A lesson in Interface Design
By Mims Wright | on July 14, 2006
In Rants, User Interface Design | No Comments
While riding the freight elevator up to my office (I’ve been meaning to lose some weight so I can use the normal one) I noticed the sixth floor button does not light up. When this first came to my attention, I tried pressing multiple times and even banging on it but the button remained eerily dark. I concluded that it might have been broken or perhaps that the sixth floor no longer existed. As I wondered uncomfortably, a curious thing happened - the elevator stopped at the sixth floor after all! I realized that it wasn’t the button but the indicator light on the button that was broken.
I feel that this story taught me a valuable lesson about what can happen when an interface fails to communicate with it’s client. Although I’ve learned from experience that the elevator is indeed going to my floor, there was a moment where I was not only uninformed but on some unconscious level confused, uncomfortable, and afraid. Let us all remember from this experience how important it is to provide feedback to the user!
Thank you.
Mims Wright
Mims (yes, that’s his real name) was born a curious Southern boy in Mississippi. Transplanted to Boulder, Colorado at the unstable age of 13, he was spared from a teen life filled with shaggy hair and polo shirts. Adept at finding order in chaos and vice versa, he followed his passion for design and upon graduating highschool said “fuck it” and went to an art college.
Things progressed. Somewhere along the line the internet thing happened. He joined the ranks of nerdy twenty-somethings to get his piece of the pie only to find that not only was there no pie left, but it wasn’t very tasty after all. After returning to school for safety, he helped progress the newly formed interactive design program at the University of Colorado and soon caught the attention of an Omnicom Affiliate.
In 2002 he moved to New York after hearing something on the radio about ‘making it there or anywhere’. The food was good and the reports of violent crimes were outdated. He took a job working for Organic Inc. as a Production Artist. Within six months, he had been awarded for his performance and was quickly becoming the go-to guy for flash design and development. Since then he’s worked with a wide range of clients from ‘mom and pop’ to ‘evil empire’ and, with a strong sense of irony, has achieved veteran status before the age of thirty.
Mims is a natural organizer and problem solver. Although most of his best insights occur while in the shower, he can be counted on for an unexpected idea regardless of circumstance. He does not believe in limitations of the medium, unnecessary meetings, or flash intros.
Mims presently resides in Brooklyn, NY and is a Senior Software Developer at Schematic where he makes websites for cash.
Roger Braunstein
Roger enjoys eating food, and sometimes cooking it. He doesn’t like blogging so much, but he thinks it’s “probably a good idea or something.” He lives in Brooklyn with his totally hot girlfriend and eats pizza with her there. He enjoys motion graphics, biking, and video games, and lots of other stuff. He spends a lot of insomnia time trying to learn and do cool projects. He could do a cool project with you! Email him.
Does the world really need one more Flash blog?
By Mims Wright | on July 10, 2006
In Rants | No Comments
Probably not but I won’t let that stop me. I hope to bring you some interesting insights on Flash and the interactive industry as well as some useful tutorials and discussions. Also, since I’ve been somewhat of a hermit, I aim to let you know more about who I am and hopefully garner industry recognition or even fame in the process!
I just set this up and things are going to look pretty bare until I get some time to make a pretty design and write a bio and link to your awesome website (send me an url).