ZX VIEWS: "Text is a
ZX VIEWS: "Text is a crucial part of documents, and needs to be viewed both separately and in more built-up and glamorous contexts. We need to be able to see the text and its connections with or without fancy effects and packaging. - However, just for the flavor, let's start with the fancy effects and work our way back. " (The Xanadu successor?)
Trackback Yum, I'm gonna shell
Trackback Yum, I'm gonna shell out for MT now. And I don't even really understand it yet!
NBS: The Salon: Victor recommends
NBS: The Salon: Victor recommends the Salon - I can heartily agree.
Practical design of outlines and
Practical design of outlines and site maps (via the ever excellent and useful IAWiki)
Swift Kick - The Semantic
Swift Kick - The Semantic Argument Web: "I fear that the Semantic Web will go the way of SGML and for basically the same reason: normalization of metadata works real well in confined applications where the payoff is high, control is centralized and discipline can be enforced. In other words: not the Web."
We're having a go David, we're having a go. I am betting that loosely coupled metadata (not centralized control) could turn out really useful.
Not sure if I linked
Not sure if I linked to this before. OTHER media 2002 - Why you need your very own taxonomy.
XFML seems strangely appealing to
XFML seems strangely appealing to Spanish and Portuguese blogs. Vacano!
drop.org and NetworkWorldFusion on XFML.
drop.org and NetworkWorldFusion on XFML. By the way, expect some good XFML stuff coming out in about 10 days.
Faceted classification of information and
Faceted classification of information and The business requirements for classifying content. Here's more. (via IASlash)
a wiki on hacking cheap
a wiki on hacking cheap robot dogs: TWiki . Experimentalproduct . FeralRobots (via Matt)
A simple but efficient function
A simple but efficient function - I remember proposing this for a client a while back: NavCode: "Find the product you want fast! Just enter the NavCode in the box located to the right of this text. You will land on the corresponding product page [...]"
Semant-O-Matic: "This site indexes the
Semant-O-Matic: "This site indexes the contents of eleven weblogs over the period March - June 2002 ( a total of 1440 posts ). The goal of this search engine is to demonstrate a fuzzy-search technique called latent semantic indexing. "
The science of persuasion (Economist.com)
The science of persuasion (Economist.com)
"His main insight into omega strategies is the idea that resistance is in some sense a thing, and that it can thus be used up and replenished, rather like water in a tank. Such changes in resistance level are not necessarily the result of logical or rational argument. Once the level drops, the tank is topped up gradually until it is full again, rather as a water-closet cistern refills itself after it has been flushed. The task of the persuader is to drain the tank. That of the consumer is to keep it full enough to resist undesirable changes.
[...]
Another powerful part of decision-making is anticipated feelings of regret. This is why people are, for example, reluctant to trade lottery tickets - they think about how awful they would feel if their numbers came up.
[...]
In an experiment a few years ago, students posing as beggars found that they received small change 44% of the time that they asked directly for it without specifying a sum. If they asked for a precise sum that was a single coin (25 cents), they got it 64% of the time. But if they asked for an apparently arbitrary number (37 cents) they got it 75% of the time. The more precise and unusual the request, the less people were able to resist it."
OpenOffice.org: working from home? Don't
OpenOffice.org: working from home? Don't want to shell out for MS Office? Get this: polished and free.
Jakob on drugs?
Christina points to: Improving Usability Guideline Compliance: "Over the last 1.5 years, the average compliance with established usability guidelines increased by 4%. If we can sustain this level of improvement, we'll reach the ideal of 90% guideline compliance in 2017. "
The 'kob looked at 15 sites this year, 20 (different) sites last year, and concludes the Internet will be fixed in 2017. He presents this crap as serious statistics. I checked the URL because it looked as one of those Jakob spoof sites. Is the man doing bad drugs? Believability down 93.4%!
A nice IA process description:
A nice IA process description: "The approach I describe here can therefore impossibly tell the whole story of what I do, but is instead a description of the methodologies and techniques I use most consistently. They are neither unique nor groundbreaking, rather what I've found works best for me, culled from my time in the trenches of project development, and from endless reading of books, websites, and other information resources. "
BBC News | Being wired
BBC News | Being wired helps you connect: "The social impact of new communications technologies is a greater number of social ties, more diverse social ties, more support."
Next Time, What Say We
Next Time, What Say We Boil a Consultant: "Take a pot of hot water and a frog. Throw the frog into the pot. What do you think will happen? The obvious, of course: the frog will jump out. Who likes hanging around in a pot of hot water? Now ... [t]ake a pot of cold water, put the frog in it, and place the pot on the stove. Turn on the heat. This time something different will occur. The frog, because of the incremental change in temperature, will not notice that it is slowly being boiled. Unfortunately, many organizations, as they grow, begin to resemble the boiled frog."
Fast Company's investigative team, the "Consultant Debunking Unit", put the frog story to the test. "
More hilarious stuff from Fastcompany's Consultant Debunking Unit.
Charlie Brown writes about XFML:
Charlie Brown writes about XFML: "This looks promising for publishing meta data that can be used by other web sites and/or user client software. After reviewing the information on the site it does not appear that they borrowed anything from the Zthes DTD for xml representation of a thesaurus. It seems to me that creating linkages between the two could make both standards stronger. " Good point - I'm looking into this for version 0.3 of the XFML spec.
The Emporer's complex clothes: excellent
The Emporer's complex clothes: excellent blog post on how designing a faceted classification scheme can get extremely complex. But read Victor's reply at the bottom too: I completely agree with him.
RSS 1.0 Modules: Taxonomy: a
RSS 1.0 Modules: Taxonomy: a way of adding taxonomy information to an RSS feed, using RDF and DC. Interesting. I'm looking in to how this can be combined with XFML. Ah, I know: just use a link to an XFML document and add #topicname to identify the topic with the taxo:link element. There you go, done, we just combined RSS 1.0 news feeds containing the last x articles on a website with their (simple) metadata, with an XFML document containing the entire (more complex) metadata map of a website. Imagine the possibilities. You could automatically generate a list of related articles to these latest articles from the RSS feed combined with the XFML document.
I read professional XML Meta Data on the bus and now I think I'm finally starting to get this stuff. Recommended.
Cooper ( Interaction Design: "The
Cooper ( Interaction Design: "The aim of this exercise is to help us determine how well you might fit the Interaction Designer role. Your response should exhibit the strength of your design skills and your ability to communicate your design decisions. This test has two parts: one that tests your general interaction and interface design abilities, and one that tests your high-level product conceptualization abilities." (via Webword)
For not very much money,
For not very much money, you can make your small business look a lot more professional in about 1 - 2 days of running around and errands. (for USA)
Evil has arrived: must remember:
Evil has arrived: must remember: stop using Yahoo for searches.
Christina on some new Amazon
Christina on some new Amazon "features". Amazon have a reputation to live up to, and these ill-informed sales tricks (if only they were properly personalized.. We'd love them) are bad rep. I want to love Amazon. But not like this baby.
Matt points to Linus Pauling
Matt points to Linus Pauling Research Notebooks. Now that's the kind of stuff I want to see on the web!
Topic maps finally have their
Topic maps finally have their own Open Directory category: Computers: Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge Representation: Topic Maps
Forbes.com: Patently Absurd. This is
Forbes.com: Patently Absurd. This is crazy.
"After IBM's presentation, our turn came. As the Big Blue crew looked on (without a flicker of emotion), my colleagues--all of whom had both engineering and law degrees--took to the whiteboard with markers, methodically illustrating, dissecting, and demolishing IBM's claims. We used phrases like: "You must be kidding," and "You ought to be ashamed." But the IBM team showed no emotion, save outright indifference. Confidently, we proclaimed our conclusion: Only one of the seven IBM patents would be deemed valid by a court, and no rational court would find that Sun's technology infringed even that one.
An awkward silence ensued. The blue suits did not even confer among themselves. They just sat there, stonelike. Finally, the chief suit responded. "OK," he said, "maybe you don't infringe these seven patents. But we have 10,000 U.S. patents. Do you really want us to go back to Armonk [IBM headquarters in New York] and find seven patents you do infringe? Or do you want to make this easy and just pay us $20 million?"
After a modest bit of negotiation, Sun cut IBM a check, and the blue suits went to the next company on their hit list. "
At kottke.org, Jason scripts his
At kottke.org, Jason scripts his iTunes software to display what he's listening to on his website.
The printing press made it worthwhile to learn how to read, the Internet makes it worthwhile to learn to how to code.
I'm going to Montreal over
I'm going to Montreal over the weekend. Let me know if you want to meet up. Who'se in Montreal?
More from the CHI-WEB archives:
More from the CHI-WEB archives:
"So you have to ask: how do other kinds of designers define "conceptual models"? If you look at how GUI designers document their designs, or architects their floor plans, you'll see other ways to define and describe interaction, and define production. [...] I've said before on this list that I think the definition of information architecture is dangerous in misguiding the focus of the real mission: helping people. The word "user" is gone, and the connection to the larger heritage of HCI is lost. "
CHI-WEB archives: (via Best of
CHI-WEB archives: (via Best of CHI and sigia-l)
"In summary, I think one key to success is to enable a very small set of folks to drive the design thinking. I would much rather have one product designer that has medium proficiency in information design, visual design, and interaction design, than three individuals each contributing only those independent perspectives. You want a small number of people to be able to go and iterate quickly, trying out lots of ideas without hoops, bureaucracy or design by committee, but balanced by input or contributions from all of the
disciplines you need."
Boxes and Arrows: Re-architecting PeopleSoft.com
Boxes and Arrows: Re-architecting PeopleSoft.com from the bottom-up, I like this case study. What worked and what didn't.
I almost deleted a legit
I almost deleted a legit email about a job because the email title looked like spam. Ah.
Usability Testing: You Get What
Usability Testing: You Get What You Pay For: "Also, if you have multiple distinct user categories, then you must test 6-8 of each type."
No.
She illustrates the point with a story of someone using developers to test a site. Now, I think most people know they shouldn't use developers to test a consumer site, but the idea that your sample has to be part of your target audience when doing usability testing is wrong. It all boils down to how you've defined your target audience. Usually this is defined as the audience you want to reach with the website (the people that will make you money), which is not the same as the audience that you can do usability testing with, that's usually a lot larger. I'm not saying you can test with anyone. But depending on what exactly you're testing, you can do cheap and cheerful testing of generic interface properties with most people.
"i.e., have the same set of key characteristics, such as job experience level, computer experience level, age, gender, expected frequency of use, etc.) " I mean, come on. How much difference will those characteristics make in most cases? That's just wrong.
Defining your target audience is done for a purpose. Usually for marketing (who do we sell to and how?). The better developer does it again for design (marketing profiles don't contain a lot of useful info when designing a solution). But 99% (a Nielsen-esque exaggeration) of usability problems can be uncovered by testing with almost anyone.
I guess it depends on the type of projects you work on. One of the examples shows "doctors, nurses, technicians and receptionists" - of course those are very specialized audiences and you should test with them. Again a bad example.
I just don't like the tone of the article, the false examples, the "I'm an expert therefore I only can test" tone.
I think the flaw of the article is that the author seems to assume a "one time fix it all" type of testing, ignoring iterative design practices where you test things, say, three times a week. I'm all for in depth testing but it doesn't mean quick and dirty testing is useless.
Scott Berkun updated his useful
Scott Berkun updated his useful the best of CHI-WEB and SIGIA-L list.
kuro5hin.org || We're Broke: The
kuro5hin.org || We're Broke: The Economics of a Web Community
Some interesting Employment Opportunities at
Some interesting Employment Opportunities at the New York Public Library.
NYT newstracker (Flash movie) is
NYT newstracker (Flash movie) is cool but (I think) limited in usefulness because it works like a search. We have search already. We want metadata.