Revolutionary Times

10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 19:21:14 +0800

~ The 10 most general principles for interaction design. They are called “heuristics” because they are more in the nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines. ~

1. Visibility of system status. The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

2. Match between system and the real world. The system should speak the users’ language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

3. User control and freedom. Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.

4. Consistency and standards. Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

5. Error prevention. Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.

6. Recognition rather than recall. Minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

7. Flexibility and efficiency of use. Accelerators — unseen by the novice user — may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

8. Aesthetic and minimalist design. Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors. Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

10. Help and documentation. Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user’s task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

Gamification Design Framework

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:35:48 +0800

Define business objectives. Why are you gamifying? How do you hope to benefit your business, or achieve some other goal such as motivating people to change their behavior? The first written assignment focused on this step of the process, so you may wish to look back on your earlier submission and the peer assessments for guidance. As you state your objectives, emphasize the end goal or goals of your gamified design rather than detailing the means through which you’ll achieve this goal. Basically, if your gamified system does what you intend, what specific positive results will it generate for your organization?
Delineate target behaviors. What do you want your players to do? And what are the metrics that will allow you to measure them? These behaviors should promote your business objectives, although the relationship may be indirect. For example, your business goal might be to increase sales, but your target behavior could be for visitors to spend more time on your website. As you describe the behaviors, be sure to explain how they will help your system achieve its objectives. The metrics should in some fashion provide feedback to the players, letting them know when they are successfully engaging in the intended behaviors.
Describe your players. Who are the people who will be participating in your gamified activity? What is their relationship to you? For example, are they prospective customers, employees at your organization, or some other community? And what are they like? You can describe your players using demographics (such as age and gender), psychographics (such as their values and personalities), Bartle’s player types, or some other framework. You should show that you understand what sorts of game elements and other structures are likely to be effective for this population. For example, you might discuss whether a more competitive or cooperative system would be better for this player community.
Devise your activity loops. Explore in greater detail how you will motivate your players using engagement and progression loops. First, describe the kinds of feedback your system will offer the players to encourage further action, and explain how this feedback will work to motivate the players. (Remember: rewards are only one kind of feedback.) Second, how if at all will players progress in your system? This includes how the system will get new players engaged, and how it will remain interesting for more experienced players.
Don’t forget the fun. Although more abstract than some of the other elements, ensuring that your gamified system is fun remains as important as the other aspects. In order to fully explore this aspect of the design process, consider how your game would function without any extrinsic rewards. Would you say it was fun? Identify which aspects of the game could continue to motivate players to participate even without rewards.
Deploy the appropriate tools. By this point, you’ve probably identified several of the game elements and other specifics of your gamified system. If you haven’t already, you should explain in detail what your system would look like. What are some of the game elements involved and what will the experience be like for the players? What specific choices would you make in deploying your system? For example, you might discuss whether the gamified system is to be experienced primarily on personal computers, mobile devices, or some other platform. You might also describe what feedback, rewards, and other reinforcements the players could receive. Finally, think about whether you’ve tied your decisions back to the other five steps in the process, especially the business objectives.

4Keys2Fun

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 22:34:06 +0800

4Keys2Fun

Abenomics

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 21:41:00 +0800

Abenomics

Video

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 22:37:06 +0800

Biggest 2012 IPOs

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:22:51 +0800

Biggest 2012 IPOs

Biggest 2012 Corporate Bond Issuers

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:22:01 +0800

Biggest 2012 Corporate Bond Issuers

Biggest 2012 M&A Deals

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:17:46 +0800

Biggest 2012 M&A Deals

Vblock Systems - The Largest Converged Infrastructure Family

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:24:00 +0800

Vblock Systems - The Largest Converged Infrastructure Family

Splunk

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 01:17:50 +0800

Splunk

Les Twins@芝公園

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 23:24:43 +0800

Les Twins@芝公園

How Companies Use Different Sales Models

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:24:00 +0800

Companies can take various positions on the continuum between a pure reseller model (buying and then reselling products) and a pure multisided-platform (MSP) model (providing a marketplace in which buyers and sellers transact directly with each other). Here are examples of how companies in three industries have done that. In some cases, they have changed their positions over time.

Retail and E-commerce

Online marketplaces such as eBay and Taobao have always been pure multisided platforms: They have never exerted much control over buyer-seller interactions or owned the goods sold through their sites. In contrast, supermarkets, Walmart, 7-Eleven, and other retailers (online and offline) have largely been pure resellers. An important exception is when a retailer sells shelf space to a marquee supplier such as Coca-Cola and gives it control over pricing and the layout and stocking of the shelf.

Amazon started off as a pure reseller: From its founding in 1994 until the early 2000s, it bought and resold products in its own name. The company then started moving toward the MSP end of the continuum, allowing third-party merchants to sell products directly to Amazon users. In 2011 those sellers accounted for 30% of unit sales on Amazon. Within a given product category, Amazon may operate as a pure reseller, a pure multisided platform, or something in between—for instance, fulfilling orders but letting merchants control prices and the relationship with buyers.

Digital Content

Cable and satellite services (such as Comcast and Dish Network), iTunes, and Netflix are resellers: Users’ contractual relationships are with those services, not with the content providers, and the companies control pricing and delivery to users. Apple’s App Store and Google Play, a marketplace for Android apps, are near the other end of the spectrum. In those marketplaces, users buy apps from third-party developers, not from Apple or Google. They are not pure multisided platforms, however, because Apple and Google exert some control over the quality and distribution of the apps—more than eBay does over the offerings in its online marketplace, for example. Other digital content services lie somewhere in between: When users buy movies and games on Xbox Live Marketplace and Sony’s PlayStation Store, their purchase contracts are with Microsoft and Sony, yet game publishers and movie studios maintain control over pricing.

Car Sharing

Traditional car-rental companies (such as Avis and Budget) and Zipcar are pure resellers:They own fleets of cars, which they rent out to consumers. In contrast, newer services such as Getaround, Lyft, RelayRides, and Uber simply facilitate transactions between car owners and car users. None of these services owns a fleet, and the car owners set their own rates except in the case of Uber, which imposes some standard rates. With Uber and Lyft, users can get a ride from professional drivers (Uber) or private individuals (Lyft). With Getaround and RelayRides, users can rent cars from private individuals.

X5A Modular™ Computer by Xi3 Corporation

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:02:00 +0800

X5A Modular™ Computer by Xi3 Corporation

John Butler - Ocean

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:54:14 +0800

John Butler - Ocean

Video

Sat, 09 Feb 2013 01:36:00 +0800

Rate-Rig Spotlight Falls on ‘Rain Man’

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:29:43 +0800

Rate-Rig Spotlight Falls on ‘Rain Man’

Dyson Airblade Tap

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:37:00 +0800

Dyson Airblade Tap

The Future of Talent is In Clusters

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 23:25:10 +0800

Clusters offer four main benefits:

Higher levels of business performance through higher motivation. The cluster model, when executed well, addresses known performance drivers such as purpose, autonomy, and mastery.
Higher levels of business performance through a custom work environment. Clusters can create and sustain leading-edge electronic work environments since they are less burdened by bureaucratic decision-making and the need to serve the diverse needs of many types of teams and individuals.
Talent management in the right place. The cluster model removes the burden of team and individual performance management from the business — where it typically sits uncomfortably and ineffectually today — to the cluster. The cluster knows its own members, contributions and development needs much better.
Higher levels of personal happiness. Clusters are sufficiently small for members to genuinely know and care about each other, and they are stable and autonomous enough for members to support each other’s long-term personal development.

springwise: Online trading platform taps Twitter for market...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 23:30:00 +0800

springwise:

Online trading platform taps Twitter for market sentiment

Back when we first covered Derwent Capital Markets, the startup was hoping to create a hedge fund that relied on Twitter and Facebook posts to measure market sentiment. The company has now changed tack and is pushing forward with a new product – DCM Dealer – an online spread betting and contract for difference trading platform which integrates its social media sentiment analysis. READ MORE…

S&P Bull vs Analyst Bears

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 21:05:38 +0800

S&P Bull vs Analyst Bears