Dorelvis

Better User Experience with Storytelling

dorelvis — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:33:08 +0000

I’m featured in Francisco Inchauste’s article in Smashing Magazine. Part 2 features an interview too. I blush to be in such fine company.

Using storytelling, however, we can pull these fragments together into a common thread. We can connect as real people, not just computers. In this article we’ll explore how user experience professionals and designers are using storytelling to create compelling experiences that build human connections.

Read the whole thing…

How real is too real?

dorelvis — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:06:29 +0000

Nice post from Ignore the Code about Realism in UI Design.

…Graphical user interfaces are typically full of symbols. Most graphical elements you see on your screen are meant to stand for ideas or concepts. The little house on your desktop isn’t a little house, it’s «home». The eye isn’t an actual eye, it means «look at the selected element»…

They also use an example from Scott McCloud – who is an inspiration to a storyteller like me.

101 things I learned in interaction design school

dorelvis — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:31:58 +0000

Great list of “short learnings” about interaction design, although I’d say it pertains to way more than that.

Some of my favs are:

Shepherds of Design

dorelvis — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:40:18 +0000

Margret Schmidt from Tivo discusses how designers can flourish by taking responsibility for their work while understanding that they are not their designs.

Some highlights:

Designers do not “own” the design
Feedback is not personal
Share early and often
This is NOT design by committee
Build your design gut
Celebrate the design that ships

Handing User Error with Care

dorelvis — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:28:35 +0000

UX Booth has a nice article about dealing with user error , and they use an eBay clip as a good example. Props to Carrie Buckingham and Mark Lapole who designed the icon and treatment (and who are part of my awesome team.)

Kill Your Darlings

dorelvis — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:33:19 +0000

Great article from Forbes.com author Nilofer Merchant about how sometimes you have to get rid of your precious ideas. Resonates with me because I just had to let go of a particular design direction that I thought was sparse and beautiful, but just wasn’t a big enough change.

Vacation!

dorelvis — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:44:49 +0000

Just got back from a road trip with Todd to Yosemite, Mono Lake and Tahoe. Wow. Days and days of real beauty – it truly is healing. We hiked and drew and took many many photos (with my new iphone.) I am refreshed.

Check out the pics on flickr.

Indulgent personal story

dorelvis — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:42:41 +0000

I’ve written a long post over on open salon about my Bat Mitzvah – which was many many years ago today. Lots of silly pics of my family…

Infinite Summer

dorelvis — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:40:25 +0000

Some friends have dared me to participate in the infinite summer readathon, and I’ve just downloaded the book to my kindle. Check out the site – lots of interesting facts and advice on how to get through this amazing work.

The challenge

Join endurance bibliophiles from around the world in reading Infinite Jest over the summer of 2009, June 21st to September 22nd. A thousand pages¹ ÷ 92 days = 75 pages a week. No sweat.

1. Plus endnotes^a.
a. A lot of them.

Looking at the calendar I’ve got to get to page 63 by friday – already I am behind!

Transfer success!

dorelvis — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 15:37:08 +0000

All done and moved. Took a while to backup the database and get things right, but the tech support at WPWebhosting was super helpful. Already I can tell its much faster.