blog更名

回到原地结束了这个4年的旅程.

稍作停留, 新的冒险即将开始.

Time to sail into the ocean.

three levels of product design

My understanding for product design:

1st level - Usability: usable, ease of use

2nd level - Aesthetics: aesthetics experience, enjoyable

3rd level - Brand Image: upper-scale, deeper meaning for life

Yarzale.com

I finally registered yarzale.com and crafted an introduction page for yarzale.

I've also setup an ads campaign on Facebook.

The birth of Yarzale- yard sale on iphone

I had this idea since June 2009, but during the six months from then to now, I experienced getting a new job, moving, settling down at the new place and job training. Because I believed it's such a good idea :), I kept working on it using those little spare time here and there. Finally I launched it in the iphone app store at end of December 2009. Here's a short introduction to this app.

Yarzale is a mobile market for used goods.

You can take a snapshot of your item using the iphone camera and post it within seconds. The location of each item will be recorded. people can browse sales around them sorted by distance, or more intuitively, on a map.

Buyer can reach the seller by phone or email within a click, and locate the seller on a map for the actual meet-up.

Iphone is made for used goods trading. You have the camera, location and contact right on the phone, which makes yarzale more efficient than traditional classifieds.

If you want to sell your item easier and faster, start posting your item on yarzale.

You can download it thru iTunes here

software training vs good design

I've been reflecting upon the following question these days:

Is it possible for us to have a well designed software with which the user won't need to be trained before using it for work?

While complex softwares always require training/certificate before anyone can use it properly, can we design a system that's super easy-to-use without sacrificing the powerfulness of its functionality?

Or more realistically, can we have a better design for large softwares so that new user can learn how to use it in a much shorter time (maybe 1 hour instead of two days)?

While softwares nowadays are mostly menu based. You have main drop down menu at top and navigation menu on the left side. Within each item on that menu, there's usually another layer of menu. No one really understand what "view" or "windows" or "edit" means.

I like OmniGraffle on Mac, it's just easier to understand and control, while at the same time I still don't feel very interested in Photoshop or Indesign or Illustrator.

To answer my own questions at the beginning, my own answer is YES, yes we can definitely simplify most of the complex softwares in the current market, and they can make people's work enjoyable instead of pain.

fbfund 09

We've submitted our entry for the 09 fbfund this Monday night. By we, I mean Adam Williams, Sean Connelly, Tao Huang and myself. 

Mainly our entry contains two parts:

1. the Online Language Help suite, (facebook connected)

http://www.onlinelanguagehelp.com/about.php

Fbfund 09 is looking for Facebook Connect applications (web or iPhone). Adam started the whole Online Language Help suite since 2006. We think it's a great idea to turn this mature site into Facebook Connected. 

Now with facebook account logged in, you can involve in the forum, find a tutor's facebook profile or list yourself as a tutor, and publish your learning activity onto facebook. You can also see news feeds from the community about what everybody is doing on the site.

2. Spanish Flash Cards - iPhone app

We've also developed this iPhone app featuring Spanish Flash Cards and dictionary. It's pulling the data from Online Spanish Help. We struggled quite a bit for how to integrate Facebook into it. Check out my portfolio for the design process.

Here's the screen shot for it:

more Facebook applications

We've made a few more applications during the last two weeks

Friends Tags
http://apps.facebook.com/twentyfourorganisms

Album Cover Meme
http://apps.facebook.com/album_cover

Emotive or Not
http://apps.facebook.com/emotive

Some things worth talking about
- Promotion is really important for Facebook app. There are a bunch of communication channels, make good use of them. Notify people with what relates to them. Do cross-marketing among all your apps.

- The 25 things trend is going down. But we can make use of the user base the 25 things app got, to promote the other apps out. I'm doing announcement everyday to them advertising our other 3 apps.