I read Jakob Nielsen’s latest AlertBox today, and wondered—even with all his caveats—what planet he lives on, suggesting that content sites should quiz their users to improve retention. I can’t see that working for any but a fraction of educational and maybe training sites. Unless maybe it was a user-initiated link: “Want to remember this tomorrow? Take a quiz!” (Which most users would probably ignore or find annoying anyway.)
On the up-side, the article contained a link to an older and more palatable article on the first rule of usability: Don’t listen to users (meaning watch and listen, don’t just listen).
The Sartorialist is fashion blog run by blogger/photographer Scott Schumann out of New York. I like the “out of the box” thinking he has. The video touches on art, fashion and doing what you like. Awesome.
“Do you like to ski and eat chocolate?”Tantalizing first sentence of an Information Architect job posting for the UN in Switzerland. Got my attention!
“Parallel & Iterative Design + Competitive Testing = High Usability”Title equation from an interesting
article on usability and design process.
Nielsen makes it sound so easy…
Armin from Brand New posted last month a very interesting two part article of the best and worst identities of 2010:
The Best and Worst Identities of 2010, Part I: The Worst
The Best and Worst Identities of 2010, Part II: The Best
We’re looking for designers to help create the websites and applications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Qualifications:
- Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a current temple recommend.
- 5+ years of experience in user research and designing public facing websites. Internationalization and localization experience is preferred.
- An Online Portfolio that demonstrates an ability to think strategically, superior visual designs, and strong interaction design skills
Preferred Skills:
- Creative problem solving skills, think conceptually and craft elegant solutions
- Excellent knowledge and abilities in user experience methods, best practices, design principles, problem-framing skills
- Ability to play a major role in defining and developing the user experience for the Church’s products
- Ability to carry the design vision through to completion in an agile development environment
- Branding, marketing or content strategy experience
- Ability to transfer user insights into quality user experiences
- Ability to work with a team of content producers, including writers, audio/visual specialists, and product managers
- Experience with mockups (HTML/CSS)
- Exceptional experience in UI/Interaction, design principles and iconography
- Strong knowledge of technologies such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ajax, XML, mobile
Examples of our websites:
Apply
Please apply online at https://careers.ldschurch.org/ for job ID#60463 (contract) or job ID# 60457 (full time). Note: an LDS Account is required to view jobs.
Please direct questions to [email protected]
An interesting Top 10 List of Research-Based Usability Findings from Jeff Sauro’s “Measuring Usability” site. (I like his site, though I think it somewhat overemphasizes the importance of objective measures. So much of what is learned during a usability test, especially regarding potential solutions, is subjective and not easily measured…)