September 2012 Event – Special Guest Speaker: Brad Colbow

In design, the user experience is paramount and getting the little details right can make a huge difference. In this presentation Brad talks about his experience designing interfaces for mobile devices and looking at how little changes can have a big impact on how we use them. You will be introduced to the world of human interface guidelines for mobile devices.

  • What can we learn by comparing and contrasting the guidelines of these mobile players and how can we incorporate it into our apps and websites?
  • What are the main differences in developing for these platforms and what do user experience designers need to take into account before starting a project?
  • Should you focus on building an app or make your website mobile friendly instead?

RSVP via Meetup

Cost: Free (free parking, too)

Location:

Thanks to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for hosting our September event. We’ll be meeting in downtown Detroit at:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
600 East Lafayette Street
Detroit, MI map | parking at BCBSM (free)

Registration is required. Please register before 10am September 18.

About Brad

Brad Colbow is creative director at Designing Interactive in Cleveland Ohio. Brad is an award-winning web designer, best known for his comics that are published monthly in .Net magazine and “The Brads” a (almost) weekly strip found on his personal website. His work has appeared on the New York Time’s website, CNET, Smashing Magazine and elsewhere. You can find out more about him and his work on his website colbowdesign.com

RSVP via Meetup

Recap: Share Your Favorite Application Night

At tonight’s Refresh Detroit meeting, we had an excellent time talking about and sharing our favorite tools and applications. While we didn’t have big attendance at the meeting, our discussion lasted almost two hours.

We took time to demo several applications and shared our experiences on how the applications improved our workflow. I know I have a few more tools to add to my work toolbox.

Here’s a list of some of the applications we discussed:

  • Evernote: free note taking application that seamlessly synchronizes your notes on the web, desktop, and mobile. It’s easy to take notes, scan images, capture screenshots with the browser Web Clipper, and share notes with others (premium version only). Not sure what to do with all those business cards you collect at events and conferences? Scan them with your phone, add to Evernote with a note. Evernote uses OCR (optical character recognition) to scan the text in the business card so you can easily search at a later time.
  • Acrobat Sign (formerly Echo Sign): online electronic signature application built into the free Adobe Reader application. If you’ve ever had to send hard copy contracts back and forth via post, or scan PDF signature pages, this application is for you. Sign your contracts and other documents in minutes with EchoSign. The Federal E-SIGN Act makes online electronic signatures equivalent to a written signature
  • Trello: online project management application that organizes your work into boards. The interface is all visual, updates in real time, and you can easily drag and drop tasks, lists and archive weekly work.
  • Cleo: Cleo (Compact Library Extension Organizer) is a Firefox add-on that allows you to combine themes and extensions into one package. You can easily share your favorite extensions by creating a package. Or install the package in a new Firefox profile.
  • jsFiddle: An online application that allows you to test your HTML, CSS, JavaScript code. While there are many similar online applications, jsFiddle is one of the best-known and most-used.
  • Axure: Desktop application used to create wireframes, mockups and interactive prototypes. Though the cost might be beyond the freelancer, Axure is the tool of choice for many large organizations and corporations.
  • Balsamiq and Mockingbird: Online wireframe and mockup applications. Many web developers and user experience professionals have moved from traditional desktop applications to online applications for ease of use and cost.

Thanks to Washtenaw Community College for hosting our meeting.

Book Review: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

After reading Susan Weinschenk’s 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, I found it a great reference for solving design problems. Susan breaks the book out into 10 self-contained sections that discuss the psychology of how people see, read, remember, think, and feel.

Susan does a great job of keeping each topic very digestible, with simple language, while still going deeper with a more scientific approach to things.

This book promises to answer questions every designer has had over the course of his or her career. I know I’ve asked a few of these  questions myself:

  • What line length for text is the best?
  • Are some fonts better than others?
  • How can you predict the types of errors people will make?
  • What grabs and holds attention on a page or screen?

Each section is packed full of valuable information about how and why we humans think the way we do. One of my favorite sections was about how people see. A lot of the things in this section were basic reminders, like how red and blue colors are hard on the eyes when used together. Others were more in depth, like the various meanings of colors throughout different cultures, and how people see cues that tell them what to do with objects. The latter is especially important in user interface design, because if you want your user to click a button, it should look like a tactile button.

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

For web and user interface designers, I would recommend the sections about how people see, read, focus their attention, and decide. The takeaways from these sections were especially helpful in designing interfaces.

Overall I found this book a staple during my work day, I often refer to it when trying to solve an issue when I have to ask “what would the user do?” I would recommend this book to all of my fellow designer friends or to friends who are just interested in learning about how people interact with things in general.

You can purchase Susan’s book online at Peachpit  in paperback and ebook format. Use our Peachpit User Group coupon code (UE-23AA-PEUF) to get 35% off your purchase.