As many of you know my day job is as a Regional Sales Manager for Schreder Lighting here in the USA. I was recently traveling with one of my lighting agents and had the opportunity to see the new addition to the office of a major Landscape Architecture firm. As we walked through the addition I admired the Green Roof , the pervious pavers, the sediment control, the line of sight to daylight and a number of other ecologically friendly improvements. In my head I started adding up the LEED points and had almost gotten to Silver when I was introduced to the lead designer. I mentioned that this was a very nice LEED project. His comment to me”It may be but we never applied for LEED Certification.” When I asked why he stated “We did this because it is Good Design, Not as a Eco-Marketing tool. Most of the people who hire us know we are good at what we do and we did it because it was the right way to do the project” Sitting up on their green roof where they have an assortment of peppers and herbs growing it was explained to me that they did the green roof because they wanted a salsa garden. As far as the use of pavers they said that they could sit with a client on the green roof garden and by seeing what types of things their client liked about what they saw around the building they as a designer could get an idea on how to proceed with the design of their product. So Great Design as markerting tool not LEED as Marketing Tool.

Did you know that less than a third of all software projects are delivered successfully?  By that, I mean on time, within budget and meeting the requirements of the users?  It’s not a great statistic at all.  As an industry we ought to be somewhat ashamed by this. 

The really sad thing about it, however, is the extent to which the remaining two thirds – those projects which fail - might have been avoided.  It’s pretty clear to see that a significant proportion of these failing projects fail for the same reasons, time after time:

• Inadequate Requirements;
• Poor Estimation;
• Low Stakeholder Engagement.

Of course, within each category the usual suspects crop up: lack of understanding of the context of a system, poor communication, scope creep, lack of organisation, corporate bureaucracy, and so on and so forth.  All of these things are common to almost any software project, so an outsider would be forgiven for wondering just why we don’t learn from our mistakes and do something smart to help reduce their impact.

That smart thing, of course, is the process of Requirements Prototyping.  Which is, as you will probably know by now if you follow this blog, the process of creating interactive models of designs and using them to solicit constructive feedback from business stakeholders, users and basically anyone who needs to have a say in the outcome of a project.  Sure, there’s more to it than that, but in essence it is not overly complicated and the benefits in operating this way outweigh the additional costs – significantly, in the case of larger projects.

So, it’s a real tragedy that doing this smart thing is still so rare in modern software developments.  Many companies might toy with the idea of building a prototyping in a half-hearted way, getting too bogged down in the stylistics without really using it as a powerful medium for evaluating designs, facilitating change and clarifying requirements.  Like driving a sports car in a traffic jam, it’s a waste of the potential and a real shame.  To get the real benefit – to get out of first gear, if you will – is to use a software prototype as a living, breathing specification and actively evaluate and refine it, involving all stakeholders.

If you do this, you will certainly increase your chances of finding yourself in that 1/3 of projects which are delivered successfully. 

To pass up the opportunity would be a real tragedy indeed.

Recently noticed most of the sites nowadays have moved away from marking the form fields as mandatory or required. Is this the change in trend or there is a reason behind it? Are we ignoring user experience or the users have become smart enough?

Attribute of a designer – Provide a design to user which is self awakening and user-friendly. A user should be able to complete an activity in minimum clicks and it’s the responsibility and power of a designer to straighten out the complexes. In a project which is not conceptualized by a designer goes nowhere in the long run, we all know this with our own experiences. Fortunately, user experience and designers are now becoming essential for any good web designing firm that targets to reach the heights and survive there for long.

Power of good design – An intelligent design can change the perception of users. When the web world is facing North, only a designer can make web users turn to see towards South, such is the power of designer!

A quick peek into the forms for most appreciated sites of 2009, which have become a point of reference for most of the design boutiques

Beanstalk – Here I submitted the blank form to test what all fields I actually need to enter data and which ones I can avoid. Surprisingly all fields are mandatory to create an account excluding the Discount section. The instruction below Coupon Code field is very supportive for user ‘If you don’t know the code, just skip this field’. Similarly if a single line instruction was added above the form saying ‘All fields are mandatory’ would have saved the time of user to revisit missing fields .
http://beanstalkapp.com/

Blogfullbliss - This site has a neat Signup form. While I’m filling the data, the checks are happening in parallel – If data is filled correctly in mandatory fields, Checks on availability of Username, Error for invalid or missed field. I don’t have to wait to find what I have filled incorrectly after submission of ‘Register’ button. They have covered all the basic design requirements – marking mandatory fields with an asterisk and adding instruction line just below the form. A trick applied here – Instead of having a long Sign-Up form for user, it has been broken into 3 quick steps – Fill out form, Confirm email and Welcome.

Maybe Yahoo! can consider the same treatment instead of its never ending sign-up form.

http://www.blogfullbliss.com/

http://www.yahoo.com

No point in asking the user pointless information. If you want to collect a database for spamming, then this is not your place, go and buy it from sites that sell email ids but don’t make the user regret signing on your site. Just few essential questions are good for user to access the site. We are not referring to sites which have data related to national security. In case you want any information which might be required for showcasing data to user then do it in facebook style –  Below the birthday column (In Sign-Up form) there is a link ‘Why do I need to provide this?’ Click on it and you know the reason.

On the other hand WAYN missed this and on clicking Sign-up button a warning window appears above the page, which not only adds irrelevant scrolling for a small window but the way it has presented the content looks a job of a non-designer. The colors, alignment and complete presentation of the warning window doesn’t fall anywhere close to the site design. Are we missing carry forward of branding here?

Messaging Styles

Facebook – On submission instead of showing red text next to all fields, if one common line is used for complete form it can also be a good idea.
http://www.facebook.com

Fliggo – uses a typical style for error messages on submission of forms. A mandatory asterisk next to form labels could have avoided this stage but this also seems fine since the information asked are the basic ones.
http://www.fliggo.com/

MailChimp – Sign-Up form does give some supportive message to user.

http://www.mailchimp.com/

Mint – Shows error messages in reverse order
http://www.mint.com/
If I just click my cursor on Email field and move down to ‘Sign Up’ button. I submitted a blank form and in the below snapshot you can see, I first received a red cross next to ‘password’ field.

So I went ahead and filled password details and tried submitting the form again. On second submission I received red cross error for Zip code while other fields were given a green signal.

For “Create a new account form” a user is asked to Confirm Email apart from password, not sure why confirmation for email is required.

Qik – In case form is submitted incorrectly, the complete form shifts down and shows the error messages on top of form. Reminds me of my early days in internet world. Designers please make sure – the sequence of error messages is same as that of the form. It really bugs!
http://qik.com/

Below are some more examples of error messaging and form field instructions

TED – follows the style as per W3C with red asterisk next to form labels and instructions wherever needed.
http://www.ted.com

The sequence of error messages at top of form should be preferably in same sequence as the form flow – this part seemed missing here too. Just a bit of caution won’t harm.

I understand Skype and Twitter are built with different concepts but still I like their stylized presentation.

http://www.skype.com

http://www.twitter.com

Benetton.

make your design to be a simple things and get some trick idea into your idea…. if it confuse, please contact me later….. MAKE A BAD DESIGN BE A EXPENSIVE DESIGN and DON’T MAKE A GOOD DESIGN FOR LOWER PRICE. it’s waste your idea and your time…..it’s all about commercial things.

a part of designer in the world make it commercial design but for local designer have strong idealism and it’s a part of way to kill your idea and make your concept be a lower price. it’s not all about money, it’s not speculation but all about compenent to be a good design governance…… if you have the good idea, don’t make your idea be a mad but make it be a best concept so don’t look your skill but look the opportunity…. so you must practice…practice…and practice…. don’t jugde your friends efforts and don’t compare your work with your friends works it’s make your friend hurt……it’s a bad habit…….

remember god works very mysterious……..

so becareful

“THE GREATEST CREATIVE DIRECTOR IS YOURS”

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Web Design Charlotte, are website design consultants, committed to develop the existing websites, who are not thriving well in the realm of World Wide Web. When approached by our clients for helping them to elevate their performance level, we first investigate into the root cause of their non-performance problem. In almost all cases, we find the most common causes are – that their website was a) poorly designed, 2) content not crisp enough, in detailing their tasks and c) poor choice of a web design developer, who was not able to deliver the goods.
In order to improve the performance of our clients,  Web Design Charlotte set right their website starting from their bottom line deficiencies:
Good Design – We don’t compromise on the visibility of the Website Design Charlotte. We take special care to ensure that they are highly professional and convey what the website is all about. A glance at the design should convey the objectives of the website to the visitor.

Home page – When we redesign the home page of the client, we ensure that it portrays all what the site is about, to the visitors, who are automatically tempted to click through the remaining pages of the site.

Value – We are focused on a solution to our clients’ problems and meeting their needs. A mission statement of the website, though highly relevant is superfluous and redundant in a website.
Navigation- We explain to our clients that their websites are not a place to play hide and seek games with their potential customers. They should be user-friendly and the pages easily navigable by them.

Flash – Optimum – We want our clients to keep in mind their potential customers viewing their site on cell phone or PDA. Flashes are slow to download and extremely vexing in case they are searching for some specific information. In case one potential customer is dissatisfied, he is likely to broadcast wrong messages to his friends and acquaintances, detrimental to our client’s cause.

Contact Details – We explain to our clients that contact details like the phone number is essential and has to be displayed in the site’s home page. The importance of this cannot be underestimated. Many businesses have remained undeveloped due to this single factor.

Content – This is the most vital perquisite for drawing visitors to our clients’ website. A well written, keyword-rich content acts as a magnet in drawing visitors. Content should be rich enough both for search engines and human beings.

In a nutshell, we, Website Design Charlotte and Charlotte Internet Marketing are giving yeomen service in rejuvenating existing lifeless websites.

By Hadi Alaeddin
Originally Published On aslittledesign
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I tried embedding this video but it’s not working…

WATCH THIS VIDEO!

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Maybe you know this already, but the work of Dieter Rams is getting more exposure and being noticed by non-product designers more and more every day. His work and teachings are things I spent my college years and even after with, learning more with every thing I read…

His words are not to be taken lightly , neither can he be confused with other famous names in the design world… He does not say or do the irrelevant, the unnecessary, or the fantastic. He’s a designer with a collective experience that surpasses groups of young designers put together.

Just now his work is being published in a way it deserves. Later this month the amazing publisher Gestalten books is releasing Less and More The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams. It looks awesome, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

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What bothered me after these principle spread over all online communities is the fact that I’ve had an idea of a poster in my head, even though it’s a personal project, I never got around to finalizing it. But I did post how I have those ten principles on the walls of my room and the office.

Bibliothèque An amazing design studio was commisioned by Vitsoe to do that poster for the ten principles, and it looks good, based on a very well-thought of grid, and photographs and color palette that really feel like dieter rams’ work. I liked it even though it made me hate my self for not doing my idea.

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I tried embedding this video but it’s not working… go and WATCH THIS VIDEO!

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Maybe you know this already, but the work of Dieter Rams is getting more exposure and being noticed by non-product designers more and more every day. His work and teachings are things I spent my college years and even after with, learning more with every thing I read…

His words are not to be taken lightly , neither can he be confused with other famous names in the design world… He does not say or do the irrelevant, the unnecessary, or the fantastic. He’s a designer with a collective experience that surpasses groups of young designers put together.

Just now his work is being published in a way it deserves. Later this month the amazing publisher Gestalten books is releasing Less and More The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams. It looks awesome, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

…

What bothered me after these principle spread over all online communities is the fact that I’ve had an idea of a poster in my head, even though it’s a personal project, I never got around to finalizing it. But I did post how I have those ten principles on the walls of my room and the office.

Bibliothèque An amazing design studio was commisioned by Vitsoe to do that poster for the ten principles, and it looks good, based on a very well-thought of grid, and photographs and color palette that really feel like dieter rams’ work. I liked it even though it made me hate my self for not doing my idea.

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A clever little toy for when you’re stuck in the office! These are sheets of paper with pre-printed sports ball patterns. All you have to do is crumple them up, and you’ve got a neat little toy to play with! Being paper, they also double as something you can actually work on.

You have at least one key ring for your keys- why not have it in the key? This design cuts off the unnecessary head of the key, removing bulk from your pocket, and simplifying what you carry down to the bare minimums.

A promotion for a new “Resident Evil” video game, these shirts added an element of dress up to themselves, making them more play with-able than your average shirt. By rolling up the bottom, your arms go stiff and a zombie face, printed on the inside, appears over your head. This way, you can quickly go from calm shirt to ZOMBIE MODE!

This is based off of a patent investigated after his death. A clever little tool, Michael himself crafted this for stage performances. To perform his trick in which he would lean far too drastically to one side to continue standing, but of course did, Jackson designed a small notch in his shoes. Then, at just the right moment, a peg would rise from the stage, hooking into the notch so as to keep him upright. No strings and no million dollar effects, this simple peg system was very effective!

This is a special purse designed to rid you of paparazzi. Though I don’t imagine the average person has much need for this, the design is still clever. It’s a purse designed with especially reflective materials  so as return the flash the paparazzi use right back to them, ruining their shot and hopefully convincing them to stop trying.

When cooking, people often keep a hand towel nearby for themselves and for messes. This towel adds more usefulness than just absorbency by including written conversions on its face. This way, cooks have convenient and easy conversions right there, along with something they would have had anyway, and do not need to run to a computer or heavy cooking book.

This is a screwdriver who’s handle can be removed and re-attached sideways. This provides for extra grip, corkscrew style. This is a great idea that requires little extra but would greatly help in situations like taking apart a pre-assembled tool, in which the screws would likely be machine attached and very stuck in.

This helps those who are hesitant to use a trap. It adds a bit of a human element to the whole thing- yes, you are killing the creature, but it still gets a decent little coffin, and you could bury it or do whatever you’d feel best doing with it in that state. Additionally, then you don’t have to see the dead beast.

Want a personal touch? Look no further! This door creates a personality for itself, and makes a simple interaction- opening a door- into a much more human moment. Additionally, because of the contours, it creates much more surface and better places to grab than the traditional round knob, making it easier to use.

A whimsical thing from yesteryear, Giganta was a set for children’s playgrounds. It had several of the staples, like slides and climbing equipment, but added fun by disguising its metal work as the innards of Giganta, the big robot, instead of just ugly pipes and left over woods! This adds personality to the set and makes the park itself look more fun and inviting just through some paint and clever design.

(By the way, I wrote GIGANTA! GO! GO! Big red man!)

A $1 toy, this is a clever way to get a plane to fly. It works off of human strength- just load the plane bullet and pull! However, this works very well, and lets you put in and release out more power than many models would otherwise if they ran off of batteries, or auto-threw the planes in some manor.

Costing only $1, this fly swatter gun was a clever piece of plastic! It contained only one spring and no gears, and instead relied on living hinges for a cheap yet effective method of fly murder. Pulling back the swatter clamped it into a lock, which when the trigger was pulled allowed the extending arms to clamp and kill the little buzzer! A lot of other methods could have been used to create this, but would mostly have cost more and been less effective, so this was well designed!

Available from Noodles and Company, this functions as your standard gift card. However, for no extra cost, and adding no extra width, the card comes with a little mood meter. The strip fluctuates in color with your body heat, as mood rings do. This adds an element of play to the card, and makes it more interesting, so that you interact with it longer than just swiping it once in a while. From the company’s standpoint, this also creates more time of you peering at their product, but out of your own desire.

Seems like a logical progression, doesn’t it? Take what Pepto-Bismol does for it’s top, and extrapolate to alcohol. The bottle comes with a little top designed for measured pouring, mixing, or drinking out of, depending on your mood. If you need a cap to your product, why need add a little function to it? This makes the beverage more immediately use-able.

Being lazy is fun! These elongated boxes for soda make that possible. They are designed to be just the right length to fit all the way to the back of your fridge, and can then be popped open on one end, so that the cans roll down to the front, giving you a super market-esque display in your fridge that sudo-refills itself and doesn’t require unpacking when you get home.

A simple bottle alteration, but helpful. There is a small slit of clear plastic running along the side of the bottle, so that you can have an immediate completely accurate and honest reading of just how much product you have left. This doesn’t really require any extra effort on anyone’s part, but makes it easier to use the product.

Classic, isn’t it? This is a particularly nice tool for those with less mobility, or stereotypical American girth. It makes it conveniently easy to activate products from across the room with a simple movement that most people can do, irrelevant of age or health.