Evgenia* Grinblo

Mind maps have been very useful in our process at Future Workshops, and I finally got around to doing a post/tutorial about how they help us.

Very excited to be on UX Booth - one of my favorite UX blogs.

“Give me the strength to handle with compassion those who are full of ignorance and hate.” #MiddleEast

Hilarious blog by Cole Peters

“You’ve selected too many rows. Which is, like, o-b-v-i-o-u-s-l-y greedy. Fix your manners and try again.”

Error courtesy of Outlook web app. Submitted by @barry_richards

skeuit:

this obviously draws from the early ipod prototypes, where users touched a popsicle stick wedged in the chassis to assign random order to the playlists.

via pacificadreams

Speaking at #geekynight (thanks, @dcasarin) (Taken with Instagram)

dictionaryofobscuresorrows:

n. a flash of real emotion glimpsed in someone sitting across the room, idly locked in the middle of some group conversation, their eyes glinting with vulnerability or quiet anticipation or cosmic boredom—as if you could see backstage through a gap in the curtains, watching stagehands holding their ropes at the ready, actors in costume mouthing their lines, fragments of bizarre sets waiting for some other production.

Mind the Gap at Ignite Shoreditch, June 2012

That’s me — hiding in the shadow, talking about weird shoes, men in skirts, and the importance of talking to people you make things for.

YouTube: bit.ly/LYRe0k 

#London2012 (Taken with Instagram at Riverbank Arena)

I started a new Tumblr today, filled with screenshots from a dusty folder in DropBox. Send over your own terrible error finds to hello [at] grinblo dot com.

errorwallofshame:

“Oops, you stepped on a landmine. By the by, it was fatal. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

These error message boxes are reminiscent of the scene in old war movies where an ill-fated soldier steps on a landmine while advancing across the rice paddy … as soon as he removes his foot from the mine, it will explode, taking some large and useful part of his body with it. Users get this feeling when they see most error message boxes, and they wish they were thousand miles away, back in the real world. — About Face 3

(Thanks, @AnnaTricity)

userflow:

1. Keep good company
2. Notice the ordinary
3. Preserve the ephemeral
4. Design not for the elite but for the masses
5. Explain it to a child
6. Get lost in the content
7. Get to the heart of the matter
8. Never tolerate “O.K. anything.”
9. Remember your responsibility as a storyteller
10. Zoom out
11. Switch
12. Prototype it
13. Pun
14. Make design your life… and life, your design.
15. Leave something behind.

theuxreview:

A bit of a different take on our usual post, but nonetheless, this is an insightful analysis of the value of creating excellent content. 

takethecrosstown:

Site visitors and app users come for the content. Of course, the information architecture (IA) and the site search must make that content easy to find. The design must be attractive and usable. The technology must work. But IA, search, design, and technology are all there to support the content that people come for: the words and images that make up the conversations between your visitors and your site or app.

“Life’s too short to own an ugly pencil. Obsess about the tools you use.”

Source: Notes on Design by Brendan Dawes (FOWD London 2012 Keynote) http://bit.ly/JBjrJt

I saw Brendan speak yesterday at Reasons to Be Appy (by @reasonsfestival) and he was brilliant. This is a set of slides from another one of his presentations. 

Twitter: @brendandawes 

Whoa :)

littlebigdetails:

Mac OSX - The world map displayed within the Data & Time system preference panel changes with the seasons.

/via John Blackburn

I want me some of this paint. Idea Paint by Behance can transform any wall into a whiteboard. Really, what else can a girl want?

Buy here http://bit.ly/KNrSOo but beware — you must have a U.S. address to order.

It’s good to see an app creator go so far to understand the context their product will fit into. Instead of taking a pic outside the tube station, going underground and emerging to see your photo loaded, with Instagram you come out of the station to read your friends’ comments. Makes all the difference.

jxnblk:

This is how you do mobile UX. (via @DuaneKinsey)

Great little window into the lives of people we pass by but not always see.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-accordion-girl,0,6856126.htmlstory

incisive:

Audio slideshows are one of my favorite things right now. Such economical, rich storytelling in some of these.

Working through a conceptual problem can require some old school methods. And a baby blue pen.

“You may not open this PDF because… well, frankly I think those flags are kind of mean.” 

Let’s see here: zero helpfulness, incomprehensible, and negative. Ticks all the naughty error message boxes. 

“Now, what kind of name is THAT?” 

via @Chilvman 

“Would you like the view the last edition of Punctuation Quarterly? By the way, your computer is on fire.” 

Thanks, @jon_hocking.

“Too…much…error. Can’t…help…. OK?”

Via @cole_peters

“You haven’t entered any passwords. EPIC FAIL!”

“Your browser was very bad. It should not be expecting a visit from Santa this year.”

That’s what she said.

Thanks, Anna!

“We’re sorry, you’re too working class to plan an event. Your privileges are insufficient. Please arm yourself with a heterosexual, middle-class, white male to continue.”

Thanks, @Chilvman

“Your waiter’s on a break. You’ll have to wait for your soup longer than expected.”

“Please confirm that you are OK with losing your calendar events and missing any number of future meetings. Thanks.”

“A government agent has remotely accessed your device and is downloading your personal information. OK?”

“Your software can’t install because you’re hiding or failed to register a file. It’s not really the file that’s invalid - it’s you. Please call 1-800-FAIL and cite error number 339.”

Source: Personal Computer Fixes

“You’ve selected too many rows. Which is, like, o-b-v-i-o-u-s-l-y greedy. Fix your manners and try again.”

Error courtesy of Outlook web app. Submitted by @barry_richards

“Oh, why so upset? Haven’t you read the small print during signup that said: ONCE YOU GIVE US MONEY YOUR SOUL IS OURS. Not exactly our fault, is it?”

Source: http://bit.ly/NtA6jX

No comment.

Submitted by @annatricity. 

I had the pleasure of being invited to speak about The Error Wall of Shame at Geeky, London this evening. I armed myself with juicy errors and the most adorable Flickr cats I could find. The slides are up on Speaker Deck and a video recording is coming in the next few weeks. 

Thanks to those who attended - glad you like cats as much as I do :)

“It may be a little late to bring this up, but… you’re so useless at computers that you should really consider calling it a day. Trust me, it’s for the best.”

Source: Owen’s World

“This is your Y2K paranoia speaking. 2012 is indeed the true end of the world. Please leave this bus stop and proceed to your bunker.” 

Submitted from a London bus stop by our field reporter, @annatricity ;) 

“Stop everything you’re doing. I have to alert you to this very important message: EVERYTHING. IS. FINE.” 

Source: Fotozup

“We couldn’t post your tweet because tweeting on Twitter is forbidden. D’ya really think you could get away with this one?”

Submitted by Cole Peters.

If the application were a human assistant and it staged a sit-down strike in the middle of the Accounting Department because we handed it an incomplete form, we’d be pretty upset… Error message boxes come from a failure of applications to behave reasonably, not from any failure of users. — About Face 3