No Pun Intended

Clothing Store Process

Emily Pietrowski — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:46:48 +0000

Usability Test

Emily Pietrowski — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:17:10 +0000

The screentoaster site did not record my usability test, so I am going to record it in text format! I asked what the first thing my user wanted to do upon visiting the site was, and he said it was to click on the main navigation because it was all by itself. I asked him to find a scarf and a hat and to purchase them, and he navigated through that seemlessly. He also made sense of the alternate view options for certain individual items and the add to bag button. The only place he got hung up was when I asked him to go look at the items in his bag. He didn’t know where to go, opting to click on “log in” at the bottom of the page rather than the “my bag” link located near the searchbar in the top right. But once he had located that he was easily able to navigate checking out and getting back to the home page from any point. My user thought that the site was well laid out and very functional, but wishes that it filled more of the browser, which I don’t know how to make it do since it was designed for a 1024 by 760? display.

Link to final website, enjoy!

Emily Pietrowski — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:42:01 +0000

Bundle

A List Apart – Findings from Web Design Survey

Emily Pietrowski — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:42:56 +0000

A survey of web designers…

The fact that web designers are mostly younger men does not surprise me in the least – nor would it surprise me if most of them live alone and watch action movies with their free time. It’s a bit depressing how important personal blogs are to these people. Is it just like a journal replacement, or does it somehow make people feel important. No one can really want to know that much about your personal life, and so I find it kind of pathetic that people would post so much about themselves. It just becomes a form of clutter in the internet wastelands.

It surprised me that most web people seem to work alone inside some sort of larger organization or as freelancers – I would personally rather work with other designers around to bounce ideas off of and get feedback from. Not to mention the solidarity factor.

It’s also interesting that most of the web people do web design work nearly exclusively and have been at their current jobs for less than a year. It seems like a very heremetic, nomadic field to be a part of. This survey doesn’t really make web design seem like a very appealing career move. I don’t see myself fitting in with these professionals very heavily – I kind of hope that most of my work will be geared towards print design with web stuff as only an occassional piece of the project. I’m sure that the demographic of web designers will shift to include more older people and more women as time goes on, but I actually bet that it will stay somewhat dominated by younger men. I think that the rate of technology change lends itself well to young designers and developers and it seems to be a field that men just gravitate towards. Although, the ability to work freelance will probably attract a number of people who want more flexibility with their schedules.

Device Process

Emily Pietrowski — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:06:16 +0000

Process book

Disconnected Video

Emily Pietrowski — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:51:14 +0000

Three weeks without a computer: they are trying to prove how dependent we are. They are worried about an electronic addiction. I personally don’t think that it’s a problem unless we become incapable of socializing and doing everyday functions without a computer. If you can no longer interact or can’t buy clothing without using the internet, can’t write legibly and meaningfully in the physical realm, that seems like a problem. Ok, these people are actually kind of pathetic. The one boy is concerned because he has to call people on the phone rather than e-mailing or IMing them… even though texting wasn’t even banned. And one of the girls commented that she was doing her homework only because she can’t use the computer, otherwise she would not. Aaaaand some of them could not understand how to use a typewriter. Oy vey. These people are morons.

Why in the world would the library have gotten rid of their card catalogues? What if the power goes out for a long period of time or the database gets corrupted somehow? There are many things that require computer technology though. For instance, the girl who was a geologist and needed to use the seizmograph for her job simply would not be able to work without the computer. As graphic designers we are similarly tied to technology. The type of design work that is expected requires a computer… the end. I would be far less concerned with entertaining myself and far more worried about my responsibilities. I absolutely could not go without my computer – I would fail my classes. If we were entirely to go back to a world that did not use computer technology, I think we would be fine, if completely frustrated. We would never be able to accomplish all the things that we currently can, we are completely dependent on computers as it is… but I still fail to see how that’s a bad thing. We are also dependent on agriculture where we used to only live a hunter-gatherer existence. We adapt to the advancements we make.

Accessibility, and a Slight Lack of Sensitivity

Emily Pietrowski — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:00:18 +0000

What if I want to severely antagonize the disabled public…. and, in fact, the rest of the public as well? I feel like that’s a valid motive not to design for accessibility.
I have a question – what if your website is selling books. Just ordinary, printed books with roughly size 10 type? No braille or large printed books are available. Why in the world would I need to make the website for that store accessible to the blind and visually impaired? They can’t make use of my product anyway. And yes, you could argue that perhaps they want to purchase a book for their capable grandson or spouse, but that is less likely, and they can just come into the store…. probably. It is such an small percentage of the situation that would occur it just doesn’t seem necessary.

Braille sign over printed type – pretty cool.
So at this point, accessiblity coding is a mess of difficulty, making it highly discouraging to have to pull off. Great. Now I really want to be accommodating.
Is it bad that the need to design for mobile devices seems like a more compelling reason for accessibilty coding than actually disabled people? AHA, he justifies my callousness by stating that one of the best ways to design accessibly is to make sites more usable for everyone else.

Apparently CSS is the magical cure-all. It makes things organized so that they are presented by screen readers that way as well. It also allows text to be resizable – advantageous? Yes. There are some simple accessibility things that can be done… of you want to not be a jerk, that is.

Clothing Store

Emily Pietrowski — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:53:55 +0000

Brainstorming and Competitor Analysis:

Store Process

Process Book

Emily Pietrowski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:00:59 +0000

Originally posted in full on the 21st, re-posted here, for your non-scrolling convenience.