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Friday, June 8, 2001
OPENING THANG
Good morning (or afternoon, or evening) I'm back in America. Not much jetlag, just a tendency to be cranky after 8 p.m. and see more sunrises than usual, including a fairly impressive one right now that is rising out of china basin.
Oh, I just put up all the guest gleans in the archive. May their fabulous work live on for eternity!
Today's "Word of the Day" was Argus, so that may be why this issue of gleanings is so IA heavy-- fate!
argus (AHR-guhs) noun
An alert and observant person; a watchful guardian.
[From Greek mythology. After Argus, a giant with 100 eyes who was sent to
watch over Io. He was later killed by Hermes and after his death his eyes
transformed into spots on the peacock's tail.]
http://wordsmith.org
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 07:55 AM CST
IA MATTERS
On the argus site (perhaps you've seen it) an interesting interview with Vivian Bliss
"People: An Interview with Vivian Bliss
A librarian with a JD, Vivian discusses the trials and successes of designing and maintaining an enterprise-wide information architecture within Microsoft's intranet environment. "
http://argus-acia.com/people/bliss_profile.html
~~~
New software designed for IA's to let them design
http://www.silverboots.com/index.html
their white paper is a bit-- well, you read it and let me know what you think.
http://www.silverboots.com/whitepapers.html
~~~
PLAY (Via http://www.giantant.com/antenna/)
"Play is a Swedish HCI research studio which "investigates and invents the future of human-computer interaction." They've published a bunch of interesting papers, on interface topics from Baby Faces to Hierarchical Flip Zooming to Designing Everyday Computational Things to Pirates!. "
http://www.viktoria.informatik.gu.se/groups/play/
~~~
Steven Johnson is always readable. His interview with Cory Doctorow is no exception. Anyone interested in collaborative filtering or new browse methods should check it out.
http://www.feedmag.com/templates/default.php3?a_id=1703
~~~
The Joys of Prototyping (via xblog.com)
"At the heart of any good user-centered design process is the practice of
prototyping. By creating and testing interfaces in rough format, designers
are able to feed through improvements and feedback from users quickly and
easily. This in turn helps to ensure a final product that is an evolved
solution, in the sense that it has been through a number of iterations and
emerged as fit for the job in question."
http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre?page=article&id=154
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 07:55 AM CST
USABILITY MATTERS
How to Deliver a Usability Report
"The finest set of recommendations will be rejected if the form in which
they are received is seen as hostile or belligerent. I recently received a
copy of an unsolicited report sent to a firm that seemed unimpressed with
the writer's efforts. The reasons why are instructive to us all."
http://www.asktog.com/columns/047HowToWriteAReport.html
Internet World: Deconstructing Maytag.com. (via tomalak.org)
"Terry Swack and John Shiple. Few sites have such a strong online brand and
identity. Browsing products is a sweet experience. The well-structured,
cleanly designed site makes finding products very easy, and the tons of
information available is clearly presented, which makes ordering simple."
http://www.internetworld.com/060101/06.01.01decon.jsp
The Four Horsemen of Usability --
"As of June 2001, four web
properties control more than 50% of all the time spent online by U.S.
surfers. This means that you can throw away your usability guidelines and
follow these companies. They spend millions on usability testing and they
are driving standards by sheer market force. You have no choice but to
follow their lead."
http://webword.com/moving/fourhorsemen.html
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 07:54 AM CST
NEWS & COMMENTARY
Hackers: Not Always Bad And Not Just a Man's Club
"There are women who hack, and many learn their skills where they are outnumbered by men: in the rough-and-tumble online enclaves that hackers frequent or at hacker conventions. "
http://www.iht.com/articles/22243.html
MIT Technology Review: The Myth of "Internet Time". (via tomalak.org)
"Andrew Odlyzko. Internet time appeared to give special power to the
first-mover advantage. A company that could quickly establish itself as a pets
portal, for example, might be able to gain a high enough market share to
discourage competition."
http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/apr01/reviews.asp
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 07:53 AM CST
DESIGN MATTERS
The Best Designs :: the ultimate DESIGNER'S resource (via xblog.com)
"The Best Designs was created as a resource for designers to view the best
designs on the net, to read articles written by other designers, and to be
guided to the most helpful web design resources on the Internet."
http://www.thebestdesigns.com/
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 07:52 AM CST
EVENT
Informal Tools for Designing Anywhere, Anytime, Anydevice User Interfaces
James Landay
230 Bechtel, Sibley Auditorium
University of California, Berkeley
Thursday, June 21st @ 7.00 p.m.
Talk Abstract
We are now entering the era of pervasive computing, an era where people
will access information and services anywhere, anytime, and from a wide
variety of devices. The challenge for researchers and practitioners is how
to support the design of user interfaces that will empower people to
engage in these interactions easily and efficiently. Our work has been in
creating design tool that support the best practices of user-centered
design. Such practices include the informal techniques used during the
early stages of design, such as sketching and "faking" interactions using
Wizard of Oz techniques to test early designs.
http://www.baychi.org/bof/east/
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 07:52 AM CST
APROPOS OF NOTHING
I returned from France to hear about the (excuse me) ridiculous tale of Kaycee. The real victim though is Henry, whose existence was apparently thrown into doubt!
http://www.biggerhand.com/
Believe me, I've had my eardrums shattered by an excited caterwaul, and I've heard him list off 50 pokeman while eating an equal number of tortilla chips... he's real. Daddy Mike was driven to put up references for Henry which are also utterly true.
http://biggerhand.com/abouthenry.shtml
Henry's always entertaining and 100% real diary
http://www.biggerhand.com/henry/2001/henry052801.html
~~~
While cleaning out old memos from my palm, I found this lovely and useless Belgium "bande desinee" site.
http://www.urbicande.be/home/
~~~
Despite the lack of site, the FC newsletter suggests that this is a fine multi-city party announcement list.
www.bernardoslist.com No personal recommendation one way or the other.
~~~
game whose name says it all
http://www.deathbyjargon.com
~~~
my sister sends me the sequel to the bigcat story
"Fat Cat
You probably have received a picture of a man in a den or living room holding what appears to be the largest house cat ever known to exist on the planet. The picture is very impressive, and the man holding the cat looks very proud. The man, according to the email, is Roger Degagne who lives on the shores of the Ottawa River. According to the story, the cat is the product of two cats named Lost and Found who was discovered near an "abandoned" power plant called AECL (Atomic Energy of Canada Limited) 15 years prior to the photograph. The cat pictured in the photograph is supposedly 89 pounds and 69 inches long.
According to AECL (they are still in business, by the way) they have no record of a Roger Degagne ever working for them at any time, nor do they remember ever having two cats at the property. As far as the picture, it seems odd that such a heavy cat can be so easily lifted by a man who obviously is somewhat out of shape. According to the Guinness records (www.guinnessworldrecords.com), the largest cat is Snobie and weighs a whopping 98 pounds, but is just over 40 inches long.
The picture is probably some kind of farce (fake cat, overlaid images, etc.) and has actually been circulating on the Internet since about 2000 and it has only been recently that a story has accompanied the big kitty.
- Michael Vincent "
From Emazing.com
http://my.emazing.com/stupidtrawl.jsp
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 07:51 AM CST
la glean francaise
OPENING THANG
Hey kiddos-- Still in France, and will be until June 6th, after which expect the usual 4 a.m. postings to EH and Gleanings, as jetlag sets in. I'm ensconced deep in French farmcountry, as Noel said earlier, and don't have much connectivity to speak of, which is pleasent and weird both. I simply hike up to the main house to download my mail. It's proving to be a productive time, and though I miss my meanders online I've replaced them with meanders into the local village.
http://www.nothing-new.com/travel/France/may01/chaumejean
I just wanted to send a petite bonjour to the readers, and thank the guest gleaners-- they've done a terific job! I really enjoy the world through other's eyes and voices. Speaking of voices, Noel's writing up a storm on the Carbon Log; be sure to swing by. http://www.carboniq.com/log
and gleanings is completely built from email, so no guarentees on the
quality of my linkage...
IA MATTERS
Peter Metholtz has written a long "thoughtwander" on the futility of new
interfaces and the map as interface. It's chock full of tasty links that I only wish I could follow...
http://www.peterme.com
Which reminds me to say again if you are an IA, you need to get "Mapping
Websites: Digital Media Design" by Paul Kahn and Krzysztof Lenk. It offers many ways to create "website planning documents" as they call them, and well as some interesting insights
intot he relationship of realworld maps to web maps. I don't have the link available (working offline), but I've got it on my blog
http://www.eleganthack.com/blog
which inspired Paul to post this yummy link to a course on maps!
http://www.dynamicdiagrams.com/seminars/mapping/maptoc.htm
>From the SIGIA list
Navigation resources
http://www.sitenavigation.net/snguide.html
http://usableweb.com/topics/000689-0-0.html
USABILITY MATTERS
Talking to Computers (Scientific America) -- "Any notion that we can
replace keyboards with pen-based computing is wildly misguided. The
fastest you can go with a pen is about a third the speed that you can
type. It's a single channel output compared to multiple channel outputs
when you type, and that's the same limitation you have with voice as well.
Those technologies just have a basic fundamental human limitation that
usually gets overlooked." via webword.com
>> http://sciam.com/explorations/2001/052101compu/
NEWS & COMENTARY
As a travel junkie and a web junkie, I can't help but be intrigued by
orbitz...
Groups Seek To Block Orbitz Launch
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010525S0004
Analysts: Orbitz (Kind of) Rocks
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,,4_772531,00.html
NUA's take on the recent hoaxes
"In the past two weeks, two deaths have shocked parts of the Internet
community. The deaths, both of young women who had a host of online
friends, became all the more shocking when it was discovered in both
cases that neither of the women had ever actually existed in the
'real' world.
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/analysis/weekly_editorial.html "
Cahners In-Stat Group: Web appliances to be hugely popular (via nua.ie)
"Consumer demand for Internet-enabled appliances is set to grow by a
compound rate of 101 percent annually until 2005, according to Cahners
In-Stat."
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905356799&rel=true
The Industry Standard: European firms remain optimistic (via nua.ie)
"A new survey of senior company executives in Europe has found that
93 percent of large European companies intend to maintain or
increase their IT spending in the next year. Sixty percent of those
polled said they were confident about the medium term future of the
European economy."
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905356796&rel=true
How Amazon Is Beating the Costs of Shipping
"The e-retailing giant has quietly established its Worldwide Digital
Group, which offers music, e-book and software downloads."
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,26715,00.html?nl=dnt
APROPOS OF NOTHING
>From creativegood.com,
"Interior Desecrators shows the horrors of 1970s interior decorating. One of
the more entertaining sites I've seen recently. "
http://www.lileks.com/institute/interiors/bhg/index.html
Who's got real problems, and who's just pissing and moaning?
The Stress Test
http://www.thespark.com/stresstest/
cool FAQ's
http://www.voght.com/cgi-bin/pywiki?KmFaq
via stylewithsubstance.com
"funny new use for the palm"
http://www.zdnet.com/downloads/stories/info/0,,40964,.html
"A Date Which Will Live in Falsity"
How on earth will Disney market "Pearl Harbor" to Japan's moviegoers?
With a poster like this one:
http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0105/pearl/
this type of humor is always much funnier when I'm abroad...
"The Foreigner's Guide to America: Chapter Two"
http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0105/guide02/
and if you missed the first...
http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0105/guide/
Finally thanks Lane, for making me a trusted friend!
Has anyone writen up ettiquette to deal with Amazon's friends and family
circles yet? Do I write a thank you note, or simply send flowers?
originally sent 6/4/01
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 07:30 AM CST
Guest Gleaners Paul Nattress & Chad Thorton
Is one Gleanings ever enough? Live from the Days Inn in Rochester, New York (home of the white hot dog) it's the fifth installment of the guest-culled Gleanings. Today's a double-dose; we hear from Paul Natress and Chad Thorton. Enjoy their work. Enjoy your weekend. -- Noel
+ + + + PAUL'S GLEAN
OPENING THANG
I was just thinking about what makes the Web so great. I thought long and hard about it and was going to say that the free (and freely available) information on the Web is what makes it great. While this is true to a certain extent, this information is useless if nobody reads it. To find good information about your particular topic of interest is hard - I know, I've tried to find good solid information about creative writing, web design, IA, usability etc. The best source for this information is from the communities which have built up on the Web - groups of professionals and amateurs alike, each with their own web sites linking to each other, commenting on each
others articles, thoughts and opinions.
This is what makes the Web great.
Gleanings is a part of our global IA community. Christina - thanks for making our Web great.
GETTING TESTY
<http://www.aptest.com/resources.html>
While nothing beats a good, live testing team it's useful to have some testing software around, especially for the more mundane tasks such as checking for alt tags.
Why does "access all areas" usually apply to an elite minority?
Macromedia offers an accessibility starter pack which includes some testing tools -
The check page for accessibility extension is very useful for finding images with no alt tags. British IAs - take note of the US accessibility legislation - who knows when we will adopt it.
Create Online accessibility debate -
<http://www.createonline.co.uk/magazine/bigissue.asp>
Listen to Julie - she's from the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and they do their homework - <http://www.rnib.org.uk/digital/hints.htm>
Writing for the Web (or should we call this screenwriting?)
Peter links to a good site with info about style guides -
<http://www.edit-work.com/index.html>
WEBBY NEWS
Earlier in May Oxford University announced they were opening a new Institute to study the effects of the Internet on society -
<http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/po/010504.htm>
and the BBC story at -
<http://news.bbc.co.uk>
Oh, what we could learn...)
Sun Microsystems staff are banned from the Internet in the run up to their annual reports...
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/19277.html>
A worrying sign - how many of us Glean whilst at work?
APROPOS OF SOMETHING
About 99% of Flash on the Web is bad (or so it seems) so it's very rare to find someone like Andy Foulds who uses it to create the most elegant and
wonderful interfaces I've seen. This is the 1% which we should be taking notice of.
<http://www.foulds2000.freeserve.co.uk/port_index.htm>
Finally - take a look at Vincent's "interface for a news publishing application" and give him some feedback. Gonna have a play myself in the next few days... <http://www.mersault.com/thinking/interface/newsintro.htm>
Did I say finally? Sorry, forgot the gratuitous plug -
<http://www.ia-uk.co.uk>. My pointless ramblings...
+ + + + CHAD'S GLEAN
OPENING THANG
Greetings from San Francisco. I was fully prepared to say that it's always 60 and foggy here, but we've hit a heat wave and it's 95 and I'm in shorts. I'm Chad, proprietor of Brightly Colored Food. Please, stop by, check it out, make yourself at home, drop me a line, we,ll have drinks, it'll be great..
DESIGN MATTERS
GUI and Web Standards and Guidelines
It's mostly UI standards, but it's a nice list for a quick little refresher. Quick -- when is it appropriate to use radio buttons? How about check boxes? What about drop-down combo list boxes?
<http://www.weinschenk.com/guidelinesdemo/default.html>
IA/UX MATTERS
Patterns of Hypertext
While we worry about wayfinding and orientation, others make an art of it. I dig Mark Bernstein of Eastgate Systems, and I'd go to eNarrative 3 (http://www.enarrative.org/) in a second if only the boss-man would foot the bill. For those of us who can't go, we'll just have to read this.
<http://www.eastgate.com/patterns/Print.html>
CHI2001 Notes
For those of us who couldn't go to this, either.
<http://joel.westside.com/wsContentPublisher/story.view?RowId=11>
The Hypermedia Design Patterns Repository
"HPR is an initiative of ACM-SIGWEB in collaboration with the University of Italian Switzerland.
Its goal is to allow a larger community to reuse design experience gathered by other designers of hypermedia and Web applications and systems, by providing useful Design Patterns.?
Victor linked to information on Christopher Alexander's new opus, so I had to follow up with this.
<http://www.designpattern.lu.unisi.ch/index.htm>
USABILITY MATTERS
User experience types need to see themselves more as craftspeople. A craftsperson is someone who actively develops new tools and refines existing ones. Yeah, we're not at Xerox PARC and we're all overworked anyway, but it would be great to see more efforts at developing practical tools/processes for development and analysis.
The IBM EZ Sort Card Sorting and Cluster Analysis program is a great example of such a tool.
<http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/publish/1876>
I'm working on a flash-based frontend for the cluster analysis part of EZ Sort, with the goal of running card sorts remotely (the current setup doesn't allow this). I'd love a hand, especially if you're good with ActionScripting. The hope is to extend the existing tool and release the flash code to the ux community-at-large. Drop me a line~chad_thornton@intuit.com/soapbox
Speaking of tools, usability testing tools will become increasingly important as user experience folk figure out which data is really worth analyzing. Here are some relevant links:
Mining Web Logs to Improve Website Organization
Given that links are so opaque, I continually test link names, location, and grouping. This tool supposedly aids in identifying which pages are visited but aren't useful ("not useful? is inferred by browsing behavior: use of the back button ^ a decent metric, though definitely not infallible).
<http://www10.org/cdrom/papers/345/index.html>
WebQuilt: A Framework for Capturing and Visualizing the Web Experience
<http://www10.org/cdrom/papers/602/index.html>
Information Scent as a Driver of Web Behavior Graphs: Results of a Protocol Analysis Method for Web Usability [.pdf file]
Tape Measures For Site Usability
We can't be everywhere all the time. Hearing about automated and/or remote approaches to usability both fills my heart with dread and gives me a bit of hope. This article is an overview of a couple of tools for usability analysis.
<http://www.PlanetIT.com/docs/PIT20010222S0006>
WRITING MATTERS
Blogging as a Form of Journalism
Unlike the spate of generic "what is weblogging?? articles, this one does a good job of covering how some professionals actually make use of blogging as part of their work.
<http://ojr.usc.edu/content/story.cfm?request=585>
A nice companion article to the one above:
"A knowledge worker is someone whose job entails having really interesting conversations at work?
<http://www.contenu.nu/article.htm?id=1152>
COMMUNITY MATTERS
Social Translucence: An Approach to Designing Systems that Support Social Processes
"We are interested in designing systems that support communication and collaboration among large groups of people over computer networks. We begin by asking what properties of the physical world support graceful human-human communication in face to face situations, and argue that it is possible to design digital systems that support coherent behavior by making participants and their activities visible to one another. We call such systems "socially translucent systems" and suggest that they have three characteristics -- visibility, awareness, and accountability -- which enable people to draw upon their social experience and expertise to structure their interactions with one another.?
<http://www.pliant.org/personal/Tom_Erickson/st_TOCHI.html>
ART MATTERS
MONO*crafts 3.0. Yugo Nakamura rocks the snow-filled glass globe of my existence.
<http://www.yugop.com/>
NEWS & COMMENTARY
What If Napster Were Based in China?
Might this be the end of proprietary intellectual property as we know it?
If you're a fan of cyberpunk, you already know that Bruce Sterling covered this beat years ago (well, 1998) in his novel Distraction. It,s worth a read for those who get sick of the usual P2P pundits carrying on about the same old stuff..
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Are we Artist or not?
I was trying to make some misguided point about artists and craftsman and thankfully it totally fell apart, but I did find this page. It's nice to see a community other than our own struggling with its identity.
Thanks for listening, hope to see you soon.
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 07:29 AM CST
Guest Gleaner Alyssa Wodtke
So Chrisina splits the country...could her sister be the next best thing? You make the call. Alyssa sits in the Gleanings Chair for this episode, which I'm again serving up from vacation in Rochester, New York (where the most notable user experience is a trip to Wegmans, the Bellagio Las Vegas of grocery stores). Email her at alyssa@stylewithsubstance.com with your fan mail. -- Noel
INTRO
I'm Alyssa, Christina's sister and one of the people she asked to do a gleanings while she's gone. Christina and I share an apartment, at least until her hubby makes it through the INS process. It's kind of nice to rattle around here alone, though it gets a little creepy sometimes. I try not to hear footsteps in the attic or imagine noises at the back door. Mostly I sit at C's computer for hours at a time, mentally blocking out the dishes and laundry that need to be done.
Since she left I've spent much of my free time dismantling the smoke alarms. One of them started beeping and there are so many damned smoke alarms in this long apartment and the sound is so weird in here, I haven't been able to figure out which one is beeping. Admittedly, it took me about 4 or 5 days to bother to drag the ladder out to deal with the problem. Every time I think I've gotten the right smoke detector, I hear another beep. I've dismantled every smoke detector in the house and still I hear beeping. I'm beginning to wonder if it's some strange form of tinnitus.
I suppose C asked me to write one of these because I do spend a lot of time surfing, mostly while doing twelve other things at work. Multi-tasking is my middle name. No, really, Alyssa Multi-tasking Wodtke--my parents were ahead of their time. Don't let anyone tell you kids don't live up to their names.
Anyway, here's some cool stuff I've seen lately:
APROPOS OF NOTHING
"New observations with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal in northern Chile give weight to current computer models of the early universe: it is "spongy", with galaxies forming along filaments, like droplets along the strands of a spider's web." Although I love the thought of the universe as spongy (it reminds me of Pinky from Animaniacs saying he liked the word obsequious because it sounded "squishy"), even better is the fact that astronomers got together and couldn't think of a better name than "Very Large Telescope (VLT)."
<http://europe.cnn.com/TECH/space/specials/scenes/index.html>
I was not really a science fan in school. Now I devour every story I find. I never knew space was so entertaining...
"May 16 - In a feat that has scientists baffled, a hungry young star more than 2,000 light years away, appears to be belching perfectly spherical bubbles of gas and dust."
How cool is this--"May 30 - The recipient of the first successful larynx transplant three years ago now speaks - and sings - with a perfectly normal voice. His surgeon says he is ready to perform the operation again." I learned something new--the larynx affects taste and smell. The body is a weird thing.
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/580348.asp>
I love this site. I'm not sure why. It's not big on design, not high tech, but I think it's creative and fun. It makes me want to draw my food.
<http://www.pocketpig.com/>
DESIGN MATTERS?
I know I shouldn't be plugging a superpower's website, but I visited the Sony Metreon's website for the first time today and thought it was nicely done. But what do I know, I'm just a movie junkie...
<http://www.metreon.com/>
I wouldn't be me if I didn't throw in a shoe site. Anyone who knows me knows my deep affection bordering on dangerous obsession with Kenneth Cole's shoes. And I also think his site is really nice. It uses restrained colors and has a very laid back, respectable look. It's got a lot of movement, there's plenty of visual interest, and it's super easy to navigate. I'm no architect like sis but this site works for me.
<http://www.kennethcole.com/>
And for another shoe site at the opposite end of the spectrum--Bruno Magli's site is an exercise in glorious excess. The rich colors, the disinterested models, and the unusual "curtain" design complement the designer's shoes perfectly. It's not as easy to use as Ken's site, but it's pretty to look at.
SHAMELESS PLUG
If you liked any of this, or if you're curious about me (I'm comfortable being a curiosity), you can check out my site at: <http://www.stylewithsubstance.com> I'm not a professional but I have a lot to say. Thanks.
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 07:29 AM CST
Guest Gleaner George Olsen
Welcome George! Today's is the fourth in a series of guest-composed Gleanings. Christina returns in mid-June. -- Noel
OPENING THANG
Dude, welcome from Los Angeles where, yes as a matter of fact, it _is_
always 72 degrees and sunny -- and home to the ultimate designed user
experience: Disneyland. So get in the convertible, put the top down and
we'll cruise down Imperial Highway (big nasty redhead at our side), taking
in a tour of some user experience-related sights. Just remember, the
natives can be playful at the tourists' expense, so if the directions you
just got don't seem to be making sense, just keep heading southwest and
eventually you'll run into the beach -- which is probably more fun than
than where ever you were headed anyway.
And if you're ever actually in town, stop by to the IA/UI cocktail hour
<http://www.interactionbydesign.com/cocktailhour/>
BIG THOUGHTS MATTERS
"Digital Renaissance: Convergence? I Diverge."
<http://www.techreview.com/magazine/jun01/jenkins.asp> Henry Jenkins,
director of the Program in Comparative Media Studies at MIT, argues that
the confusion over digitial "convergence" is because there are actually
five trends at work.
Since the issue of certification seems to be raising its ugly head in the
IA field (just as it has in graphic design and software engineering) Tom
DeMarco (of the software-engineering-project-management-gurus Atlantic
Systems Guild) raises an interesting idea: the real issue is about who gets
_de-certified_.
<more>
Art Center over in Pasadena is currently hosting an exhibit exploring
artists' use of the global telecommunications network. An online exhibit is
at <http://telematic.walkerart.org> The physical show will be stopping
elsewhere in the U.S.
UX (user experience) MATTERS
As IAs move more and more into requirements development, wouldn't it be
nice if there was a comprehensive list of issues to make sure are covered?
There is. James and Suzanne Robertson of (more Atlantic Systems Guild-ians)
have come up with a comprehensive list that includes not only the usual
technical stuff but also thinks about things like corporate politics and
legal liabilities -- the Volare Requirements Specification Template The main
weakness is that the Robertsons come from the enterprise software
development world, so they don't deal with content issues. When you first
look at Volare it may be a little overwhelming because the Robertsons have
included lots of commentary about how to use it, but it can be stripped
down into a useful checklist. And definitely check out their "requirements
shell",
which is a nice way of collecting essential requirements info on a 3x5 card.
And while we're thinking about requirements, ran across two useful
resources for a related step: putting together functional specs
<http://joel.editthispage.com/stories/storyReader$212> and
<http://www.mojofat.com/tutorial/>.
>From functional specs, we move on to a nice concise overview to the joys of
prototyping
<http://infocentre.frontend.com/servlet/Infocentre?page=article&id=154> Not
a lot of depth, although there are links to related articles, but it's a
nicely done summary that's useful for the inevitable PowerPoint
presentation.
Ever needed a quick translation of IA/UI/UX jargon
<http://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/main.cgi?> has got 'em...
Always respected his opinions since the days of NeXTStep, Simson Garfinkel
wonders why humans should conform to the way online shopping carts work rather than vice versa. <http://www.techreview.com/magazine/jun01/garfinkel.asp> While it's
familiar ground, it's nice to hear it from a programmer who gets it.
DESIGN MATTERS
<http://www.coolhomepages.com/> is what it says it is. Interesting place to
hunt for experimental stuff.
<http://www.threeoh.com/> Digital Design Journal -- not much there yet, but
looks promising...
USABILITY MATTERS
OK, I hear you saying not another Jakob article.... Well yes, but I
included it because it's written for the larger business community and it's
useful to see how the user experience = usability argument is being seen
from the outside.
"User Advocate Or Enemy Of Creativity?: Jakob Nielsen defines the
boundaries of art and functionality in designing site"
<here>
BUSINESS MATTERS
The Havard Business Review <http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbr/> used to be dull academic papers. But no more. Apparently they overhauled it a year or
two ago and now it's a valuable collection of thoughtful and well-written
white papers. And interestingly, in the two issues I've seen so far, has
had articles touching on user experience. In the May issues (still may be
on newsstands), one article walks through how "customer scenarios" can
guide web and business strategies (sound familiar?). The April issue had a
fascinating article by a building architect who's been studying how
business can integrate their online and brick-and-mortar efforts. But aside
from user experience specific articles (even if they're not labeled as
such), HBR offers a good way to keep up on current trends in business
thinking (helpful if you've got to sell UX to managers or clients), as well
as a good way to learn more about management skills and general business
skills. No it's not cheap, but it's definitely worthwhile.
Thinking of Tom DeMarco (see above), I'm in the middle of reading his
excellent "Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork and the Myth of Total
Efficiency," The book asks a key question about our time: Why are we all so
damned busy? And it suggests that all this infernal busy-ness is not
entirely healthy, either for the organizations we work for or for their
beleaguered workers. It's especially relevant now that "internet time" has
been proven _not_ to be a good way to develop things. You can download a
preview [pdf file]
<here>
MARKETING MATTERS
Was going to mention Jim Sterne's excellent newsletter
<http://www.targeting.com/fullsterne.html>, but Ralph Brandi beat me to it.
So I'll just say, check it out.
Harry Beckwith's "Selling the Invisible"
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0446520942/> is essential reading for anyone who's got to market
_services_ rather than products -- such as IAs, UIs and UXs. While Beckwith
doesn't touch on it himself, reading his book made me realize that
interactive products (web sites, software, whatever) are really more like
services than products. That's to say, when it comes to user satisfaction,
_how_ something gets done is often as important (and sometimes more
important) than what gets done. It's the difference between the DMV and
Nordstroms.
WRITING MATTERS
The ever-snarky The Register holds the first annual Email Disclaimer Awards
2001. Judged in six categories: Longest Disclaimer, Most Incomprehensible
Disclaimer, Most PC Disclaimer, Best Bi-lingual Disclaimer, Best Spoof
Disclaimer, Special Award for Best WWW Disclaimer. I'm just glad they
didn't publish the acceptance speeches.
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/19057.html>
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Own a piece of dot-com history... I wasn't sure if I should laugh when I
looked at this:
<http://www.scripophily.net/dotcoms.html> although they probably should
work out a joint marketing deal with the Museum of E-Failure
<http://www.disobey.com/ghostsites/>, who's stated goal "is not to laugh at
the fallen, but to preserve their last image, before all traces of these
sites' existence are deleted from history's view." Yeah right....
You've probably seen "The Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation," now hear the
inside story...
<http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/making.html>
"He-Mails, She-Mails: Where Sender Meets Gender"
[registration-required]
Ever wonder what it's really like living in Los Angeles? Steve Martin's
"L.A. Story"
isn't a comedy, it's a training film... at least for some of us...
SHAMELESS SELF-PROMO MATTERS
Finally, just wanted to mention that I'm in the middle launching my own
site devote to thinking about user experience design:
thumbnails, which will feature yet
another UX blog, book reviews, links to resources and the occasional white
paper. I'm currently debugging the blog, which should up within a few days
at most, and the book reviews will follow shortly.
Ciao babe, have your people call my people and we'll do lunch....
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 06:29 AM CST
Guest Gleaner Victor Lombardi
Another sunny, warm Monday breaks loose in San Francisco. And is our Glean Queen Christina is around to enjoy it with us? Noo, she's off in France, "ensconced on Philippe's father's farm," and has left today's Gleanings in the capable hands of Victor Lombardi, he of Noise Between Stations. And Victor done good.
Today's is the third in a series of guest-composed Gleanings. Christina returns in Mid-May. -- Noel
+ + + +
Sing
Breaking the Sound Barrier: Designing Auditory Displays for Global Usability
Beatnik - Principles of Sonification Design. Some very rational and complete guidelines for using audio in the user interface
Reassure
'Trust and security in interactive spaces do not depend on technical security measures alone. Our limited research suggests that the feeling of security experienced by a user of an interactive system is determined by the user's feeling of control of the interactive system.'
Think
Overview of Christopher Alexander's new opus, "The Nature of Order" <http://www.patternlanguage.com/natureoforder/overview.htm>
Stretch
Principles of Graphic Design:
<http://www.mundidesign.com/presentation/index2.html>
Lurk
aiga-advance mailing list
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aiga-advance/messages/>
Exercise
<http://www.keepyourbrainalive.com/exercise.html>
Appreciate
<http://www.schmoop.com/>
+ + + +
More of what's going on inside Victor's head: <http://www.noisebetweenstations.com/personal/weblogs/>
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 06:25 AM CST
Guest Gleaner Ralph Brandi
Today the Ernie Kovacs-lovin' (God love 'em for it!) Ralph Brandi writes the second in a series of guest-created Gleanings. Happy surfing.
-- Noel
OPENING THANG
>From deep in the heart of Jersey (New Jersey, that is), it's the Gates
Brown memorial edition of Gleanings. In this edition, Gleanings is about the
nature of community on the net, prompted by the recent revelations of a
net.hoax, a marketeer who gets it, then a little levity (not on levity.com,
though), followed by some links about a personal hero of mine, and closing
with the usual unrelated but neat stuff.
Is it still Gleanings if I don't use the same headers as Christina?
COMMUNITY MATTERS
Erin Malone muses about the nature of community on the web and what makes a
site a community. A few of us pile on.
<emdezine>
When I read this, I was reminded of a paper that Teresa Roberts presented
at CHI 98 called "Are Newsgroups Virtual Communities?" She postulated that
communities have six defining characteristics:
* Cohesion
* Effectiveness
* Help
* Relationships
* Language
* Self-regulation
She concluded that newsgroups can indeed be communities.
<read it here> (1.1 MB PDF file)
Julian Dibble has a chapter from his book "My Tiny Life" that explores the consequences of severely anti-social behavior and deception online, specifically about one particular incident that took place in LambdaMOO, a MOO/MUD run by researchers at Xerox:
Katie Hafner's article about The Well from Wired back when it was still
marginally worth reading is an interesting exploration of function and
dysfunction in one of the earliest net.communities:
MARKETING MATTERS
I first saw Jim Sterne speak at Internet World in Boston some years back
(and they haven't held it in Boston in a long time, so it was quite a while
ago, probably around 1995 or 96). He's a marketing guy who really groks the
web. In his talk back then, he earned my everlasting admiration for ripping
apart the web site of my then-employer. I went up afterwards and thanked
him for giving me ammunition for my running battle with the artists I
worked with, who, incidentally, had designed the site he had spent 15
minutes dissecting.
Jim's Full Sterne Ahead newsletter comes out monthly and is filled with stories of marketers who get it and, more amusingly, marketers who don't.
USABILITY MATTERS
Usability!
<http://www.cybercandy.co.uk/ntk/>
(Thanks PeterMe)
ERNIE KOVACS
I've long felt that the web is just waiting for our very own Ernie Kovacs to finally show us how this all should be done. Who's Ernie Kovacs, you ask? Basically, he was the first person to make television as television, rather than as radio with pictures or plays in front of cameras. He was a comic genius, and invented much of the visual vocabulary of television that we take for granted today. His "Eugene", a half-hour completely without dialog, was absolutely amazing, and the sight gags he invented to take advantage of the medium are still being recycled to this day.
The best page I've found about Kovacs' mad inventiveness with the medium is a transcript of an interview he gave the Canadian Broadcasting Company in 1960.
That interview is part of a truly wonderful site, Kovacsville On-Line, about his whole career, from his entry into local Philadelphia television in 1950 until his untimely death in a car accident in 1962.
The Ernie Kovacs Site has a nice bio of Ernie and covers the basics.
The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia have a page devoted to Ernie and particularly his early, Philadelphia-based career, including a picture from a 1952 show, some great stories, and some insight into the tricks he used to get the effects he desired on virtually no budget. There's also a RealMedia clip of some 8 mm film footage from March, 1952, of Ernie and company clowning around in the studio.
The best photos of Kovacs (well, only two of them) are on the still-under-construction Ernie Kovacs - Nothing in Moderation site:
<http://www.erniekovacs.com/>
<http://www.erniekovacs.com/hey.htm>
Ernie also did some movies, but as he says in the CBC interview, his heart was really on the other side of the camera, and TV was his medium.
<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Kovacs,+Ernie>
I think about Ernie every time I'm faced with a problem when putting a web site together and am trying to come up with an innnovative solution. Kovacs was a visionary; I'm still waiting for one to show up on the web and provide the conventions that will seem blatantly obvious in retrospect.
"Television, a medium -- so called because it's neither rare nor well done."
--Ernie Kovacs
APROPOS OF NOTHING
The site for the movie "The Dish" is one of the few sites where I've
enjoyed the use of Flash. I think it's a clever interface, a little artsier
than I usually like, but entirely appropriate given the subject matter:
<http://thedishmovie.warnerbros.com/>
I really want to see this movie; I think anyone who grew up watching the
Apollo space program would want to. I remember going to my grandmother's
house to see the moonwalk because they had a color TV and we didn't. Of
course, the video feed from the moon was in black and white, but no matter.
I hope the movie eventually opens in a theater closer than an hour and a
half from my house....
And for good measure, here's the site with the original Australian trailer:
<http://www.workingdog.com/wdog.html>
(Ralph Brandi is a webmaster and user advocate for a really cool research
lab trapped in the body of a large telecommunications firm. He has been on
the net since 1987 and building web sites since 1993. He will rant about
the importance of the user for hours to anyone who provokes him. Gates
Brown was the best pinch hitter in the history of the American League, and
played for the Detroit Tigers for 13 years in the 1960s and 1970s. More
info on Gates at <http://www.nadiacomaneci.com/library/article135.htm>.
Really.)
--
Ralph Brandi write: gleanings at brandi.org visit: <http://www.brandi.org/>
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 06:23 AM CST
Guest Gleaner Matt Jones
G'morning. Christina's off in France for a few weeks, so we're taking over the Gleanings airwaves. Today's ditty, compiled by Matt Jones, is the first in a series of guest-edited Gleanings. Enjoy. And happy Monday to you.
-- Noel Franus (mail noel at carboniq.com)
OPENING THANG
Hi it's me ... hey ... over here ... past the wet thing ... yeah ... that's
right ... NO ... too far ... that's denmark ... back you come ... right ... HI!
welcome to London. I'm Matt, and i'm your host for this hideously UK-centric
edition of gleanings. Lots of good folk and good work over here which I
thought you might be interested in, and if you haven't got summer vacation
plans, or fancy a change of scenery; then some of this might inspire you to
come over to Blighty (it really ISN'T full of disease ridden animals,
honest...)
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 06:20 AM CST
DESIGN MATTERS
Go to shynola for objects of mirth, beauty and pathos...
<http://www.shynola.co.uk/>
(click the heart... these guys aren't regular useit.com readers...)
these guys work in a wired-up suburban house in norf lahndahn as a
cooperative/collective and produce some of the most breathtaking videos,
imagery and worlds currently out there... including the lastest radioheadvideo
(beware... spawns realplayer stream...)
A meta-gleaning... Hugh Pearman is a pretty respected design critic here in
the UK, who writes for The Sunday Times of London, Design Week etc. He
'gets' the web more than most 'mainstream' design media types (and some
net-media types...) and so most of his writing is posted on his site, which
is fully-searchable...
<http://www.hughpearman.com>
great new xplanation
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 06:19 AM CST
USABILITY MATTERS
In the UK, the government's going to switch off analogue TV sometime between
2006 and 2010 which has created a bit of a dash to digital interactive services through these
new generation TVs... designing for a platform constrained in terms of its display, performance, modes of interaction and mainstream, non-tech savvy users with no attention span??? FUN!!!!
'going interactive on television isn't always a good thing, says Mr
Daly-Jones. Serco's research has shown, for instance, that interactive TV
viewers aren't necessarily interested in having control of camera angles.
"There's a reason why professional camera editors exist," he says. "Watching
TV is supposed to be a social activity, so in some instances with
interactive TV one person controlling the remote can lead to all sorts of
trouble." '
serco's research on interactive TV usability (also wap/smartphones and PDAs)
http://www.usability.serco.com/research/research.htm#research
and an E-group^H^H^H^H^H^H^H sorry yahoogroup...
<http://www.usableitv.com/>
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 06:19 AM CST
IA MATTERS
If you know me then you'll know I tend to drop the I off of IA quite a
lot... so INDULGE ME...
BUY THIS BOOK....!!!
"Beginning with the root definition of architecture as its "conceptual
organization, its intellectual structures"., the author makes clear its
function as "identification of place", goes on to identify the basic
elements and concepts, examines the use of natural features of the
landscape, analyzes primitive place types, geometry in architecture, space
and structure, and other key concepts.
>From the campsites of primitive man to the sophisticated structures of the
late twentieth century, architecture as an essential function of human
activity is explained clearly, and illustrated with the author's own
excellent drawings. Highly recommended as a well-organized and readable
introduction."
(it's by my old design theory tutor from architecture college...)
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 06:18 AM CST
STRATEGY/MARKETING MATTERS
Stuart Nolan of Oyster don't... don't....don't... don't believe the hype:
"It seems that as a culture we are not very good at managing our own
expectations. We get over excited and run around until we get overtired and
fractious. It's fun to think we are part of a technological revolution but
maybe a social evolution is much closer to the truth."
more
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 06:18 AM CST
EVENT
bugger... i'm on holiday... guess it's up to someone else THIS TIME...!!!
"You have one day to save humanity..."
Sun... sea... Spain... Superb music... what ELSE do you need?
8th Barcelona International Festival of
Advanced Music and Multimedia Art
14th. 15th. 16th. June.
Three days and three nights in touch with the most up-to-date developments
and featuring the most relevant national and international artists. Sonar
presents more than 250 activities: 50 concerts, more than 70 DJs, 90 titles
projected at the SonarCinema and 60 works in every multimedia format:
interacative capsules, installations, CD-Roms, Net art.
Sonar is the essential meeting point for an alert public, cutting-edge
artists and the most influential professionals from the sectors of music and
modern arts.
<http://www.sonar.es> (check out the flash navigation tutorial.... hoho!)
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 06:18 AM CST
APROPOS OF NOTHING
peer-2-peer evolutionary beasties
(disclaimer: not sure how stable/sucky-of-resources this is... careful...)
the wedding channel!
Peter Saville, Nick Knight... oozing quality
(but lacking usability... beware it spawns full screen windows, needs every
plug-in etc., y'know... web art...)
just enjoy it.
Bye!!
Posted by christina on Friday, 06/08/01 06:17 AM CST
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