I’m on the fence about the new look and feel of YouTube, but I felt this would be a great opportunity to see how Twitter and its users would react. Version 1 of an idea I had early for using Twitter as a litmus test. I ran some numbers using the search API and generated some pretty graphs, enjoy!
I don’t know why, but I never really used Delicious.com (actually I had an account a long long time ago). I recently made a new account and came across an interesting UX scenario. It took me like 30 seconds to figure out how to actually make a bookmark (and yes, I was trying, and no, I am not an idiot). Once I figured it out, it was simple, but it got me thinking of an important web principle: “Make your core feature offerings DEAD SIMPLE to find.” While companies probably don’t like getting simplified down to a single feature, that is often what makes them popular. Using a technique from Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think,” lets see if we can figure out what some popular websites are trying to offer to us. Instead of showing a normal screenshot, each shot has a light gaussian blur applied to it. For me, this is how I often “see” my own work through the eyes of a new visitor. I also came up with some unofficial one liners for each:
Step 1: Create a Call to Action
It’s interesting, because you can find a lot of great design resources and AB tests on “sign up” or “buy now” buttons. However, I rarely see discussion on action items in terms of core functionality of a web application or service. This first caught my eye while reading “Designing Web Interfaces” (pg. 82-83) on “Clear Call to Actions and Relative Importance.”
Youtube: Upload and Share videos
Notice the bright yellow blob in the corner -- the "Upload Video" button
Digg: “Digg”/Rank stuff from the web
Notice the 3 yellow/tan blobs running along the left - "DIGG" buttons
WordPress: Write and post blogs
Notice the blue blob on the right - the "Publish" button
Ian Chan's Blog 