Craig Tomlin of Useful Usability interviewed me and has posted the interview. Read on for his questions and my answers.
Interview With User Experience Expert Paul J. Sherman :: Useful Usability
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April 2009
I don’t know if this happens to all y’all, but I always have a hell of a time figuring out which button *opens* the elevator doors and which button *closes* them.
It happens every time I get in an elevator. Invariably, after I’ve already boarded someone runs to make the elevator before the doors close completely. As soon as I see them, I try to be helpful. I go to hit the “door open” button, hesitate, shift my gaze from one to the other in a semi-panic, and then jab the WRONG button.
I think I’ve figured out why I have such trouble discriminating between the two icons: the “door open” button (on the left in this picture) looks to me like the image of a *closed* door, and for some reason the action implied by the outward-facing arrows just doesn’t register with me.
Similarly, the “door close” button on the right, with its two strong vertical lines defining the outer edge of the icon, just seems to me to look like two open doors. And like the other image, I just don’t grok the arrows in the picture.
Is it just me that has this particular problem, or is does this design confuse others as well?
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Here’s a pointer to a very short article I wrote for my UX friends in Hong Kong at Apogee.
Usability Testing Does Not Equal A Good User Experience ::? Paul Sherman via Apogee
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Long-time readers may recall that I’m the project manager for the Usability Professionals’ Association User Experience Salary Survey. This will be the third time I’ve run the survey since 2005.
It’s the preeminent salary survey in our field. Many hiring managers depend on it and a number of industry analysts report on it.
I’m encouraging my readers to take the survey. There’s a lot in it for you. For one, non-members of UPA can download an all-comers version of the survey, and it’s still got loads of useful data. UPA members get a more extensive version of the survey, with lots more detailed analyses.
I just checked the survey site and we’re up to 1,350 responses, which means we’ll almost definitely exceed the response from 2007. Join the crowd, help out your field – and your career – and take the survey now.
Of course it’s going to take me and the volunteer crew a few weeks to crunch the data write the report, but it should be available by early June. Check back here or at the UPA site in a month to get your copy.
If you want to look at the previous survey, follow this link to download it from the UPA site.
The UPA 2009 UX Salary Survey ::? Usability Professionals’ Association
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My dear Apple Mail….you know I love you, don’t you? Yes, you caught me on the rebound, right after my breakup with Outlook. And you *know* how much I was invested in that long-term relationship. That was a difficult, difficult breakup. And that whole flirtation with Gmail a few years ago…let’s just say that was a fling, an overreaction to my newfound freedom from the shackles of a desktop-bound email client.
In my heart I knew that I could never settle down with a web-only email client. And I’m glad you were there for me when I came to my senses.
Apple Mail,? I really believe that our relationship is built on solid foundations. I don’t just love you for your “not-Outlookness”; I love you for you.
So that’s why I want you to know that when I offer you this bit of constructive criticism, know that I do it from a place of love and mutual respect.
So here goes: would it be too much trouble, Apple Mail, if when I clicked on a .zip attachment, you told me where you had expanded it? It would be great to know where my files were. That’s all.
I know that part of a successful relationship is overlooking your partner’s little failings. But for some reason I can’t let this one go. It just sticks in my craw. So I thought it was better – and *healthier* – if I spoke up now, before it built up into a hardened core of resentment and started affecting our relationship.
I know I’m far from perfect myself. You probably have a laundry list of complaints about me. I have too many folders, for one. And I can almost hear you thinking “Why don’t you zero your inbox every day?” I know, I know. I’m working on these things. I’m doing the best I can, trying to be the best me I can be.
So let’s just make a mutual agreement to keep working on our individual issues, for the good of our relationship. How does that sound to you, Apple Mail?
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Just noticed a tweet pointing out this designer’s Flash homepage.
Creative? Undoubtedly yes. Also annoying and a bit nauseating.
I’m not going to get on a usability soapbox about this. It speaks for itself. And it? speaks a mixed message.
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Hey, what can I say. Sometimes I’m on a tear and I write lofty big-picture conceptual pieces on the state of the user experience industry. Other times I can crank out an incisive, perceptive screed that absolutely devastates a design.
And still other times, you get this: a post about a garden variety, seen-it-before bad design. In this case, you’ve got your classic chromostereopsis issue, where the red-text-on-blue-background renders the text shimmery and hard to read.
And dare I say it…this isn’t exactly the most attractive landing page on the Interwebs. All told, it just reeks of “we’re too cheap to hire a designer, and we’re doing well enough that we don’t care.”
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