If you know the folks in the photographs, please drop me a quick e-mail and I'll update the titles and descriptions accordingly.

• T5 - The 3x3: A Unique Approach to Design Ideation
• EP2 - Make Yourself Heard! Selling User Experience in Your Organization
• EP4 - You Won the Contact/You Granted the Contract...Now What Happens?

This conference promises to be really good and I'm soooo looking forward to attending. This is my first trip to UPA so I'll report back on what I learn and find, hopefully on a daily basis.

Again, if you are attending let me know so we can make time to chat!

Achieving number one out of over 1.8 million pages to choose from is pretty cool indeed.

Once the devices were in hand everyone was focused on which way the phone could be rotated and how the user interface responds or on how well the iPhone discovers WiFi networks and connects to them, for example. One item none of us initially considered was the UI design of Apple's web site supporting the iPhone launch.

As it turns out, Apple's web site violates a very basic design guidline in practice today.

Here is an image I clipped directly from http://www.apple.com/retail/iphone/ showing the availability of iPhones at retail locations in California for tomorrow, July 4th, 2007.

"Wow!", you say, "That's amazing. You mean to tell me that people can figure out quickly and easily from Apple's own web site the exact retail locations which will be selling iPhones tomorrow?"

I'd have to answer, "Well, most people, but not all!"

At VMware, more than one member of the design team has a form of color-blindness. According to most statistics, color blindness is a problem for 8% to 12% of males of European origin and about half a percent of females. For these people, the red and green balls in the image above appear as exactly the same color rendering them useless.

Here is that same image updated to illustrate the lack of color difference for users with dichromacy.

One of the most basic considerations for designers working on desktop applications, web sites, and mobile devices is (or should be) the less-abled user. Disabilities in vision, hearing, motor function, and cognition are fairly well understood in most design circles these days.

Users Shout Out

I hate it when people use red and green to distinguish something. Those of us who are colorblind are left to wonder if our local stores have them or not (or we have to view the src of the page). Bad UI design, Apple!

Arrrrggghhh!!! Why do people keep using small dots of red and green, leaving those of us who are color blind to wail in frustration? I have NO idea what color these dots are. Lesson to web designers: try using a red X and a green CHECK. That way it works for everyone.

I don't know about the rest of you normal-eyed folks, but I can't tell the difference between those dots. What the hell, Apple? And I'm not that color blind. Take off the border and the highlight thing, and I've got about 4 pixels of color for my color-impaired eyes to work with. Shouldn't Apple know better than this?

As you can see, end users are highly aware of this issue and are requesting a resolution.

Apple's Own Guidelines

Given that Apple is clearly aware of this guideline one has to wonder how this issue slipped past the quality assurance and web marketing teams. My guess is that while no matter how hard one works, no one is perfect.

Strive To Improve

The design team at Apple is likely working hard already to resolve this issue for their users. I look forward to an improved user experience even though I'm not personally impacted by this design decision.

The activation process in iTunes is a bit lacking in features, however, even that didn't matter. I was initially assigned a phone number in my home area code of 650 and when I called AT&T to request a 408 number instead they instantly changed it over. All I had to do was turn the phone off and back on again and it worked perfectly after starting back up almost instantly.

As I learn to use the device I'll be posting more updates. For now, I'm happy and things seem to be working well.

After calling the 1-877-419-4500 number my call was answered in a reasonable amount of time where a very cheerful customer service representative explained that I just needed to wait a bit longer. She couldn't actually tell me how long I'd need to wait but stated that she'd spoken with other disappointed customers who had already waited over six (6) hours at this point.

Was is not 100% obvious to AT&T that the entire planet would be rushing out to purchase these devices today with the not unreasonable expectation they'd be able to activate them immediately? I suppose the new AT&T isn't much different than the old really. Same underwhelming customer service as before only this time they actually outsmarted the customers. Sending you home to do their dirty work rather than dealing with you face-to-face in their retail stores is an amazing plan.

I'm hoping that my iPhone will be activated soon so I can begin posting about all the things i love about it. For now, I'm off to play Xbox 360 and wait. How sad really!

iPhone, therefore iWait!

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Attn: Greg French

Phone: (916) 719-0720
E-mail: gfrench@frenchins.com

Should you choose to contact Greg I know he will do right by you. Please tell him that Glenn sent you!

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

How true is that? We should all remember that with hard work comes great reward. Now...get back to it!

Let me know what you think of my selections when you have a chance.

My team at VMware is expanding to a new location in San Francisco. I am looking for bright, passionate people interested in designing solutions to real world problems that are easy-to-use. I have positions available in interaction design, visual design, and user research.

Interested in reading more the award winning products my team designs? Check out Deep Drive into VMware's Virtual Infrastructure written by Paul Venezia for InfoWorld. We received a 9 out of 10 for usability which counted for 25% of the overall score of 8.7!

Additional detail about VMware, Inc. can be found at VMware.com.
E-mail your resume in PDF format to uejobs@vmare.com for consideration. No agencies please.

Course #9 - How to Collect Field Data and Produce a Tested Design in 1-8 Weeks
Course #20 - Building Affinity Diagrams to Reveal User Needs and Engage Developers
Course #29 - How to Build Rich Personas from Field Data
Course #36 - Interaction Design Studio

If you are in the same course as me, please take the time to say hello. I'd love to meet you!