numyum.com

Small illustration 3.5″ x 5.5″ in a sketch book. Done with pencil, pen and water color.

Design consistency and interaction guidelines can do good when used appropriately. Strict compliance kills opportunities for innovation.

My favorite two quotes:

“consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
- Oscar Wilde

numyum is Mustafa Alami. I am a designer and I live in San Francisco.

numyum is a sketch/narrative/archive/blog of ideas, life and birds. I post new and old projects. I will go back and edit posts with new content and update the date as life and events change. Also, I don’t write much. You are not going to find witty narrative here. I see images, pictures, patterns, diagrams and shapes.

My professional details can be found on malami.com.

Please comment on this post if you would like to contact me.

As of Feb 1, 2010 – I work for Salesforce.com as a lead interaction designer.

I work for Oracle Corporation, so I need to add this statement:

The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle. The views and opinions expressed by visitors to this blog are theirs and do not necessarily reflect mine.

Pencil, pen and water color on a sketch book during vacation this year.

If you like this, you might enjoy this one:
http://www.numyum.com/?p=73

Same title, different scenario

Pencil, pen and water color on a sketch book during vacation this year.

The Big Island

Kona Santa

The ThinkQuest identity module is located at the top of user’s pages and identifies the owner of the content. We updated the module to include reward icons. These star icons are given to users with exceptional projects or winning websites. Our goal was to create a reward system for top users and highlight model curricula for new users.

Old Design:

To Post

New Design:

Other design improvements include:

• The old identity module was located on the left. Moving the module to the center freed space on the left and simplified access to pages, projects and messages. The move visually balanced the page.
• We took the opportunity to increase the font size of the member name and create a stronger sense of place. It is clear to visitors who’s work they have landed on.
• Since the identity of the user is clearly established on landing, we designed a smaller version of the identity module that is displayed when a visitor drills down into other pages. This gives the content more space on the screen.
• Hovering on the badge displays the detail of the award.

Post On does two things. It tells the user where a content is being saved (user feedback) and lets the user change the destination in edit mode.

Content destination is automatically set to the spot the user initiated the create click. If the user decided to create content from a page that does not store content (My Works) then the content would default to the first personal user page.

Post On needs an explicit click to activate a change so the user can continue to focus on creating content quickly and not worry about confirming or changing the destination.

Post On was released in Dec 2009 on ThinkQuest.org.