Thursday, December 30, 2010

Repper pro, my new addiction

Check out two adorable patterns I made using Repper Pro:
The above pattern is constructed from a photo of a building and blue sky in Chicago. Sadly I don't know this gorgeous building's name.  Below, find the original photo:

This cute-as-a-button quilt-like pattern is also from a photo. Can you guess the material you see?



Using Repper Pro is a way to pay tribute to patterns. In fact the folder in which I put all my Repper Pro cuteness is called "Pattern Love". Go to their site to play with their free online version now.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Pay with at tweet!

I ran across this adorable idea by Innovative Thunder aimed at bloggers or content creators.  If you'd like to offer readers/visitors a free download, do so in exchange for a tweet!

The idea is simple--rather than including the file as a plain Jane link, your reader will hit this button:
and they'll be able to download your ebook/newsletter/template file in exchange for tweeting about your free download. Once you select "Pay with a Tweet" you'll get a window that pre-formats a tweet (something like downloaded xyz from link) then you can "Post Tweet and Download Now". What an innovative marketing mix!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Social media in print!

No joke this is Biore's pint ad!

Wow.

They basically replicated the facebook layout. I have to say, social media is now officially everywhere.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Helping you empathize: Types of listening

UX requires empathy with the user. You need to be able to feel the users delight and disappointment as if it were your own. There are many modes of listening and I found this random but awesome article breaking down the types of Listening:
  1. passive/not listening - noise in background - ignoring
  2. pretend listening - also called 'responsive listening' - using stock nods and smiles and uhum, yes, of course, etc.
  3. biased/projective listening - 'selective listening' and intentionally disregarding/dismissing the other person's views
  4. misunderstood listening - unconsciously overlaying your own interpretations and making things fit when they don't
  5. attentive listening - personally-driven fact gathering and analysis often with manipulation of the other person
  6. active listening - understanding feelings and gathering facts for largely selfish purposes
  7. empathic listening - understanding and checking facts and feelings, usually to listener's personal agenda
  8. facilitative listening - listening, understanding fully, and helping, with the other person's needs uppermost
User testing and user interviews often fall somewhere between 6 and 7. An ideal customer service experience with IT should be 8.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

For the love of Juno, remember my click!

I've been listening to Andy Rooney on 60 minutes and I admire that man. He's been in journalism so long that he's got the kind of perspective one has to respect. So it's with my hat off that I imitate his inflection in this post:

Why is it every I go to a website I have to pick "show 200 per page" or "Show all"?

It seems like even if I've been to that site 1,000 times I have to do that click 1,000 times.

I have what's called DSL in fact, my husband and I have been discussing going the next step up and getting cable so that we can both watch videos at the same time without intolerable lagging. Even with our midgrade DSL, these list pages, with all of their photos and information load fast. But that doesn't matter since I still have to click the option to see more per page. Then I have to scroll past he ones I've already seen the fist time.

Why don't these sites remember that my computer connection can handle more than 25 rows? Why do they make me click every single time I visit their site?

I guess I'm at the mercy of these sites. I'm not going to stop visiting them because of this annoyance. But I just hope just one site changes their ways to save me a click. I'd appreciate it.

Update: Ha! I'm not alone...in 2007 someone wrote a similar rant about paginated articles & even referenced Andy Rooney.