Organizing UX for Large Scale Mobile Apps

Just wanted to share a few pics of the inter-workings of designing a large scale app that crosses vast social media integration and numerous content touch points. A considerable amount of time is put into organizing, structuring and designing such a product so that it will make sense for end users and appear simple and easy to use.



Forgoing these steps at this level will ensure confusion and ultimately the absence of returning users to your ecosystem. I have taken traditional website building methods and modified them to develop a system of what I am calling a 'Tap Map'. Very similar to a site map, but in this instance you can easily see where particular parts of the app are nested inside each of other and how many taps deep a particular piece of content is. This also allow certain pieces of information to be accessed in multiple ways inside the app without having flow lines and arrows running wild.

Mobile is definitely a different animal and as such the traditional web way of tackling things no longer makes as much sense. Within the confines of iOS and android each screen has to have special attention paid to it whereas in many web design instances content flows more freely and design is more about building buckets to drop things in. A few dozen page designs for the web will quickly turn into a few hundred for an app if attention to detail is taken into account. Adding touch and gestures to the user experience changes the architecture and every element has to fit in a particular place within the fixed dimensions of the screen. Links and more info to come soon - once this product is launched. Big stuff on the way, stay tuned.

Small Businesses & Domain Name Strategy

In the past few months I have sat down with several small business owners looking to kick off their online presence. Typically these clients have little to no money and just need something - anything - online that makes them look more legit than just having a business card.

Concerning selecting a name for the business domain… Usually business owners have an idea in mind of what they want, normally they have been through a hundred names on Godaddy only to find out that Name.com is taken and is for sale for $100,000. Discouraging as this may seem it really presents a great opportunity to capitalize on a longer domain name that could actually be more relevant in a niche market.

Everything goes back to the user so when selecting a potential name, I like to recommend imagining how people search using Google. While there is obviously something to be said for having a short memorable name there is also an equal if not greater argument for selecting a domain that coincides with how people search.

For instance, pretend sites with close to identical information on each site: GlobalTextiles.com vs. CustomRestaurantUniforms.com (just fake examples)

People will inevitably search for terms like "Custom Restaurant Uniforms" and Google will index such a site with a domain that is a search term much higher. People will rarely search "Global Textiles" looking for custom-made restaurant uniforms, and those that do search for "Global Textiles" might be looking for info on world textile import/exports or some other materials. Even if the legal company name was "Global Textiles Inc." a different website name (or sub-site) with a more specific product domain name to the actual product is going to yield a higher return for smaller businesses with little to no brand recognition and marketing budgets. Additionally this more generic domain could actually be more memorable when speaking with potential leads.

Just something to keep in mind while spending nights searching for the next cool.com domain name and when really trying to utilize the internet to your sales advantage. And also remember, if you are not updating your site's content regularly then it doesn't matter what you name it. Your dusty old site with a recent post from a year and a half ago is pretty much worthless and showing up on page 12 of googles search results. You could pretty much rename it turd.com cause that is about all its worth. (And incase you are wondering, yes turd.com is taken - but available for the low low price of only…)

Usability at the Pump

For a commodity that gets so much of my money, it seems little (if any) thought or planning has gone into the research of customers interacting at the gas pump.

With every new station it seems there is an entirely different payment system and process. The order in which you select a grade of petrol, the random chance of being asking for your zip code or the unpredictable inquiry about whether or not I want a car wash - when all I really want is the gas to begin flowing.

My personal favorite of poor customer experience would be the "Do you want a receipt?" prompt. This turns into a trick question and seems to be handled differently at every pump. Generally it will say something like, "Would you like a receipt?", then below it have a "Yes" and a "No" next to side buttons that you would think correspond to those choices… But not always! There is actually a tiny button on the the manual keypad that says "Yes Receipt" and one that says "No" in mouse print.



It reminds me of an occasion when I wanted a delicious Snickers bar from a vending machine. Below my treat that was being held hostage in a giant cork screw it said, "D14". I put in my money.. I press "D", then I press "1", and before I can hit the "4" the machine starts cranking and a pack of gum falls down to the chute. Perhaps I should have known that there was actually a "14" button and all of my years interacting with a base-10 keypad were just nonsense.

With the amount of money consumers spend at the pump every day, it would be nice to invest the tiniest portion of that into making it a bit easier to take my money from me. Here is a very simple idea to start with.

1. Create a mobile app. Not one that just has a store locator and nothing else. Create a free, useful app for your chain of gas stations that doesn't suck.

2. Allow the "bump". Once I have set up a secure account I should be able to simply bump my device on a pump console to pay. (Some stations have a plan you can join and carry an extra key fob with you for this - but what is the point of that really? I get that its on my keys and I should notice it and go there, but once its on there with every other place that thinks its a good marketing idea it just becomes a clump of garbage I carry with me and never look at.)

3. Integrate cool tools. Track me when, where and how much fuel I have bought over time. Add in mileage tracking that would normally be a paid app. Tell me if my car is being efficient and green and all that trendy stuff. Ask me for my mileage when I am waiting on my tank to fill up - or tell me I can buy a hot dog on a rotating machine just inside the door. Give me the ability to email all my records to myself or my accountant.

4. Send push notifications. If you know how often I buy gas, and if you prompt me to enter my mileage - it wouldn't take much to figure out when to send me a push notification to "bump" in the next 24 hours for a discount on the gallon. You could even notify me if I am near a station when you think I am getting close to the "E".

5. Time savings. Make it easy and quick. If you did all of this really well and it could save me time as a customer (instead of searching for the "Yes Receipt" button) - then perhaps you really would have the beginning of a loyalty program that could work. I don't really want to go into the whole reason why social media integration could also work here, but I could at least tell my friends, "Josh has gas" on my fb profile for fun.

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After reading my post my friend Christine told me she had gas too. So much so that she felt the need to snap a photo at the time and then create this little animated gif of the experience and send it to me. Thanks Christine!

Mini Golf & Mobile Apps

In celebration of a friend’s birthday Saturday night we played miniature golf. At 8 p.m. it was still a hot and humid Texas evening, but one thing that changed it was the fantastic idea to search for a mobile app that would keep a running score of the 11 people who came to compete.

Nothing is more frustrating that finishing last place on the mini-links other than one thing - the daunting task of being the score keeper. Generally this task somehow seems to always fall on my shoulders, giving me two choices, 1. hurriedly try and calculate who was winning from hole to tee each time, or 2. the blind approach of calculating once after hole 9 and then hoping for the best end result.

Tiny score cards and 3 inch pencils as sharp as my finger do not add up to fun. Thankfully with the cliché statement "there's an app for that" the night changed course.

Mini Golf Score Card by Baliza GmbH was the real winner for the evening. It easily lets you add players and change their respective ball colors to keep track of the madness. It keeps a running score so you know exactly who is up or down and how many strokes separate them. And it even allows you to remember that sweet putt putt victory forever by emailing out the results.



Not a big amazing breakthrough App, but certainly a useful utility that makes scorekeeping less stressful and the game more exciting. It’s the little things that count. And I lost by one stroke! Dang.

Creativity in Business

The word "creative" is an all encompassing term of what we do and how we interact, both personally and in business.



Companies live and die by these primary principles which are all rooted in creativity:

1. The funding necessary to create a product or service
2. The value and quality of the good or service created
3. The effectiveness of marketing the product
4. The experience a consumer has when interacting with the product
5. The likelihood of a consumer to recommend the product to others.

All of these variables are dependent on "creative". Will investor/board presentations effectively communicate the business goals? How will the product or service be designed and built? How will the product be marketed and advertised to consumers in a multitude of ways? What will the actual experience a consumer has with the product be? How likely will consumers be to share it with others? And how will the process be repeated to make continual improvements?

Design & creativity is intrinsic in the core of any business. Often though a business's drive for revenue can usurps this necessity, and lead the company to failure if it is not acted on by an outside force. This is why "fresh blood" is brought in and new thought-leadership is required. The customer is still king, and the product or service still exists for them - more so now than ever as every company and product is discussed and shared instantly with both positive and negative results.

If a product or service remains consumer focused, it will succeed. This is often why new leadership is needed at a company, or the leadership that exists should be continually focused on building a better product - not just a better profit. The profit and product are eqully dependent on one another.

A example of this is Apple Computers and Microsoft. The once tiny Apple facing the giant continually focused on the customer and innovative products while Microsoft focused on profits. Now we view Apple as one of the most successful, innovative and design-centric companies ever and continue to see Microsoft lose ground.

"Creative" is essential to having a successful business. A holistic design-centric approach can be the differentiating factor in ultimate success or ultimate failure.

Mobile Apps - Does your business need one?

Great infographic from BuySellAds...

The Basics

In my years in college, one professor stood out among the rest, Gresham. An odd little balding man who had a profound impact on every student who was able to successfully pass his courses - and there were MANY who did not. With around 300 new students entering each semester and around a dozen or less graduating from the course of study, he was the first and primary screener. And he did an amazing job of it. Here are a few lessons that have stuck with me through many years of design.

1. You are not a genius.
Prof. Gresham was obsessed with the mind and our perception of reality, which was apparent in every quirky lesson. It seemed his primary goal through one of his courses was to simply inform every student that they are not and never will be a genius - despite what their parents and grandparents had imbedded in their minds for the prior two decades. Too many designers, developers and business people believe they are truly geniuses. This, however, is a great fallacy, which will prevent growth. If a person were truly a genius, on par with Beethoven or Einstein, they would have been whisked away at a very young age to work on theoretical math or complex metaphysical calculations. They most definitely would not be coming up with ideas for websites, architecting, designing or developing them. They might at times be very clever and very talented. But true genius? Never.

Thankfully, however, this fundamental understanding when fully realized allows anyone to disassociate himself and his feelings from his work. This can be exceptionally difficult to accept but also extremely freeing. Also consider that you most certainly are not working with or for other geniuses. If I am knowingly not a genius, then whatever I create is susceptible to having flaws, and as those flaws are pointed out I no longer become personally offended. Instead I grow. I learn what design really is, and how it is supposed to be in some regard and I move forward.

This is not to say that all feedback you do receive is inherently perfect either. It is given to you by a non-genius, and often given by someone who knows much less about design than you do. Sadly they believe their grandmother was right and that they are truly genius and perfect. Learning to not be personally offended by those comments is key. Remember, you are most assuredly not a genius, but take deep comfort in that freedom.

2. Design is merely a solution.
A fundamental lesson I took away from Prof. Gresham, was the true understanding of what design really was. Over the years his explanation has made more and more sense. Design is not art. Design is not something that should be for design's sake. Design is merely a solution to a problem. At its core it is simply the means by which information or action is transferred. A good design makes that transfer effortless. A bad design makes that cumbersome. Design performs a job, it does not exist own its own and if it does it is no longer design but art, decoration, trend, or fashion. Good design is figuring out the best solution.

Dieter Rams 10 principles of good design would add that good design is innovative & honest, makes a product useful & understandable, is aesthetic & long-lasting, is unobtrusive, thorough and environmentally-friendly. Good design is as little design as possible.

3. Good design is timeless.
A third take-away was the timelessness of good design. Truly great design will not be dependent on what is currently in style. How is this accomplished? By truly viewing design as a solution to a real problem. If there exists a real problem, then there should be a real design solution. This is not to say that many times, especially now in the age of mobile apps, that a solution will not have to exist within the context of a particular framework and behave a certain way or adapt, but that the core design solution can exist beyond any confine.

4. Be content with negative space.
While still in school this concept was so easy to digest. Sadly it was because the vast majority of all new designers work was merely for design sake and this is also where many designers get stuck. It was very easy to say, "yes this large area of whitespace really helps.." However, once a non-designer, non-genius client begins to look at almost any design, they immediately want to fill up every inch (or pixel) of whitespace. In a age where those pixels are sold at high prices for advertising we must continue to eliminate unnecessary clutter and continue to refocus on the best design solution. Keeping the primary problem and solution the priority will free you up to use negative space as a positive.

5. Break the rules.
A final lesson Prof. Gresham taught was that he was not a genius either. We (as an industry) made up these types of design rules and if it makes the most sense to break one, then that is what should take place. It goes back to focusing on the solution and removing anything that could become an obstacle from that bit of information or action transferring.

In 2001, I witnessed a life changing keynote presentation from one of the most famous designers and typographers alive, Erik Spiekermann. Next to perhaps Paula Scher, it was one of the most inspirational lectures about design that I have ever witnessed. I was able to meet him briefly following the presentation via a creative director that I had at the time. In the following video he was interviewed by Gestalten TV. He speaks extensively about graphic design and how it influences our lives, in addition to how no one is a genius. Very inspiring in insightful.

Graphic design can change your life from Edenspiekermann on Vimeo.

Joshua Stone

Joshua Stone is an Internet industry executive who is always seeking a new creative challenge. With 18 years of design, marketing and technology experience, he has worked on projects for hundreds of companies including: American Airlines, AT&T, Blockbuster, Cinemark, EDS, Folgers, FOX Sports, Fujitsu, Hotels.com, HP, Motorola, Pampers, PepsiCo, Sony, Southwest Airlines and many more. Joshua also actively creates and shows contemporary fine art nationally. Read more about Joshua's experience.