ARTICLE NO. 216    August 13, 2007

Redesigning The Bloomberg Interface

by

3 design firms try to tackle the user interface of the Bloomberg financial news terminal. A number of interesting takes on a complicated interface design.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Howard Mann is the founder of Brickyard Partners, a business strategy agency based in Portland, OR. Prior to founding Brickyard Partners in 2001, Mann owned a premier international logistics company with over 140 Million in revenue, six U.S. offices and a global network of over 40 agents worldwide.

As that business came under severe pressure from the previous economic downturn and industry consolidation, Howard lead the company out from those treacherous times by returning to the basics that make every business great and completing 6 acquisitions that re-imagined the business so it was highly attractive to buyers. Finding that “secret sauce” did not come easily but has fueled his purpose to help other business leaders to never have to go through what he endured. 

Through real world experience and those hard times in the “trenches” of business he has learned that it is not following the latest fad, copying competitors or adding complexity that makes a business truly great. His pragmatic approach and knowing what it feels like to sit in the CEO/Owner chair is what makes his work so different and effective.

In addition to his strategy, marketing and communications work, Mann coaches a select group of entrepreneurs, CEO's and business owners. His highly focused workshops and keynotes help executive teams take aggressive action to unlock the true potential of their organizations and build remarkable businesses that endure. In good times and bad. Online and off.

Howard is a sought after speaker both in the U.S. and around the world. He writes frequently on his blog about the importance of the basics and reconnecting to the passion that too often gets lost as businesses mature.

Comments

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August 14, 2007

IDEO’s mockup wins by a landslide, in my humble opinion.

August 14, 2007

I could see where happyCorp is massively popular to designers but true number geeks might prefer the simplistic approach of IDEO.

August 14, 2007

The IDEO design is great, it would be nice to have the option to switch to a black background (to keep it easy on the eyes when working in a darker room).

August 18, 2007

all of these designs missed the point and tried to make information and interfaces minimal. As someone who has designed interfaces for brokers following a user-centred approach which involved the brokers themselves in the process…I can tell you that the problem is not in LESS information but in better information visualisation. Equally…the assumption that removing numbers and replacing them with graphics of various sorts equally misses the point…its the numbers that decisions are made on. In my experience, and my opinion, designers often superimpose their own desire for simplicity onto the needs of others whose mental models are very different. In the case of trading systems, the impact of designing the wrong kind of interface is the loss of large sums of money for that broker. While all of the designs here are aesthetically pleasing, they all need to look a bit harder at the cognitive ergonomics needed to support rapid information processing and decisive decion-making. Substance over form is important here. Don’t be fooled by pixel-magic.

August 30, 2007

IDEO gets my vote. A beautiful, clean and clear approach to displaying a vast amount of content.

August 13, 2007

IDEO gets my vote. A beautiful, clean and clear approach to displaying a vast amount of content.

August 13, 2007

all of these designs missed the point and tried to make information and interfaces minimal. As someone who has designed interfaces for brokers following a user-centred approach which involved the brokers themselves in the process…I can tell you that the problem is not in LESS information but in better information visualisation. Equally…the assumption that removing numbers and replacing them with graphics of various sorts equally misses the point…its the numbers that decisions are made on. In my experience, and my opinion, designers often superimpose their own desire for simplicity onto the needs of others whose mental models are very different. In the case of trading systems, the impact of designing the wrong kind of interface is the loss of large sums of money for that broker. While all of the designs here are aesthetically pleasing, they all need to look a bit harder at the cognitive ergonomics needed to support rapid information processing and decisive decion-making. Substance over form is important here. Don’t be fooled by pixel-magic.

August 13, 2007

The IDEO design is great, it would be nice to have the option to switch to a black background (to keep it easy on the eyes when working in a darker room).

August 13, 2007

I could see where happyCorp is massively popular to designers but true number geeks might prefer the simplistic approach of IDEO.

August 13, 2007

IDEO’s mockup wins by a landslide, in my humble opinion.

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