What My Two-Year Old Usability Expert Can Teach Us

My daughter Sydney is about about two and a half at the time of this post. In that time she's only known the iPhone as as a toy and Mom and Dad's cell phone of choice. So for her mimicking her parents meant sliding her finger across the screen and (hopefully given that Mom and Dad had not set the password parameter up) wah-lah a wonderful little world of colors and squares that did things when touched. She had figured out how to access the main menu before she turned one.  Watching this dance was not only fascinating but frightening as the user interface (UI) is so incredibly intuitive she was literally fishing through applications with no little no understanding or caring of what they did. To her it's lights, sounds and wonder; to me however, it was usability testing 101.

I guess I should have seen it coming seeing as the rubber shell for my iPhone (gen one) was her first chew toy. That being said it's been fascinating for me to watch my Princess bang around apps with not a care in the world of what it does. I repeat that point because as a designer/developer we're often so tied to the outcome we forget the passage. For her it's all about 'what can I make it do.' Her primary interest initially [seemed] simply to click to the next screen. Therefore, from a foundational UI standpoint she's the perfect tester.

Here's a list of simple truths I've observed:

• When you make the same button in the same location do two different actions it immediately becomes confusing (e.g. YouTube's login and Sign Out on the same button)
• Differentiate with greater detail what you want people to do with colors, shapes and sizes
• Give 'call to actions' (CTA's) screen prominence and visual triggers
• Show a brief demo of where to click and the ensuing action it creates
• With children's applications use audio as a key driver for delivering action and reward
• With children's applications don't forget that things [should] be silly and whimsical; I've come to note a couple of elearning apps that have failed to be "fun" and have garnered only seconds of my daughters attention
• Keep it simple and light. You're not using this thing to hack into the Kremil and stop a bomb from detonating
• Never presume! Never think that the user knows your brand, product or in any way how your applicaiton/website should work, feel or react
• Children's applications often have a lot of repetitious content and while this is good from a cognitive standpoint remember that their attention span is very short if not captured
• Lastly, how many times has it actually been repeated played? I'm of the mindset now that if I get a-play-a-day for a week it was worth the $.99 download – especially if she genuinely learned something along the way

Another item to note is that if you truly intend to "teach" with an application that it's incredibly important to hire an instructional designer. While they cannot design the outcome of the education it is crucial at the very least the material to be learned can be conveyed with proper instruction. It's important to note the type of child/person that you're building the material for as well. Instructional designers will take different paths to maximize the success of different kinds of learners such as autistic, ADHD and other special needs scenarios.

Lastly, since now that Mom and Dad have migrated to a G3 she's one of the few two-year olds blinging' an iPhone full of great applications like:

• Dr. Suess
• Animal Sounds
• Old McDonald
• Talking Carl

More from a recent article in Fast Company:

Since its initial release in 2001, the iPod has received acclaim for its easy-to-use interface. Now, with the release of the iPad, we wondered if Apple's latest product was so simple even a 5-year-old could use it. Here is our completely unscientific hands-on research.

100 Ways For Designers To Stay Young

It occurred to me today that one of the most important things one can do as they take on a career in advertising, design or digital pursuits is to stay young. I think it's probably one of my greater fears now that I'm climbing to 40 in this industry. So while I'm not the best in the world at it, I'm certainly not the worst. Here is a quick list you can start with on your road to the fountain of youth:

1. Don't overlook terms and slang you don't understand look it up.
2. Buy a video game console (I'm a Wii fan myself) and buy/play a game every few months.
3. Watch highly trafficked YouTube videos at lunch.
4. Walk up to a group of kids and ask them what music they're listening to.
5. Go to a local music act, and a large concert a few times a year. Observe intently.
6. Txt message on your phone.
7. Decorate a friends kids room.
8. Role-play in meetings.
9. Setup a search column on your tweet deck for "Coolest, Dumbest" and related slang appropriate to your business.
10. Drop the suit, pick up the jeans.
11. Write down 10 things you think are cool and show it to a teenager and see if there's overlap.
12. Design or marketing a toy.
13. Find a friend with a Jeep and go "mudding."
14. Hang out with a car club.
15. Cover the break room table with butcher block paper and put out crayons and markers – all the time.
16. Eavesdrop.
17. Make a hopscotch path in your corporate parking lot.
18. Tailgate at a college sporting event.
19. Play with your kids. If you don't have any go to a friends house that does.
20. Reconnect with books from your childhood.
21. Design a live poster for a local band.
22. Start a Nerf war with your staff.
23. Have your staff create a logo for a kids product.
24. Watch music videos (I recommend VIVO or MTV.com)
25. Review your friends photos on Facebook regularly. Comment and ask questions.
26. Go to a college house party.
27. Play some old video games consoles.
28. Go to an independent film festival.
29. Go to SXSW.
30. Go to a 'Extreme Sports' event.
31. In spired your staff to decorate their offices as a reflection of themselves. Have them recreate it every year.
32. Share music – with your kids.
33. Attend a kids birthday party.
34. Get a tattoo.
35. Design some graffiti.
36. Ask a teenager what their favorite products are? See if you can correlate any stylistic or brand affinities.
37. Participate in open conversations online. (e.g. Linkedin.com's "Answers" area)
38. Attend a LGBT event.
39. Play a social game like Farmville or Mafia Wars for one week.
40. Watch at a couple of hours or young television programming a week.
41. Become a Big Brother or Big Sister.
42. Have a groups of friends stay over a weekend, and not have weird swinger sex. Just "chillax."
43. Babysit for a friend in need.
44. Adopt an animal.
45. Hang out in an Apple store for a day.
46. Design a layout halfway, then invert it and complete it in its current state.
47. Play "alphabet" and "punchbug" while driving.
48. Don't step on cracks.
49. Lift up your feet when you go over railroad tracks.
50. Ask your parents and grandparents what their childhood was like.
51. Go to Asian and European grocery stores and look at the designs for kids candy.
52. Volunteer at a locally based community charity.
53. Buy a huge box of Legos and put them in the break room.
54. Go camping.
55. Go to an arcade in the mall and play a roll of quarters.
56. Be immature.
57. Participate in a flash mob.
58. Participate in a tweetup.
59. Go to a skateboard shop and look over all the designs.
60. Buy new fonts from young font houses.
61. Go to a club that you wouldn't be caught dead in. Stay for a least a hour at the peak of intensity.
62. Sing to your co-workers.
63. Chew bubble gum.
64. Take someone out on their 21 birthday.
65. Take 10 photos a day with your cell phone.
66. Throw a Frisbee outside when you should be working.
67. Listen to a new genre of music for at least one week.
68. Wear popular sneakers.
69. Go to the mall. Observe people, fashion, interaction, products, product placement and the Ingress and egress of stores and how they flow people through merchandise.
70. Go to an all day outdoor concert festival.
71. "Shotgun" a beer.
72. Go to IKEA.
73. Watch Animea.
74. Talk to the people next to you on plane trips.
75. Collect something inexpensive and interesting (e.g. Lucky Cats, swizzel sticks, bottle caps)
76. Play a harmless practical joke.
77. Make fun and laugh at yourself.
78. Dance unexpectedly in public.
79. Go to a major theme park at least once a year.
80. Mentally shop for a car with the mindset that you 18 and have 18k to spend.
81. Buy, wear and trade t-shirts.
82. Make little movies with your cell phone or dated technology.
83. Go to a tattoo shop and look at the designs.
84. Go to a dive bar.
85. Go play pool in a dive bar.
86. Play World of Warcraft for a week.
87. Get thrown out of a dive bar.
88. Go to Toy's R Us and watch what toys kids gravitate to.
89. Do a pro-bono design to help children locally.
90. Make up games to play at the office.
91. Skip, ride a swing and climb some monkey bars.
92. Take a morning and goto the airport for coffee and write down observances in fashion, communal interactions and various levels of intensity.
93. Go to Babies R' Us and look at logos.
94. Go to a live college sporting event.
95. Play kick or dodge ball.
96. Sit in the magazine section of Barnes & Noble and absorb as much as possible.
97. Buy an entire outfit online – including shoes.
98. Read a series of books aimed at your demo (e.g.  Twilight, Harry Potter, Where the Sidewalk Ends)
99. Go buy some comic books.
100. Talk to teenagers.

Infographic Meets Design Visualization Meets War

Informational/educational graphics have come a very long way in the past 20 years. From pie charts, to metrics, to dying from PowerPoint these graphic have been breaking the ties that bind them to traditional delivery vehicles. Recently I can across this little gem:

Japan-The Strange Country (English ver.) from Kenichi on Vimeo.

Of course this is simply one example of making the educational content stylized and interesting and therefore more entertaining to watch or engage. We're seeing a massive influx of techniques and tactics that span beyond simply making it "look cool." The expectation for informational/educational graphic is also now how "repurposeable is the content?

• Can you work be translated easily?
• Is it culturally safe and internationally recognizable?
• Can the work be used across executable mediums?
• Is the work confined to one campaign? What level of versatility does it contain? Remember, the more versatile the more you can feasibly charge for it because the client can note the added value of 'one to many' advertorial application.
• Can it be used to sell as well as educate?
• Video, print, web, gaming and or trade shows?

Some other beautiful examples of this mindset:

• Themes For A Good Infographic
• What Makes a Good Infographic?
• 5 Essential Social Media Infographics For Marketers
• Data Visualization and Infographics
• Data visualization and infographics resources for design inspiration
• The Beauty of Infographics and Data Visualization
• 13 Interesting Infographics for Web Workers
• Stunning Infographics and Data Visualization
• ...and of course Visual Complexity.

/// TANGENT WARNING /// - no need to read any further I've made my point.

When you look at the modern day designer and advertising agency it all starts with 'integration' and how much can you give you client with minimized budgets. In warfare their are such things as tactical "strikes" to specific locations, groups and geographical areas – such the same is the modern advertiser. Saddly, there always seems like there money for war but not my projects – but I digress. Never before has the modern agency been given the statistical, demographic and campaign measurement as they have with today tools.

Of course the differentiator here is we don't want to 'kill' the enemy but 'engage' the customer. But just like the enemy the customer is smarter than we will ever be. They add, edit and delete interests and loyalties to brands, product and services faster than ever before. Like speed dating, technologies and products are more cost effective and therefor more disposable. The Toyota driver of today, is the Ford driver of tomorrow is the eco-aware company of the future, is the 'bike to work' commuter. Therefore the future is in extension, communication and reaction to the wants of the consumer and not the presumptions of aggregated data.

Publishing 2.0

Since this post appeared Mashable.com released this list as well.

When you hear about the Apple iPad you get an earful of comments. It's just a glorified Kindle! It's one more thing that delivers content, I have a laptop. Is it really worth the money? Then the questions – Will it single handedly bring print as we know it out of the fire? Will it dominate the hand-held gaming industry? Will it be the premiere platform or will it simply die out like the Microsoft Zune? Poor sad little Zune.

We've been hearing for years that newspapers are dead, magazines are dead, print is dead! Ok, well with all this dying why is every Barnes & Noble packed with ten rows of death! Like the iPad or not, it's clear it and its tablet counterparts are going to quickly spark a publishing revolution. See the following videos and tell me if these are your Dad's magazine stack:

Like it or not, want one or not, it's clear that you've never seen the publishing (advertising, rich media, video, gaming, travel) industry so hyped for something in a long time. The iPad and the ensuing mass flood of tablets coming onto the marketplace this year might just start a new content revolution. There's a lot we don't know about what will be on the market at full launch. The much touted rumors that tablets will resurrect the comic book industry is still a hot topic. But we can confidently assume that never before has a single marketplace (like publishing) had a platform that they can take a traditional approach and turn it on it's ear. So sit back, relax and start interacting with your magazines!

Playstation Finally 'Moves' Off Its Ass

Now real surprise here but Sony's jumping into the motion controller world with their Sony PlayStation "Move" system. It looks like it's going to be a fall release based on what I'm seeing online. Additionally, there's some decent advertising circling the web to support attention to the launch. The new ad campaign A new ad for the Sony PlayStation move, featuring the actor Jerry Lambert as Kevin Butler (the twitter account is a must see), assails the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft's Project

Like I discussed in a previous post, the Wii is simply ahead of the curve right now. How well the play out their marketing dominance with motion controlled gaming remains to be seen. But it's clear that they finally have a fight on their hands (every relevant pun intended). Other than looking like a dorky clowns nose on a light-saber I will say that it seems promising. It's hard to say without actual game play.

So far there's a limited grouping of game coming online, but fear not I'm sure this list will double in size but the time it actually hits the street:

Games made for PlayStation®Move

• Move Party (working title)
• Motion Fighter (working title)
• Sports Champions™
• The Shoot (working title)
• TV Superstars™
• Brunswick® Pro Bowling

Games that are compatible with PlayStation®Move

• DUALSHOCK®3 and SIXAXIS®controller
• SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs
• EyePet™
• Disney•Pixar Toy Story 3

The Age Of Micro Mobile Banners

So the question of the day is have you ever clicked on a banner on your cell phone? The industry is all a buzz that we MUST start buying up this 'much needed real estate' for our clients. While I don't necessarily disagree right now, it seems that the banners are more brand placement (ergo amping up brand equity) than actual click-through (CTR).

Click here and take a quick poll for me here regarding this topic.

The bigger conversation here is that we're all doing our best to figure out if we marketing our audience in the right way or are we simply thinking of it (the mobile platform) as a mini version of the web? We are doing better creating mobile enable content which is essential to this nano-attention demo. But is it enough? Are we looking at the tool through the lens of the mobile-minded user? Only time will tell if we are doing it right but I can tell you that mobile users are going to expect more than ads and tiny sales page.

The future of the mobile web advertiser:

• Make it fast
• Make it fun; educational; shocking or addictive
• Give me something for my time (people think of their cell phone even a closer tie to them than their laptop or desktop units)
• Have it link to a supporting mobile OS run application
  • The app better do something more than push your marketing message
  • The app better not make me feel like my time has been wasted
  • The app better have a reason to use it, again and again or it'll be deleted in a second
  • The app needs to feel like a part of the brand "fabric" – if your Harley Davidson it better be hard core and irreverent; if your Acura it better be sleek and techie-proof – dig it.
• Make getting the app feel seamless
• Keep your content fresh and topical; version control, version control, version control!
• Support your brand with a nod to the related industry (exclusivity is becoming seen as uneducated) and remind the user why this brand, product and or service is better than all the rest.