There’s been some recent blog posts and discussions around Google’s apparent lack of “Design Thinking” and their focus on “Data Thinking”. I find these discussions overly simplify the role of design and designers as well and are unfair to Google and their appreciation for the finer aspects of design.
The first post on this theme was by Douglas Bowman when he wrote about his rationale for leaving Google in his post titled “Goodbye Google“. In it he describes a company focussed on data (testing everything) and lacking design vision.
The next post was by Cliff Kuang of Fast Company’s Co.Design. In his post titled “Google Instant Proves Google’s Design Process is Broken” Cliff suggests that Googles reliance on user testing inhibits true design thinking and innovation.
And most recently was a post by Faruk Ates titled “Design Thinking vs. Data Thinking” in which Faruk describes Google having no empathy in it’s design approach and that they live or die by the “sword of data” – again suggesting a lack of design thinking at Google.
These discussions and the perception of design by some in the community concern me and I’d like to give my perspective.
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Perception of design titles & roles
I’ve been discussing the title UX Designer versus Web Designer over at Sitepoint after an inflammatory tweet by Ryan Carson where he called the title UX Professional bullshit.
To most people I’m sure debating job titles seems a waste of time and self absorbing, and it is, but for me it’s been enjoyable. It’s forced me to think further about why I use the term UX Designer as opposed to other titles and has made me more comfortable about my decision.
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Traditional pagination
Pagination, those 1 2 3 .. Next page links at the bottom of a page of search results or content. Are they dying a slow death? I think so and when you step back and think about it, it makes perfect sense. Why do we need it? If you scroll to the bottom of a page of content surely that’s indicating you want to see more? So, website, load some more and save me the click and time!
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UX Australia Logo
I recently conducted an interview with 3 UX Designers who will be speaking at the 2010 UX Australia conference – this year hosted in my home town of Melbourne (August 25-27).
The interview is on sitepoint.com entitled UX Design: What it is, What it Takes, and Where it’s Going.
I’m really happy with how it turned out, I thought the guys had some insightful views especially around what it takes to be a good UX Designer. Have a read and let me know what you think.
It’s been almost a month since myself and the rest of the Aussie team brought the FullCodePress trophy to the shores of Australia for the first time. After suffering defeat at the hands of the New Zealand team for the first 2 years it was a nice feeling to win. And what a fantastic event to be a part of. I really enjoyed what was an intense long weekend in Wellington – the friendly locals, the lovely meals, the stunning Martinis, the excellent Webstock talks and the event itself. It was certainly an experience I’ll never forget and am glad I plucked up the courage to be part of.
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Craig, a colleague at 99designs, pointed out this new payment form on Tumblr to me the other day:
Tumblr payment form
He framed it as “it’s not very often a payment form wows [him]” and it highlights to me how we designers sometimes overlook pushing the boundaries for established conventions – particularly when it’s something as serious as a payment form. Nice work Tumblr!
Saw a tweet saying that websites that open external links in new browser windows make themselves look insecure – “please don’t leave me for someone else”. I loved the description. I’m a believer in letting users control when things open in new windows but as with anything there are exceptions and linking to PDFs is one that I can live with – but then I think that’s the fault of the PDF format and the fact it has it’s own user interface, but that’s a rant for another day.
This is a great article about realism in UI design.
The article details ideas around using visual cues from the real world in user interface design to help communicate state, functionality etc. Some excellent examples and thoughts.
I’ve spent the last 4 months working with the talented crew from 99designs.com on what would have to be my proudest professional achievement to date – the Ready-made Logo Design Store. I’m proud because I believe we’ve created a great user experience that delivers exactly what we set out to achieve – a simple, bare bones, focused, and easy-to-use offering. We’ve done this with a small team and in a short period of time. We’ve staged it well, closely collaborating with our design community and managing to collect over 4000 of their unique and stunning logo designs ready to sell to potential buyers.
Ready-made Logo Store Homepage
A lot of the user experience and key interactions are hidden to the general browsing public – they’re behind the designer administration screens (where they upload and manage their logos) and the purchasing and handover processes. Saying that I’d love to hear any thoughts you may have on what you see. I’m expecting the product will not be to some of my colleagues liking but I’m really keen for any feedback you may have.
I think the Ready-made Logo Design store will be a great compliment to the 99designs offering and a big success and I’m looking forward to building on what we’ve achieved to date.
I hate it when forms like this Oxfam donation form ask me to re-enter or confirm my email address:
Oxfam donation form - email address re-entry fields
I suspected I wasn’t alone so I tweeted to find out what others do when presented with this situation and I have to say I was overwhelmed with the number of responses I received. It seems most people (well I should say most of my online web savvy friends) hate it as well and that they usually copy and paste the email address from the first field into the second. Ctrl A, Ctrl C, Tab, Ctrl V is less keyboard presses than typing an email address and therefore tends to be the preferred approach.
To me the whole idea of re-entering your email address feels like a heavy handed, ill thought out trend that creates more work for the user, doesn’t solve the problem it attempts to, goes against the websites business goals and causes untold pain and wasted time for many *slight exaggeration there perhaps*.
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