links from the book

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This page contains a list of sites and applications referenced in the the book. NOTE: Each link appears only once, listed according to its first appearance in Designing the Moment.

Introduction

Pg. xvi: Designing the Obvious

Chapter 1

Pg. 7: Automattic, WordPress.com

Pg. 16: Yahoo! Design Pattern Library

Chapter 2

Pg. 19: Romeo & Juliet (movie)

Pg. 21: In the Cut (trailer), Hillman Curtis, Bend It Like Beckham (movie)

Chapter 3

Pg. 26: Google Page Creator

Chapter 4

Pg. 34: BBC News, CNN, Yahoo!

Pg. 36 : Ambient Signifiers (by Ross Howard)

Pg. 37: Analog In/Digital Out (Brendan Dawes, New Riders)

Pg. 38: Google Reader

Chapter 5

Pg. 40: Flickr, Flickr tag cloud

Pg. 44: LibraryThing, LibraryThing tag cloud

Chapter 6

Pg. 50: Blah-Blah Text: Keep, Cut, or Kill (Jakob Nielsen)

Chapter 8

Pg. 60: Basecamp, 37signals, CommonCraft Show

Pg. 63: Screencast (definition), OmniGraffle, Gliffy

Pg. 64: Snapz Pro X, Camtasia Studio, Jing, Screencast.com

Chapter 9

Pg. 67: DoTheRightThing

Pg. 68: Poka-yoka (Wikipedia)

Pg. 70: Google Suggest

Pg. 71: Yahoo! Instant Search

Chapter 10

Pg. 76: Gmail

Chapter 11

Pg.78 : Google Advanced Search

Pg. 81: Progressive disclosure (my Vitamin article)

Chapter 12

Pg. 87: NYTmes video

Pg. 88: CNN video

Pg. 90: YouTube—The Paradox of Choice (Barry Schwartz)

Pg. 92: TED—15 Ways to avert a climate crisis (Al Gore)

Chapter 14

Pg. 105: Wizard (definition)

Chapter 15

Pg. 111: GoDaddy.com

Pg. 112: Modal alerts (Apple Human Interface Guidelines), Miskeeto, Kris Hadlock, UpDownRepeat (no longer active)

Pg. 113: Eventful (registration page, changed since the book was released)

Pg. 114: OurProperty.co.uk (registration)

Chapter 16

Pg. 120: The Blob (movie)

Chapter 17

Pg. 126: Dashboard HQ

Pg. 128: IxDA (sign-in page)

Chapter 18

Pg. 136: Twitter

Part 5, Introduction

Pg. 138: Facebook

Chapter 21

Pg. 154: DoTheRightThing (founder Rod Ebrahimi’s profile)

Chapter 22

Pg. 156: WordCamp

Chapter 23

Pg. 168: Adobe Community Experts

Chapter 25

Pg. 177: FeedBurner

Pg. 179: AddThis

Chapter 26

Pg. 184: Voices That Matter conference

Pg. 187: SxSW (South by Southwest) festival

Chapter 27

Pg. 194: iGoogle, My Yahoo!, Ning

Chapter 28

Pg. 200: rhjr.net (Hint: you’re already here!)

Chapter 30

Pg. 210: Waking up the sleepers (37signals blog post)

Pg. 214: The Cluetrain Manifesto (Basic Books)

Chapter 31

Pg. 217: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Pg. 218: Backpack

Pg. 220: DropSend

The Keys to Great Design

Pg. 228: The rhjr.net blog

my social networks

I’m a social guy.

I’m on Twitter.

And Facebook.

And Tumblr.

And Ning.

Stop by and say hello. I’m usually around.

And if you’re interested in exploring how your company might sponsor a web project for a non-profit, or how to get me/us involved on a project with your company, check out Miskeeto.

designing the moment (new riders)

A good user experience is all about good moments. Each moment has the potential to increase a user’s confidence or destroy trust for a product or company, and each one is an important piece of the complete user experience.

In Designing the Moment, Robert Hoekman, Jr., author of the Amazon bestseller Designing the Obvious, presents over 30 stories of design solutions from real projects that show the evolution of each design as it was crafted and reveal the principles and concepts used to arrive at the solutions. Designing the Moment shows us how to look critically at design decisions to ensure that our users can walk away from our software feeling productive, respected, and smart, from the first impression to the last.

Designing the Moment is:

• a “think-out-loud”view into design solutions from real projects
• a critical look at elements from every phase of a user’s interaction with a Web site or application
• a collection of principles and concepts to guide the design of everything from page layouts to social networking features

Most of all, it’s a blow-by-blow, expert analysis of the subtle details of an interface that make or break a user’s experience, and how to improve each and every interaction, one moment at a time.

• Buy it now!
• Download the sample chapter! (PDF, 487kb)
  (Includes the Introduction, Table of Contents, and Chapter 13 )
  
• Join the Facebook group
• Links from the book

reviews

After I was about half-way through Robert’s first book, Designing the Obvious, I ordered a copy for everyone in my company, even non-developers, because it concisely summarized so much of what I think we should do.
- Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic, makers of WordPress

design description documents (DDD)

Read the article introducing Design Description Documents on Vitamin.

Download the templates (.zip)

Templates currently included in the ZIP:

• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Apple Keynote (iWork ‘06 and ‘08)

Send me your templates

If you create a template for a Design Description Document in an application not already included in the list above, shoot me an email, and I’ll get a copy from you and add it to the collection!

articles

Vitamin

Communicating Web 2.0 Through Design
Deliverables That Work: Design Description Documents
Read More … About Progressive Disclosure

Peachpit.com

Stupid User Syndrome: Why We Become Idiots Online (and What Web Designers Can Do About It)

Designing the Moment, 5 tips in 5 Days, Part 1
Designing the Moment, 5 tips in 5 Days, Part 2
Designing the Moment, 5 tips in 5 Days, Part 3
Designing the Moment, 5 tips in 5 Days, Part 4
Designing the Moment, 5 tips in 5 Days, Part 5

Redefining User-Centered Design, Part 1
Redefining User-Centered Design, Part 2
Redefining User-Centered Design, Part 3

InformIt.com

Designing the Obvious clinics (series of reviews based on the the book) Designing the Obvious (7-part series)
Optimizing Your Flash 8 Workspace and Revealing Hidden Features
Ten Minutes with Flash (20-article series)
Optimizing Your Flash MX 2004 Workspace and Revealing Hidden Features
Using Contribute 2

Adobe Design Center

Book excerpt: “Interface surgery: Converting an implementation-model design into a mental-model design”

Macromedia Developer Center

Best Practices for Flash Player Detection

Macromedia Edge Newsletter

A First Look at Flash Professional 8
How to Bulletproof your Web Application

Macromedia Logged In

gotoAndPlay(); A Developer’s Take on MAX 2004

Community MX

Usability 101
Loading Dynamic Data: Using the LoadVars Object
Benefits of Macromedia User Group Membership

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web strategy and design, by Miskeeto

Web design, social media strategy, training, and more for socially-conscious organizations who want to change the world.

Check out Miskeeto …

designing the moment (new riders)

My newest book is a collection of stories from real design projects that show how to put web interface design principles into action.

Get the details …

designing the obvious (new riders)

The Amazon bestseller that reveals the qualities of great web applications and how to successfully reproduce them.

Learn more …

ideas worth stealing

A blog about the design of great web applications and customer experiences. Simple and full of takeaways.

Read the latest post …

my social networks

Are you on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Ning, or another social network? Find out where to get connected.

Learn where to connect …

onesheet reviews

Get a review of one screen or task in your web application, in one week, for $1,000.

It’s as simple as that. You let me know you want a onesheet review, we chat on the phone for a bit about the goals for the screen or task you want reviewed and what the issues are, then I go off into the jungle and emerge one week later with a onesheet (which, ironically, is a 2-page PDF) full of notes, wireframes, and recommendations.

(Starting date may vary, depending on my schedule, but the review always takes one week.)

Who is this good for?

onesheet is perfect for people who need:

• a fresh perspective on a new or existing design
• input on the implementation of a new feature
• ideas for how to improve other parts of an application

What do I get?

Here’s a sample:

What do I do?

• Download the sample PDF here.
• Contact me to get started!

Thanks very much to Cosential for offering up its Contact Manager screen for the sample here.

flash user experience best practices (lynda.com)

Flash User Experience Best Practices offers solutions to common user experience issues that Flash designers and developers face every day. Topics shown include: making the browser Back button work with the Flash Player, handling state management, implementing effective Flash detection with useful alternate content, improving “scanability” and workflow in your applications, and helping users maintain context while working with your applications.

Throughout the training videos, Robert Hoekman, Jr., shows you real-world examples and demonstrates techniques for improving the experiences you create. Exercise files accompany the training videos, allowing you to follow along and learn at your own pace.

Get it now!

Check out the blog …

reviews

I’d like to complain about this title. It’s completely ruined my day. I had a load of things planned, but instead I’ve been glued watching this title and dumped everything else aside. Thank you for making this available. It’s why I subscribe to lynda.com. A huge thank you to Robert Hoekman, Jr. too.
- paul a. - 12/2005

mantra box

Mantra Box is inspired by this Boxes and Arrows article, which features the following quote:

[My mantra box is ...] a list of phrases and words that I’ve come across in my reading, or in interactions with others, that resonate deeply with me.
— Jorge Arango

Here are some words and phrases that resonate deeply with me, whether about application design or life, in no particular order. Yes, a couple of them are things I said or wrote myself, but they still belong on the list, because every so often, everyone gets to say something they really mean.

• Clarity
• Simplicity
• “No big deal” is a very big deal.
• Vigorous writing
• Vigorous coding
• Vigorous design
• Requirements, Reduction, and Regularity
• On-demand interface
• “Help” is for experts
• Kaizen (improvement)
• Poka-yoke (mistake-proofing)
• Kanban (pull instead of push)
• Just In Time
• Everything is important
• Everything is transitory
• Zen

quote box

And here are some great quotes!

• Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. (Einstein)
• No matter how cool your interface is, less of it would be better. (Alan Cooper)
• Features are meaningless. They mean nothing to users. A coherent product user interface is the product to users. (Kim Goodwin)
• The good is the enemy of the best. (Author unknown)
• Reduction through successive refinement is the only path to simplicity. (Mullett, Sano; “Designing Visual Interfaces”)
• No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. (Einstein)
• We’ll boil a feature down to it’s essence, work on it until we’ve got it solid, and then launch it once that simple core is ready. (Jeffrey Veen)
• A user interface is well-designed when the program behaves exactly how the user thought it would. (Joel on Software)
• No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. (Voltaire)
• Everything should be questioned, because most things we accept as normal are really very wrong. Most things considered normal are due for some questioning. (Me)
• Never underestimate the ability of the public to ignore you. (Seth Godin)
• The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all. (Pablo Casals)
• The tao that can be named is not the eternal tao. (Lao Tzu)

Check out the blog …

press kit

Download headshots and my current bio (ZIP, 2.2MB).

The ZIP contains one:

• Word doc with Long, Short, and Really Short print versions of my bio
• HTML file with Long, Short, and Really Short web versions of my bio
• Large TIFF headshot
• Large JPG headshot
• Small JPG headshot

These files may not be edited or adapted without my permission. Please contact me if you need to modify them for some reason.

screenshots and text

Screenshots of this site and text quoted from this site must be accompanied either by a reference to the domain name (”www.rhjr.net”) or the author name (”Robert Hoekman, Jr.”).

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

the web commandments

The Web Commandments is a work in progress.

It may eventually be a small, easy-to-read book that spells out the “rules of engagement” for the Web. Rules like, “If it’s not an option, don’t show it”, and “Innovate only when it makes things better”.

about the eReader

The eReader application features a simple, clean interface that separates controls from content, utilizes the best Flash detection solution available, maintains a working ‘Back” button in your browser, and uses standard UI controls for improved usability (all these things are discussed in my Lynda.com course, “Flash User Experience Best Practices“).

When you’re done here, check out this related content:

• My Macromedia Developer Center article, titled “Best Practices for Flash Player Detection”
• My Lynda.com course, “Flash User Experience Best Practices”
• The blog

about robert hoekman, jr.

Robert Hoekman, Jr., is the founder of Miskeeto, a product development and web design consultancy focused on socially-conscious projects that improve the world.

He’s a passionate and outspoken interaction designer, writer, and user-experience evangelist who has written dozens of articles and has worked with Seth Godin (Squidoo), Adobe, Automattic, United Airlines, DoTheRightThing.com, Go Daddy Software, and countless others to create superior user experiences for a wide range of audiences. He also gives in-house training sessions and has spoken at many industry events, including Adobe MAX, An Event Apart, SxSW, Future of Web Design, and others.

Robert is the author of the Amazon bestseller Designing the Obvious (New Riders), which focuses on seven guiding principles of great web-based software and how to leverage them in any real-world project, and Designing the Moment (New Riders), a collection of stories from real projects that show how to put web design principles into action.

Download Robert’s press kit here.

designing the obvious (new riders)

Designing the Obvious belongs in the toolbox of every person charged with the design and development of Web-based software, from the CEO to the programming team. Designing the Obvious explores the character traits of great Web applications and uses them as guiding principles of application design so the end result of every project instills customer satisfaction and loyalty. These principles include building only what’s necessary, getting users up to speed quickly, preventing and handling errors, and designing for the activity.

Designing the Obvious does not offer a one-size-fits-all development process - in fact, it lets you use whatever process you like. Instead, it offers practical advice about how to achieve the qualities of great Web-based applications and consistently and successfully reproduce them.

• Buy it now
• Download the sample chapter
• Join the ‘Designing the Obvious’ community on Ning

reviews

Robert’s new book is worth a look if you design just about anything for just about anyone.
- Seth Godin (Marketing genius, change agent, creator of Squidoo)

All in all, Designing the Obvious is an amazing book, crafted together from years of experience in understanding applications and deep insight into how the latest and greatest Web 2.0 applications are designed to be obvious. From countless examples and an amazing amount of techniques, both before and during design, Hoekman provides a wonderful platform from which more amazing, and dynamic applications can be built. If you are at all in the market for designing web based applications, especially Web 2.0 applications, this book is hands down a necessity, particularly for those who are still meditating on their last purchase.
- BoxesAndArrows (author: Clifton Evans)

Designing the Obvious seems to be the perfect companion for Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think”, and if you’re designing web applications you should definitely pick up a copy.
- Josh Williams (Firewheel Design, creators of BlinkSale)

Nobody wants unhappy users, but with Designing the Obvious, software designers and developers everywhere can learn to start turning frustrated and hostile users into users who are happy and loyal and ready to evangelize.
- Wendy Sharp (from the Peachpit blog)

I’m currently going to petition Gideons to see if along with bibles, they can leave a copy of this book in every so-called ‘web designer’s’ hotel room.
- Vorsuc

If you see this slender book in a book shop and assume there can’t be much in it for the price, you’ll be making a mistake. Anyone working in web design will have a lot to gain from the insights and thought processes behind the detail.
- PC Book Review

Don’t wait [...] - just go buy it. Now. I mean it. Go to wherever you buy books and order it up. I don’t care if you just bought Gears of War and your a little short on cash. Go sell some blood plasma or something. If you have ANYTHING to do with the creation, design, or development of web application than go [...] right now and get the damn book. Don’t make me get the flying monkeys after you.
- cross.wired.mind

Great UI is deceptively simple — that simplicity takes much thought and work. Designing The Obvious will help you get there quicker.
- Alan Rimm-Kaufman

I don’t remember where I first heard of Designing the Obvious, but I’m glad I put it on my wish-list (and that someone bought it for me).
- Mike

This book is aimed largely at people involved in web-based software design and development, yet it should be compulsory reading for any one involved in creating software for anyone else other than themselves.
- Justin Sihera

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Your message is on its way to my inbox—now go check out the rest of the site!

• Ideas Worth Stealing (the blog)
• About Robert
• Learn more about Designing the Obvious
• Learn more about Designing the Moment

Cheers!