Matt Lavoie

1,547 reputation

314

bio	website	dev4soup.com
	location	Orlando, FL
	age	26
visits	member for	1 year, 10 months
	seen	May 7 at 13:44
stats	profile views	30

I work for an amazing software development company. Though we keep what each of us is working on diversified, we each have a few areas of expertise. My interests always seem to shine right on user interaction design and user experience. I am fascinated by the way we interact with applications and always looking to improve that interaction.

I don't claim to be any sort of expert but am always happy to share my opinions and what I have learned though experience. I am always eager to learn and open to listen.

	1,547 reputation	bio	website	dev4soup.com	visits	member for	1 year, 10 months
314 badges		location	Orlando, FL		seen	May 7 at 13:44

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51 Comments

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Mar 29	comment	Humor on the deathbed I love the "He's dead, Jim!" page.
Mar 26	comment	What is this design layout interface called? Hah I just realized we both referenced ui-patterns.com.
Mar 6	comment	What to call “Cancel” when “Cancel” is already the default action? I love actually just doing what the user asked to do and then providing an undo in case of an accidental click. I wish I could up this a few more times.
Feb 18	comment	Is right-click still an important gesture to hold on to? @KitGrose it seems to me that a lot of us UX people criticize right click menus for their "undiscoverability" (I certainly have in the past) but I cant tell you how many times a user has right clicked on a balsamiq mockup during a usability test. I do still stand by the fact that it needs to be able to function without right click but I think that a right click context menu can add a lot of value.
Feb 18	comment	Is right-click still an important gesture to hold on to? @gurvinder372 well I suppose the key comes in with "some significant portion of users will find benefit from a right click context menu." I work developing a web app which is, by a vast majority, primarily accessed via the browser on a laptop or desktop. Secondly by tablets like ipads and lastly by smart phones. So for me it makes sense, perhaps for you it doesn't.
Feb 8	comment	Pixel precision of wireframes? Yeah I love Balsamiq and if you read the first section of their manifesto (balsamiq.com/products/mockups/manifesto) they talk to the reason behind low-fidelity. I find if I show someone a high fidelity wireframe more often than not they get stuck on the color of a button or roundness of a corner than the actual function of the application. I very much support low-fidelity wireframes. (Of course if you are trying to make a sale than there may be other considerations to make that go beyond just a wireframe)
Jan 18	comment	Color schemes for text ads Interesting read but I think I might be mildly blinded now due to the color choices of that website. I recommend select text-copy-paste into notepad-read article. Picking colors that are complimentary to a page's color scheme may make your ads pop, but you would also not want to be too annoying/distracting from the primary content
Jul 17	comment	What's the best interaction model between people with the same interest? Q&A, Google+, Facebook, forum, chat…? This question might be better suited for a chat discussion (chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/389/ux-chat) instead of as an actual UX.SE question. I would be interested to see what conversations this spins off though.
Jul 5	comment	Modal popup position Centered on the window is what I am used to, but I am primarily a windows users. I would probably be a little surprised to see the pop down from the top of the window in a windows application but I don't think I would struggle to use it.
Jul 5	comment	How best to combat right hand column blindness @DannyVarod It was just a little Legend of Zelda joke, not an actual suggestion. Sorry if there was confusion XD
Jul 3	comment	How best to combat right hand column blindness The only thing I could think of to add to these points is a little ferry that pops up and says "Hey, listen!" youtube.com/watch?v=lCjyiEOZP44&feature=fvwrel
Jul 3	comment	What do you do when you have too many choices in a checkbox field set? I could see it working very well for a dozen or so roles. I feel like once you get beyond that maybe there is a bigger information architecture problem that should really be what needs to be addressed. Obviously I don't know the exact context so I cant say for sure, but If these roles are being used to manage security and permissions having so many roles could potentially cause a very difficult experience for users regardless of the method of display.
Jul 3	comment	What do you do when you have too many choices in a checkbox field set? I made a modification to the expanded behavior to better suit a very long list. With this I believe it's functionality would be preferable to just having a really long section on a page.
Jul 2	comment	Can text area be used as error/warning/notification output? I think it looks lovely for a simple, functional app. Often gloss and shine can be distracting in a place where you really just need something to get to the point.
Jul 2	comment	checkout: combining billing and payment screens Wow thanks for sharing uxpond. Hadn't heard of that before.
Jun 28	comment	Display Email Address + Website? Or is it redundant? As an aside, contact forms like this drive me crazy. First, if something goes wrong I will never know, whereas if an email bounces that I sent from my account I will receive that error. Secondly, responses from forms like this almost always end up in my spam folder, where as if I sent the email to begin with it would just fall right into the email chain between me and whoever.
Jun 26	comment	Do spinner-based date pickers on iOS & Android detract from the user's experience? I find those spinners kind of annoying, but that is totally personal opinion. I much prefer the calendar-type date picker as in your second example.
Jun 26	comment	How often do users overlook controls that are revealed by hovering? This isn't really a complete answer to your question, but I've seen the technique of showing the first item's hover controls after the page loads for a few seconds to give the user an idea that there is something there.
Jun 26	comment	Should I let my users chose between multiple themes? Be that as it may, I still feel as though you wouldn't be adding any substantial value from a UX perspective but could potentially be taking away value from the terms of a consistent experience. I suppose at the end of the day it isn't really a huge deal either way. Google lets you apply a theme in mail or on the homepage, but it seems like the majority of sites stick to one theme.
Jun 25	comment	Drawing users' attention to unrecoverable actions? Yeah I suppose actually typing "Do the horrible thing" before you can continue might be a bit overkill, but I have totally pulled that one before didn't really feel bad about it.