PQ FUI Toys

PQ FUI Toys from Peter Quinn on Vimeo.

Super fun, pre-animated, sometimes looping, customizable Fake User Interface assets, as editable After Effects comps. Just drag and drop to quickly create and customize FUI layouts to suit your projects.

For sale at aescripts.com/pq-fui-toys

Tutorial video at vimeo.com/pquinn/fui-quickstart

You gotta get up to get down

Important charts

Kids react to an old computer

Watch kids try and figure out how to use a 1970's era computer

'Case study' on improving factory efficiency

This is the story of the toothpaste factory that had a problem detecting empty toothpaste boxes at the end of the assembly line.

Understanding how important that was, the CEO of the toothpaste factory got the top people in the company together and they decided to start a new project, in which they would hire an external engineering company to solve their empty boxes problem, as their engineering department was already too stretched to take on any extra effort.

The project followed the usual process: budget and project sponsor allocated, RFP, third-parties selected, and six months (and $8 million) later they had a fantastic solution — on time, on budget, high quality and everyone in the project had a great time. They solved the problem by using some high-tech precision scales that would sound a bell and flash lights whenever a toothpaste box weighing less than it should. The line would stop, and someone had to walk over and yank the defective box out of it, pressing another button when done.

A while later, the CEO decides to have a look at the ROI of the project: amazing results! No empty boxes ever shipped out of the factory after the scales were put in place. Very few customer complaints, and they were gaining market share. “That’s some money well spent!” – he says, before looking closely at the other statistics in the report.

It turns out, the number of defects picked up by the scales was 0 after three weeks of production use. It should’ve been picking up at least a dozen a day, so maybe there was something wrong with the report. He filed a bug against it, and after some investigation, the engineers come back saying the report was actually correct. The scales really weren’t picking up any defects, because all boxes that got to that point in the conveyor belt were good.

Puzzled, the CEO travels down to the factory, and walks up to the part of the line where the precision scales were installed. A few feet before it, there was a $20 desk fan, blowing the empty boxes out of the belt and into a bin.

“Oh, that — one of the guys put it there ’cause he was tired of walking over every time the bell rang”, says one of the workers.

Regardless of whether it's just a made-up story or not, it's still a good way to look at things. Sometimes the solution is easier than expected.

"Would you really take a game such as this so seriously?"

With 800,000 copies sold, Takeshi's Challenge is by no means an unknown game.

But, it was still a very niche game in the grand scheme of things and it never went any further than being released for Famicom in Japan (which is probably why you've never heard of it).


Japanese personality Kitano - Beat Takeshi to his fans - is a comedian, actor, writer, director, chat show host... he's best known for the insane gameshow Takeshi's Castle (and also as the teacher in the movie Battle Royale), but there are few mediums that haven't known his touch (the Japan Times once referred to him as "the king of all media"). It was just as Takeshi's Castle launched in Japan in 1986 that Takeshi began to dabble in video games.

Kitano originally claimed that the idea for the game came to him while drunk in a bar. The box says it all: "This game is made by a man who hates video games". The only advice given to prospective players? "Common sense is dangerous."

Watching people talk about this game with a mystical, utterly bemused recounting of how it came to be developed is utterly brilliant. Watching the game being played is ever better.

Youtube user experience fails

In this fantastic video from YouTube user NanoBite, titled YouTube is a Completely Functional Site Programmed by Competent People, the latest interface design is picked apart and revealed to show some pretty fundamental flaws in the user experience design.

What's great about this video is that it runs like the highlights reel from a usability testing session and shows you exactly the type of thing that happens when those that build an online service get so comfortable with using it that they forget to think of their users who may not know all the intricacies of the design.

Sorry, that username is already taken

That classic online problem; finding a username that's both memorable and not already been taken.

This is a fantastic collection of (often hilarious and ridiculous) user names that have already been taken.

sorrythatusernameisalreadytaken.tumblr.com

Icons that fuck up your day

Great collection of icons that once seen will often ruin your day.

How Bad Online Shopping Experiences Look Like In Real Life

Google Analytics has produced a trio of excellent videos to help E-commerce sites improve their customer service by pointing out what not to do.

By putting the common mistakes and bad practices that online merchants make into a real life shop, the videos show how alienating bad user experience design and marketing can be for potential customers by ruining the experience of shopping online.

For instance, one of the videos highlights how frustrating it can be to check out online when there are too many security measures and hidden costs for customers to get through.







via Google Analytics

French reporter fails with touch screen

LCN News anchor fumbles with touch screen timeline, The reporter was trying to present a timeline of the conflict in Gaza when things went pear-shaped unruly graphics slipped out of view, expanded wildly and vanished from the screen.

Rory Sutherland's thoughts and observations

Fantastic animation by Animade which visualises some of Rory Sutherland's (Vice Chairman, OgilvyGroup UK) thoughts and observations. He talks about the ways people's patience is managed when having to wait for a service - it has been found that the inclusion of a timer will greatly reduce a person's frustration if they know exactly how long they have to wait.

Usability testing with DMX

"What is a Google?" asks rapper DMX as he is gently introduced to the web on a laptop.

Doing stuff

New York City Subway Stairs

Dean Peterson's local subway station has something unique about it. One of the steps on the stairs leading out of the station is fractionally larger than the others which causes a lot of people to trip up on it.

New York City Subway Stairs from Dean Peterson on Vimeo.

VW - The Original Click

VW Auto parts have found an innovative way to use YouTube to get people thinking that there’s something wrong with alternative part suppliers; that imitations are poor quality.

Advertising people on advertising

Great series of shorts on what advertising people think about advertising. 1/3 of agency workers plan on leaving this year, and these are a series of promos by Deutsch LA's talk at Cannes this year on Ending the Agency Talent Rotisserie.


What creatives think




What producers think




What account people think

Vertical Video Syndrome - A PSA

This is a brilliant video about the growing 'problem' of iPhone users who are shooting video vertically. Agreed, it doesn't look good, but I never knew it was such a big problem until I watched this...

80's technology

These two images made me laugh, the first for the obvious (I'm going to start using them as post-it notes from now on!)

This one made me think: can it really only have taken 20 years for all of this technology to fit on one device? What's more, on a device that is so affordable that it is more common to own one than not own one.

How to Rank #1 on Google - By Matt Cutts

Funny mash up video of Matt Cutts giving advice on how to rank number 1 on Google search.