Category: The Ride

If you’re travelling to or from Metro Manila, expect the rush hours of 7 to 10 a.m. and 5 to 9 p.m on weekdays. Your usual question before going must be, “How’s the traffic?”

Here are several ways to be informed of the traffic conditions if you really want to go with the flow (or not).

While using a big computer…

Metro Manila Traffic Navigator

Hosted in Interaksyon.com, I personally find the Line View the most useful of all views – with its linear presentation and color coding of traffic levels, you could easily see the reds.

MMDA Traffic Mirror

In case you want to see for yourself if a particular area is jammed, there are live traffic monitoring cameras available for online viewing.

Upon reaching the site:

• press “View All Cameras” button (located on top) to activate the play button then
• press play for a specific area

Note: Currently there seems to be a bug if you try to view an area on its own page (this will happen if you don’t press “View All Cameras”).

MRT3 Live CCTV

To avoid wasting time standing in long lines at MRT3, check out the situation first via Live CCTV. Sometimes it’s better to take the road than to take the train.

Below the main view of the camera are the other views such as the North/Southbound ticketing and platform areas.

Waze

For other roads and streets not listed via Metro Manila Traffic Navigator, there’s Waze. It relies on its mobile users to report the road condition at their current location. So you could be warned if there are scrupulous traffic officers hiding under a bridge and even find out if there’s saklaan sa may kanto.

While using a connected mobile device…

Metro Manila Traffic Navigator

• Android App
• iOS App
• Blackberry App

Waze

• Android App
• iOS App
• Windows Phone App

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It only takes a minute or two to check the status of the roads you’re taking when travelling somewhere. If you’re well-informed, you could save time and even contribute to lessen the influx of people/vehicles in a common route during rush hours.

I’ve written a short piece on how UX is already rolling here in Philippines, especially in our government.

Personally, I am keen on working on projects that will affect people positively – they could be information or service-oriented web products.

US and UK – Two Great Examples

It’s simple to be like them – they simply

1. provide resources and guidelines on how to implement improvements in daily government activities and processes and more important than this is they
2. provide access to the information people need or would search for

A step at a time, we could reach the level of developed countries in terms of how they value UX in the government sector.

…it has a Usability.gov website! Well, it’s an initiative and there is lot more ways UX could be manifested. In Philippines, UX is in its birthing process. First of all, we have:

User Experience Philippines Design Conference

We’ll be having our first UX design conference by UXPH.

UXPH 2014 aims to inspire designers, developers enthusiasts to learn more about improving the human experience while adding business value. This conference is for anyone who wants to learn what UX is and how it can make a difference in company’s products and services.

Source: User Experience Philippines

Form Function & Class

In its fifth year, FFC Web Design Conference continues to impart essential knowledge to the web design community. It is organized by Philippine Web Designers Organization.

We are a group of enthusiasts and professionals who create human interfaces for the Web, champion the use of standards, accessibility & usability, and aim to uplift the state of web design in the country.

Source: Philippine Web Designers Organization

What about in the government, what are we doing about UX? The ball is already rolling!

Philippine Design Competitiveness Act of 2013

I first heard this initiative at Grafika Manila 2011 – dubbed as “Design Para sa Lahat,” it sparked a new hope in me that the government is keeping up with the times. Imagine creativity in the government? Yes.

It is the declared policy of the State to enhance the competitiveness and innovation of Philippine products, create market-responsive design services, while advocating for economic and environmental sustainability. The State shall also endeavor to promote an economy and society driven by design and creativity responsive to our fast-changing times and reflective of the Filipino culture and identity, while concurrently advocating the protection of intellectual property rights to these ideas and innovations.

Source: Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines

Government Website Template

We already have the initiative to improve the overall usability and experience of government websites thru the Government Website Template.

Through the standardized websites, Local Government Units, National Government Agencies and State Universities and Colleges will experience ease in navigation and use of digital assets. More than that, content, news updates, public documents and other services will be easily accessible to the citizens, especially for those who use mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets.

~ Antonette Torres, iGovPhil Project Manager

Source: Information and Communications Technology Office

What can we do to help our country?

As we are going towards a stronger economy, UX is undeniably a helpful tool for the government to effectively reach out to people. There are very simple ways to contribute to this development (aside from voting wisely and paying our taxes):

• Join discussions about the web design & development and UX industries. Philippine Web Designers and Usability Philippines Facebook Groups are good places to start.
• Balance negativity with positivity. It’s very easy to succumb to bashing on the faults that our government fails to rectify but since we’re all in this (country) together, be the one who thinks and acts for a solution.

Resources

• Usability.gov
• UX ROI Calculators
• PlainLanguage.gov

In our team, we have something called an Interaction Diagram integrated into our Design Process.

Basically it is a collection of wireframes in context – whether of the whole web product or of a simple task or activity. The diagram shows the layout of components as well as their interaction with other components.

We’re using it consistently as part of our communication with web and app developers. It has proven to be very useful since its inception a year ago (October 3, 2013).

Jesse James Garrett’s Visual Vocabulary for Information Architecture is one of our main references in establishing the Interaction Diagram.

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Authors of the Interaction Diagram:

• Michelle Villanueva
• Brian Dys Sahagun

Consider this scenario:

• you are the product owner of Siete Baracos (a tool that helps people with coffee measurements and ingredients)
• how will you inform the designers, developers, testers about the basic technical information of the product?
• thru a Technical Document, of course!

So here’s the basic format of the document:

Name: Siete Baracos

Description: Siete Baracos is a tool that helps people in making coffee thru measurements and ingredients.

• Website URL: http://sietebaracosapp.com
• Google Play URL: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.siete.baracos

Platform: Web

• Purpose: Brochure

Browser

• Primary Device: Desktop Computer
• Secondary Device: iPad
• Lowest Browser Version Supported: IE 8
• Mobile Response: 768 px

Framework

• Bootstrap

Other examples:

• Template System (Python, PHP)
• CMS (WordPress)
• HTML (Bootstrap, Foundation, Web Starter Kit)
• None (Plain HTML)

Platform: Android

Device

• Primary Device: Samsung Galaxy Y
• Secondary Device: Any
• Lowest Version Supported: Froyo (2.3)

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These basic information of the product acts as guideline and sets the context in which the product revolves around.

Now, team members will not blindly test the app using a device lower than the version stated.

Web products need to be supplied with a Technocal Document. Its content are the basic specifications of a mobile app or website in the following aspects:

Filled-up by developer

• Programming Language

Filled-up by product developer

• Browser Version Support
• Mobile Version Support

Filled-up by front-end designer

• Mobile Response

This document aids all team members involved in the project by providing with a preview of each team’s specifications. It also puts in context the capabilities and limitations of the product.

Consider this scenario:

• the mobile app is in its Behavioral Testing stage
• the tester is informed that the mobile app is supported under a very old version of Android
• the tester ensures that the mobile app is tested on all key versions of Android

The same goes for websites wherein each team member knows that the product will not be supported in IE versions 8 and below.

See an example of a Technical Document

User Research

• Input – research and requirements; output – design artifacts, actual product
• How did we come up with the problem and solution?
• Have one solution and validate with users
• Set target users; create personas
• Continuous user research
• Improve the product for both the business and the users

UI Review/Usability Testing

• Refer to Components Masterlist
• Refer to Usability heuristics
• Create metrics
• Create activities and tasks
• Create directions on how to assume a persona

I’m in the process of letting go/disposing of/getting rid of/selling stuff that I no longer need around the house. In line with this activity, I signed up for two online shops, namely: OLX and Tackthis. Both offer free registration so I went on to set up my online shops.

Just a disclaimer, this blog post does not intend to rigorously compare the two services – I would simply like to document my experience as a user/seller – specifically the noticeable stuff whether positive or negative. Also, this could be an ongoing piece of “review” as I go along with this new adventure of garage selling on the internet.

(more…)

We’re working on two projects that we’d like to share with you – Visual Variables and Animation Diagram – both of which aim to bridge communication between visual and front-end designers working on web projects.

Check back on Monday for updates.

10/8/2014

Visual Variables and Animation Diagram are available!

See Visual Variables

See Animation Diagram