Goodbye Google: "Visual Design Lead" leaves Google

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 21, 2009, 7:59 PM UTC

pxlpshr wrote: post #84

gnaritas wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've found sound to be critical in software usability Very little is worse than web pages that use sound. It's no accident that most sites don't use sound, your tastes are just way outside the mainstream on this. > Interjecting them in the design process too soon and giving their opinion overriding power is a mistake. The success of Google clearly shows it's not a mistake, numbers don't lie, but designers are full…

Desktop apps are used by more people on a more regular basis than any web app to date. Web apps are getting there, but there not there yet. Sound, when used appropriately, is a very critical component to user experience and more importantly, usability — hence why most operating systems use sound feedback. Apple's new Nano uses sound to extend its usability tremendously, and other examples are endless. (By no means do…

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Mar 21, 2009, 8:01 PM UTC

jfarmer wrote: post #87

gnaritas wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Requiring user testing for shades of blue and thicknesses of border is the height of silliness. No it isn't, if a designers ideas cannot withstand a little objective scientific testing, they aren't worth using. > Moreover, users often don't know they want something until a designer shows them they do. You can never get to those designs by testing blues and borders. Which is the whole point of objective testing, do…

I think that's right, but a little overgenerous to engineers. We have our hangups, too. Say, which do you think is better, emacs or vim? Even in a data-driven environment oftentimes the argument gets pushed back from "what to do" to "what to measure."

Post by pxlpshr » Sat, Mar 21, 2009, 9:15 PM UTC

gnaritas wrote: post #90

pxlpshr wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Desktop apps are used by more people on a more regular basis than any web app to date. Web apps are getting there, but there not there yet. Sound, when used appropriately, is a very critical component to user experience and more importantly, usability — hence why most operating systems use sound feedback. Apple's new Nano uses sound to extend its usability tremendously, and other examples are endless. (By no means do…

You're moving the goal post. No one's talking about desktop apps, you said web apps. Web apps are a different space and sound is just not appropriate there, and it likely won't ever be.

Post by vladocar » Sun, Mar 22, 2009, 1:48 AM UTC

Post by mattmcknight » Sun, Mar 22, 2009, 6:18 PM UTC

sbaqai wrote: post #94

nostrademons wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of the blue-bar incident was that the designer was not correct, and a different shade of blue (which most people inside the Googleplex thought was inferior) generated measurably more revenue - more than the designer's salary, and certainly more than the time spent experimenting with different shades of blue. The best thing about a data-driven approach is that it gives room to be wrong. And we're proven wron…

I wonder if there is any research/reasoning in why one shade of blue would generate more revenue than another? Malcolm Gladwell had an interesting podcast about people's ability/inability to express what they really mean and feel. He uses the Aeron chair as an example of a product that was despised/considered ugly but eventually embraced for it breakthrough functionality/aesthetic. I can see how data-backed design de…