To use or Not to use Photoshop

So a while ago I read a post by 37signals called "Why we skip Photoshop” and since then I never truly understood why not to use photoshop. I’ve learned a few things, and I have tried a few things. I have come up with this. Photoshop is a great tool, if your working on a new design or site, I think Photoshop is a great way to show what your thinking in terms of design not functionality. I think this is partly what 37signals is talking about. You truly don’t understand how something works until you try it.

They suggest going straight from a sketch to HTML and CSS, which is something real, you can touch (click) it, get a feel for how things should work and what’s not working. You can make changes on the fly and best of all, it’s already made when you’re ready to use it. No converting a mockup from an image to HTML and CSS.

So here I am at work instructed to create a mockup for functionality (the site is already designed and live). The problem is that they expect every little aspect is to be shown, what happens when you click this drop down, or start to perform a search. Showing functionality in a mockup just doesn’t make sense. Just start creating something real, then the client or user can see for themselves how it’s suppose to function, look, feel. From there it’s up to the developers to plugin the working functionality.

Now you have gone from something real to something functional. Leaving out a step saves time and frustration trying to have the client “visualize” the mockup and sign off on something that isn’t real.

(via Stephen Korecky)

Working together online

Lately I have been working on a new desktop application for the Mac called “Snippet”. I don’t want to talk about the app itself but the experience of making the app. As many or some of you may know. I’m a designer, I create websites, write awesome HTML and CSS and occasionally create printed material. I say this because I am not a programmer. I would love to learn more on programming and a language like Ruby or Cocoa, however for this app I wanted to work with someone who knew what they were doing.

So I tweeted, posted, and asked around to find a programmer. I’m short on funds so I was looking for someone who was willing to profit share. After posting to the Cocoa Dev forums, talking to a few people, I found a great programmer. Still in school, hard working, and had a great attitude. To this day it has been great working with someone purely online. We use IM and Basecamp to communicate, share files, and work things out.

Why working online works? We stay focused, no unnecessary meetings, and way different work hours so we typically stay out of each others way when we are busy working on something. Yet there when we need to ask a question or work through a problem. We think different yet the same. I can say “lets try this” and He’ll respond with “no problem” or “sure, but what if this happens” Bring to my attention to UI decisions, functionality problems, or other oversights I might have had.

Working online with someone also really sharpens your wiring skills and the way you talk. There is no “hey, look at this real quick” or “watch what happens when I do this” You have to explain the problem or situation and make sure they can understand. I’m fortunate enough to find someone caring enough to explain their answers. Instead of a simple “no, we can’t do that” He will get back to me with why we can’t do that, and what limitations we have that prevent that feature.

In the end, I highly recommend working with someone online vs. in an office environment, but it takes the right kind of person to make that happen. Sure this happened more out of necessity, but it continues to be a great experience.

(via Stephen Korecky)

Users need instruction, but they aren't mentally retarded.

So lately I have been trying to mockup some ideas for a new part of the admin section of a project I’m working on. As a designer, part of your job is to create an easy to understand user experience. I spent a lot of time thinking of new ways to solve problems we had throughout the site. One of these problems was tags.

There could be thousands of available tags. But the solution thought up by the developers was to have a checkbox next to each keyword. Which would have been okay if there weren’t going to be a lot of keywords. So I devised a solution which combined two elements. A drop down select box, and a input box. They could find a existing keyword, or create their own. I thought the drop down was even too much, but it was insisted upon.

Now before I could even get feedback from the client, I was told time and time again: “The users are too stupid to understand that” Now let’s stop here for a moment. Yes, users need instruction, but they aren’t stupid. This is why innovative ideas get shot down. It’s the companies that are willing to make mistakes that will make something great.

Continuing. So due to a lack of time to change anything, my mockup was shown to the client. Turns out, they loved it! They where playing with the new features, and other UI ideas I had, and they enjoyed using it. Now this is just one example of one part of this mockup, I could go on for a few more, but I’ll leave it at this.

Users are not dumb, it’s up to the designer to make it clear what it is the user should be doing. If you notice users are struggling with your design, then you probably have to rethink it.

(via Stephen Korecky)