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Check UBlog out at http://ui.alltop.com/.
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From the monthly archives:
May 2008
A contributor to the IxDA discussion list posted about the availability on iTunes of Stanford University lectures in human-computer interaction.
I just browsed the list of lectures. Looks like real good stuff. Some lectures I’m particularly interested in hearing:
- The Design of Implicit Interactions, Wendy Ju, Stanford, Spring 2007
- Designing Interactions, Bill Moggride, IDEO, Winter 2007
- Innovation on User Research Methods During the Development of Windows Vista, Gayna Williams, Microsoft, Fall 2006
You can point your browser to this link to get to the class listings within iTunes.
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Here’s a mini-rant about the usability of Apple’s Mac OS X:
I use Spaces, the multiple desktop feature found in OS X 10.5. It’s a nice feature for us Windows-on-VMWare-Fusion (or Parallels) people. I assign Fusion’s window to a separate space, and cmd+arrow down or over to get to my Windows window. I’ve assigned the Finder to be present in all spaces. (I only use the default four spaces.)
The problem I run into is the stupid no-op that sometimes occurs when I’m in Space 1, the Finder is in Space 2, 3, or 4, and I click on the Finder icon in the dock. Sometimes – but infuriatingly, not all the time and with no predictability – a click on the dock’s Finder icon does absolutely nothing. It doesn’t bring the Finder to my current space, nor does it pop me over the the space where the Finder window currently resides.
What I have to do then is cmd+arrow all over tarnation trying to find my frakking Finder window. Lame.
Interestingly, I just tried to reproduce the problem, and I couldn’t. So I don’t know whether it’s a strange interaction between the behavior of several OS X features, or an actual bug. One thing it definitely is is annoying.
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I saw this article mentioned on Digg. A techie guy decided to set his semi-tech-savvy girlfriend loose on Ubuntu’s new 8.04 release. What ensued was fascinating. Read the guy’s account here.
I should mention that although he’s not a user experience professional, he does a darn good job of defining the right tasks. The twelve tasks he set out for his s.o:
- Tell me what the capital of Bosnia is.
- Watch a video on YouTube.
- Download a Spice Girls Album. [Note: I hope this was ironic...]
- Draw me a little picture and save it in three formats.
- Burn an album from my music collection.
- Change the speed of the mouse.
- Change the theme of the computer.
- Find a picture on the Intenet and set it as the desktop background.
- Change screen resolution.
- Photoshop a picture of her face onto my body. [Note: He's using "photoshop" as a generic verb...]
- Log onto MSN. [Note: As in the IM client MSN Messenger]
- Install Skype.
These are very appropriate core tasks for someone who’s transitioning to a new computer. I couldn’t pick a better set of tasks if I were the Ubuntu user experience team.
Judging from his descriptions of her behavior, he seemed to take the right approach to facilitation – i.e., he let his participant/girlfriend struggle, didn’t interfere or teach the interface, etc. Hard to be sure though.
So how did Ubuntu’s newest do? The girlfriend succeeded on seven of the twelve tasks. From the article:
Linux won’t truly be ready for the desktop until someone computer illiterate can sit down at a the computer and with little effort do what they want to do. Erin’s intelligent, quick to learn and is reasonably well-acquainted with modern technology. If she had as much trouble as she did, what chance to the elderly or at least the middle-aged stand?
Definitely an interesting read. Be sure to check out my posts about my Linux experiences if you’re interested in more Linux ‘n user experience discussions.
The Great Ubuntu Girlfriend Test – Content Consumer
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