User Centered

(...unless forced to by work)

Post updated 17 Sept

Seriously- I love the irony of people haggling over milliseconds of JavaScript rendering times for pages, but don't bat an eye at the amount of time spent waste pushing a mouse pointer around the screen to find the "back" button, the "X" on the tab,the "new tab" button, or moving your hand back and forth from the keyboard to the mouse. I would think the user's "Locus of Attention" would at least factor in to the equation to some extent.

To me, reading a page and being able to have my browser respond to my muscle memory (without thinking of the UI at all) to close a page, and go back and forth in history is worth... oh, I don't know... maybe 1.2 gigawatts of JavaScript rendering time (Great Scott!) The best UI is one that doesn't get in your way.

Opera still does this the best of all browsers I've used, Firefox is okay, but the gestures extensions just aren't as "fluid" as Opera. But, since I just pointed out that I don't like to nitpick over a millisecond here or there, I think it's perfectly fine for daily use.

It would be nice to see Opera (the only browser I know of that has Mouse Gestures baked in by default and part of the browser) to do a usability or eye tracking study to measure out "Locus of Attention" in manipulating the UI

Theres a wave in the Opera community to get feedback from people on the 5 things they'd like to see in Opera. This is a pretty broad scoped question, so I'll try to use some of my five to hit on several of the possible paths.

First, I was tagged by non-troppo- and that list was *pretty darn good* as it is. I'll add a few thoughts and links that I've collected throughout the years.


My number one issue is hand in hand with non-troppo's second issue.

1. I think getting a metadata focus on the mail, bookmarks, notes, etc would be a great step. I want to treat my address bar like a command line- I already get bookmarks/nicknames, query tons of search engines, opera:config, opera:history, not to mention the occasional URL input. There are tons of "quick search" boxes around the UI- it would be nice to get those integrated.
   
   
2. "User Constructed Browsing" focus
   Tighter integration of notes to the URL- something very similar to the "post-it" projects that have come along. Ideally- when you went to a URL, the notes panel would "focus" a note connected to that URL
   
   Most things we bookmark we dont' really want to bookmark. I think most of the sites I want to bookmark are represented with my "top 10" and my speed dial. Everything else is just for reference.
   
   
3. Discoverability of advanced features- I like how Opera hides features and lets you uncover them- like mouse gestures, and how the mail accounts are hidden from the UI until you set up accounts. Opera should put some thought into how users discover features. Tie it in with the Opera Community to give it some "social" impact- Something like a "power user" score that users can earn that is reflected in the community. Maybe a "myers-briggs" type of score that shows what kind of Opera user the person is. Opera can set up tests in the community for users to learn features, or have it based on what number of features (like mouse gestures) are active/used in the browser. The user would have to opt in of course.
   
   
   
4. "I prefer ergonomics over being a populist platform." (non-troppo) Do not conform to "browser standards" (meaning browser client, not web standards- *do* conform to those please!) unless it makes sense to do so. You're an innovative company- I use your product because it's different than the others. Truth be told, I don't care about Javascript or rendering speed, I like your interface better than others. Its not for everyone, and maybe Opera won't be for me in the future, but I want you to keep innovating.
   
   sub note: Personally, I don't care how much marketshare you have (I know *you* do ) The only thing that matters is that you continue to make a good product. I'll pay for Opera (I did in the past) and I'd pay for Opera Mobile if it was available for my phone. I've paid for the Opera browser on Nintendo DS and I'll pay for it on a Wii if I ever get my hands on one.
   
   
5. Tighter my.opera.com integration with the browser- you have a great community, it would be nice to easily blog and post from within the browser. Portable browser bookmarks, sessions and settings across my many installs and Opera Mini, and Nintendo DS.
   
   

Bonus Time!- Ten Small Improvements for the Opera UI (Number 4 on that list is now available! That document is a year old now and needs to be revisited) I particularly would like someone to do number 10 on that list- Allow us to save a wand/password *after* we've logged in to a site (handle it like the pop-up blocked dialog)

I'd like to hear from Dan/dantesoft, WillYum, Ken/kmaage(who's view will not necessarily reflect those of his employer), Schneemann, FataL, and Dave (there's an extra one there in case one of you are already tagged)

I turned on the "latest comments" feature for a completely different reason which I'll talk about in a second. I initially thought it wasn't going to be very useful, but I'm quickly seeing value in having it around, at least for *this* blog and thought I'd share why I like it.

This might just be too obvious for anyone that's had this feature on a blog before, but it's new to me!

Read more...

Apple put widgets on the iPhone, and now it seems Alltel is doing it as well. They're calling it "CellTop" (See the Frog Design Study), and widgets are called "cells"

I don't think this contrasts to the "whole web in your hand" idea that Opera is doing with Mini and Mobile. In fact, I'm in favor of the the Open Standards, I'm against .mobi, and nobody should have to code so many different versions of their site. But, that doesn't mean widgets and rich applications can't add value. When it gets down to it, I just want to have the movie times, wikipedia, IMDB, weather,...information quickly at my fingertips. Granted we now have a lot of ways to get most of that information... google gets it quickest now, either through just a search or even the Google SMS, but Rochester City Bus Lines is another issue.

So I'll just sit quietly and wait for Opera Mobile and/or Mini to also support widgets. How about it Opera?


(via Usability in the News)

Opera wants to study how its browser is being used. Sometimes my two favorite topics come together.

Opera has taken an interesting step with an "opt-in" test version of it's browser that sends back usage data on features.

I'm not sure what usability testing Opera did before now (but since kmaage is probably involved, it must be good right?) but as a user, one of my only vehicles for feedback is the forums (notably the Wish-List). Lets face it- for Opera, this isn't a very scientific method of getting real feedback from users on what they want and or need.

Asking users is not generally the best way to get an idea of how they use your product for several reasons:

• Asking them is more akin to doing market research than a usability study.
  
  
• Users have a tendency to exhibit a "Stockholm Syndrome" when giving feedback. When the company opens a dialog about "what they think about something..." you get a human interaction that then biases are results. In the same manner that you are more than happy to tell the driver in the next lane over what you think of his driving abilities when you're safely in your car, but not so much when you're stopped next to him at a red light. Of course, there's the other side of the coin...Wish-Lists and forums just present an opportunity to vent on a personal pet-peeve about a certain feature or lack thereof that certain users harp on.
  
  
• You're not getting any information at all about how the users are using the product: how long it takes to get to your favorite bookmark for example
  
  
• Asking them assumes they know what they want!
  

When people are left unattended/unmoderated they tend to be more natural and honest with their actions, or rather they aren't thought about and the interaction become more natural than if you were to just ask them face to face (or forum profile to forum profile). This is what Opera will get from it's volunteers. They'll look at how the browser is setup, how many bookmarks are stored, what's the configuation options, what features get used and which features are not. Sounds like a lot of people are signing up for it, so there should be good amount of data flowing into the coffers of the desktop developers. This technique was used by Microsoft with some success when testing the new Office interface (I'm missing a URL here!)

What's missing? Well, like eye tracking studies and other remote usability testing procedures, the motivation isn't there (which the text feedback box would help a bit with). You see I click on this button all the time, but you can't tell see the frustration and swearing that went along with it This is where other remote usability testing come in handy. Again, MS Office's had a "send a smile" (or frown)to the developers which allowed the user to easily send a comment with it off to the dev team. It would be nice to add something along those lines in conjuction with the Opera system as well, although it would be a pain to sift through all the comments I'd bet.

Of course, I'd actually volunteer to head on over to Oslo and sit in a lab with a camera watching me and go about browsing OperaWatch and the like to give more information, but until I get my airline ticket I'll give you as much information as you can take Opera.