Tuesday, December 19

Bad Human Factors Designs
Human Factors: A scrapbook of illustrated examples of things that are hard to use because they do not follow human factors principles.

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design challenge of pervasive computing
John Thackara¥s speech for the CHI conference in The Hague about pervasive computers might lead you to another point of view of "experience design" - with the perspective of your body beeing wireless connected to the net.

He draws the image of the frog in the boiling water: he only leaps out if you throw him in the boiling water; but if you will heat the water WHILE he is in he will stay there - and thats a metaphor for the situation we are in.
He ends his talk with the presentation of 10 Articles of Association between design, technology abd the people formerly known as users.
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Friday, December 15

ElekTex ElectroTextiles
Interfaces (and their usability) are a lot more that screens, WIMP paradigms, Keyboards. As anybody talks about wearables, this company made a tactile keyboard that is beyond teh state of a prototype. And now, next step, imagine what you could do in combination with various elements and without just imitating a conventional keyboard...
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German vs. english
Just after switching to german with my last posting I am happy to welcome lots of visitors via the xplane link...so i will use the opprortunity to re-switch to english again. The last (and somehow general posting) was about an discussion initiated by Oliver Wrede¥s webdev dealing with web-development in the context of design/gestaltung (that is both german and english). I will try to respond to this in english soon - so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can browse through the older postings...as they are not losing actuality.
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Wednesday, December 13

Designer und die Brauchbarkeit
Usability...vs Design? L”uft es darauf hinaus? Geht es um die Regelwerke, die es (noch) nicht gibt - und wer kann sie aufstellen? Der Diskurs ist ebenso vage wie ¸berf”llig. Die Position m¸ssen jetzt die Designer beziehen. In einem Posting bei eGroups habe ich heute von einem Projektleiter gelesen, der nicht wusste dass Designer (=Grafiker) auch Konzepte machen (k–nnen).
Das Bild des Designers ist verschwommen, korrekt. Das war es schon l”nger- dann kam die Zeit und Sparte der "Gestalter" (sehr verk¸rzt, ich weiss). Und nun folgt die Rettung in Aufsplittung der Disziplinen, alles klammert sich an Sparten und Spezialisierungen. Die Zugeh–rigkeit zu Sparten suggeriert Professionalit”t und Entschlossenheit und bef”higt zur Mitarbeit in komplexen Prozessen. Eine Ph”nomenologie des Designs br”chte hier viel Trauriges ans Licht.
Dennoch: die von Oliver sehr treffend zusammengefasste Polarisierung von Kompetenzen und die Analyse der unterschiedlichen Wahrnehmungen durch die unterschiedlichen "Lager" kann und sollte katalytische Wirkung haben. Auch ich m–chte (hier) eine Position dazu einnehmen, die mit den Termini (mostly buzz-words) operiert und dabei eine Topographie einer Disziplin aufzeigt, die Verortungen und Positionen ebenso wie Achsen erm–glicht. Und nicht die Halbwertszeiten von Begriffen weiter herabsetzt und mit neuen Worth¸lsen alte Strategien offeriert, wie dies eben beispielsweise ValCasey in ihrer Betrachtung der Usability (it¥s dead) zugunsten der experience (im deutschen Erfahrung wie Erlebnis) macht.
Stay tuned for this discussion.
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Information Architecture Visualisation
Michael Kopsack¥s thesis shows an intereseting approach in a very dense and multilevel information architecture. He designed a flash prototype to show how his idea will really work. Check out his pdf!
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Thesis in Information Architecture Visualisation
The thesis (don¥t miss the ) presents the idea of a multilevel information architecture display with a flash-animated prototype. Michael Kopsack points out that he is trying to convey the value of an interactive web-driven presentation.
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ICAD -> International Community for Auditory Display
ICAD is a forum for presenting research on the use of sound to display data, monitor systems, and provide enhanced user interfaces for computers and virtual reality systems. It is unique in its singular focus on auditory displays and the array of perception, technology, and application areas that this encompasses.
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Tuesday, December 12

Experiential Design
Andreas Lund and John Waterworth are contrasting the traditional, cognitivist approach to interface design, with an alternative they term experiential interface design.
The traditional approach sees interface metaphors (and other components of the system image) as a medium of communication between the designer and the users; the aim is for the user to develop a mental model that matches that of the designer as closely as possible.
In contrast, experiential interface design sees the designer as a creator of possible user experiences. The approach is based on the linguistic-philosophical theory of Lakoff and Johnson, which sees meaning as metaphorical projection of bodily experiences.
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Theories of Experience
Towards a Framework of Interaction and Experience As It Relates to Product Design. A great site by Ford/Forlizzi.
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design challenge of pervasive computing
This is the online version of a keynote speech given by John Thackara, Director of Doors of Perception, at CHI2000 in The Hague. "Locating innovation in specific social contexts can, I am sure, be a resolution to the innovation dilemma I talked about today. Designing with people, not for them, can bring the whole subject of ëuser experienceí literally to life." While I don't necessarily feel as passionate as John about replacing the term "users" with "actors", I do hold similar beliefs to his "Articles of Association Between Design, Technology and The People Formerly Known As Users"
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Monday, December 4

The Usability Methods Toolbox
jthom has attempted to compile information about almost all of the methods and techniques (well, ok, a lot of them) used in usability evaluation. Very useful starting point!
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Development & Design Philosophy for Information Dissemination Web Sites
Ward Vuillemot, a student for computer-assisted communication.
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