Digital Web Magazine - An interview with Peter Merholz and Nathan Shedroff on User-Centered Design "developers ignore important issues and feedback as they discount things they don't really want to address"
"Oftentimes, what is *most* useful, usable, and meaningful to the end-user is untenable from a business perspective, and the product, while maybe popular, is a financial failure."
"Oftentimes, what is *most* useful, usable, and meaningful to the end-user is untenable from a business perspective, and the product, while maybe popular, is a financial failure."
Interview with The Don in New Scientist "[Software design is done] best by
having a dictator. From the user's point of view, you must have a
coherent design philosophy, and I don't see how that could come
about from open source software. The person who's done it best is
Steve Jobs, and he's well-known for being a tyrant."
Having just come across the Gnome GUI for Linux, I would suggest Don allows OpenSource time to settle before making such proclemations. There are differences between dictatorial and machiavelian approaches. Raymond, proposes the 'Charismatic Coordinator Theory' of OpenSource. And there is always the small but slow coupling approach put forward in Dust or Magic by Bob Hughes.
Even though Don confesses to being a tinkerer himself. The key issue [FMM] that wasn't touched on in the interview, is the question of gradual improvement, constant but subtle tinkering. The impact should only be noticable in that something is easier. The changes should not disrupt the previously learned behaviour.
The SIGCHI Bulletin
has some very good articles in it
but...
...t'is a shame about the online access issues - particularly considering they are an HCI special interest group - pdf's designed for print, some of which are 2MBs - though at least they recently added bookmarks to them ;)
these are in stark contrast to the very nicely formatted versions of William Hudson's articles (in the same) which he posts here: syntagm.co.uk/design/articles.htm
pleased to come across this, what with my current increased interest in aural-visualisations (if there are such things)
Unlocking the Mysteries of Science by Diana Phillips Mahoney, Computer Graphics World, July 1995.
Scroll to the bottom for other visualisations such as this
mountain plot of ozone pollutant concentrations.
This was alongside (should I say rooted with) a similarly old, but also far from dated piece about
Principles of good GUI Design
which just appeared (without a publication date) on bogieland.com/infodesign
GUUUI - InfoRomanticism on the Internet"It is a brave new canvas for the interface and interaction designer, whose endogenous qualities of imagination and passion are needed to make data accessible on both an aesthetic and pragmatic level. This is Romanticism with transforming data into usable Information. Such Romanticism is vital in contributing to the meliorism of the internet age and the information ages to come!"
GUUUI - InfoRomanticism on the Internet
Celebrating the Creature of Data
- Celebrating data as living information
- Treating data as a body, organic and evolutionary and as an entity bigger than ourselves"
Great new issue of guuui - no mention of Ben tho' |-]
Better fix that.
Getting from Research to Personas: Harnessing the Power of Data
by Kim Goodwin, Director of Design, Cooper
see also:
perfecting_your_personas
and the many other useful articles
and as I mentioned previously newsletters
by Kim Goodwin, Director of Design, Cooper
see also:
perfecting_your_personas
and the many other useful articles
and as I mentioned previously newsletters
loads of grt links
zone-art - photo / sound / experiments
descriptions in french
+ abrv8ns @ o-:
also from DgtlWebMag
zone-art - photo / sound / experiments
descriptions in french
+ abrv8ns @ o-:
also from DgtlWebMag
Digital Web Magazine - Keep It Simple: Fluid Thinking "The fluidity of the Web is not the problem, it's the solution. If you accept that your site will never be viewed exactly as you want it, you understand the spirit of the Web and its standards."
gerry is getting ahead of himself
he's already in October in his
A step-by-step approach to
web classification design
"Learn how you can effectively design a robust,
reader-friendly web classification"
but 'spells it out' nicely
he's already in October in his
A step-by-step approach to
web classification design
"Learn how you can effectively design a robust,
reader-friendly web classification"
but 'spells it out' nicely
when you view a ppt file within IE
the logo is replaced with that of Netscape
(I guess to do with view files of type settings)
but quite funny non-the-less
the content is from errrm:
http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/020920-umbs.ppt
the logo is replaced with that of Netscape
(I guess to do with view files of type settings)
but quite funny non-the-less
the content is from errrm:
http://www.louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/020920-umbs.ppt
Kibo quote: " 'Zurich', a very faithful but unlicensed clone [of Universe]"
other fontastic info here - via (hopefuly not auto)Matt-IC
C-:
is there such a thing as a left-handed(facing)-emoticon ¿ {-|
Neave's Webgames - Pong, Snake, Pacman, Space Invaders and more
of the Old Skool variety
IC matt keeps - going on about games - I think I'd rather just play them :)
of the Old Skool variety
IC matt keeps - going on about games - I think I'd rather just play them :)
still going backwards,
Tom Erickson paper for DIS 2000 Lingua Francas for Design: Sacred Places and Pattern Languages "A central challenge in interaction design has to do with its diversity. Designers, engineers, managers, marketers, researchers and users all
have important contributions to make to the design process. But at the same time they lack shared concepts, experiences and
perspectives. How is the process of design-which requires communication, negotiation and compromise-to effectively proceed in the
absence of a common ground?"
must check out what happens at the drs's common ground
or you might prefer common ground
Tom Erickson paper for DIS 2000 Lingua Francas for Design: Sacred Places and Pattern Languages "A central challenge in interaction design has to do with its diversity. Designers, engineers, managers, marketers, researchers and users all
have important contributions to make to the design process. But at the same time they lack shared concepts, experiences and
perspectives. How is the process of design-which requires communication, negotiation and compromise-to effectively proceed in the
absence of a common ground?"
must check out what happens at the drs's common ground
or you might prefer common ground
all functions should be available at all times!
quote from:
Summary of The Humane Interface"In present systems, work gets done in applications (which are sets of commands that apply to certain kinds of objects). Tasks are not accomplished at the desktop, and desktops (or launching areas in general) should disappear as interfaces improve. The idea of an application is an artificial one, convenient to the programmer but not to the user. From a user’s point of view there is content (a set of objects created or obtained by the user) and there are commands that can operate on objects. Commands should be independent of applications and be applicable at any time and to any object."
Surely this would make managing the miriad of function that are available even within a single application impossible - how could every possible function be available all the time - and with it's own unique gesture? - this sounds like using semiphore to communicate with someone who is sitting next to you - restricting the channel and probably increasing the likelihood of errors by a factor of n++
quote from:
Summary of The Humane Interface"In present systems, work gets done in applications (which are sets of commands that apply to certain kinds of objects). Tasks are not accomplished at the desktop, and desktops (or launching areas in general) should disappear as interfaces improve. The idea of an application is an artificial one, convenient to the programmer but not to the user. From a user’s point of view there is content (a set of objects created or obtained by the user) and there are commands that can operate on objects. Commands should be independent of applications and be applicable at any time and to any object."
Surely this would make managing the miriad of function that are available even within a single application impossible - how could every possible function be available all the time - and with it's own unique gesture? - this sounds like using semiphore to communicate with someone who is sitting next to you - restricting the channel and probably increasing the likelihood of errors by a factor of n++
modules and modelessness
quote from: Summary of The Humane Interface "The present paradigm of desktop, applications, and documents can be replaced by a simpler, modeless concept of content and commands. In such an environment, vendors will sell command sets and transformers rather than applications, and a user may not have to deal with a huge application when all he wants is a few new abilities. Such a reorganization will also eliminate much redundant code now present in the multiple applications we use (consider how many different text editors reside on a typical personal computer: There’s one for the word processor, one for the file name editor, one for dialog boxes.... But there need only be one set of commands for word processing functions)."
But even within so called 'word processing' functionality there is a great deal of variation that is required - sometimes you need different capabilities (spell check, html viewer,
(if this was transcopied then I wouldn't be worrying about potential infringement :)
quote from: Summary of The Humane Interface "The present paradigm of desktop, applications, and documents can be replaced by a simpler, modeless concept of content and commands. In such an environment, vendors will sell command sets and transformers rather than applications, and a user may not have to deal with a huge application when all he wants is a few new abilities. Such a reorganization will also eliminate much redundant code now present in the multiple applications we use (consider how many different text editors reside on a typical personal computer: There’s one for the word processor, one for the file name editor, one for dialog boxes.... But there need only be one set of commands for word processing functions)."
But even within so called 'word processing' functionality there is a great deal of variation that is required - sometimes you need different capabilities (spell check, html viewer,
(if this was transcopied then I wouldn't be worrying about potential infringement :)
some comments on Raskin's humane interface summary (i have got the book - but this is a much easier place to start)
quote from:Summary of The Humane Interface "The twin problems of navigation and limited display size can both be ameliorated by using a video camera paradigm, where the user can zoom in and out and pan horizontally and vertically over a universe of objects. Objects (documents, pictures, games, anything that has a visual representation) can be grouped into visible clumps and clusters, which can be marked with colors and shapes, and left in locations that are in themselves memorable (the address book is in the upper left corner of the world). Zooming out from your computer can give you a view of your local network, and going still farther, the web comes into view, as organized by a universe vendor (comparable to today’s portal vendors)."
The problem with this can be seen very clearly on the itch site and on a crowded desktop
- the reason for this is two fold (at least), first, to get a complete picture of even a reletatively small set of objects requires one to zoom out too far to be able to see clearly what the groups/objects are and secondly, this still relies on the user to determine where and how to sort their information (as they do with traditional file systems). The notion (mentioned by various people - inlcuding me) of tagging files with context relevant icons and sorting into context related groupings would help - but the ability of software to identify accurately the context related objects (i.e. which relate to the same project or activity) is questionable....
quote from:Summary of The Humane Interface "The twin problems of navigation and limited display size can both be ameliorated by using a video camera paradigm, where the user can zoom in and out and pan horizontally and vertically over a universe of objects. Objects (documents, pictures, games, anything that has a visual representation) can be grouped into visible clumps and clusters, which can be marked with colors and shapes, and left in locations that are in themselves memorable (the address book is in the upper left corner of the world). Zooming out from your computer can give you a view of your local network, and going still farther, the web comes into view, as organized by a universe vendor (comparable to today’s portal vendors)."
The problem with this can be seen very clearly on the itch site and on a crowded desktop
- the reason for this is two fold (at least), first, to get a complete picture of even a reletatively small set of objects requires one to zoom out too far to be able to see clearly what the groups/objects are and secondly, this still relies on the user to determine where and how to sort their information (as they do with traditional file systems). The notion (mentioned by various people - inlcuding me) of tagging files with context relevant icons and sorting into context related groupings would help - but the ability of software to identify accurately the context related objects (i.e. which relate to the same project or activity) is questionable....
was looking for this comment by PeterMe on Matt's post about humanising technology - and finally found it - no search on PeterMe and it didn't come up on google - what I had forgotten was that I had already posted a comment - of sorts
so I back linkedup
interesting to see that Matt's post was even mentioned in the recently linked to digital web magazine
so much talk recently about location based services - for me this upsideclone piece - The Campaign for Real Advertising was much more interesting (and funny) when it come to utilising location related information - and all from a simple postcode
0xDECAFBAD: Zauri, BlogWalking, Smart Mobs and other oddities
Still Going Back, to April 2001 a Refreshing Comment which means we can all be included :) - From Issue Number 2 of
Loop: AIGA Journal of Interaction Design : Interview with Terry Swack
“...when I use the term “experience design,” it refers to a community of practice, an industry sector, if you will, not a field, and especially not a single type of practitioner.”
itch ball
this small shockwave movie simply demonstrates the various behaviours that can be asigned to duplicate movie clips
[switch between the control keys for the best result]
this small shockwave movie simply demonstrates the various behaviours that can be asigned to duplicate movie clips
[switch between the control keys for the best result]
finally remembered to go back and check out the first matt (of the jones variety)'s blog and found this great interview with Ian Banks (without an M)
who says "I just pick up my stories as I amble along, little bits of this, little bits of that. It gets easier the longer you've been at it." now I must try and start my lj!
don't know why I didn't mention this when I posted about the brokers pda design...
the info originated in action reaction interaction a blueprint interaction design special which is extended here
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