These screen captures are in honor of one of my favorite design books of all time — GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don’ts and Dos.
While signing up with Apple to distribute content through iTunes, I found myself facing a tough decision. (I thought all those other places were in the world?)
Next one needs no caption. Hehe.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Patrick – thanks for the kind words on the Grokky blog.
2 more things I’m still working on in usability testing – I’d love some input / suggestions:
1) The subject asks me for help – eg: “which button should I press now ?”
Currently I make a hiding gesture and say “Pretend I’m not here”.
2) Subject freezes – not scrolling, not reading, not saying anything.
I want to discover what her mental process is at this point – if any. But if I say “what are you thinking” it’s a leading question – she may not be thinking. She may be re-reading or just daydreaming.
Currently I say “Talk to me”. Have you got anything better ?
“Pretend I’m not here” is my standard line…up until the point they get so super-frustrated that it’s time for the test to be over. Hey, we’ve all designed crap and/or had a user just really REALLY not get what was going on…No need to continue that pain train for either party.
“What are you thinking about?”…I never thought of that as a leading question. But I usually like to re-prompt the early instruction of “Can you think out loud for me?” I have noticed that it’s easier to get feedback from extroverts who automatically “think out loud”.
I guess just the fact that the subject has frozen suggests that the UI is hosed.
In this scenario the biggest value of the comments is to shock the client into action:
“I’ve got no idea what to do…”
“I’m stuck…”
“I can’t figure out which model to buy…”
“Is a microwave in whiteware or kitchenware ?”
I like to make an executive summary of any usability testing – a video with these kind of comments can help the client to think clearly.
You’re one day from being a full month without a blog post. You act like you’re dating a beautiful woman or something. Sheesh.
Thanks for the useful info. It’s so interesting
I control all rights to music! hahaha!
No option for Universe wide distribtion?! This site is great….