It’s been a busy year! Looking back, it’s clear that we’re riding a wave of UX Renaissance. Our customers and companies across all industries are recognizing users’ thirst for top shelve UX design and the importance of providing rich and engaging experiences.
A year ago, nearly to the day, we headed into 2011 with our press release on the redesign of SBA.gov, in partnership with DRT Strategies and Promet Solutions – since then, we’ve been in a full on marathon sprint!
We’ve had some time to come up for air to put up a few portfolio, blog, twitter, and FB posts – but it’s been tough to get it all up to share at the pace we’re moving. We’ll follow up with more detailed posts and website additions about our clients in the coming month(s), but here is a quick sampling from some of Limina’s 2011 clients and work.
We want to thank all of our customers for investing in User Experience! Special thanks to our partners and collaborators; Promet Solutions, Alex Hsiao @Perphic, Jacob Burhardt @FlashbulbInteraction, Alla Zollers @azollers, Cory Lebson @CoryLebson and Linchpin @linchpin_agency for making this one of our strongest business years to date!
A recent article in UX magazine talks about “selective attention” (also known as “visual blindness”, or “wishful seeing”), and how these aspects of human visual perception can be useful in UX. I like to look at it from a different angle – an angle that we should all consider from time to time: that of the eyes of a child!
Children’s perception of the world is so unique, so genuine that information, basic or complex, is visualized in the barest fashion. After reading this article, I watched my 14-month old scan through a Toys R Us magazine. On a page filled with microscopic 1 x 1.5 cm images (representing some game software), my son could point out the images that featured Lightening McQueen, the red speedster straight out of the Disney/Pixar animation movie Cars 2.
What’s my point? My son is only looking for images of the red speedster because that is what he wants to see; who cares about Dora the Explorer, or Nemo! This could be the same for your clients or users – motivation, expectations, impatience makes people see (and experience) different things – and the design of your web portal could succumb to the same narrow mindedness…unless you use this as a tool in your design!
Try integrating some of these ideas to work with possible selective attention:
1. Design to your clients’ or users’ expectations – In the example above, my son wants to see the Cars 2 picture. Similarly, if your clients want a design that communicates fashionable & hip or conventional & retro, research the different cues that represent these environments. Expected, accepted, or conventional design cues can help render more usability. We all have accepted cues that bring more information than we sometimes may want. For example, how would you react to a laundry detergent that was red in color? We accept that laundry detergents are within a certain color range – blue, green, white, essentially. These colors are accepted laundry detergent colors, whether we like it or not, and communicate certain characteristics (cleaning, perfume) that are intrinsic to our own accepted cues.
2. “Perception is malleable” – So, you think you are a unique mind and can steer clear of social influences and pressure? Think again. Your perception of everything you see, feel, touch is dependent on experiences from a year ago, a day ago, or even a minute ago! If I translate the methodology used in the Balcetis & Dunning (2006) paper, I can influence your choice of seeing the glass half empty or half full if I tell you upfront about wars and the declining economy, or about the shining sun and cute puppies (well, I guess that depends on if you like puppies…Ok, you get the drift). This means that you can also predispose your clients’ perception by discussing upfront the unique logo choice that was a hit with the testing agency, or about the wording that was changed in order to bring clarity to the software. Positive pre-disposition can go a long way!
3. Remove any potential ambiguity – In the example of my son’s selective attention to only the Cars 2 character, I noticed that he would hesitate in his choice when there was a visual similar to a car, or red in color. This ambiguity was basically distracting his attention, and here, unfortunately, steering him in the wrong direction. Similarly, you don’t want any ambiguity or confusion in your design. You can also read a past article about Tropicana’s failed design change.
TEST YOUR SELECTIVE ATTENTION
References:
UX Magazine on-line (October 2011), Article No. 754 by Andrew Turrell http://uxmag.com/articles/selective-attention-and-user-experience).
Balcetis and Dunning (2006) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 91, No. 4, p612.
We’re both proud and excited to announce our Marketing & Social Media Manager Ms. Kareen Forissier who formally joined our team as our first employee! Kareen joins us with a background in product design and development (she was a product manager for Procter and Gamble for 5 years) and in public relations (legislative assistant to a Hawaii county Council member for 3 years).
Today, Kareen has taken the helm managing our social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, Blog) in addition to designing and implementing our Marketing Plan.
This coming Monday: 10/24/11 from 6-7:30PM Luke Wrolewski will be giving a a talk on The Impact of Social Models. Sign up for the event here: The Impact of Social Models
When: 24 Oct 2011 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Location: The Microsoft Building | 5404 Wisconsin Ave, Chevy Chase, MD
Spaces left: 11
Join us afterwards to talk about local UX opportunities and learn more about what Limina is up to! (Drinks on us!)
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