Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Gilbert Midonnet

Gilbert Midonnet — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:43:50 GMT

I would think that backlinks is the main reason spammers post to B&A but I would like to add scam and data spying sites to Jack Quils PPC (pills, porn and casino).

There are many sites out there with get-rich-quick schemes such as the Google Home Business Kit which promise riches for just a minor investment (3 dollars, 5 dollars). Some just steal a few dollars, others start sucking funds out of the mark’s account, and yet others install spyware or adware.

Gilbert Midonnet — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 05:55:44 GMT

I’m a big fan of white boards. I find that it lets me quickly identify the problematic areas. This is especially true on sites where each page has multiple identities. ( For example basic customer, premium customer etc). I really like the sketchy wireframe concept to reinforce to business users that the layout of the page elements is still influx.

Gilbert Midonnet — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:08:09 GMT

Dock-able panels are good for expert users, people who are repeat users, such as in an intranet. I found that confused many users.

I worked on several real estate sites that had much rarely-used-but-important information which were satisfied by “more” links.

I would need more information from the OP to give a better explanation else all I could say are generic, not very useful answers such as: “place the info in the footer.”

Gilbert Midonnet — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:12:55 GMT

It’s a big project. I’m assuming you want to standardize your website and that web and print branding are to be coordinated. Depending upon the size of the organization this can be an extremely large project.

1. List the approved logos and sizes.
2. The color palette. Ideally you would include pantone, four-color, and RGB. You will need it for the typeface, background colors as well as acceptable secondary colors. Many companies have more than one palette.
3. Typography (font and size) For most companies there is a slight difference btwn print and web.
4. Layouts

Gilbert Midonnet — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 03:06:31 GMT

Proper labeling is crucial and can be time consuming. There is no way, from the information which you’ve provided, that I or anyone else can help you.

Get a list together and ask people. Even if you don’t have a budget for Usability Testing ask people.

Ask people in the company; ask customers/clients; ask people on the street (friends and people in other industries).

Get feedback. If nothing else go to your competitors and see what they’ve done.

With more information perhaps I, or someone else, could help you further.

Gilbert Midonnet — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:56:29 GMT

Another thing to keep in mind is that every industry, every market, is different and what qualifies as “quality” or customer service differs accordingly.

Gilbert Midonnet — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:43:53 GMT

I work remotely as well and face much the same problems. I do NOT think telephone conference calls by themselves, especially when discussing a layout issue, are very effective. The only exception to this is if it is a very localized problem whose solution doesn’t have a spillover effect elsewhere on the page. What I’ve found to work very well is to upload the competing ideas and (this works best with multiple monitors) markup the competing designs. This can be slow but, in my experience, it tends to be deliberate and effective.

How is the markup done? Sometimes super-low tech: a print out is marked up, scanned and emailed/uploaded. A few reiterations – it’s a little slower than face to face – but as mentioned before often times which much more thought and deliberation.

As Patrick Stapleton mentioned Skype plus a Whiteboard would be ideal – but too often other issues interfere with this, the best of all scenarios. And, as you all know Google Wave, as interesting as it was is no longer. Too bad, it seemed promising.

Gilbert Midonnet — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:14:15 GMT

David,

Yes – it looks as if the matrix at the top is incorrect: Angela Baer should be expert-expert. Still the article was excellent.

As we’ve come up with numerous tactics for helping the novice and intermediate users (auto-complete, breadcrumbs, filtering) there seems to be little available for more expert users. I suppose that will come in time as database search times decrease and search algorithms improve. Wolfram|Alpha is a start but it still has a long way to go.

Gilbert Midonnet — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:58:00 GMT

I think that Chris Butler made an excellent point:

“I’m constantly amazed by how we continue to allow distractions—ads, “related content” widgets, etc.—to dilute user attention. It’s as if we’re so desperate to keep users “using” that we are willing to sacrifice the one thing we want them to do—effectively use what we’ve designed. We’d rather them click about endlessly.”

I’ve been perplexed by that more than once. I understand that we want users to stay on our site, but sometimes we aide our users by sending them elsewhere. The more useful, the more inviting the site is the more users will come back. I see that often in sites that have more landing/intermediary pages then necessary simply to expand the opportunity to upsell their users.

Gilbert Midonnet — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:44:24 GMT

There are some very good points. My favorite is: “Solve problems that you actually have, don’t worry about completeness.”

That being said a UX Designer should not have to tell a developer which library document to use just as he wouldn’t tell the developer which fields to call from the database or the creative director which font-style or color to use. The UX may have a development or creative background which helps him or her communicate with developers and designers but the UX’s role is to focus on the client and the user. Namely how do we design this “X” that the client wants AND have users intuitively understand how it works and want to interact with it.

Gilbert Midonnet — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 23:21:54 GMT

John,

I couldn’t agree with you more. I too went to art school and then became a programmer. Years later I’m combining both as a UX designer. Still that one comment about designers having a print design mentality is perfectly stated. The created mock-up is perfection. The fact that the real world, which doesn’t have perfectly kerned lettering, doesn’t live up to the design and is flawed.