User Experience Designer
JSTOR (Ann Arbor, MI)
Full Time
Read the full job description here.
Interested candidates should submit their resume, a detailed cover letter, and salary requirements to:
Userexp [@] jstor (dot) org
JSTOR is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.
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Flash Video Presentation at WCC
July 23, 2008
A free presentation on Flash Video will be on Monday, July 28th at the campus of Washtenaw Community College. It’s put on by the Ann Arbor Adobe User Group and the presentation will be done by Lisa Larson-Kelley, co-author of Flash Video for Professionals.
The event is free! Refreshments will be provided and we will have a free raffle with giveaways such as an autographed copy of Lisa’s book, Adobe swag and more! Visit www.flashfocused.org for more information.
The Flash Focused User Group welcomes Lisa Larson-Kelley. Lisa will present on Custom Video Players (For Videophobes). If the mere mention of video in Flash makes you break out in a rash, this meeting is for you. Lisa will unravel the mysteries of codecs and container formats, lay out the pros and cons of progressive vs. streaming delivery, and reveal the basic golden rules of encoding. She’ll then show you how to create a custom video player — with a little bit of ActionScript, and also without writing a single line of code. You’ll walk away with the confidence to integrate custom video playback into your Flash projects, leaving the Benedryl behind.
For our July meeting we plan on just having a casual sit around and shoot the stuff about web design, development, usability, IA, etc…
Some of our first meetings were simple and fun just like this, and considering summer is a great time to relax it would be perfect to come and join us for some great web related discussions! To remember some of the old good times we will be meeting at our old stomping grounds!
We’ll be meeting at Stout Irish Pub in Brighton to attract some folks from Lansing.
Stout Irish Pub
125 E Grand River Ave
Brighton, MI
(810) 225-9571
Please comment if you plan on coming so that we can get an accurate reservation. Dennis Lembree, the co-founder of Refresh Detroit (who left for Cali last year), will be visiting us!
Meeting will start at 6:30 and go until people feel like leaving.
Book Review: Designing the Moment
July 12, 2008
Robert Hoekman Jr. second book, Designing the Moment, focuses on improving the online user experience. His approach is a practical one: design interfaces that respect users and allow them to feel in control.
Robert’s goal is to inspire the web professional to “improve the moment” for users. His storytelling method of explaining strategies makes the 220 page book a quick and fun read. The book contains 30 stories, based on his own experiences, of real-world applications and the step-by-step approach taken toward resolving design interaction issues.
The stories are concise, and offer a critique of each phase as changes are made to interfaces. Robert has a “think out loud” method which allows the reader to better understand the decision making process. Question steps along the way and don’t hesitate to make decisions you might change in the future. Designing interfaces is an iterative process.
Designing the Moment assumes the reader has knowledge of web design and development; it does not provide the specific code to implement the recommendations. As Robert mentions in the book,
This book is meant as a conversation starter. It’s meant to get you thinking.
The book is divided into seven parts:
- Part 1: Getting Oriented – give a good first impression to the user
- Part 2: Learning – make it easier for users to find their way around
- Part 3: Searching – improve the search interface
- Part 4: Diving In – great tips on improving forms and video controls
- Part 5: Participating – focus on social media
- Part 6: Managing Information – how to manage lots of information
- Part 7: Moving On – the sign out process
My favorite story in the book is in Chapter 7, where Robert discusses the simplicity of clear labels. Make it simple for users to to use our applications, provide users with simple, easy to understand labels and instructions. On forms or applications, rather than displaying an error message that the user didn’t enter information in a valid format, add informative text that explain what is acceptable.
Designing the Moment is a wonderful resource for information architects, usability experts, interaction designers and developers. I highly recommend it!
Microsoft July 2008 Update and Zone Alarm
July 9, 2008
As I was getting ready to finish a project last night, I noticed I couldn’t connect to the Internet any longer on one of our Windows XP computers at home. Funny, I thought. What happened? I ran my usual checks, scans, etc. but nothing seemed to point to a solution. Until I turned off Zone Alarm. No problem connecting to the Internet now. Hmm….
When our second computer stopped connecting to the Internet this afternoon, after I installed the recent Microsoft Updates, I realized there was a different kind of connection going on, between Microsoft updates and Zone Alarm.
Searching on the web brought me to the Patch (The Entire Internet) Tuesday article at the Washington Post. It turns out a major design flaw exists in DNS, which impacts not only Microsoft, but many hardware/software companies around the world. Patches have started to be released for the fix; I just happened to catch the Microsoft patch, which caused issues with Zone Alarm.
Interesting story behind how the flaw was found, and how people around the world cooperated together to fix the flaw. Dan Kaminsky is the person who found the flaw; he works in Seattle, Washington, and has posted a tool on his site to let you know if your ISP provider/company is at risk. He also describes more about the flaw, and the amazing collaborative work he led.
ZoneAlarm posted a recommendation to uninstall the KD951748 patch from Microsoft.
From what I understand from the Washington Post article, using OpenDNS should protect the your computer, which we have used since last year.
Has anyone else experienced issues? Or found other solutions?
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