WorldUsability Day2005

Greg MorenoNov 10, 2005

In the online world, when things go wrong ...

Contingency Design

... design for when things go wrong

Causes of Errors• server error• code bug• browser incompatibility• failed connection• unclear instruction• sloppy forms• confusing design• many, many more

Show the Problem

Missing in Action

Search

Language Matters

Obstacles

Long Term Commitment

Contingency Design Test

• 40 Guidelines (from Defensive Design for the Web)

• Available for download on Nov 14 at

“The Painless Web” blog

The creator’s expectationsof the user’s expectations

The user’s expectations

BAD Interfaces?

Other user’s expectationsThe creator’s

expectationsof the user’s expectations

The user’s expectations

Yet another user’s

expectations

Reasons

• General incompetence• Unclear purpose• Human nature (boredom, mistakes)• Inherent complexity• Feature-driven• Techno-lust• What else?

Build vs. Design

Needed Skills to Build

• Experience in ASP, JSP, PHP, HTML, XML, XSL, XSLT, CFML, Perl, CSS. Experience in C, C++, C#, Java, J2EE, .NET an advantage.

• Knowledgeable in Macromedia, Photoshop, Coldfusion, Flash, Eclipse

• Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, Postgresql, Sybase, DB2

• Windows, Linux, OSX

Needed Skills to Design

• Empathy• Generosity (User perspective rules)• Curiosity• Domain knowledge• Synthesis (aesthetics, engineering,

psychology, information architecture, etc.)• Desire to make other people happy

Thank You

• Philippine Usability Grouphttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/usability-ph