[Personal UX/UI review] signs in Seolleung Stn. perhaps

Issue: the ceiling sign has misled me not to go under the sign but look for an exit sign located on the far left on this photo

Recommendation: include exit numbers in the ceiling sign for passengers' intuitive understanding of direction 

[Personal UX/UI review] Samsung Electronics newspaper and light box ads

Issue: still hardware specs ads

(c.f. Samsung's video ad: http://www.samsung.com/africa_pt/?brightcove=2748971527001#latest-home)

Recommendation: advertise how the optical zoom and smartphone combination enhance people's lives 

Issue: information architecture of this light box display is not intuitive enough to understand which text explains which picture

Recommendation: visual categorization of information needs to be implemented 

For example, 

Apple story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGtP6ZQ6Lt8&feature=share

Nexus 7 ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx7HF0RaE10

[Personal UX/UI review] 2nd floor store design, logo positioning,pricing

Positive: clean window and bright lighting for 2nd floor restaurant

Lesson: to attract customers on the 2nd floor, deal with issues that customers care the most (e.g. hygiene, doubts about shaggy business) 

Issue: no logo

Recommendation: put logo in front of company name to increase brand recognition and awareness

Issue: same product with different pricing

Recommendation: standardize pricing (i.e. make the price the same)

[Personal UX/UI review] Google Drive's lack of system detection

Issue: though users already downloaded the application, this Google Drive, a cloud-base web application doesn't detect that (c.f. Google+ doesn't detect installed app on users' smartphone, either) 

Solution: if installed, simply remove the icon from users' Drive webpage

Lesson: website needs to be able to "customize" or "respond" to users' current system 

[Personal UX/UI review] McDelivery site and alarm app from McDonald's

Usually on weekends, I find myself visiting Korean McDelivery site to order burgers and stuff. The other day I happened to notice time-limitation sales technique widely used by TV home shopping channels has been implemented in McDonald's home-delivery website. 

Positive: display remaining time for selected order to psychologically influence users to convert from website visitors to purchasers

Positive: "kind" reminder message to nudge users for purchase

Positive: as a "punishment" failed to click order button, users need to start all over again. What a great incentive system! 

Positive: even a utility app which comes with free coffee promotion displays timer-limitation; this system truly works because the system incentivized me to visit the restaurant this morning! 

[Fireside Chat] Lessons Learned from Y Combinator & 500 Startups

Title	Fireside Chat- Lessons Learned from Y Combinator & 500 Startups
Place	D Camp
Time	October 16, 2013 7PM~9PM
Speaker	Niket Desai (@niket), Josh Wilson (@makaniaki), Yaron Binur (@ybinur)
Organizer	AppCenter (http://onoffmix.com/event/19682)
Focus	What to do in startups

I.       Key Takeaway: 

1.       Move fast, stay hungry and focused

2.     Stay with customers from day zero      

II.      Lesson from Y Combinator

1.       What you’re building should be meaningful to users

2.     Your product or service needs to make users would be willing to pay for it, download it, or come back periodically

3.     Talk to your customers and speed up (bringing your prototype and getting feedback are so much faster than coding)

4.     No need to waste time and money on managerial stuff e.g. payroll, tax, etc. (use accelerator program such as Y Combinator)

5.     Know why you need an accelerator before asking one  

III.     Other lessons

1.       Get more feedbacks early

2.     Utilize usability, user testing, surveys from day zero

3.     Always sell yourself (i.e. elevator speech to other people)  

IV.    Ways to be acquired

1.       Visibility: Get yourself known (e.g. Top 50 Tech Crunch)

2.     Be focused (e.g. home related thing for Redbeacon)

3.     Make hard decision in valuing and selling your business

V.      How do you see failure?

1.       Fail fast and early and often (c.f. Paul Graham)

1)     Fail consistently every time (B/c with failure you learn something)    

VI.    Go to Silicon Valley to build or stay in Korea?

1.       go global and support multiple languages (e.g. Skype started as global service from day one)

2.       know what you’re doing (e.g. non-consumer facing products such as security, technology, infra doesn’t need to be physically in the States)

VII.   Where to locate HW and SW offices?

1.       be where your customers are

2.     learn from Waze- R&D center in Israel but operation offices in the US

[Personal UX/UI review] front yard design trend?

Some similarities found for front yard design among shops. A trend?

Observation: wooden look front yard design 

Issue: hard to see what's this restaurant is selling; the front yard design seems to be closed

Solution: get rid of plants and make it open like the cases above perhaps?

[Personal UX/UI review] empty space utilization of Yangjae Station

I was just passing by Yangjae Station and realized there have been too much empty spaces which could have been utilized for passers-by and the New Bundang-line company. 

Positive: good usage of empty space

Lesson: space= opportunity

[Personal UX/UI review] Google Plus,Google Drive API,G+ comment UI,G+ mobile menu,Ads made in Korea

Positive: great UI. Under one line restriction, the designer managed to show multiple comments by showing overlapped images

Lesson: to provide a great UX, no need to have a large space

Positive: same UI as desktop to reduce learning time 

Positive: efficient API allowing easy slide switch

Issue: terrible cases of Korean company ads. They almost always have to use pretty models for getting their message crossed to viewers. How sad!!!

Solution: make products to become viewers' attention by displaying common looking people without distractions; learn from ads made during Steve's reign! 

[Personal UX/UI review] Korean design, rice pack seal, McDonald's doorand trash can

Positive: using Korean alphabets to create beautiful consumer products

Issue: no intuitive way to know how to open rice pack

Solution: follow people's mental models by imitating other common tearing solutions with popular FMCG products 

Lesson: we often hear differentiate, differentiate and differentiate your products from others; however, copying the best practices may not necessarily a bad thing

Issue: people accidentally bumped into this glass without knowing that the glass is not a door at least once in every hour of my sitting

Solution: put some ads or visual stuff to cover so that from afar people can perceive the glass not as a door or path 

Issue: I don't know where to put my trash separately

Solution: display a visual key by adding a territory sign e.g. plastic cup, mug cup, water dispensing area

Lesson: make customers' last journey or touch point of their store visit a pleasant memory by intuitively guiding them with stress-free design

[Personal UX/UI review] designing signs on architecture

I was passing by below buildings the other day and what designers did to their buildings caught my eyes. 

Positive: displayed a communication channel to passers-by

Positive: targeted on one thing instead of many: positioned its place for studying people 

Issue: displayed no recognizable signs (though its services may be provided during day time, the color is not noticeable); repeated same logos all around without sending a particular message

Solution: color SONY sign to be catchy; put some catch phrase around the building to both improve Sony's image and increase the center's physical presence 

Lesson: convert architecture signs to a communication tool to passers-by

[Personal UX/UI review] Android KitKat promotion

Received below KitKat from a YouTube event and now I finally participated in the new Android's promotional campaign. 

Issue: wrong URL, QR code not working, wrong location for both URL and QR code

Solution: use kitkat.co.kr instead; place URL and QR code below "STEP 2"

Issue: too much scroll to get to the bottom of the page

Issue: hard to find country section

Issue: color not too much recognizable

Issue: entry style looks dramatically different from others

Solution: make it look similar to others

---

[overall] Lesson: make it easy for customers to participate promotional campaigns

[overall] Evaluation: 2/10 (this promotion could have been easier to participate) 

[Personal UX/UI review] Google Analytics delete menu

Just realized that I didn't put my blog on Google Analytics to track down users' behavior to improve the blog and found my old websites. Tried to delete them but couldn't find delete button so youtube'd how-to videos and finally deleted them. 

Issue: über hard to find delete an account and view

Solution: make the delete menu as an icon and place the icon next to Account ID or somewhere visible

Lesson: if a function of one's business is too difficult to find or use, people will start youtube or blog about it and that may not be pleasing to the brand 

[Personal UX/UI review] road sign nearby Yongsan US Military base

Today was my first day co-facilitating a small group in Yongsan Military base. I couldn't pass below designs without recognizing them. 

Issue: both a kid with a guardian and cyclist are allowed in the same road 

Solution: choose one group or the other

Lesson: there are some group just can't go along with each other 

Issue: only cyclists are allowed in a narrow sidewalk

Solution: erase the bicycle sign

Lesson: if given only one option, choose for larger coverage

[Personal UX/UI review] Yonsei Uni. Severance Hospital Funeral Services

I happened to be recruited as a pallbearer last weekend and here are some observations I made on the way.

Issue: Emergency Room sign doesn't look like urgent

Solution: color it in red

Lesson: when design, going along with people's mental model can bring intuitive understanding

Positive: though the color can be distinctive, You Are Here sign was fairly easy to catch (c.f. many maps I've seen in the past failed in this regard)

Issue: eyes move much in finding information

Solution: place the legend right below of the map

Lesson: like Fitts's Law popularly applied in web design to reduce mouse pointer movement from one sequential action to the next, the Law also needs to be applied in print or sign board to reduce eye movement. 

#1

Issue: though the information is sorted by funeral home number, floor info is displayed first; viewers in a rush may spend a couple more seconds to find their place

Solution: make first column as sort-by (e.g. Funeral Home special 1, 3, 5, etc.)

Lesson: in designing a table, try to sort its content by first column or so

#2 

Issue: too many repetitive basement texts

Solution: use B1 (basement 1) and B2 only once and sort the table by floor

Lesson: in designing information architecture, consider applying MECE (mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive) principle

#3

Issue: fourth column title is missing

Solution: simply add one ;)