If the things seemed to be out of order or upside down, you might use this web page.
http://make-everything-ok.com/

The UX is on the spot and the expectation is fullfilled.

Continue from there ...

Here is this great animation ”I Luv UX Design” by Lyle in Vimeo, which illustrates what we do here at Linja J.

-          Vilja Helkiö

Information architecture has been an integrated part of interaction design for years. Sometimes it has been even too integrated, so integrated that it has actually disappeared. I mean that it has been so invisible that nobody has even remembered to pay enough attention to it when doing some software project. The most typical case is that chain between relevant information bundles will break immediately when you need to put data to two different views. This you need to do because you want to show so much information to the user. So, I think we can agree that the link between all relevant information is crucial for end user. Information design is a classic challenge in UI design.

Information has lately risen to be in more important role in user interfaces. The trend seems to be “less features and technologies, more information”. Windows has raised information as the most important element in Windows Phone 7 family, and has done it with highlighting the meaning of texts in the UI. Well, this might be little bit contradictory to what users are started to demand. More visuals, more manageable objects in the screen, more “serious eye candy”. Still, Windows Phone solution is quite nice, classic and working. Point is that relevant information is raised to the priority it should be. Information and connection between different information bundles, like Phonebook- Facebook contact information integration, works really well. That all brings deeper understanding to the end user, in this case about the people the user knows and is in contact with.

Google has also realized the demand of deeper understanding people has. Somehow the internet has shown to people that world is full of information and they have started to want more. Maybe normal people have realized how little we know? Anyway, it is obvious that there is so much information in the universe that all systems should help user to gather, categorize and understand it. This is and will still be the biggest challenge in the user interface design.

Google has now build their version of the solution: Google Knowledge Graph. With this feature they want to show people what other relevant information there exists connected to the the subject user is googling for, and this way provide deeper understanding. To the end user the Knowledge Graph is a quite simple change in the search result view layout. Knowledge Graph adds extra panel next to search results and this panel actually works as a certain kind of aggregator. Quite simple, quite obvious now when you have seen it first time. Just in a way it should be: Simple solution, big meaning to the people. Behind the link you can find the video of Knowledge Graph.

http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.html

I think this also shows that human is still the same: Human being is a curious creature. Human wants to seek, understand and build own models based on the relevant information. Google has realized that the Master of Information rules the world. We as UI designers should also understand this. UI designers should keep the target on providing the most relevant information in the most relevant way to the end user. No matter if we are interaction designers or visual designers. That way we can provide deeper understanding about the system to the human using it. Information to the masses!

Ville Pohjola - Principal UX Designer @ Linja and a curious creature

Yes, heritage of icons sometime date back way back into the past.
Yes, some of the users might have never seen the real world item the icon based on.

Are we too illustrative in iconography?

Should we get more generic to make sure that we don’t have to trash the icon in the future, cause the source the metaphor based on disappeared?

How about the trash can icon, can we rely on it for now, or forever?

Iconography has always been strongly related to time. They are the signs of their time. A timeless, global even universal language of metaphors is far; most likely out of reach. 

Just a little task to illustrate it: Please design a sign on the sealed doors of a nuclear power waist deposit, drilled somewhere into the Finish rock. Make sure that the people can still read and understand it at the time when the place is save from radiation. 

The Floppy Disk means Save, and 14 other old people Icons that don't make sense anymore

The article linked to this posting is not a very scientific although the author Scott Hanselman is a former professor (didn’t say of what discipline). It is a good trigger for a discussion.

Personally I like the idea that items of the past like the phone handle have a second life in world of smart phones and floppy disk can live beside the cloud.

Introducing new metaphors for save, call, bookmark or address book might end up on as logos introduced by a platform owner with the biggest multiplying factor. Then we are not far form patents on icons!

This Wednesday, the 23rd of May the Aalto University Media Lab presents their works in Media Lab Demo Day. Traditionally there has been innovative new concepts in the fields of UX Design, games, music, digital arts and animation.
http://mlab.taik.fi/news/2012/04/23/preliminary-info-on-media-lab-demo-day/
http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?page_id=693

The Aalto University graduates are showing their works in MoA exhibition. There are also interesting new user experiences, for example "how a knitted work can be a user interface". MoA is open daily from 12pm to 8pm, and on Saturdays from 12pm to 18pm, free of charge. The exhibition continues until 3rd of June.
http://www.aalto.fi/fi/current/events/archive/view/moa2012/ (information in Finnish).

Research work at Microsoft Applied Sciences has produced a prototype of a see-through 3D desktop experience:

--AOK--

Both Toyota and GM have introduced concepts on interactive car window displays.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/19/gm-teams-with-future-lab-on-interactive-windows-of-opportunity/

http://ciid.dk/2011/09/02/ciidtoyota-window-to-the-world-at-copenhagen-design-week/

--AOK--

The blog Little Big Details presents some clever UI details that make the life of the user easier and more pleasant. These are the things we UX designers always like to include.

--AOK--

Microsoft posted the first preview video of Windows 8. The demo seems to run quite smoothly. Icons are out and tiles are in, as we’ve seen on Windows Phone 7. A lot of attention is put on touch screen usage, which has been lacking in older Windows versions. Switching between multitasking applications by sweeping in from the edge sounds like a good gesture. Also the ability to run apps in split screen without fiddling with traditional windows is nice.

--AOK--

Two instructive stories (5 minutes each) that illustrate a typical user experience failure, why such errors keep happening and how easy the fix can be once you understand the problem. It's fascinating to watch the narrator (Jared Spool) and illustrator (Jason Robb) tell the story together using an animated live sketching technique. Bad Swipe - how a bad error message can be costly, both literally and in terms of user experience:

Mind the Gap - a story about a typical pitfall in online shopping user experience:

LS