Another Useful Blog

Forget About the Details in UX Design

2011-11-21T13:01:00.000+01:00

The title of this post may strike you as weird. After all, we know how important details are for UX, right? There are lots of descriptions of design details and the impact they had, and, not least, Steve Jobs' obsession with details is legendary. (See, e.g., “The Tweaker – The real genius of Steve Jobs”.) So why this post? Well, because there is a right time for everything, and this also...

A Cynic's View on the UX Community

2011-09-12T13:31:00.000+02:00

Twitter and other (largely) public online forums are used by the UX community to publish thoughts, exchange ideas and discuss current issues. But of course, the audience consuming all that information is not limited to UX professionals. Anyone who wants to gain some insight into the UX community can tap into this constant stream of information, which is especially easy on Twitter - just filter...

What You Always Wanted to Know About Eye Tracking - Part 3: Terminology

2010-09-14T14:00:00.025+02:00

In part 1 and part 2 of this series, some fundamental aspects of the eye tracking technology that affect data gathering have been covered. The next parts will cover more advanced conceptual-methodological topics, related to data analysis and data interpretation. Being aware of these issues is important because we are still far from having a unified framework for analysis and interpretation of eye...

What You Always Wanted to Know About Eye Tracking - Part 2: Data Accuracy

2010-07-16T16:57:00.013+02:00

After discussing the issue of fixation detection in the first part of the series, this post will provide some additional basic knowledge about the eye tracking technology before diving into some more advanced conceptual aspects of eye tracking in part three. An essential part of the eye tracking setup is the camera that captures light reflected by the eye in order to analyze the information...

User Interfaces and Self-Esteem

2010-03-29T23:25:00.007+02:00

The Bloomberg Terminal and Self-PsychologyAn article at UX Magazine that appeared a few days ago deals with the – unmastered – challenge of redesigning the Bloomberg Terminal. One central argument that is brought forward regarding the reason why the interface will not be redesigned any time soon, is that “users take pride and find highly rewarding to handle a painful interface“, with the reward...

Macroblogging, Microblogging and Mesoblogging

2010-02-16T20:02:00.003+01:00

Here’s a "public service announcement" for my readers. As some of you may know (e.g. from my profile) I am engaging in "microblogging" on Twitter (@MarkusWeber). I’m using the service to post links, (very) brief thoughts and engage in conversations and the exchange of ideas. As for "macroblogging", I’ll continue maintaining this blog and post rather longish articles here in order to...

What You Always Wanted to Know About Eye Tracking - Part 1: Fixation Detection

2009-09-02T23:48:00.020+02:00

Since the topic of eye tracking keeps drawing people’s attention – it’s a silver bullet for some whereas others see it as a complete waste of resources – I thought a series of posts that focus on the methodological aspects of eye tracking research would be in order. As such, the posts will not focus on particular (usability) studies that have been conducted with eye tracking but rather shed some...

Instant Usability: Microwave Controls

2009-06-11T13:40:00.006+02:00

The picture shows the control panel of the microwave at work. It’s hard to figure out at first glance whether the microwave really has that much functionality or whether a limited set of functions is presented in a rather complicated manner. (At least the manufacturer seems to have thought of the pizza aficionados.) Issues With The Control PanelThe upper knob is interesting for at least two...

UX-Designers-Developers - Good? Bad? ... Existent?

2009-05-20T14:00:00.014+02:00

While doing some browsing, I came across two blog articles concerned with the question of whether UX designers who are also able to code are beneficial or detrimental to UX design. Lukas Mathis mentions that, for a UX-designer-developer, a kind of self-censoring can occur, where optimal user experience is not attained because the developer restricts the realm of design options based on technical...

Convenient Visual Design

2009-04-30T00:21:00.007+02:00

While shopping a few days ago, I noticed the packages of convenience food shown in the picture. The upper product seems to be a newer version (product 2.0, so to speak), and I assume that the lower one will be phased out.The contents are basically identical for the two versions; the difference is mainly one of visual package design.The first striking difference is the toned down colouring scheme...

Back again

2009-04-26T10:25:00.008+02:00

This blog has been on hiatus for quite a while. I have not been idle, however, and you can find some articles that I have written in the meantime at Centigrade's company blog.I am going to maintain this private blog more regularly again and use it to document "usability stuff" whenever it comes to my mind.The length of posts will mostly be somewhere in between the rather elaborate articles I'm...

Usability of Universal Remote Controls - Rich User-Generated Data

2008-10-16T18:37:00.002+02:00

Stephen Fry describes his experiences with universal remote controls in his blog. Basically, the article has it all in a nutshell: persona: "I yield to few in my love of gadgets: let a new gizmo arrive in the post or be brought back from the shops and you will see me fall on it like a lion on an antelope" basic scenario: "We sit hunched on our sofas while a lapping tide of remote controls surges...

Game Usability, or: Usability is Good For Your Health

2008-05-08T00:04:00.018+02:00

An exploratory study at East Carolina University’s Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies investigated the influence of “Casual Games” on stress. The results hint at a stress-relieving effect of this kind of game. Two Dimensions to GamesOne characteristic of casual games that is mentioned at Wikipedia is “Extremely simple gameplay, like a puzzle game that can be played entirely using a...

Application-oriented vs. task-oriented structure

2008-03-02T02:02:00.008+01:00

To get back into the habit of blogging again, here is a quick link to a post at Signal vs. Noise on the topic of application- vs. task-oriented structure of a system/interface. SpacesThe case described is the “Spaces” feature of Apple’s Leopard operating system. In the standard (i.e. “hack-free”) configuration, a task-oriented structure is hard to maintain in Spaces since the default behaviour...

Usability Thoughts To Go...

2007-02-22T22:14:00.002+01:00

Shown below is the front of a coffee dispenser I saw on a recent trip (with the critical part enlarged). (click on picture to enlarge) The label manually attached to the device tells users to “please pay attention to the display”. As it seems, it was not enough simply having the display there, which provides instructions on which steps to take. Some of these steps are essential in respect...

When 60 Seconds Don’t Add Up to One Minute – Benefit Calculations for User Centred Design

2007-02-01T01:08:00.003+01:00

Usability engineers and their clients (internal and external alike) have a legitimate interest in the benefits of user centred design approaches. One typical question that is encountered in this context is: “What benefits does the new interface that has been developed via user centred design bring compared to the old interface?” Potential Benefits of User Centred Design Looking at an in-house...

Silent and incompetent users?

2006-12-07T00:05:00.002+01:00

In this New York Times article on armrests that “chew up pants” (free registration required), two passages are especially interesting if one looks at the article from a usability engineer’s point of view because they hint at phenomena that are also known in the area of user interface design.* Rate of Complaints„An hour spent interviewing Long Island Rail Road riders waiting for trains at...

Scary Pictograms - Emotional Context of User-System Interaction

2006-10-27T01:05:00.003+02:00

An observation: Pictograms that fuel negative emotionsDuring a recent visit to the dentist, I noticed a pictogram on one of the doors. (That’s one of those moments when the built in camera of your mobile phone comes in handy.) Thankfully, I’m not afraid of going to the dentist – otherwise I think I would have been in (emotional) trouble. It’s interesting to see, that even seemingly simple,...

Usability of Paper – An Observation

2006-09-24T21:55:00.002+02:00

Recently, on the Usability SIG mailing list, the usability of paper forms, and subsequently, usability issues of paper have been discussed. The starting point was an article by Caroline Jarrett who discussed “Why People persist with using Paper Forms“. That discussion came to my mind when I recently got hold of an encyclopedia. Amongst other things, “accessibility” is one reason why people...

All roads lead to Rome…but you might still miss the approach road

2006-05-02T01:24:00.002+02:00

When going from basic conceptual design of a system to more detailed design, one of the questions is where to locate functionality, e.g. calling certain helper applications and invoking specific operations. (Note: I am not talking about basic “toolbar functionality” such as Saving here, which should usually be available system wide.) When discussing those issues, sometimes people tend to indulge...

Paper Prototyping and Setting Expectations During In-House Testing

2006-03-05T04:18:00.002+01:00

This article by Jensen Harris describes some of the benefits of using paper prototypes for usability testing: generating testing material quickly and being able to gather user feedback early in the development process. The article also references Carolyn Snyder’s book on paper prototyping (at amazon.com) which describes many more aspects of the method. One of the benefits that Snyder mentions...

Activity-Centred Design vs. Human-Centred Design – Theory vs. Practice? (Part 2)

2006-02-20T20:53:00.002+01:00

(This post continues the entry from January 30, 2006) Norman also says that the concentration on “tasks” may be harmful and that one should rather focus on “activities”. For Norman, activities are higher in the hierarchy, comprising several tasks (which are themselves a set of actions that consist of operations). Activities should be the unit of exploration because focusing on tasks can lead...

Planes, Trains and Information Architecture

2006-02-06T21:22:00.002+01:00

As a short interlude in between two postings on Activity-Centred Design vs. Human-Centred Design, here’s something I saw on a recent train ride. The word “overkill” came to my mind. “Error” was one of the next words I thought about. Good information architecture of a user interface not only supports the user in reaching his goal efficiently, but it also enables him to quickly discover when an...

Activity-Centred Design vs. Human-Centred Design – Theory vs. Practice? (Part 1)

2006-01-30T00:35:00.002+01:00

In a recent discussion thread a reference was made to Don Norman’s essay about Activity-Centred Design and the Dangers of Human-Centred Design. (To which Norman later posted a clarification.) This essay has inspired a considerable amount of discussion, which is understandable, because Norman challenges established principles of HCD (or seems to do so). Basically, he says that the design focus of...

Usability’s Where You Find It – A Short Remark on Perceived vs. Objective Usability

2005-11-22T01:35:00.002+01:00

Thinking about the claim on the water bottle shown in the picture prompted me to google on the topic of “perceived usability”. There’s a post by Don Norman on perceived vs. real usability and a short article on the importance of marketing usability (related to an IBM article that does not seem to be online anymore). The point made in latter is that “objective usability” (a term that would be...