Jon Hung

image by Brit.

If you have made resolutions to budget better, start accounting for one’s finances or even read bank statements regularly and failed, fear not. There’s an app for that. You need to try Mint.

• Mint has been hailed by UX pros.
• It was recently purchased by tax software-giant, Intuit.
• It’s a web application that  monitors and provides feedback about how you spend money.
• oh, and its 100% FREE

Have you tried it out yet?  Okay, leave this article, seriously. Go sign up and give it a whirl, then come back (or don’t) if you want to read the rest of what I have to say. More after the break.

Mint’s budgeting & accounting system is fun and easy to adopt.  It is unlike other accounting books, systems, and programs which are as enjoyable as monthly trips to the dentist.  Mint uses your bank statements to categorize and archive your activity automatically. Instead of laboriously managing statements and spreadsheets, you can spend time learning about your spending patterns through Mint’s system of interactive charts and pie graphs. MM…. pie graphs.

The makers of Mint realize that unless the system is simple or the program enjoyable, a person will not adopt it.  Habits dealing budgeting and finances are burdensome, even when there are financial incentives to get into those habits. For the first time ever, I want to be rigorous about my personal finances.  And not because I have excessive spending habits, but because it’s damned fun to do so.

Eating my burrito last night, I pondered about finances and the extent to which Mint was bettering them.  I saw a girl in line take out her wallet, and stare into its empty contents with a disgusted and slightly confused face.  I’ve been there before, you look into your wallet and it appears more empty than you believe it should be.  Looking at that girl’s expression, I realized that though Mint is a marvelous tool, the one thing it cannot do is track cash spending.  Once you pull money out of an ATM, it flies under the radar, leading to unconscious and irresponsible spending.

well, duh, Jon. How is an application going to track cash?

Hey, this is just an observation.  Perhaps Mint can do kick ass cash management, as well.  I believe the solution lies in the physical container: your wallet.  Cash can be accounted for the day we all have “smart wallets” in our pockets and purses.  These devices will come with a GPS tracker and a camera that reads bills.  Every time you open the wallet to pull out cash or credit, it records your GPS location and takes a photo of the cash in the wallet before money is taken out, and after. The uploaded data can tell you when and where your money was spent.  And, as an added bonus, the wallet can track down a thief if it gets stolen.

I guess its a problem if you’re dealing with cash transactions you WANT flying under the radar (hint: what businesses do transactions only in cash?). Too much Big Brother?

Intriguing UX articles from this week

5 second usability test. As designers, we need to manage people’s immediate perceptions. A generation of internet surfers (like the channel surfers of the previous decades) will judge a websites value very rapidly. A great article

Jakob Nielsen on the Twitter phenomenon. A founding father of usability speaks about the new social media trend. Not to be confused with Nielsen & Co (media watchdog and marketer).

Another set of interviews from Jared Spool. Very useful to web designers and devs. One of his interviews is with Dan Brown, author of one of the bests texts on web-design documentation (Communicating Design). I have a copy of his excellent book on my shelf, but I don’t own Da Vinci Code.

Derek Powazek speaks on designing virtual communities. Front and center on A List Apart, this article talks about how designers can create web applications that engage users to interact with one another. I haven’t fully digested the article, but Yahoo’s Luke W has a few things to say about it.

Using verbs as Nouns in an interface. Your words matter, especially when you guide a user through your information design.

Oh, and here’s some pretty stuff

A video of a designer at work, at high speeds. Incredible and inspirational.

Whats in your bag? A look into the tools that designers carry with them. Lots of apple and moleskine (bah)

The Door in the Face

A familiar situation

Will you donate $1000 to our organization? [Response is no].
Oh. Well could you donate $10?”

- or how about this one -

Can you help me do all this work?
Well can you help me with this bit?”

- from Wikipedia -

Many of us will reluctantly answer yes to the second question, due to an effect called “door in the face” by social psychologists. We’ve fallen victim to this powerful technique which is readily employed by salesman, fundraisers, and even our friends.

But, are you familiar with the opposite effect, called the foot in the door? It’s another trap which is less known and trickier to pull off. Used correctly, it can help you design a survey that creates increased conversion rates.
Read the rest of this entry »

Last month, researchers at MIT unveiled exciting new research developments in gestural interfaces at the TED conference in LongBeach (you can see the video here). In her presentation to the conference, Patti Maes (of MIT) demonstrates a device which reads visual information from the physical environment and uses a projector to create an interface along any surface. This interface is a touchable, interactive display which brings up information about (potentially) any physical item. Representing a quantum leap in the bridge between the physical and virtual worlds, this device has caused professionals and tech-geeks alike to created quite a media buzz. But is such a device more hype than delivery? Read the rest of this entry »