tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-109935042013-04-18T09:06:38.384ZAn occasional listing of notes and anecdotes on user-centred design<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.comBlogger483125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-64240406753354054722012-11-19T18:24:00.001Z2012-11-19T23:18:52.799Z2012-11-19T23:18:52.799Z

Robert Krulwich describes xckd's rocket diagram (all explained in words within the most frequent 1,000 used in English) as 'Deep Simple' and wishes there were more accessible explanation around. I was surprised to see 'space' in the top 1,000 words (it's well in, according to the Corpus of Contemporary American English at 522), whereas moon is down at 2471 (and, yes, given that we're diurnal,

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-30383285753724841392012-11-06T22:34:00.002Z2012-11-11T10:20:01.581Z2012-11-11T10:20:01.581Z

Thought provoking. Though you may need anti-glare glasses. Interesting postscript in John Naughton's Observer column on the Obama campaign's use of data to track and tailor their message to specific supporter groups. Presumably also to raise funds. [via Fast Company]

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-29547344786462691462012-11-05T20:58:00.001Z2012-11-05T20:58:16.843Z2012-11-05T20:58:16.843Z

Interesting slide presentation by Alex Balfour on use of digital media during the London Olympics. It is a bit of a PR piece but the build up to the heart of the presentation, showing development of digital media use during the lead up to the Olympics, is a useful reminder of how access to information has changed over the past seven years or so.

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-52550826460724408902012-09-07T17:30:00.000Z2012-09-07T17:30:02.642Z2012-09-07T17:30:02.642Z

[via John Naughton, and even more poignant in the light of today's brouhaha over Nokia's bicycle video]

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-20011186417150193362012-07-29T17:12:00.000Z2012-07-29T17:12:27.229Z2012-07-29T17:12:27.229Z

The Royal College of Physicians has announced a standard, National Early Warning Signs (NEWS), chart to be used across the NHS, to monitor the vital signs of seriously ill patients, in order to detect any deterioration rapidly and reduce medical errors. No one could doubt the sense in this. Deciding what measures to include in the chart, and how those measures are combined into a score, has

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-29117500795604637862012-07-29T15:25:00.000Z2012-07-29T17:13:02.410Z2012-07-29T17:13:02.410Z

Neuroskeptic, generalising a little unfairly, shows how it shouldn't be done... In a somatic society which promotes visible, idealized forms of embodiment, men are increasingly being interpellated [sic] as image-conscious body-subjects. Some research suggests that men negotiate appearance issues in complex and varied ways, partly because image concerns are conventionally feminized. However,

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-14991927605457317182012-07-23T20:34:00.002Z2012-07-23T20:34:49.639Z2012-07-23T20:34:49.639Z

Maria Popova at Brainpickings brings together some of Susan Sontag's thoughts on aphorisms, which she (Sontag) describes as impatient thinking. I liked Sontag's characterisation of typical aphoristic subject matter: the hypocrisies of societies, the vanities of human wishes, the shallowness + deviousness of women; the sham of love; the pleasures (and necessity) of solitude; + the intricacies of

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-59676037512064906412012-06-13T18:25:00.002Z2012-06-13T18:25:52.435Z2012-06-13T18:25:52.435Z

BBC Weather have just released a new, fine-detailed forecast, available in two formats: Graph, which will be interesting to see when there is a wider temperature range: ...or (should you think you need it) table. According to Jo Wickremasinghe, product manager for BBC weather, all made possible by richer data, available to the Olympic torch relay and now, kindly, made available to the

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-80921865476872221212012-06-01T23:12:00.000Z2012-06-01T23:12:18.874Z2012-06-01T23:12:18.874Z

This... ... has punctured my Jubilee-resistant shell. Very clever DDB UK.

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-54737260477754224132012-04-23T17:30:00.000Z2012-04-23T17:30:01.724Z2012-04-23T17:30:01.724Z

...according to Mark Barratt. Valve's manual does, indeed, achieve an imaginative (as you might expect) balance of information, inspiration, reassurance, humour and self-deprecation (passing over the section on T-shaped people). A new benchmarking standard. [Image from BoingBoing]

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-24960481133735652712012-04-18T17:51:00.000Z2012-04-18T17:51:52.970Z2012-04-18T17:51:52.970Z

In past projects as a user experience researcher I could guarantee that in every piece of mobile phone research, no matter what the topic, someone would ask why phones were so flimsy and ask for a robust (and dustproof and loud) phone that could bounce around on the passenger seat of a white van and survive being stepped on by a working boot. JCB have responded. [via Chris Heathcote's Twitter

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-79553983084604888502012-04-16T16:59:00.000Z2012-04-16T16:59:37.340Z2012-04-16T16:59:37.340Z

Fascinating research showing a correlation between a population's predisposition to make future-focused Google searches and GDP. Not causal, of course. [via John Naughton]

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-86884612226605721152012-03-20T19:33:00.000Z2012-03-20T19:33:56.608Z2012-03-20T19:33:56.608Z

Tim Carmody argues that Britannica didn't fall specifically to Wikipedia but, more generally, to the PC, as the tool parents buy to enhance their children's prospects. Wikipedia simply administered the final blow. Some nice musings on Britannica and reference tools generally as domestic status objects: Britannica sold $250 worth of books for $1500; apparently the books were rarely opened. (But at

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-74760428592974833882012-03-14T23:19:00.000Z2012-03-14T23:19:21.212Z2012-03-14T23:19:21.212Z

...you may be right. Excellent review of TED, the phenomenon, suggesting that possibly the idea has spread a little too thin. [via NotExactlyRocketScience]

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-17073298267328585502012-02-22T16:28:00.000Z2012-02-22T16:28:51.949Z2012-02-22T16:28:51.949Z

MIT Building 20 Another piece, this time by Jonah Lehrer, that casts doubt on the effectiveness of brainstorms for idea generation. One of the points he misses, although he talks about the productive strengths of collocated interdisciplinary teams, is that brainstorms are often a microcosm of those teams, bringing together  people who work together, are comfortable with one another and share a

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-8171912885991634572012-01-15T16:51:00.000Z2012-01-15T16:51:58.855Z2012-01-15T16:51:58.855Z

Here. Lots of clever detail. Read more from its creators, Ralph Lengler and Martin Eppler, publishing in 2007, here. [Via Jack Schofield from Visual literacy.org]

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-24472991675930509512012-01-11T11:12:00.000Z2012-01-11T11:12:34.815Z2012-01-11T11:12:34.815Z

A little while ago Bill Wessel, of Foviance, blogged on how the iPhone and its successors had changed mobile interaction in a way that couldn't have been envisioned, as recently as 2006. The shift in expectation was brought home to me over the holiday as I tried using a basic Kindle, and found myself constantly wanting to interact directly with the display, and frustrated by the tedious process

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-14727641921989661542012-01-06T16:28:00.000Z2012-01-06T16:28:06.317Z2012-01-06T16:28:06.317Z

John Naughton reports a NY Times article on wireless bandwidth consumption. Not surprisingly, 10% of users are consuming 90% of the bandwidth...and Finns consume 1 gigabyte of wireless data a month; 10 times the rest of Europe.

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-86802499175233963842012-01-06T15:25:00.000Z2012-01-06T15:25:24.921Z2012-01-06T15:25:24.921Z

From I am not these feet by Kaisa Leka ...not what you might think, but the use of comic techniques in health and healthcare communication. Ian Williams, Welsh GP and graphic artist, has a web site dedicated to this growing field and has written this article, describing its development. [via Dentsu]

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-73486028535375021162012-01-04T16:28:00.000Z2012-01-04T16:28:52.884Z2012-01-04T16:28:52.884Z

Fastco debates the ethics of user research in developing communities, to help global companies target their products. The discussion is sparked by Jan Chipchase, once a researcher at Nokia, now at Frog, who has made a career of reaching otherwise unresearched locations and whom I suspect may have been in Don Norman's mind when he wrote critically of the relevance of user research 'you get to go

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-76987670551516208122011-11-28T20:09:00.000Z2011-11-28T20:09:07.253Z2011-11-28T20:09:07.253Z

Direct quote, 'Zuck says: email's end is nigh. I say: LOL'. Precisely.

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-8163954827524179832011-11-28T18:18:00.000Z2011-11-28T18:18:20.740Z2011-11-28T18:18:20.740Z

Steve Silberman writes about the sketch books of Susan Kare, who designed the first icons (and proportionally-spaced font) used in the Apple GUI. Silberman discusses how Kare sketched her ideas first on paper, there being no drawing programs available at that point. A nice reminder of how designers' working methods have changed with the development of digital tools. [via Jason Kottke]

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-56340047940837495772011-11-21T20:37:00.000Z2011-11-21T20:37:00.847Z2011-11-21T20:37:00.847Z

Nature discusses Australia's policy on cigarette pack design and notes that the effects of the new packs are anticipated to take effect across generations. Smoking among Australian teenagers is now the lowest it has ever been, thought to be the consequence of a full ban on tobacco advertising in 1992, more than ten years ahead of the UK. The article points out how the resistance of the tobacco

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-71593843215925015442011-11-20T21:12:00.000Z2011-11-20T21:12:49.231Z2011-11-20T21:12:49.231Z

MindHacks can't see Elvis in this potato crisp (picture from a study by Voss et al.) but he's certainly there. A great example of pareidolia.

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10993504.post-83822094320750112132011-11-16T13:53:00.000Z2011-11-16T13:53:56.918Z2011-11-16T13:53:56.918Z

Martin Weller encapsulates the doomed, entombed and marooned viewpoint. [via John Naughton]

<br>Alison Blacknoreply@blogger.com0