Nov 16th, 2010
by SusanaB.
We package our usability assessments with all the bells and whistles. Want a task analysis? It’s in there. How about a visual of what it could look like? It’s in there. How about … well here is what you get:
Fluid’s Flow Pack:
- Tasks Analysis: A review of your top 10 tasks and their flow
- Heuristic Evaluation: We score and comment on 80+ variables, from visuals to error prevention
- Recommendations: Written with visuals
- Next Steps: Quick fixes, resources, timeline, etc.
Fluid’s Flow Pack, don’t leave your server without it. Sample >
Posted in: Design, FluidUI News, Usability, biz tips.
Tagged: Design for Usability · eCommerce · required tasks · Software · task analysis · task flow · Usability · User Experience Design
Oct 30th, 2010
by SusanaB.
Tis the season to be assured you are differing yourself from your competition. How so? Well, gather around and I’ll show you … with this new high level multi-tasks score sheet. The sheet looks at website content, functions, etc, – all good little elements that you dream about.
Rate yourself, rate your competition; and then comment on what is being done and how you can do it better. Download it now for free, no batteries required.
Don’t have time? Got to get Weii for little Johnny and that Hogwarts game for Suzie? Or are you looking for an automated scoring package? Well hire FluidUI to be your secret shopper. We live to surf and score. Our automated scoring package comes with visuals of what the competition is doing and introduces elements neither of you have thought of. It will lite-up your up for many months to come. Call now …. 816-561-2315 .. for this limited time offer.
Posted in: Design, FluidUI News, Usability, biz tips.
Tagged: business strategy · competitor analysis · Design for Usability · marketing · strategy · User Experience Design
Oct 17th, 2010
by SusanaB.
Is this a believable statement? Can a company help deliver intuitive user interfaces for all? That means for web, software, cells, anything with a screen. Why yes we can, if we believe and join forces. It’s like when Jony Ive of Apple designed these shells for the iMac that were colorful, curved and translucent. They reminded you more of Life Savers candy than a computer. 
The trend crossed industries and the next thing we saw were these colorful, curved and translucent trash cans on store shelves. In 2009 there were 500+ User Experience Professionals in the Silicon Valley area and that number is growing, everywhere. So yes, intuitive interfaces for all can be a reality.
It’s about having a passion, initiating or being a part of a movement around that passion and setting new standards. The more impossible standards drive the most passion and belief. No one wants to have a passion for the possible, it is too easy to achieve. And what better passion to have than the usability of technology?
Intuitive interfaces for all is about caring and sharing. What could spread quicker and benefit all then by making the www platform easy enough for your mom to use and the children of Africa? Accessibility then takes on many more meanings. Intuitive interfaces for all!
It’s all about setting a standard for that one little impossible idea and then caring enough about it to share it with others. We all have that little engine that could and still can.
Posted in: Design, Usability.
Tagged: Design for Usability · UI Design · User Experience Design
Oct 10th, 2010
by SusanaB.
A Kansas City software corporation chose FluidUI to help introduce desktop software into web and mobile, for a new healthcare segment. Our understanding of usability, the industry and
the application were spot on. We reduced page architecture by 15% and skipped the refining phases for design and UI code, because we got them right the first time. Also, we stayed within budget.
The specialist at FluidUI provided clean looks and code for an application that was simple and straightforward. Why load up on the latest and greatest bells and whistles, when users can already achieve their needs in seconds? It’s all about the users. We set out to please the users, thus pleasing our clients with users’ return business. It becomes an all around winning situation – I mean winning application. Let us create another one for you.
Posted in: Design, FluidUI News, Usability.
Tagged: Design for Usability · Healthcare · mobile · Software · UI Design · User Experience Design
Sep 28th, 2010
by SusanaB.
Here are some simple, though often overlooked practices that users prefer for websites and software:
- Heading sizes: 16-24 points (1-1.5 em) most common
- Body font sizes: 12 points (.75 em) most common
- Best color for links: blue
- Search boxes: ideal size is 18-24 characters
- Graphs & charts: should be used as well as data values when data is important to the reader and/or the organization
Posted in: Design, Usability.
Tagged: Design for Usability · UI Design · Usability · user centered design · User Experience Design · User Interface Design
Sep 7th, 2010
by SusanaB.
Everyone wants engagement, they want their users to be engaged, their clients, their co-workers, as well as they themselves. So what does it take to be engaged?
- Stimulation – appealing interfaces, environments and ideas.
- Trust – data wont be lost, being informed, being heard, faith in your mission and mutual respect among colleagues.
- Discovery – technology innovation is rapid, social media is different at every touch point and Picard always started the next Star Trek mission with the word engage.
Most of all I think it takes innovation. Yes, innovation of technology, though more so, the ideas behind technology. It was the ideas of Bell that launched modern communication; JFK took us to the moon; Gandhi, King and Mandela brought peace.
What have you innovated lately? Are you engaged at work? Something you do every day should be engaging. If it is not, then find something that is. You deserve it. Be a contributor and an activist for your own well-being. Engage.
Posted in: Entrepreneurial, biz tips.
Tagged: business strategy · Design for Usability · Entrepreneurial · User Experience Design · Website
Aug 21st, 2010
by SusanaB.
Zappos credits their success as a top online retailer and one of the ‘100 Best Companies To Work For‘, to happiness. They also throw in profits, passion and purpose that lead to the company’s happiness. It sounds complicated, though actually it is simple. Provide the employees with passion, purpose and the empowerment to make the customer happy. The customer returns that happiness with continued business, gratitude and bragging.
How Zappos give CUSTOMERS happiness:
- 365 day return policy
- Free shipping, on returns too
- Spontaneous upgrades to over-nite shipping
- Flowers sent to their most loyal customers
How Zappos give EMPLOYEES happiness:
- During orientation you are paid to leave the company, weeding out non-believers
- Autonomy – customer support has no scripts and no phone time limits
- Promotion timelines are self-determined – your advancement is based on your training pace
- Personal growth and zaniness is encouraged
- Self-help books and classes available on-site
- Annual Bald & Blue Day, employees get bald or die their hair blue, in camaraderie.
How Zappos SPREADS happiness:
It’s revolutionary and basic at the same time. It’s following your heart, touching others and getting back what you give. C’mon Get Happy song/Partridge video | Zappos site
Posted in: Entrepreneurial, biz tips.
Tagged: biz tips · culture · Entrepreneurial · happiness
Aug 15th, 2010
by SusanaB.
If Silicon Valley were a college, it rival MIT. If it were on the prairie, it would be here in the KC Metro, where practicality is a tradition and creativity is on the rise. FluidUI has a team that captures this experience. 
Our Human Factors Engineer came out of KU with a PHD in Psychology that was fine-tuned at NASA and Bell before he got to Silicon Valley and then to KC, though still consults to HP. Our Chief came out of Iowa State – voted one of the most wired universities – with a Bachelors in Art, plus a Masters and thesis in Education on applying TQM’s Continuous Improvement in the classroom. She combined these extremes at GE Insurance doing web design and initiating their web presence. In the past 10 years she has applied her experience to info sites, e-commerce, software and mobile for companies like Hallmark, Cerner and up-and-coming technology companies.
Technology is ever changing, although the human capital behind it and in front of it remains much the same. Our work has always been focused on users, whether in the classroom, lab or in their understanding of the application’s user interface. What is your story with the user and how can we help you expand it?
Posted in: FluidUI News, Usability.
Tagged: Design for Usability · Human Factors · Silicon Valley · user · User Experience Design
Aug 3rd, 2010
by SusanaB.
Book this interactive presentation that will have you and your colleagues asking questions and getting answers, right from the start.
We cover the basics of usability, then as a group, critique websites of some well-known and local brands. What are Sprint, Apple, Microsoft and Wentings Shop doing right? What could they do better? How can this be applied to what you’re doing on your site? On your client’s site? It’s all about increasing your user retention for greater ROI.
Have FluidUI at your next meeting and y’all will walk away with
- usability fact sheets
- the presentation ppt.
- answers to questions
- insight on improvements you can make
Call Susana @ 816-561-2315 for details, reviews and to schedule.
Posted in: Design, Entrepreneurial, FluidUI News, Usability.
Tagged: Design for Usability · eCommerce · UI Design · User Experience Design · web design · Website
Aug 2nd, 2010
by SusanaB.
‘U and I will design for Them’ is a former tag line of mine and also a worthwhile practice. 
‘U’ the client and ‘I’ the designer, is key to designing for ‘Them’, the user. In asking the right questions you can discover the users’ needs and achieve greater ROI.
Achievements:
- Have you considered expanding on achievements already made, with more choices and offerings?
- How about providing similar features and functions in other areas of the application?
- How about offering similar products or services?
Frustrations/Opportunities:
Every self-help book tells of turning your frustrations into opportunities. The same is true in building an application.
- Are competitors achieving it? If so how? How can you do it better?
- Do you need to simplify your product or service?
- If the problem is solved, what will this bring to the company? Is there another way to achieve this that the user may respond to?
It’s all about them, the user. The earlier and the more often you bring them into the equation, the more response you’ll have from them and the greater your return on efforts, time and investments.
Posted in: Design, Usability.
Tagged: apps · Design for Usability · UI Design · Usability · User Experience Design · User Interface Design · web design
Aug 1st, 2010
by SusanaB.
The band and the ballpark principal helped me start FluidUI. I wanted to do what I knew, be an interactive agency. I hadn’t considered being a user interface (UI) or user experience (UX) consultant. But my board knew better. They knew the market already had too many interactive agencies and web designers competing among themselves. They knew UI and UX design was something new.
They knew of my talents. As a practical designer the user-friendly designing of new and existing technology suited me. One of them also knew about a branding book named Zag, a 200 page white board like book that I devoured in less than 24 hours. It had two simple principles that everyone in business should know.
1) Get in front of a band, and lead it. My band is the new trend of user experience. What’s yours?
2) The baseball strategy of hitting the ball where the other team ain’t. I am one of the few Midwest UI and UX consultants handling e-commerce, software, and mobile. What are you or could you be doing that few are?
So the next time you are starting a new project, product or venture, think of bands and ballparks.
Posted in: Entrepreneurial, FluidUI News.
Tagged: business strategy · Entrepreneurial · FluidUI
Jul 29th, 2010
by SusanaB.
Many of my projects involve partnering with other companies. A software design I just completed had 3 designers on it, each lending their own specialty. As they say three’s company and triples the numbers delivering your brand.
Companies don’t have to be lone wolves and by opening projects and products up to others, those companies in turn will open their projects up to you. This creates a cycle of giving and wining:
- Your portfolio and offerings broaden.
- It allows you to take on more projects, develop more products, and to be busier all while building your brand.
- Your clients and customers benefit from multiple expertise, a condensed timeline, and a greater return on investment.
- And your customers can become your partners. I develop a site for a print designer with technology clients, she handles my collateral; we then refer each other and have joint projects together.
The big boys in Kansas City do it too. Cerner Software, who’s a leader in handling electronic medical charts, is a customer and partner of Perceptive Software, who develops documentation management systems (HealthcareITNews). Perceptive gets exposure to Cerner’s international market, Cerner’s expertise and offerings grow, they expand the software industry in their specialty and grow the technology and their employee pool in Kansas City.
There is still flexibility and autonomy in joining forces with greater ideas, motivation and momentum because of it. You have nothing to lose and much to gain. So empower your company and brand by partnering.
Posted in: Design, Entrepreneurial.
Tagged: business strategy · consultants · Entrepreneurial · freelance · Kansas City · Software · ux · web design
Jul 22nd, 2010
by SusanaB.
Like good friends these tools are valuable assets. Take a quick break and let these tools change the way you do business or at least help you get through the work week quicker and with better results.
1. Getting Naked is a page turner with a QUIETLY POWERFUL message. This business fable of a book is about a managing consultant in a high ranking firm who is taught lessons from a smaller, humbler firm that has been winning his perspective clients. Put your feet up, check your ego at the door, and be transformed on the way you view servicing clients. Other books by Patrick Lencioni are The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, The Three Signs of a Miserable Job and Death by Meeting. Find out more at Amazon.
2. HootSuite is a TIME-SAVING TWITTER TOOL that allows you to schedule tweets. And if that is not enough it also efficiently: tracks tweet statistics, links to your existing RSS feeds, manages multiple twitter accounts and more. All this in a well designed dashboard. Like it says in the book, The Four Hour Work Week, ‘automate’. Let HootSuite give you a break from the twilight of Twitter tweeting!
3. Benchmark Email is
CHEAPER AND BETTER than Constant Contact. I love its user interface – it even makes custom templates easy. They are also known for their tracking features, integration with Google Analytics and real time stats. Their tech service will amaze you with their speed and action. Want a second opinion?Checkout this article that
ranks and rates email marketing services.
Share your biz changing and time-saving tools below.
Posted in: Entrepreneurial.
Tagged: Design for Usability · Website
Jul 9th, 2010
by SusanaB.
Everyone should go thrift store shopping. What have you got to lose? What I like is finding these items that are not my usual buy, they tend to be in a color (like shocking pink) or shape (a flare at the pants bottoms) I avoid. They cost only a few dollars and when brought home they become a delightful surprise that are often worn or they go back to the thrift store. The latter is my lost of only a few dollars and I have now given that item and a stranger the opportunity to be a part of a winning combination. So it is a win-win for all. Got to like those odds.
Go gambling. Find a wining combination. Lift yourself and someone else up.
Posted in: FluidUI News.
Tagged: happiness
