My spare time has been taken up with a large variety of things – most importantly, I delivered my BAWorld presentation this afternoon on Usability Analysis and Interface Design.
If you’re curious (and who wouldn’t be?) – check it out (requires OpenOffice.org’s Impress presentation software)
I think it went quite well – the room was certainly more full than any of the other sessions I attended today. I hope my passion and love of the topic were apparent.
I’m an optimist it seems – a dyed-in-the-wool type too. I am constantly seeing opportunities loom within the current software development methodologies I follow at work. Little ones, big ones, medium sized ones that you would feel good about taking advantage of without straining your back (or the corporate cheque book). Sadly I have yet to fully realize any of these opportunities when it comes to usability practices at work. I’ve tried a few different tacts – I’ve worked to bring general and specific user-centered design ideas into the fold, as it were. Success thus far has been fleeting to say the least. But I did say I’m an optimist – I haven’t given up yet.
I know there are better ways to do things and I know I’m not the only one around who sees it. I just need a little more “oomph” or perhaps a little more “pow” in my approach. Actually what I really need is a little more professional credence behind my ideas. I need to rally the troops, as it were.
Enter CanUX – a glorious nirvana of like-minded soldiers congregating to discuss how to spread the word, to make design a little more person-centric and a little less “why the heck did that happen”-ish. Is that a word? Nestled in Banff for the last few years I have never been able to convince my manager (and her manager) that attending would be the door-opening, spirit-lifting, productivity-enhancing, creativity-spurring event I am certain it would be. At least, I’ve never been able to convince them that this would happen for the low low price of admission and accomodation.
Picture a little cocoon awaiting the dawn of a new day, nestled in the shadows of Lake Louise. CanUX is the sun and my ideas are the cocoon – they must be brought together! Now picture the lack of funds as a giant flyswatter swishing … slicing … searching …
SPLAT!
That was last year. And the year before. This year I have another chance – we all have another chance. No, my employer is not footing anything, but nForm knows what’s what. They’ve created a contest where they will provide registration and accommodation for a single person to attend. This may not seem like much until you realize that this is a full 1/100th of the attendees that they are funding. That’s right – there are only 100 spots available at the CanUX conference and I want one of those spots.
I want to tap into the expertise at the conference. I want to share my experiences – what kind of worked and what didn’t. I want to take home ideas and push through to success with my current teams. I want to arm myself for future teams, growing my bat-belt of tools, techniques and ideas. CanUX can give me a leg up, a helping hand, a supportive cast of 99 people who can back me up when I say “The user matters – let’s design for them.”
This post then, is my entry to this contest. I humbly submit it as my very first Twitter post – my inaugural tweet (well, my second, the first doesn’t count as it was stream of consciousness following the sign up process). Wait, what’s Twitter for again?
And I would be remiss if I did not point out that there is a free, open-source microblogging tool available called identi.ca – and to support FLOSS efforts I will register there too.
Are we in control of our own decisions by Dan Ariely. Another take on Barry Schwartz’s awesome idea centered on the “Paradox of Choice” (here’s a TED talk of his own from 2005 on the topic – HIGHLY recommended). Dan’s point is that what we set as defaults in forms, webpages,or any means of collecting information can have a dramatic impact on the results collected.
Searing photos of war by James Nachtwey. This is the kind of presentation that makes me sit up, look around, and ask “Am I really spending my time wisely today?” It makes me want to go out and really put myself out there, to try to make the world a better place. It appeals to the idealist in me. On a realist level though I do believe I’m going to provide as much support as I can to MSF this year.
The LIFE project by Frans Lanting. An interesting use of photography to tell the history of the world in Frans’s eyes. I’m not sure it is as effective as he hoped it would be. I know that when I started watching it I wasn’t “wow – zoom!” about the photos themselves. He certainly paints a vivid story though, with technically interesting pictures.
Classic usability issue with interface design – what colours to choose? Here’s a little reference that shows what meaning some common colours have in different cultures.
XEROX has also posted a much more thorough examination of the subject.
A nice presentation at MIX09 that lets us peek into the usability process that was undertaken in introducing new features in WIndows 7, such as Aero Peek.
I’d like to appropriate some of their ideas and use it for looking at the GNOME shell project and how they’re trying to rework the desktop. It would be interesting to write a little script that people could run that would take a screenshot of their taskbars so data could be gathered as to what exactly people put on their taskbars – much like the Windows 7 team did (at least according to this presentation). Other ideas include checking some gconf settings to see how many workspaces a person has setup, how many panels, what applets, how many windows open typically, maximally, etc.
Next step – write up a little email to the GNOME usability mail list, see if they have any other ideas. There has recently been a new screenshot app making press – Shutter – that perhaps could grab a screenshot of just the panels, rather than the entire desktop, just to reduce noise.
Interesting approach to capturing a high level view of a user’s experience with a product or service from LEGO. Visual, easy to understand – not sure how to capture value in it though. Perhaps the little “i” and “<” icons are the key.
A year or two ago I heard about Professor Kano’s model on user experience expectations at UI12. Here’s a nice little article on it, including a graphic.
I think there’s a place in everyone’s life for a good rant. Be it something you receive or deliver, there are times when rants are valuable. Let a little steam off. Practice throwing your weight around. Push imaginary opponents around as you vent your frustrations.
When SeattlePI asked Bill Gates about this particular email last week, he chuckled. “There’s not a day that I don’t send a piece of e-mail… like that piece of e-mail. That’s my job.”
I find Bill Gates’ email interesting for a few reasons:
He’s right
He’s describing a workflow using very little system terminology – a skill that I know many business analysts find challenging
He’s essentially done an informal heuristic evaluation for his teams
His complaints have not resulted in any changes even after 5 years
His job allows him time to fiddle with computers like that (or did he make up the scenarios?)
