I'm in the NASA generation... meaning I grew up when space exploration was THE most thrilling news covered in our solar system. It also means that I'm probably a bunch older than you... but we'll proceed anyway.

I recall gathering with my family in the living room, watching our single TV set:

10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 0 - BLAST OFF!!!!!
ROAR of unbelievably powerful rocket engines. HUGE Saturn V rocket engulfed in smoke and flames. INCOMPREHENSIBLE forces inching untold tonnage slowly upward, breaking away from gantry tubes, somehow going straight upward, hurtling its miniscule human cargo toward exciting exploration and discovery missions in outer space.



Not coincidentally, we all just got past the most famous recurring example of this type of cultural artifact:

10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!
Woooo Hooooo! Yelling. Noise-making. Kisses. Champagne. Affection. Reminiscing. Resolutions.

Countdowns are Cool!
Read on and learn how to Rock Your UI! >>

Objectively measuring design is critical to a product's success. Usability testing and tracking are powerful tools to evaluate your design with data from real users, and now AOL Designers have another tool at our disposal. With the help of Forrester Research we have created the AOL User Experience Checklist. Building upon the great work of Forrester's original Web Site Review Scorecard, we've added evaluation criteria specific to AOL and our design standards .

Best practices evaluated in the list include messaging to users, navigation and way-finding, visual and architectural hierarchy, and task efficiency.

I am recommending that every product be evaluated once a year at a minimum for a baseline. Then teams may revisit their report and score as improvements are launched.

Please note that a perfect score is exceedingly rare and the goal should be to always be improving the score. If the score is always moving in the right direction then we know our experiences are always improving as well.

AOL folks can find the checklist on our design guide here:
AOL UX Checklist

Our team of designers and engineers has been steadily working on a re-launch of our portal in October that really pushes AOL into some new places. And this is just the beginning! Here is a link to the info on TechCrunch. More details coming soon but the new page has features such as RSS, mail, and soc|net aggregation, customizable navigation, and some other surprises. Stay tuned.

PIXCETERA is a fully fleshed-out celebration of the craft of photography and has, as its central innovation, the ability to dynamically "read" galleries being published across the AOL network and consolidate them into one website (some innovations are not so obvious). Our users clicked billions of photos last year so we're hopeful that bringing all of this amazing programming work into one website fulfills an unmet need for them.

It is important to note that the site is not trying to compete with flickr as a UGC play (I myself am a faithful user of the site). Though we do have plans for user upload and gallery publishing and favorites, the main concept here is to bring the best programmed photography experiences in our network into one simple interface and provide the user the ability to "skip" across topics effortlessly.

One of my favorite little features is the ability to reskin the interface to white, gray or black so you can view photos in your own neutral tone of choice.

We've only just begun so expect some interesting innovations out of the pixcetera team over the coming months. And please let us know what you think.

I am sooooo tired of my mouse. Move-click-move-click-move-click-move-click-click-move. We've been using mice for almost 25 years now while movies like Minority Report have shown us a glimpse of a future where all you have to do is wave your hands around a bit to get the job done (OK, you also have to live with Tom Cruze in a distopian future (OK, some might argue that we already are living with Tom Cruze in a distopian future)). Yes, there are some extremely big expensive systems thate promise to do some cool things, but we need something cheap and portable.

The portfolio for Publicis & Hal Riney are taking us into the future with a Flash site that allows you to navigate with hand gestures using your Web cam. Just move your hand over certain "hot spots" in front of your computer (shown in a handy mini-window on the bottom right of the screen) and you can move around their portfolio to see their ideas, news, and examples of their work. It may not be replacing your mouse anytime soon, but it's still pretty cool.

Our iPhone web app for TV Listings made Apple's Staff pick! Check it out: http://www.apple.com/webapps/

Much thanks to the creative team behind this one: Mike Costantino, Amzed Hussain, John Kilpatrick and a host of others. Read more about their app here: http://www.apple.com/webapps/entertainment/aoltvlistingsforiphone.html

The TV listings app is the latest in a series of apps we've been working on. There are a bunch more to follow, and I'll be sharing them here with you as we get through them.

Next up is AOL Money and Finance's Quotes app. Check it out on your iPhone at iphone.money.aol.com.

Please let me know if you think of something that you think would make a great iPhone app-- maybe we'll make it happen...

AOL Television has an informative microsite dedicated to the show America cannot get enough of: Idol. But whether or not you are totally sick of Simon Cowell (um, like me), or hanging on every potentially off note you'll dig this nice poll interface. Though we have been using this format for some time, somehow the team keeps making it more and more interesting visually. Great build and drama in the movements. Check it out.

Last week a few of us headed to the IxDA conference in Savannah. It was a great time and now that I'm back, I will be sharing some of the happenings with you. The first session we attended was a pre-conference workshop on Agile methods, given by Jeff Patton (at AgileProductDesign.com) and Josh Evnin of ThoughtWorks.

It was a very basic primer on Agile, and included information on other methods of process, such as the waterfall method and the snowman method. You can read about all things agile at Jeff's site (link above). Much emphasis was on speed to market, and how Agile methods can support a faster turnaround on product completion.

We did a "real" agile project, where teams had to work with a "User" to define and develop a product end to end, splitting up tasks appropriately. The products were cars, and they were drawn on a puzzle board so each person could take a piece and then put it together at the end. We were of course terrified of the Homer Simpson factor, an incredibly accurate depiction of what you may end up with if you rely completely on what users think they "want" without reality checks.

The Homer Car:

After a meeting with our "user" (confession, it was me), the team went to work and the "user" got to sit around and wait for the finished product...

Rewind to the preholidays... I'm looking for a new set of pillows for the bed... the sit-up-in-bed kind... you know what I mean. I go to Google and type in "bed pillows" only to get the first 10 page matches for regular old fluffy down or Tempur-Pedic® pillows. At a glance I can tell that they're not what I'm looking for. So, what's my next step? How do I get past this impressive wall of commerce sites that are all pushing regular old bed pillows (aside from paging through tens of thousands of quickly retrieved results)?

Like a novice forensics specialist I examine the scenario. What actually happened here? What did the user enter in the field? What did the user mean by "bed pillows?" What was the user trying to achieve? What tools (features & datum) were available to help the user accomplish the task?

===== begin scene =====

I guess I should just ask myself (aka the user):
"What did you mean?"

He answers:
"What I meant was that I was looking for new bed pillows to sit up in bed with when we watch TV or read a book... maybe they're called reading pillows... I dunno. I'm just trying to find some stoopid pillows for God's sake."

The user sounds a little frustrated, so I ask another question:
"Why did you type in 'bed pillows'?"

He blurts out:
"Because that's what you're SUPPOSED to do, right?! Enter 'key words'."

please read more...
N.B. This is a half-comic research and analysis narrative, and the longest blog you've read in a while. Get your glasses, a cup of coffee, and about 10 minutes of free time.

After almost a year of design and development the AOL Music team has recently launched our first "long-tail" next generation photo experience (Phase 1). From the global navigation on the music site you'll see a new "Pictures" link that takes you to a hub showing the most recent and most watched photographic assets coming in from our partner feeds. Within each artist page is also a contextual left nav link that will take you to a dynamically generated photo stream of assets for that artist. The sample above shows the screen after I clicked "enlarge" next to a photo a Prince. On the left nav the user can browse the photos via alphabetical index or by genres of artist. Note also the clear and "extra-large" colored buttons to queue the user to the navigation, a detail but a significant one when your main mission is to keep the user clicking.

Click "more"...

I am very pleased to showcase the new Oscars package currently live today on Moviefone. This is just the first phase of an orchestrated program that leads to the big night (and beyond). The editorial, design and technical teams have done a great job in executing this from our recently completed CSS templates for Awards and Events. Click the "read more" button for additional commentary...

When I published my little article on Boxes and Arrows back in ...June? July? (well, a long time ago anyway), I had no idea folks would still be talking about it in November. I've been interviewed twice in the past few weeks about issues around user's scrolling behaviors--it's been alot of fun!

One was recorded for a Boxes and Arrows podcast and can be heard here: http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/blasting-the-myth-of16

And the other was for this article written by Terry Heaton of AR&D about the evolution of News as a product and how companies should integrate news into their content strategy: News is a Process, Not a Finished Product


I'm enjoying the debate, so keep those opposing thoughts coming...

The kind of app you would find featured on lifehacker, Vitalist is a neat little task management application that does what it needs to do (and little else) quite well. It is NOT feature rich and that is why, in the end, I have been giving it a fair "three week trial run". The focus on core features is refreshing and shows restraint on the part of the designers/developers.

The interface is pretty simple (as a set of task lists should be) but it sports some interesting features. You can set up projects and assign "contexts" to your tasks (this can be "where you are" or in an Stephen Covey sense "what your roles in life are" as I have been using it). You can assign contacts and add notes to your entries. The bummer here is that you have to pay at least $5.00 a month to store notes or attachments along with the tasks. Hmmm... Aside from that DOA business model there is also an iPhone version which is a very useful perk. Total kudos to the Vitalist team for thinking two steps ahead on that one.

The design is ajax-like and very clean. The "now-classic web 2.0 minimalism". (Perhaps we're ready for something else by now?). Priorities are assigned and sorted by using colored stars. Simple (though I do prefer the A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, B3 approach in setting priorities. Old habits die hard).

This is the first app I have used online that seems designed for the scale of what I manage at work and at home. Hey, life is complicated! I love being able to dump all the junk floating around in my head into the "inbox" for later processing into the "actions", "waiting" and "someday" categories. It is a lot less stressful knowing they are properly recorded than trying to remember them all, regardless of how big or small they may be. This is the David Allen philosophy brought to life (albeit a "light" version).

Wish: I hope they come up with an offline widget for my iPhone because it is not so hot when you can't get online for whatever reasons (I collect and assign lots of tasks while commuting on trains and airplanes, for example) and if you cannot access the site you cannot access your tasks. Aside from that flaw (and the payment model), the work is solid and has been very useful this last two weeks.

There's been a lot of buzz coming out lately around the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program and it's founder, technology guru Nicholas Negropnte, but most of this centers around creating a $200 laptop. If you are not familiar with the program, Negropante wants to bring inexpensive network computing, the XO laptop, to children in the developing world, and recently announced a program where anyone can buy one of the inexpensive green laptops if they also buy one that's given to one of the two billion children in the developing world.

There are a lot of interesting and ground-breaking features that OLPC's XO Laptop is including, but one that I don't think receives much attention is it's new interface for computer-human interaction. According to the OLPC site:

The desktop metaphor is so entrenched in personal computer users' collective consciousness that it is easy to forget what a bold and radical innovation the Graphical User Interface (GUI) was and how it helped free the computer from the 'professionals' who were appalled at the idea of computing for everyone.

Negroponte and his crew want to evolve the WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointer) GUI model away from the business oriented desktop metaphor. Instead, Based on observations by MIT professor Seymor Papert about how kids work with computers, they have created a 'zoom' interface called SUGAR that brings your work off the virtual desktop and into a virtual world, emphasizing community connections. Its principles include:

• Activities: Rather than having 'applications,' the XO interface promotes performing activities that are always collaborative and expressive.
• Presence: Whether its writing, drawing or Web surfing, all activities can be collaborative with the idea that everyone can both teach and learn.
• Expression: The computer becomes a 'thing to think with,' with the activities used to create 'objects' like drawings, songs, stories, or games.
• Journaling: Rather than thinking about writing 'a document' the XO interface promotes recording and organizing your daily activities, recording their daily lives as a portfolio or scrapbook history.

So how do you build an interface around these principles? Not having seen it in action, it's hard to tell from the screen shots provided in the interface demo on the OLPC Web site. They show a series of screen captures without captions and no clear path being followed. However, it looks as if it keeps things simple with you (the user) at the center surrounded by icons representing your immediate network community and activities you can perform. As you work, the interface zooms around as needed, allowing you to join in activities with other members of your community. For example, it's Web browser not only allows you to annotate pages, but also chat with others in your community directly on the page.

The XO interface is definitely is not your father's PC interface, but whether it catches on will depend a lot on how rapid its adaption rate is around the world. If 2 billion children grow up using the OLPC XO Laptop and thinking of it as the way computers work, then Apple and Microsoft may have no choice but to follow the new leader.

Hi folks-- I just wanted to point you over to Boxes and Arrows, where a few months back I published an article about the myth that users don't scroll past the fold line on web pages.

As designers we need to be completely educated about the user behaviors around scrolling in order to save the products we are trying to get people to use. I still hear that folks are trying to cram an insane amount of content above an arbitrary pixel height. (I say arbitrary because it's important to note that the fold itself cant really be accurately pinpointed.) I use some tracking and performance data from AOL sites, TMZ, and a great study done by ClickTale to bolster the case against worrying too much about the fold.

You'll see some really great comments from the design community. I was overwhelmed with the responses because they truly demonstrate what a universal issue this is for designers, and how hard it has been to break through and get clients to believe that users will scroll if the page is designed well and the content is worth it. I hope the article along with the data from ClickTale provides you with some firepower.

And please, add your thoughts to the conversation as well, either here or there.