BUILDING BETTER FRONT ENDSWhat is your product’s personality?
Tulsi Dharmarajan
About me
• Sr. Product Manager at Allegiance, a leading provider of VOC & EFM
Contact information: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tulsid http://twitter.com/tulsid
AGENDA
Product personalitySimple oversightsImproving requirementsCreating design advocates
Tone of the product
Do you know the personality of your product? Friendly Casual Cool Formal
Identify the tone that will portray the personality
Then, communicate this through the organization
Simple oversights
Examples of things to notice: Capitalization Spelling & grammatical mistakes Inconsistency Alignment & spacing Date & numeric formats
Include notes on the above in requirement documents Publish standards so they are avoided Communicate mistakes so they’re not repeated
Error messages
Avoid sending the user mixed signals
IMPROVING REQUIREMENTS
Improve error messages
Remember the tone! Talk like a person, not a database Slightly self deprecating and never blame the
user Let the user know what to do next
Error messages, continued
Examples of meaningful error messages from LastFMNing.
What do we call “it”?
Who is the user and what will they most easily get?
Is “Submit” or “Save” better? Should the button be “Add Batch File” or “New
Email List”
Remember the tone! Decide naming conventions early in the cycle Publish and share naming paradigms within the
organization
Blank slates
What will the user see when they visit a page for the first time?
Wufoo (top) maintains the personality – with the tone, color, and font. LightCMS (right) provides useful information on getting started and where to find more help.
Good defaults
Answer the most common questions
CampaignMonitor auto selects time-zone based on user location
Embrace minimalism!
Remember the 80/20 rule Minimize distractions Bring core content to the forefront Don’t add a feature unless absolutely needed.
(There’s always advanced options!)
TeuxDeux
Less is more
Less navigation = less training
eGain Service
CREATE DESIGN ADVOCATES
Spread the word!
Stress the details and share the stress Point out the little things to engineering & QA
– they will take notice! Inspire engineers & QA to get excited about
the things you are excited about
Example of guidelines
Capitalization Labels
Title Case. The only exception is for radio buttons/checkboxes. Avoid the use of articles (a, the etc) Should be as short as possible Avoid terms that are Allegiance specific. Instead find a familiar
word Buttons
Single word if possible. “Save” is better than “Save Survey” Title Case Avoid articles and conjunctions
Sentence case: Only the first word is capitalized Exception: Proper nouns
Title Case: All words are capitalized except: Articles (a, an, the) Conjunctions (and, or)
RECAPRemember the tone!Decide naming conventions early in the cycleSpecify error messagesRemember to include defaultsCreate standards for everything & spread the word
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