Author Archives: Brian Donohue

A report card on Irish mobile banking: An outsider upstages them all

September 18, 2011 by Brian Donohue

A few months ago the UX Alliance asked its members around the globe to evaluate mobile banking applications within their country. The result was a unique insight into banking apps from over 20 countries across 5 continents.

There were lots of detailed observations about what makes a really good banking app, but fundamentally what it showed was how far behind the Irish banks are when it comes to mobile.

And it’s not just the countries who you’d expect to have good mobile banking, even the less usual suspects — Chile, Russia, South Africa and Poland — offer their customers more than the big banks here in Ireland:


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Hold that elevator! | The intuitiveness of symbols

October 13, 2009 by Brian Donohue

There is a lingering piece of poor design that somehow sneaks it’s way into nearly every multi-story building around. I can almost guarantee you have suffered, however quietly, at the hands of one of the most confusing symbols around – the opposing pair of close / open door buttons on elevators.
elevator-1a
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Moving beyond websites (or Reflections on a couple weeks of UX conferences)

June 29, 2009 by Brian Donohue

So you’re sitting there trying to figure out how to design a webpage to explain a key service of your client. You’re doing everything the right way:

  • you’ve discussed the service with your client to understand the angle they want you to focus on
  • you’ve had the chance to user test the current design with real customers, so you know what confuses them
  • you’ve sketched out a variety of possible solutions to tackle that confusion
  • you’ve worked with your colleagues to bring a variety of viewpoints into the design solution

And then you stop — frustrated, disillusioned.

“There’s not good solution for how to explain this service, because the service is too damn complicated in the first place. < Sigh.> It’s obvious this service itself is broken. Let me start by fixing the service. Then I can design a good web page for it.”

john-preze-1-1

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Online help done right, courtesy of HP

December 9, 2008 by Brian Donohue

Last month while at my sister’s house in California, her printer ran out of toner. She was cooking dinner, so I confidently said, “No problem, it’ll just take me a minute to fix that.” The replacement toner had no instructions, but how hard could it be? I may be useless when it comes to DIY, but computer stuff is where I get to feel a little bit like a handyman.

Well, 5 minutes later, I was stumped. The toner cartridges just didn’t fit in properly. I tried the same thing about a half-dozen times, and finally surrendered. Sigh.

Then I noticed this:

A label on on the printer near the toner replacement area says www.hp.com/support Continue reading →