance
> you need.
>
> Which is far easier said than done, obviously. I can't help thinking
> that if more people tried this we'd have rather more good design and
> less "design pattern" lazy rubbish out there. Sometimes though, I think
> that I might just have to accept that things can simply be "good enough"
> and leave them at that.
>
> Pragmatism. Eugh.
>
> Jonathan
>
>
>
(Continue reading)

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Jonathan Baker-Bates | 3 Dec 2009 23:46
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Re: [Sigia-l] Video usability - chapter headers / timecodes?

On Thu, 2009-12-03 at 17:25 -0500, Jayson Elliot wrote:
> Trust me, after 15 years of interactive design for clients, I've
> learned when to choose my battles.
> 

Fair enough. I'm just starting out myself. 

Don't you think UX is like kung fu though? After 15 years you are just a
beginner, and after a lifetime you will know nothing. So, I'm expecting
to have virtually no understanding of the field by the time I'm 65.

Jonathan

------------
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April 7-11, 2010
Hyatt Regency, Phoenix, AZ 
http://iasummit.org/2010/ 
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Jonathan Baker-Bates | 3 Dec 2009 23:57
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[Sigia-l] Google's new home page

What do we think?

http://tinyurl.com/yfxdjnl

I can see where they are coming from ("Keep it simple! Less is more!"),
but I don't understand why they've actually done it unless there's some
business benefit for them. They seem to be assuming that because people
know about the links in the top left and the submit buttons, etc. they
can be initially hidden from view for the sake of some more of that
atavistic "simplicity."

Doesn't this have a rather obvious problem though? Hiding things from
view can be OK if you allow them to be revealed by an explicit action
(eg a "see more" link), but if that action is potentially associated
with doing something *else* (like preparing to type into a field) then
you're effectively ensuring that they will never be seen. This is
particularly true if you look down at the keyboard when you start
typing.

Or am I at the wrong level here? Are they going to use this technique to
emphasise new stuff instead? New Google Labs features and exhortations
to download Chrome could therefore get prime position before the reveal,
for instance. 

I wonder though. It feels to me a bit like the BBC's ill-fated "Glass
Wall" design for their home page a number of years ago. Seemed like a
great idea at first...

Either way, as a discreet bit of interaction design, it'll be
interesting to see how widely it will be copied, and to what effect (and
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martin.fietkiewicz@gmail.com | 4 Dec 2009 00:14
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Re: [Sigia-l] Google's new home page

As I put my "average impatient user" hat (or imagine my parents doing this),
my first impression is that it makes no sense to have it revealed when I
move the mouse.  Yes, the cursor is already inside the search box, but a lot
of users at first will want to move the cursor to the box and click inside
it instead of just starting to type as soon as they see the logo.  So the
fade-in becomes a distraction as opposed to a reliable constant
sidebar/menu-bar.  I suppose we'll get used to it, but it does seem
superfluous in that Web2.0MG sort of way.

Martin

2009/12/3 Jonathan Baker-Bates <jonathan <at> bakerbates.com>

> What do we think?
>
> http://tinyurl.com/yfxdjnl
>
> I can see where they are coming from ("Keep it simple! Less is more!"),
> but I don't understand why they've actually done it unless there's some
> business benefit for them. They seem to be assuming that because people
> know about the links in the top left and the submit buttons, etc. they
> can be initially hidden from view for the sake of some more of that
> atavistic "simplicity."
>
> Doesn't this have a rather obvious problem though? Hiding things from
> view can be OK if you allow them to be revealed by an explicit action
> (eg a "see more" link), but if that action is potentially associated
> with doing something *else* (like preparing to type into a field) then
> you're effectively ensuring that they will never be seen. This is
> particularly true if you look down at the keyboard when you start
(Continue reading)

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