Friday, November 03, 2006
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Screaming caller's right to use software revoked by manufacturer
A while back working for a local software firm I heard a ruckus when an upset woman phoned into the support line and later she got more than she bargained for. She screamed so loud into the phone about her software problems and sounded actually furious enough to kill someone that the tech recorded the call, and summoned his supervisor to listen in, and put the call on mute so they could discuss it as the woman ranted and raved - as part of the slacker generation he found it utterly hilarious, the more he had tried to do something to fix the apparent problem the worse she became.
I was in the next room at the time listening to the bustle, and the tech laughing; playing back the end of the unbelievably loud call.
Well of course we weren't actually working for the software company directly we were working for an outsourcing firm, but we did have access to their old backend database which included detailed records of coded support calls.
Checking out the history of her calls it was discovered that this is what she did to get new software, call in sounding mad and escalate to sounding insane. The techs always blamed themselves so frequently a manager was called in to pacify the enraged woman and, of course, give her something - the something was always more software.
Kinda like throwing lighter fluid on a flame to extinguish it.
Using this tried and true technique she was able to have any software product (manufactured by that company) she wanted (I believe records went back to Aldus) - she had been taught that it worked so she used it.
It worked - at least until she met someone with a high degree of self confidence, experience, knowledge of the tools at his disposal, and an understanding of human nature.
Following up on the details I heard the following:
Managers called her to discuss the matter but in the first few minutes of the call the pattern repeated - confirmed -- they sent her a formal letter revoking her licenses and asking her to dispose of the products as she did not have legal copies any more.
In addition a team of lawyers visited her in person and served her with a legal notice that her licence to use the software was revoked.
Somehow I enjoyed the thought of these suited gentlepersons at her door giving her the news, there she is on a bright sunny day, was just working in her garden and doing a little design work - when surprise - karma boomerang! - even though that's a little sad.
So, speaking of sad - this is the kind of link that I would like to warn people about emotionally before clicking on it, I found it really disturbing -- Dolphins being harvested, including being dragged while alive behind trucks, and having their throats slit open:
http://www.glumbert.com/media/dolphin
A frowning face does not convey enough seriousness of the expression of potential harm to a viewer / friend -- so go there forewarned.
I was in the next room at the time listening to the bustle, and the tech laughing; playing back the end of the unbelievably loud call.
Well of course we weren't actually working for the software company directly we were working for an outsourcing firm, but we did have access to their old backend database which included detailed records of coded support calls.
Checking out the history of her calls it was discovered that this is what she did to get new software, call in sounding mad and escalate to sounding insane. The techs always blamed themselves so frequently a manager was called in to pacify the enraged woman and, of course, give her something - the something was always more software.
Kinda like throwing lighter fluid on a flame to extinguish it.
Using this tried and true technique she was able to have any software product (manufactured by that company) she wanted (I believe records went back to Aldus) - she had been taught that it worked so she used it.
It worked - at least until she met someone with a high degree of self confidence, experience, knowledge of the tools at his disposal, and an understanding of human nature.
Following up on the details I heard the following:
Managers called her to discuss the matter but in the first few minutes of the call the pattern repeated - confirmed -- they sent her a formal letter revoking her licenses and asking her to dispose of the products as she did not have legal copies any more.
In addition a team of lawyers visited her in person and served her with a legal notice that her licence to use the software was revoked.
Somehow I enjoyed the thought of these suited gentlepersons at her door giving her the news, there she is on a bright sunny day, was just working in her garden and doing a little design work - when surprise - karma boomerang! - even though that's a little sad.
So, speaking of sad - this is the kind of link that I would like to warn people about emotionally before clicking on it, I found it really disturbing -- Dolphins being harvested, including being dragged while alive behind trucks, and having their throats slit open:
http://www.glumbert.com/media/dolphin
A frowning face does not convey enough seriousness of the expression of potential harm to a viewer / friend -- so go there forewarned.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Docusign.net heuristic evaluation
https://www.docusign.net is the subject of this heuristic evaluation.
This application uses the technical convention of an authenticated user on a website printing a document to a local service which has been previously installed on the local box to obtain a legal signature from a remote party or to send or respond to such a request. This “printed” document then appears in a registry in the Web interface on which the user will perform actions which the Web services provides. The document with its various suggestions for use, such as SIGN HERE, grants the ability to have legal digital signatures.
From the point of view of a user the convention is sending a letter, with the contents, envelope, and stamp of approval, proof of receipt and similar mail conventions.
While I found it stunningly easy to use, there arose what I refer to as “Omissions of the 3rd Kind” which means they are not intuitive and require more in depth experience with the system to understand, or some simple reason prevents the enduser from understanding the interface such as fear of use.
The first one was encountered after successfully following the steps to install the application locally, and printing the document I wanted to send it to someone to have it digitally signed. As I went through the crabwise steps appearing and clicking “Next”
Addressing the header in the Envelope.
After passing through all the steps, it became apparent that the application was going to allow me to send a document to be signed but not to open and digitally sign a document myself, and then forward it. I stepped through the entire process, taking screenshots of the process. I located the help files and played them and found that the interface did support signing and sending. But first the document needed to be prepared with the locations for signing embedded in the file.
So I stepped through the application again. I felt that instead of “New” in the interface it might have a option to Request Signature, and one for Send Signature as a scenario based design could offer. But as I used it the second time it seemed more intuitive.
I took it at face value, I trusted it. Signers IS Signers – it is anyone including me. So I addressed the “Envelope” to myself.
Adding myself as the addressee for sending and signing
Then I simply followed each step as it was encountered. Forwarded the document to myself through the application and voila, it was done.
The only real limitation I could immediately discover considering the purposes I wanted to use it, is if the new window is open, any documents you have not “printed” will not appear in the open window. This application detests the back button which is not a familiar scenario for some kinds of web uses.
Eureka! This application works from the heuristic point of view and it works well, with three simple caveats
1. View the basic instruction presentation
2. Trust the application to lead you, don’t overthink it
3. Read the interface.
For most users I believe they could get this to work the first time.
This application uses the technical convention of an authenticated user on a website printing a document to a local service which has been previously installed on the local box to obtain a legal signature from a remote party or to send or respond to such a request. This “printed” document then appears in a registry in the Web interface on which the user will perform actions which the Web services provides. The document with its various suggestions for use, such as SIGN HERE, grants the ability to have legal digital signatures.
From the point of view of a user the convention is sending a letter, with the contents, envelope, and stamp of approval, proof of receipt and similar mail conventions.
While I found it stunningly easy to use, there arose what I refer to as “Omissions of the 3rd Kind” which means they are not intuitive and require more in depth experience with the system to understand, or some simple reason prevents the enduser from understanding the interface such as fear of use.
The first one was encountered after successfully following the steps to install the application locally, and printing the document I wanted to send it to someone to have it digitally signed. As I went through the crabwise steps appearing and clicking “Next”
Addressing the header in the Envelope.
After passing through all the steps, it became apparent that the application was going to allow me to send a document to be signed but not to open and digitally sign a document myself, and then forward it. I stepped through the entire process, taking screenshots of the process. I located the help files and played them and found that the interface did support signing and sending. But first the document needed to be prepared with the locations for signing embedded in the file.
So I stepped through the application again. I felt that instead of “New” in the interface it might have a option to Request Signature, and one for Send Signature as a scenario based design could offer. But as I used it the second time it seemed more intuitive.
I took it at face value, I trusted it. Signers IS Signers – it is anyone including me. So I addressed the “Envelope” to myself.
Adding myself as the addressee for sending and signing
Then I simply followed each step as it was encountered. Forwarded the document to myself through the application and voila, it was done.
The only real limitation I could immediately discover considering the purposes I wanted to use it, is if the new window is open, any documents you have not “printed” will not appear in the open window. This application detests the back button which is not a familiar scenario for some kinds of web uses.
Eureka! This application works from the heuristic point of view and it works well, with three simple caveats
1. View the basic instruction presentation
2. Trust the application to lead you, don’t overthink it
3. Read the interface.
For most users I believe they could get this to work the first time.
Empathy in Well-considered Human Centered Design
Reviewing three basic value propositions to well-considered human centered design by activating the humanistic standard ‘empathy’ in real ways presented by Leonard & Rayport, Dr. Friedman and Holtzblatt & Beyer (see details at bottom of post) I feel that as humans make products it only seems practical for design concinnity to include human-involved practices in the field, resulting in recursive feedback into existing and new systems.
Each author offers a slightly different view of what effective empathy means, but all see it as helping individual people in particular and the masses in general, by listening and asking questions through a variety of methods. All mentioned work-arounds which people employ unconsciously to combat commonplace non-functional technical environments.
Empathy is the ability to feel affection for other living beings, like in a mirror image, to understand other’s motivation, from the dictionary –
“Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives.”
Or in less romantic terms from Holtzblatt and Beyer – “We want our feet to be sore where their shoes pinch ”
Leonard and Rayport see empathy as an exciting way to “delight the customer ” through a process of market research with observers capturing data, analyzing the brainstorming to create prototypes. They also consider it as culture shift to ensure sustainable successful companies. The AOL section seemed misplaced – who cares if a company is technical or not – nobody wants their private contact information sold without consent.
Friedman uses a business based phrase to capture the attention of managers with “Value Centered Design ”. Friedman championed people strongly, with her powerful view of empathy, she framed the wording and examples to convince businesspeople to attempt these solutions. Her crowning materials were the moral views on informed consent particularly where web based user tracking was outlined, illustrated with “how a user might benefit or be harmed by it’s use. ”
Holtzblatt and Beyer use empathy because people just want get their work done on computers, not focus on the tool itself. They elucidated the processes of contextual inquiry. They want users as “strong participants in the design process.”
There are nothing but advantages to the methods outlined with only a few disclaimers:
1. These adaptations consume cycles (resources) and increase the “time to market”; a clear short term disadvantage: as engineers say:
“What do you want for your product? Good quality? Inexpensive? Quick to get to the market? Good, cheap, quick: pick any two.”
2. Change to refocus on the real needs of consumers is impossible for some well established producers (dinosaurs). As Donald A. Norman states in “Want Human-Centered Development? Reorganize the Company”
“It is difficult for a company to make the transition to a consumer-driven marketplace.”
These megalithic monstrosities drive themselves out of business -- with top down management they will not allow employees to have input, much less customers.
3. From experience how could anyone think for a New York second that the practice of tracking end users through cookies does not affect their work? ‘Sniffers’ and ‘click trackers’ grind robust browsers down to a snail’s speed – to read these articles online SpyBot, defragger, and “anti-virus” software had to run to restore the browser’s speed to normal. Less knowledgeable users have to pay for support.
4. Democracy as a human value; living in a failing democracy one wonders if the highly prized human values stated in these article will linger long enough to overcome greed.
empathy. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved October 12, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empathy
Holtzblatt, K., & Beyer, H. (1993). Making customer-centered design work for teams.Communications of the ACM, 36(10), 92-103. Retrieved 1 Dec 2004 from http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/163430.164050.
Leonard, D., & Rayport, J. F. (1997). Spark innovation through emphatic design. Harvard Business Review, 75(6), 102-113.
Friedman, B. (2004). Value Sensitive Design. Encyclopedia of human-computer interaction. (pp. 769-774). Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group.
Each author offers a slightly different view of what effective empathy means, but all see it as helping individual people in particular and the masses in general, by listening and asking questions through a variety of methods. All mentioned work-arounds which people employ unconsciously to combat commonplace non-functional technical environments.
Empathy is the ability to feel affection for other living beings, like in a mirror image, to understand other’s motivation, from the dictionary –
“Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives.”
Or in less romantic terms from Holtzblatt and Beyer – “We want our feet to be sore where their shoes pinch ”
Leonard and Rayport see empathy as an exciting way to “delight the customer ” through a process of market research with observers capturing data, analyzing the brainstorming to create prototypes. They also consider it as culture shift to ensure sustainable successful companies. The AOL section seemed misplaced – who cares if a company is technical or not – nobody wants their private contact information sold without consent.
Friedman uses a business based phrase to capture the attention of managers with “Value Centered Design ”. Friedman championed people strongly, with her powerful view of empathy, she framed the wording and examples to convince businesspeople to attempt these solutions. Her crowning materials were the moral views on informed consent particularly where web based user tracking was outlined, illustrated with “how a user might benefit or be harmed by it’s use. ”
Holtzblatt and Beyer use empathy because people just want get their work done on computers, not focus on the tool itself. They elucidated the processes of contextual inquiry. They want users as “strong participants in the design process.”
There are nothing but advantages to the methods outlined with only a few disclaimers:
1. These adaptations consume cycles (resources) and increase the “time to market”; a clear short term disadvantage: as engineers say:
“What do you want for your product? Good quality? Inexpensive? Quick to get to the market? Good, cheap, quick: pick any two.”
2. Change to refocus on the real needs of consumers is impossible for some well established producers (dinosaurs). As Donald A. Norman states in “Want Human-Centered Development? Reorganize the Company”
“It is difficult for a company to make the transition to a consumer-driven marketplace.”
These megalithic monstrosities drive themselves out of business -- with top down management they will not allow employees to have input, much less customers.
3. From experience how could anyone think for a New York second that the practice of tracking end users through cookies does not affect their work? ‘Sniffers’ and ‘click trackers’ grind robust browsers down to a snail’s speed – to read these articles online SpyBot, defragger, and “anti-virus” software had to run to restore the browser’s speed to normal. Less knowledgeable users have to pay for support.
4. Democracy as a human value; living in a failing democracy one wonders if the highly prized human values stated in these article will linger long enough to overcome greed.
empathy. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved October 12, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/empathy
Holtzblatt, K., & Beyer, H. (1993). Making customer-centered design work for teams.Communications of the ACM, 36(10), 92-103. Retrieved 1 Dec 2004 from http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/163430.164050.
Leonard, D., & Rayport, J. F. (1997). Spark innovation through emphatic design. Harvard Business Review, 75(6), 102-113.
Friedman, B. (2004). Value Sensitive Design. Encyclopedia of human-computer interaction. (pp. 769-774). Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group.
Wicked Problems in User Interface Design
The wicked problem examples from urban planning that Rittle & Webber (1973) present ring true for information systems design because when addressing and serving more and more people’s diverse needs naturally wicked problems arise, hopefully to be solved, in large part with monkey-like mischievous solutions.
Working with Apple Computers, Mountford (1990) expressed those wicked problems in computer information systems outlining on the first page:
“The world is rich with data, rapidly becoming more and more varied in media type…
The challenge is how to best present and represent such data within the interface, to transform it into useful information.”
Making this suggestion for resolving these problems:
Future interfaces need to incorporate new information types and to accommodate new types of users with additional customized real-world interface metaphors that make information easy to find and use.”
Suggesting merging the efforts of two groups not generally thought of working together, scientists and artists. Comparisons from design traditions, animation, theater, architecture, industrial design, and information display (using Tufte’s famed cartography example of Napoleon’s March to Moscow: The War of 1812”). Suggesting looking at real world tasks and environments to find new ideas which in the technology and music fields we call “mashups” today, Mountford writes:
“Some people believe that new ideas are almost always the result of collisions –juxtapositions or recombinations of ideas” (Koestler, 1964)
These are outlined based on Adam’s (1986) brainstorming steps, as new uses for the object, adapt the object to be like something else, modify, magnify, minimize, substitute, rearrange, reverse or transpose, combine the data into an ensemble. This advice seems virtually the same as Jasper Johns’ esthetic theorem, now considered basic advice to artists --
"Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it."
Role playing is suggested as a creative exercise to delve more deeply into the change the idea or object metaphor, and outlining four personality and functional roles, the Explorer, the Artist, the Judge, the Warrior, that could be worn like a costume on Halloween, but accurately providing a warning that if interacting all at once, perhaps the role of the judge should wait to sort the ideas presented instead of eliminating them.
In a way Johns is a good example of the polar differences between scientists and artists, with information science providing solutions to needs looking for something one doesn’t know or have and Johns ‘something’ becoming something else based on “things the mind already knows. ”
Mountford ends advising interface designers to live in the present and future, anticipating the challenges for designers in new ways to use computers having suggested prototyping models, and these several techniques that are in wide use today.
Life too far in the future isn’t always economically feasible, but combining with role playing should help software projects remain practical and satisfying for those of us who enjoy building successful information tools and toys, or just imagineering we are. I feel the analysis is especially accurate as far as customizable user interface design goes.
Jasper Johns sketchbook, page 42 from 1963–1964 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20001218/danto/2
Quote obtained Oct 31, 2006 from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/john/hd_john.htm
Working with Apple Computers, Mountford (1990) expressed those wicked problems in computer information systems outlining on the first page:
“The world is rich with data, rapidly becoming more and more varied in media type…
The challenge is how to best present and represent such data within the interface, to transform it into useful information.”
Making this suggestion for resolving these problems:
Future interfaces need to incorporate new information types and to accommodate new types of users with additional customized real-world interface metaphors that make information easy to find and use.”
Suggesting merging the efforts of two groups not generally thought of working together, scientists and artists. Comparisons from design traditions, animation, theater, architecture, industrial design, and information display (using Tufte’s famed cartography example of Napoleon’s March to Moscow: The War of 1812”). Suggesting looking at real world tasks and environments to find new ideas which in the technology and music fields we call “mashups” today, Mountford writes:
“Some people believe that new ideas are almost always the result of collisions –juxtapositions or recombinations of ideas” (Koestler, 1964)
These are outlined based on Adam’s (1986) brainstorming steps, as new uses for the object, adapt the object to be like something else, modify, magnify, minimize, substitute, rearrange, reverse or transpose, combine the data into an ensemble. This advice seems virtually the same as Jasper Johns’ esthetic theorem, now considered basic advice to artists --
"Take an object. Do something to it. Do something else to it."
Role playing is suggested as a creative exercise to delve more deeply into the change the idea or object metaphor, and outlining four personality and functional roles, the Explorer, the Artist, the Judge, the Warrior, that could be worn like a costume on Halloween, but accurately providing a warning that if interacting all at once, perhaps the role of the judge should wait to sort the ideas presented instead of eliminating them.
In a way Johns is a good example of the polar differences between scientists and artists, with information science providing solutions to needs looking for something one doesn’t know or have and Johns ‘something’ becoming something else based on “things the mind already knows. ”
Mountford ends advising interface designers to live in the present and future, anticipating the challenges for designers in new ways to use computers having suggested prototyping models, and these several techniques that are in wide use today.
Life too far in the future isn’t always economically feasible, but combining with role playing should help software projects remain practical and satisfying for those of us who enjoy building successful information tools and toys, or just imagineering we are. I feel the analysis is especially accurate as far as customizable user interface design goes.
Jasper Johns sketchbook, page 42 from 1963–1964 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20001218/danto/2
Quote obtained Oct 31, 2006 from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/john/hd_john.htm
Rittle & Webber / Mountford on Wicked Problems
Rittle & Webber (1973) present the concept that due to the complex nature of human beings scientific answers fail because of the nature of the problems (in the context of Urban planning), such as hard to measure or soft things - societal concerns - which as stated:
“do not have a solution in terms of definitive and objective answer. ”
Mountford (1990) collects ideas from a variety of sources, and advises In effect doing the same thing for information system design - advising finding ways for artistic and scientific people to collaborate, approaching things from a variety of levels of human experience, stating:
“some of our new interface ideas will come from people who study thought, language, entertainment and communication, as well as from people who study hardware, algorithms, data structures. ”
However some wicked problems can only be resolved in granting end users rights and freedoms when it comes to information. Some problems are not served by direct end user participation because it won't help anything and it would not make sense for the many.
Take a WAP (wireless) phone application which has a GPS function (locator that knows where the end user is all the time), and a Search function, so if an end user wants to find a coffee shop within a short distance, they run a Search and the 5 closest coffee shops are returned.
What users may be interested in doing is setting their own preferences to Starbucks Only coffee houses, or only hotwired coffee houses which have computers available for rent. They may be interested in knowing how other people who went there rated the coffee, etc. They may also be planning to meet someone there for reasons other than coffee (but that is for an adult audience).
Google weighs query responses using a variety of ways, but one of them, perhaps the strongest, is by how many times someone clicks on it. This is just like voting - there is a good argument that personalization is the greatest contribution that the American post war baby boomers, with their large purchasing power have made and continue to make today. Companies, and other ensconced or older established organizations still experience enormous trouble facing these kinds of 1 to many, 1 to 1 individualization or personalization changes.
During today’s and yesterday’s job interviews I advised allowing end users to set their preferences on a Web site when they are at a full sized computer to help them find whatever they want on the smaller screen, even if some “father knows best” defaults must be present.
While there are things that the end user may wish to configure, the typical end user is not interested in exactly how the algorithm returned the Search sort to the database, and has no interest in writing it, or contributing to writing it, or even ever hearing the word "algorithm" -- users just want the results and fast.
One of the questions I was asked in a recent interview was a standard sort question for an algorithm, my response was true to that of a designer (or an end user) – “Find a database engineer, sorry that’s not how I think about or consider these problems.”
This remains a problem that inexperienced or less well educated technical or scientific approaches believe that individuals should know everything – most end user/customers can not function in this manner and should not be expected to think about how the machine runs to obtain the results they want, even if they have some kind of mental model.
Imagine if Google functioned only as well as the user’s understanding of search engines permitted – they wouldn’t find anything – they have to rely on Google’s code poets to figure out how to take Search from the functional status of a hammer and make it into a starship. Same goes for Live Search, in my humble option, but that’s a completely different subject.
The wicked quality of being human means that solving ill-defined and sticky problems should not be and can not be the domain of just one facet of thinking about a problem or a system, but as my recent interview demonstrates simplistic thinking about designers roles and customers needs still dominates the software industry.
One solution is everytime a designer uses the term BRAINSTORM and wants to use this technique they should define it so that all present understand that some wild and crazy ideas are likely to form, and just as likely they will go away later, leaving just the good stuff, it's all part of the process. If critics make their presence known immediately, the uber creative will find someplace friendlier to be.
Holtzblatt, K., & Beyer, H. (1993). Making customer-centered design work for teams.Communications of the ACM, 36(10), 92-103. Retrieved 1 Dec 2004 from http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/163430.164050.
Leonard, D., & Rayport, J. F. (1997). Spark innovation through emphatic design. Harvard Business Review, 75(6), 102-113.
Friedman, B. (2004). Value Sensitive Design. Encyclopedia of human-computer interaction. (pp. 769-774). Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group.
“do not have a solution in terms of definitive and objective answer. ”
Mountford (1990) collects ideas from a variety of sources, and advises In effect doing the same thing for information system design - advising finding ways for artistic and scientific people to collaborate, approaching things from a variety of levels of human experience, stating:
“some of our new interface ideas will come from people who study thought, language, entertainment and communication, as well as from people who study hardware, algorithms, data structures. ”
However some wicked problems can only be resolved in granting end users rights and freedoms when it comes to information. Some problems are not served by direct end user participation because it won't help anything and it would not make sense for the many.
Take a WAP (wireless) phone application which has a GPS function (locator that knows where the end user is all the time), and a Search function, so if an end user wants to find a coffee shop within a short distance, they run a Search and the 5 closest coffee shops are returned.
What users may be interested in doing is setting their own preferences to Starbucks Only coffee houses, or only hotwired coffee houses which have computers available for rent. They may be interested in knowing how other people who went there rated the coffee, etc. They may also be planning to meet someone there for reasons other than coffee (but that is for an adult audience).
Google weighs query responses using a variety of ways, but one of them, perhaps the strongest, is by how many times someone clicks on it. This is just like voting - there is a good argument that personalization is the greatest contribution that the American post war baby boomers, with their large purchasing power have made and continue to make today. Companies, and other ensconced or older established organizations still experience enormous trouble facing these kinds of 1 to many, 1 to 1 individualization or personalization changes.
During today’s and yesterday’s job interviews I advised allowing end users to set their preferences on a Web site when they are at a full sized computer to help them find whatever they want on the smaller screen, even if some “father knows best” defaults must be present.
While there are things that the end user may wish to configure, the typical end user is not interested in exactly how the algorithm returned the Search sort to the database, and has no interest in writing it, or contributing to writing it, or even ever hearing the word "algorithm" -- users just want the results and fast.
One of the questions I was asked in a recent interview was a standard sort question for an algorithm, my response was true to that of a designer (or an end user) – “Find a database engineer, sorry that’s not how I think about or consider these problems.”
This remains a problem that inexperienced or less well educated technical or scientific approaches believe that individuals should know everything – most end user/customers can not function in this manner and should not be expected to think about how the machine runs to obtain the results they want, even if they have some kind of mental model.
Imagine if Google functioned only as well as the user’s understanding of search engines permitted – they wouldn’t find anything – they have to rely on Google’s code poets to figure out how to take Search from the functional status of a hammer and make it into a starship. Same goes for Live Search, in my humble option, but that’s a completely different subject.
The wicked quality of being human means that solving ill-defined and sticky problems should not be and can not be the domain of just one facet of thinking about a problem or a system, but as my recent interview demonstrates simplistic thinking about designers roles and customers needs still dominates the software industry.
One solution is everytime a designer uses the term BRAINSTORM and wants to use this technique they should define it so that all present understand that some wild and crazy ideas are likely to form, and just as likely they will go away later, leaving just the good stuff, it's all part of the process. If critics make their presence known immediately, the uber creative will find someplace friendlier to be.
Holtzblatt, K., & Beyer, H. (1993). Making customer-centered design work for teams.Communications of the ACM, 36(10), 92-103. Retrieved 1 Dec 2004 from http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/163430.164050.
Leonard, D., & Rayport, J. F. (1997). Spark innovation through emphatic design. Harvard Business Review, 75(6), 102-113.
Friedman, B. (2004). Value Sensitive Design. Encyclopedia of human-computer interaction. (pp. 769-774). Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing Group.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
What you do when someone leaves? Ah you grieve.
The film "Walk the Line" is a masterpiece. Shotguns for love.
My best friend Julie is moving out to Algeria, to live with the North African Blue Skinned people - the Tuaregs, so we're playing Johnny Cash's version of Nine Inch Nails "Hurt", here's the lyrics:
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that’s real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear my crown of shit
On my liar’s chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stain of time
The feeling disappears
You are someone else
I am still right here
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
__________
Artist? An Artist contacted me? Try not to act too excited. So the other album/video Julie is taking with her to Africa is the Ethan Coen film, "Oh Brother where art thou?"
Do seek the treasure. Do seek the treasure. Do seek the treasure.
__________
What an odd mood I am in, listening to the Chieftains and reading the lyrics which run into little streamlets and springs that become another set of songs, bursting through Pearl Jam, into Bob Dylan's Black Diamond Bay
Up on the white veranda
She wears a necktie and a Panama hat
Her passport shows another face
From another time and place
She looks nothing like that
And all the remnants of her recent past
Are scattered in the wild wind
She walks across the marble floor
Where a voice from the gambling room is calling her to come on in
She smiles, walks the other way
As the last ship sails and the moon fades away
From Black Diamond Bay.
As the morning light breaks open the Greek comes down
And he asks for a rope and a pen that will write
"Pardon monsieur" the desk clerk says
Carefully removes his fez
"Am I hearing you right ?"
And as the yellow fog is lifting
The Greek is quickly heading for the second floor
She passes him on the spiral staircase
Thinking he's the Soviet Ambassador
She starts to speak, but he walks away
As the storm clouds rise and the palm branches away
On Black Diamond Bay.
A soldier sits beneath the fan
Doing business with a tiny man who sells him a ring
Lightning strikes, the light blow out
The desk clerk wakes and begins to shout
"Can you see anything ?"
Then the Greek appears on the second floor
In his bare feet with a rope around his neck
While a loser in the gambling room lights up a candle
Says "Open up another deck"
But the dealer say "Attendez-vous, s'il vous plait"
As the rain beats down and the cranes fly away
Black Diamond Bay
_______________________________________________
Somehow this song reminds me of the same kind of story, feeling,
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds/
(I'll Love You) Till the End of the World
It was a miracle I even got out of Longwood alive,
this town full of men with big mouths and no guts;
I mean if you can just picture it,
the whole third floor of the hotel gutted by the blast
and the street below showered in shards of broken glass,
and all the drunks pouring out of the dance halls
staring up at the smoke and the flames;
and the blind pencil seller waving his stick
shouting for his dog that lay dead on the side of the road;
and me, if you can believe this,
at the wheel of the of the car
closing my eyes and actually praying;
not to God above but to you, saying:
Help me, girl; help me, girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
With your eyes black as coal
and your long dark curls
Some things we plan,
we sit and we invent and we plot and cook up;
others are works of inspiration, of poetry;
and it was this genius hand that pushed me up the hotel stairs
to say my last goodbye
to a hair as white as snow and of pale blue eyes
saying:
I gotta go; I gotta go,
the bomb in the bread basket are ready to blow
in this town of men with big mouths and no guts,
the pencil seller's dog, spooked by the explosion,
leaping under my wheels as I careered out of Longwood
on my way to you waiting in your dress,
in your dress of blue
I said:
Thank you, girl; thank you, girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
with your eyes black as coal
and your long, dark curls
and with the horses prancing through the fields,
with my knife in my jeans and the rain on the shield;
I sang a song for the glory of the beauty of you
waiting for me
in your dress of blue
Thank you, girl. Thank you, girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
with your eyes black as coal
and your long, dark curls
Then into The Donagal Set by the Chieftains, toned down by Chalkhills and Children, XTC's brilliant open letter to America, Oranges and Lemons.
Telluride Sessions, One Wintery Night, by Strength in Numbers. I blasted past The Locks of Dread. And wound up writing about it faster than I could tell you this story so I stopped right here.
Ah Pink Floyd in Paris, but 6 Turned Out to Be 9. Jimi hi Jimi. "It's a beautiful day", When I come around, Green Day, Dookie, Long view.
Humans From Earth, T-Bone Burnett
We come from a blue planet light-years away
Where everything multiplies at an amazing rate
We're out here in the universe buying real estate
Hope we haven't gotten here too late
chorus:
We're humans from earth
We're humans from earth
You have nothing at all to fear
I think we're gonna like it here
We're looking for a planet with atmosphere
Where the air is fresh and the water clear
With lots of sun like you have here
Three or four hundred days a year
chorus
Bought Manhatten for a string of beads
Brought along some gadgets for you to see
Heres a crazy little thing we call TV
Do you have electricity?
chorus
I know we may seem pretty strange to you
But we got know-how and a golden rule
We're here to see manifest destiny through
Ain't nothing we can't get used to
We're humans from earth
We're humans from earth
My best friend Julie is moving out to Algeria, to live with the North African Blue Skinned people - the Tuaregs, so we're playing Johnny Cash's version of Nine Inch Nails "Hurt", here's the lyrics:
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that’s real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
I wear my crown of shit
On my liar’s chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stain of time
The feeling disappears
You are someone else
I am still right here
What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you hurt
If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
__________
Artist? An Artist contacted me? Try not to act too excited. So the other album/video Julie is taking with her to Africa is the Ethan Coen film, "Oh Brother where art thou?"
Do seek the treasure. Do seek the treasure. Do seek the treasure.
__________
What an odd mood I am in, listening to the Chieftains and reading the lyrics which run into little streamlets and springs that become another set of songs, bursting through Pearl Jam, into Bob Dylan's Black Diamond Bay
Up on the white veranda
She wears a necktie and a Panama hat
Her passport shows another face
From another time and place
She looks nothing like that
And all the remnants of her recent past
Are scattered in the wild wind
She walks across the marble floor
Where a voice from the gambling room is calling her to come on in
She smiles, walks the other way
As the last ship sails and the moon fades away
From Black Diamond Bay.
As the morning light breaks open the Greek comes down
And he asks for a rope and a pen that will write
"Pardon monsieur" the desk clerk says
Carefully removes his fez
"Am I hearing you right ?"
And as the yellow fog is lifting
The Greek is quickly heading for the second floor
She passes him on the spiral staircase
Thinking he's the Soviet Ambassador
She starts to speak, but he walks away
As the storm clouds rise and the palm branches away
On Black Diamond Bay.
A soldier sits beneath the fan
Doing business with a tiny man who sells him a ring
Lightning strikes, the light blow out
The desk clerk wakes and begins to shout
"Can you see anything ?"
Then the Greek appears on the second floor
In his bare feet with a rope around his neck
While a loser in the gambling room lights up a candle
Says "Open up another deck"
But the dealer say "Attendez-vous, s'il vous plait"
As the rain beats down and the cranes fly away
Black Diamond Bay
_______________________________________________
Somehow this song reminds me of the same kind of story, feeling,
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds/
(I'll Love You) Till the End of the World
It was a miracle I even got out of Longwood alive,
this town full of men with big mouths and no guts;
I mean if you can just picture it,
the whole third floor of the hotel gutted by the blast
and the street below showered in shards of broken glass,
and all the drunks pouring out of the dance halls
staring up at the smoke and the flames;
and the blind pencil seller waving his stick
shouting for his dog that lay dead on the side of the road;
and me, if you can believe this,
at the wheel of the of the car
closing my eyes and actually praying;
not to God above but to you, saying:
Help me, girl; help me, girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
With your eyes black as coal
and your long dark curls
Some things we plan,
we sit and we invent and we plot and cook up;
others are works of inspiration, of poetry;
and it was this genius hand that pushed me up the hotel stairs
to say my last goodbye
to a hair as white as snow and of pale blue eyes
saying:
I gotta go; I gotta go,
the bomb in the bread basket are ready to blow
in this town of men with big mouths and no guts,
the pencil seller's dog, spooked by the explosion,
leaping under my wheels as I careered out of Longwood
on my way to you waiting in your dress,
in your dress of blue
I said:
Thank you, girl; thank you, girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
with your eyes black as coal
and your long, dark curls
and with the horses prancing through the fields,
with my knife in my jeans and the rain on the shield;
I sang a song for the glory of the beauty of you
waiting for me
in your dress of blue
Thank you, girl. Thank you, girl
I'll love you till the end of the world
with your eyes black as coal
and your long, dark curls
Then into The Donagal Set by the Chieftains, toned down by Chalkhills and Children, XTC's brilliant open letter to America, Oranges and Lemons.
Telluride Sessions, One Wintery Night, by Strength in Numbers. I blasted past The Locks of Dread. And wound up writing about it faster than I could tell you this story so I stopped right here.
Ah Pink Floyd in Paris, but 6 Turned Out to Be 9. Jimi hi Jimi. "It's a beautiful day", When I come around, Green Day, Dookie, Long view.
Humans From Earth, T-Bone Burnett
We come from a blue planet light-years away
Where everything multiplies at an amazing rate
We're out here in the universe buying real estate
Hope we haven't gotten here too late
chorus:
We're humans from earth
We're humans from earth
You have nothing at all to fear
I think we're gonna like it here
We're looking for a planet with atmosphere
Where the air is fresh and the water clear
With lots of sun like you have here
Three or four hundred days a year
chorus
Bought Manhatten for a string of beads
Brought along some gadgets for you to see
Heres a crazy little thing we call TV
Do you have electricity?
chorus
I know we may seem pretty strange to you
But we got know-how and a golden rule
We're here to see manifest destiny through
Ain't nothing we can't get used to
We're humans from earth
We're humans from earth
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Good Friday Quake in Anchorage
My mom headed Damage Control after the Good Friday quake in Alaska in April 1964 - it was not discussed much but 4 days after the earthquake a team was sent up O'Malley Road to the rich house of the head of the civil organization designed to respond in case of an emergency. He and his entire immediate family were discovered huddled in their living room wrapped in blankets with no heat, no food or drink, and not even the fireplace burning, with the head of the household repeating over and over again - "the world has come to an end". He had lost it.
Some people are not actually capable of responding in a emergency whether they are listening to a reading of "My pet goat" and being told their country is under attack, or while on vacation being told that one of the largest cities in the country is now devastated and underwater and needs their help.
People like my mom can arise and step up to the challenge as long as no one is holding a gun pointed at their head and telling them to stop.
We need to issue a Press Pass to everyone in the country so they can be free to move about.
Also a plan and deploy approach to managing civil order makes sense.
In my Mom's case she set up the Civil Disaster Headquarters with all available volunteer civil engineers, architects, building inspectors, planners, and people capable of estimating damage and handling emergency rescue operations (meeting first in the Z. J. Loussac Public Library.)
A man drove up a front loader and some kind of truck and strode into the headquarters offering to sell his services and rent his gassed up heavy equipment for $50 an hour -- the men in the room took one look at the guy and without breaking their discussion on evacuating Seward, and other communities, as one picked the man up by all four limbs and heaved him out of the office, just as if it was part of their mission.
Some people are not actually capable of responding in a emergency whether they are listening to a reading of "My pet goat" and being told their country is under attack, or while on vacation being told that one of the largest cities in the country is now devastated and underwater and needs their help.
People like my mom can arise and step up to the challenge as long as no one is holding a gun pointed at their head and telling them to stop.
We need to issue a Press Pass to everyone in the country so they can be free to move about.
Also a plan and deploy approach to managing civil order makes sense.
In my Mom's case she set up the Civil Disaster Headquarters with all available volunteer civil engineers, architects, building inspectors, planners, and people capable of estimating damage and handling emergency rescue operations (meeting first in the Z. J. Loussac Public Library.)
A man drove up a front loader and some kind of truck and strode into the headquarters offering to sell his services and rent his gassed up heavy equipment for $50 an hour -- the men in the room took one look at the guy and without breaking their discussion on evacuating Seward, and other communities, as one picked the man up by all four limbs and heaved him out of the office, just as if it was part of their mission.
Monday, September 05, 2005
Buy the finest photographs in online Auction for Katrina's Relief Efforts
Photographers offer their finest work to auction on Flickr to benefit the Katrina Relief Efforts through the Red Cross. Bid on a stunning photo for a great cause. Together we can help set things right!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/katrina_auction/discuss/80237/
photography auction
donationkatrina
Katrina
NewOrleans
Thursday, August 25, 2005
SF Cliff house faux bois garden
Hedgehogs, each black nail polished to a hearty shine, pinkies up like at tea, dunking rottweilers in chocolate sauce, because it matches their coat, addressed with a robust jewel color'd wine, guess which jewel? The soup, of course, Borscht, hold the turnips (no really, please do), the sober crown of dignified white sour cream with the rubied red running up and melting the white volcano into vast decors of pink pink pink and I at sea remembering only the glass curtain marked :: Deux exMachina:: Deux exMachina :: dribbled silver drops of white into the sheer magnificent blue see not one of them barked in complaint, they licked off the chocolate and asked for borscht, "Can I have a little more please sir" eyes doleful and smoking violence, when really all they wanted was pink cream to lap and a hug from their captor, drunk or not.
More blogs about wonderlane.
More blogs about wonderlane.
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Describe some of your experiences writing functional/technical specs?
To produce functional docs I use Word, Project, Visio, Graphics, RAID (product studio), and other product management applications. Sometimes a graphic showing flows can render needs much more clearly than tables can alone.
Generally I conduct research discussing the product with managers and developers who have already worked on the project (sometimes also networking and support staff). I use existing records in product studio (RAID) and read the existing documentation, case studies, and user interface and security audits. Traffic records and support totals can all be gleaned for information. In the future I hope to also have the opportunity to review child and personal safety documentation as it becomes available.
Microsoft's Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) has changed due to new regulation, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), which requires traceability through financial functions which will help to standarize development documentation.
Just recently working on launching MSN Spaces, I worked more on the end of a product lifecycle, I documented the support process for MSN worldwide, researched policies and procedures and re-wrote the policy (with the Microsoft Policy unit), wrote go to market (GTM) documentation and marketed Spaces to a local radio station going live with streaming media (107.7 The End - Entercom). That was fun!
When I assisted in creating the functional specification for Microsoft's Order Management 5.0 product, it was based in part on two reports I wrote, one a study on user interfaces and one recommending adding an admin / dashboard interface, and on discussions about how successful user interface design works, and the knowledge it is based upon.
In the beginning I drew wireframes and layouts on paper and eventually did full page layouts and integrated them with the functional specification, including Visio data flows.
While there I designed product logos for three product groups at Microsoft, in quick succession - one proposal had 25 varations on a theme (just for fun!)
Worked on building the first ever web application used at the 2 billion dollar a year medical insurance firm Premera, with a team of developers and development managers I supervised the entire software development lifecycle for RapidRate, including functional specifications. BlinkIA performed the usability testing, and a security firm from Kirkland did the security audit for me and the eBusiness teams.
Reviewed a number of end-to-end enterprise software lifecycle solutions covering requirements definition and management, code and content development, and change and configuration management, with a focus on administration tracking and functionality over the web. My pick for the winning application was Starbase, purchased shortly after by Borland.
Mapped business processes for larger firms, and developed complete end-to-end processes for the eCommerce ASP Pandesic, which we used to release all subsequent large ecommerce sites.
I studied writing effective use cases class while at Microsoft in 2003.
More blogs about wonderlane.
Generally I conduct research discussing the product with managers and developers who have already worked on the project (sometimes also networking and support staff). I use existing records in product studio (RAID) and read the existing documentation, case studies, and user interface and security audits. Traffic records and support totals can all be gleaned for information. In the future I hope to also have the opportunity to review child and personal safety documentation as it becomes available.
Microsoft's Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) has changed due to new regulation, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), which requires traceability through financial functions which will help to standarize development documentation.
Just recently working on launching MSN Spaces, I worked more on the end of a product lifecycle, I documented the support process for MSN worldwide, researched policies and procedures and re-wrote the policy (with the Microsoft Policy unit), wrote go to market (GTM) documentation and marketed Spaces to a local radio station going live with streaming media (107.7 The End - Entercom). That was fun!
When I assisted in creating the functional specification for Microsoft's Order Management 5.0 product, it was based in part on two reports I wrote, one a study on user interfaces and one recommending adding an admin / dashboard interface, and on discussions about how successful user interface design works, and the knowledge it is based upon.
In the beginning I drew wireframes and layouts on paper and eventually did full page layouts and integrated them with the functional specification, including Visio data flows.
While there I designed product logos for three product groups at Microsoft, in quick succession - one proposal had 25 varations on a theme (just for fun!)
Worked on building the first ever web application used at the 2 billion dollar a year medical insurance firm Premera, with a team of developers and development managers I supervised the entire software development lifecycle for RapidRate, including functional specifications. BlinkIA performed the usability testing, and a security firm from Kirkland did the security audit for me and the eBusiness teams.
Reviewed a number of end-to-end enterprise software lifecycle solutions covering requirements definition and management, code and content development, and change and configuration management, with a focus on administration tracking and functionality over the web. My pick for the winning application was Starbase, purchased shortly after by Borland.
Mapped business processes for larger firms, and developed complete end-to-end processes for the eCommerce ASP Pandesic, which we used to release all subsequent large ecommerce sites.
I studied writing effective use cases class while at Microsoft in 2003.
More blogs about wonderlane.
What are the greatest accomplishments in your career? Why?
I have enjoyed several neato accomplishments in my career.
My great team being responsible for releasing nearly 50 ecommerce sites to the world in 2000, because it was a lot of fun at an exciting time. Silicon valley was hopping in 2000. Helping my staff & team members to grow both personally and professionally-- because it's great to see them take off and grow. Having them accompany me to the next firm we worked for was very personally rewarding.
The single largest application I worked on was designing Microsoft's UI and helping to develop the specifications for Order Management 5.0 in 2003. I believe the advise I gave helped the redesign of the entire application including the onboarding of new products.
Recently helping a global virtual team work with MSN and Microsoft to update their child and personal safety viewpoint and develop apps and enhance their safety process activities worldwide was a wonderful experience. It will be a great advancement that will affect millions of people's lives worldwide.
My great team being responsible for releasing nearly 50 ecommerce sites to the world in 2000, because it was a lot of fun at an exciting time. Silicon valley was hopping in 2000. Helping my staff & team members to grow both personally and professionally-- because it's great to see them take off and grow. Having them accompany me to the next firm we worked for was very personally rewarding.
The single largest application I worked on was designing Microsoft's UI and helping to develop the specifications for Order Management 5.0 in 2003. I believe the advise I gave helped the redesign of the entire application including the onboarding of new products.
Recently helping a global virtual team work with MSN and Microsoft to update their child and personal safety viewpoint and develop apps and enhance their safety process activities worldwide was a wonderful experience. It will be a great advancement that will affect millions of people's lives worldwide.
When have you had to make feature trade offs? What happened as a result?
Seems like the need to make feature trade offs always happens!
It was particularly painful once when the business wanted to cut probably the most important and simple data input feature to get the product launched before the competition (based on faulty competitive research), but as expected the customers complained about the lack.
The product went back into dev for a revision immediately, meanwhile the competition did not even release a similar version for more than a year.
So while we got the product out the door, it was not nearly as robust as it could have been, on the other hand, the group looked very responsive to our customer base because we could make the changes so quickly, in the face of no competition at all.
It was particularly painful once when the business wanted to cut probably the most important and simple data input feature to get the product launched before the competition (based on faulty competitive research), but as expected the customers complained about the lack.
The product went back into dev for a revision immediately, meanwhile the competition did not even release a similar version for more than a year.
So while we got the product out the door, it was not nearly as robust as it could have been, on the other hand, the group looked very responsive to our customer base because we could make the changes so quickly, in the face of no competition at all.
How do you prioritize features?
Prioritizing features is specific to each company but in general it is done in consideration of customer's needs or by the willingness of a client to pay for the feature, or with an eye to competitors feature sets, or the need to grow the feature set to attract and retain customers.
You balance what the business needs are against the amount of time they require and determine which features are the most likely to be completed and add any 2-for-1 features where adding one thing will also cure another.
In a worst case you have to prioritize a fix for something that is costing too much to support, or is truly broken or causes damage to data such as corruption.
You balance what the business needs are against the amount of time they require and determine which features are the most likely to be completed and add any 2-for-1 features where adding one thing will also cure another.
In a worst case you have to prioritize a fix for something that is costing too much to support, or is truly broken or causes damage to data such as corruption.
What can cause a product to slip? How do you safeguard against this?
The most common factor in a product slipping is scope creep but it can also occur for a variety of reasons such as lack of resources, which includes information about other products that yours interacts with. This is both the strong suit and the potential weakness of .NET.
For example MS Messenger Service can solve a lot of security issues, when you know how it functions and can test it.
Doing more project planning with dependencies worked in, and resource planning helps.
Letting management know what the limitations are especially when you can not effect needed changes directly from your own level helps safeguard things over time. In this way you are asking for resources before it becomes too late, or making it clear what the results will be if the resources are not available, or if you don't get the information you need on time, raising any issues that can potentially cause product release slipage.
It is important to put this kind of information into written, not just verbal, reports.
For example MS Messenger Service can solve a lot of security issues, when you know how it functions and can test it.
Doing more project planning with dependencies worked in, and resource planning helps.
Letting management know what the limitations are especially when you can not effect needed changes directly from your own level helps safeguard things over time. In this way you are asking for resources before it becomes too late, or making it clear what the results will be if the resources are not available, or if you don't get the information you need on time, raising any issues that can potentially cause product release slipage.
It is important to put this kind of information into written, not just verbal, reports.
How do you go about developing a good design?
Developing good design intiality can be instant, but then refined iteraratively. If working with other people agreeing on a style of working together, process, and communication are very important.
Depends on what I am designing but generally I start on paper and work through wireframes and the relationship to other products, flesh out the design and maybe do a high end first pass.
I like to gather other people's opinions and datapoints so I will show it around and ask for input. Make some changes and go to the next step.
Sometimes a project also requires advising people what they need to learn or to understand in order to accomplish a very flexible interface. Elements like using the proportion of the golden rectangle (also called the "golden mean") makes user interface design beautiful.
Visio plans often help in visualization for everyone involved.
When we have something we are somewhat happy with I like to run it through user interface studies, even if they are informal using volunteers or paying to do a brief study. Oftentimes this will back up what you already believe about a design but what is really great is when you learn something totally unexpected and you can use it.
With my experience in fine art and design, I enjoy the critical review cycle, but it's always nice to give some positive feedback.
Most of my work is in product or program management so in this way I work interactively with lots of very smart people to design a composite of what we need, using the best ideas and best practices in a cooperative manner.
When designing a small business website, after meeting with the client I begin by structuring the information, and visualizing the look and feel of their site design. Then I follow my iterative process as time and their budget permits.
Depends on what I am designing but generally I start on paper and work through wireframes and the relationship to other products, flesh out the design and maybe do a high end first pass.
I like to gather other people's opinions and datapoints so I will show it around and ask for input. Make some changes and go to the next step.
Sometimes a project also requires advising people what they need to learn or to understand in order to accomplish a very flexible interface. Elements like using the proportion of the golden rectangle (also called the "golden mean") makes user interface design beautiful.
Visio plans often help in visualization for everyone involved.
When we have something we are somewhat happy with I like to run it through user interface studies, even if they are informal using volunteers or paying to do a brief study. Oftentimes this will back up what you already believe about a design but what is really great is when you learn something totally unexpected and you can use it.
With my experience in fine art and design, I enjoy the critical review cycle, but it's always nice to give some positive feedback.
Most of my work is in product or program management so in this way I work interactively with lots of very smart people to design a composite of what we need, using the best ideas and best practices in a cooperative manner.
When designing a small business website, after meeting with the client I begin by structuring the information, and visualizing the look and feel of their site design. Then I follow my iterative process as time and their budget permits.
What is your definition of a well-designed product? Example/Why?
A well designed product is one which seamlessly performs as the customer thinks it should, and expects it to, and is easy to use.
An example is a product which gets fewer support calls.
Another definition is a product that is reliable, and doesn't cause systems or the OS to fail in the worse case, or leaks memory. On the web you don't want to over burden the client or make too many trips to the server.
A well designed product is one that in a way you don't notice, because nothing bugs you. A poorly designed product, for example is one that you can't even authenticate (in otherwords you can't use your userid and password to get into or there are severe complications.)
For an example of a good platform design; within the .Net framework, code is compiled rather than interpreted as ASP script is; this aids in early binding of objects directly resulting in performance gains. Since state management is handled within .Net, lines of code can be eliminated and this reduces the time required to load functionality.
Less processing time between pages contributes to an improved end user experience. A cleaner code set makes upfront development costs per feature less expensive, Web applications quicker to test and deploy, and as a bonus are easier to maintain and update.
I think a great product should be fun to use.
An example is a product which gets fewer support calls.
Another definition is a product that is reliable, and doesn't cause systems or the OS to fail in the worse case, or leaks memory. On the web you don't want to over burden the client or make too many trips to the server.
A well designed product is one that in a way you don't notice, because nothing bugs you. A poorly designed product, for example is one that you can't even authenticate (in otherwords you can't use your userid and password to get into or there are severe complications.)
For an example of a good platform design; within the .Net framework, code is compiled rather than interpreted as ASP script is; this aids in early binding of objects directly resulting in performance gains. Since state management is handled within .Net, lines of code can be eliminated and this reduces the time required to load functionality.
Less processing time between pages contributes to an improved end user experience. A cleaner code set makes upfront development costs per feature less expensive, Web applications quicker to test and deploy, and as a bonus are easier to maintain and update.
I think a great product should be fun to use.
Friday, August 05, 2005
Friday, July 15, 2005
New Moon’s Senior ADvisor on Removing Bio-InfoExtremists
Compiled from Several Sources by Wonderlane
CNNBCMS
Monday, July 15, 2205; Posted: 47:08 post meridian, NMSGST (10:08 NWT)
Hon. Zevre Plutonium Farrahsum, New Moon’s ADvisor, called on peace publishers to flag extremism from their information systems, at a rate accepted by national forums.
STARGATE, Newmoon (CNNBCMS) – NewMoon Lead ADvisor, Hon. Zevre Plutonium Farrahsum, pays peace enforcement groups to launch a systemwide campaign against banned bio- and info-extremist groups, targeting their fundstreams, bioweapons and netmeetings.
This campaign aims to flag all "hate" material from public, private and online markets for auto-deletion and removal by the next revolution. His directive appeared at the announcement of an alleged NewMoon connection in yesterday’s terrorist information bombings in NuLondon and Singarich databanks.
Addressing top education officers from around the system, Farrahsum said the ruling corporate government will not tolerate extremism, nor bio-nilism and will continue to combat bioterrorism "with unflinching force of will maintaining an open civilization where all beings are educated, free and unafraid, because doing so is in the interest of New Moon’s continued astro-social economic progress, and it is agreed to public moral policy” according to his statement released on New Moon’s Public Announcements videosite.
Father of one of the plain humans suspected of being the NuLondon biocide bomber -- Sazhawa Ta’ Weer, 21 std. solar years -- told us via live connection the family is of NewMoon origin, born and raised in the neighborhood of Londinum. Although they are members of one of the non-engineered human religions, the family spokesperson said "We are appalled! The shame of this act! This is our home." and weaping asked the reporters present, "She couldn't really do this, could she? This is why we left Earth."
Announcing the bombings, Farrahsum expressed condolences to the families of the biobombing victims, pledging assistance in the investigation and insisted that New Moon plays a crucial role in the war against bioterror.
He restated the corporate government’s directive not to allow banned militant organizations to resurface under new names in their attempt to gain new sources of fundstreams and webpub sources, as detailed on the illuminated hologram freesite.
Currently, both paid and free blogs, adwriters, software and game publishers and distributors are banned from publishing and distributing hate material, including popups, TVlets and massive mutual play categories, the statement read. All bio-genome science developers were already onboard as of the prior information convention. Robotic categories are not expected to be affected.
Farrahsum emphasized to peace officers that his actions are aimed at the extremist minority harming New Moon’s public and private interests and corrupting the previously unsullied image of bio-diversity, including the mutant categories.
"While some governments can afford to be anti-biology – New Moon is an ideological place as a galactic democracy welcoming hybrids from all compatible biological types. We are a dynamically diverse off-world corpfunded state," he said, “We are not a bio-isolated island.”
"We owe it to future generations to rid our hearts of the malaise of bio and info-extremism," he stated in his public site, “we seek only to fulfill the mission statement of New Moon’s founders.”
For more new scenes from BioInfomatic Diversity see ENGenious
CNNBCMS
Monday, July 15, 2205; Posted: 47:08 post meridian, NMSGST (10:08 NWT)
Hon. Zevre Plutonium Farrahsum, New Moon’s ADvisor, called on peace publishers to flag extremism from their information systems, at a rate accepted by national forums.
STARGATE, Newmoon (CNNBCMS) – NewMoon Lead ADvisor, Hon. Zevre Plutonium Farrahsum, pays peace enforcement groups to launch a systemwide campaign against banned bio- and info-extremist groups, targeting their fundstreams, bioweapons and netmeetings.
This campaign aims to flag all "hate" material from public, private and online markets for auto-deletion and removal by the next revolution. His directive appeared at the announcement of an alleged NewMoon connection in yesterday’s terrorist information bombings in NuLondon and Singarich databanks.
Addressing top education officers from around the system, Farrahsum said the ruling corporate government will not tolerate extremism, nor bio-nilism and will continue to combat bioterrorism "with unflinching force of will maintaining an open civilization where all beings are educated, free and unafraid, because doing so is in the interest of New Moon’s continued astro-social economic progress, and it is agreed to public moral policy” according to his statement released on New Moon’s Public Announcements videosite.
Father of one of the plain humans suspected of being the NuLondon biocide bomber -- Sazhawa Ta’ Weer, 21 std. solar years -- told us via live connection the family is of NewMoon origin, born and raised in the neighborhood of Londinum. Although they are members of one of the non-engineered human religions, the family spokesperson said "We are appalled! The shame of this act! This is our home." and weaping asked the reporters present, "She couldn't really do this, could she? This is why we left Earth."
Announcing the bombings, Farrahsum expressed condolences to the families of the biobombing victims, pledging assistance in the investigation and insisted that New Moon plays a crucial role in the war against bioterror.
He restated the corporate government’s directive not to allow banned militant organizations to resurface under new names in their attempt to gain new sources of fundstreams and webpub sources, as detailed on the illuminated hologram freesite.
Currently, both paid and free blogs, adwriters, software and game publishers and distributors are banned from publishing and distributing hate material, including popups, TVlets and massive mutual play categories, the statement read. All bio-genome science developers were already onboard as of the prior information convention. Robotic categories are not expected to be affected.
Farrahsum emphasized to peace officers that his actions are aimed at the extremist minority harming New Moon’s public and private interests and corrupting the previously unsullied image of bio-diversity, including the mutant categories.
"While some governments can afford to be anti-biology – New Moon is an ideological place as a galactic democracy welcoming hybrids from all compatible biological types. We are a dynamically diverse off-world corpfunded state," he said, “We are not a bio-isolated island.”
"We owe it to future generations to rid our hearts of the malaise of bio and info-extremism," he stated in his public site, “we seek only to fulfill the mission statement of New Moon’s founders.”
For more new scenes from BioInfomatic Diversity see ENGenious
Thursday, July 14, 2005
We are not afraid
Looks like terror bombing London won't work you guys.
It just makes them publish sites like WE ARE NOT AFRAID So hey, opportunistic radicals, get a clue, believing in terror as a political expediant - it will only serve to drive people closer together.
Ya outta quit while you still have a shred of self respect, not to mention any volunteer victims of your misdriven idealism and hatred who blow themselves up! Talk about stupid. Take the time off to get in touch with your inner child.
Cause these folks have and, heck they are not afraid.
CNN reference
It just makes them publish sites like WE ARE NOT AFRAID So hey, opportunistic radicals, get a clue, believing in terror as a political expediant - it will only serve to drive people closer together.
Ya outta quit while you still have a shred of self respect, not to mention any volunteer victims of your misdriven idealism and hatred who blow themselves up! Talk about stupid. Take the time off to get in touch with your inner child.
Cause these folks have and, heck they are not afraid.
CNN reference
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