Noel got a puppy. That means Carbon IQ got a puppy. One more way to get more joy into our daily lives.

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Monday, September 17, 2001

Another country heard form

From InfoVis Magazine, Mary Czerwinski says

"Well, I think that [Information Architecture] is the process of distilling semantic concepts down into reasonably navigable structures, so I agree with Information architects when they say that this process has to be carried out for any website.
Then, once you have the semantic structure of the web site, you have to design it and, as a part of that information design, one needs to visualise information for the user in order for meaningful patterns of the data to "pop out" or be easily detectable.
These are very different ideas that perhaps all belong as part of one web site's design. I'm not sure about whom is confused with regard to the three concepts, they are quite well defined and all pertain to the design of a web site."

Friday, September 14, 2001

IA only

I've removed all my political stuff except for the day of the 11th, which i view as a unique day.

I'm too emotionally distraught to bring diatribe here-- the results are more tears and I think I'm nearly out.

If you hate me or love me or whatever, go over to metafilter and curse me out there. I can ignore that site when I need a break; because I need to watch for hackers and flamers I can't ignore my own.

Thursday, September 13, 2001

see the horrible sister.

The Mirror Project | See The Horrible Monster

visual explanations

Infographics of the disaster

"In many cases, more effective than just words and photos, infographics can quickly help us grasp information and timelines in a visual and easy-to-follow manner. "

he who is without sin

Come beat me for the crime of the Trail of Tears, for I have settler blood.

Come scream epithets at me for the crimes of slavery, for I have Dutch blood.

Come, tell me I deserve to die for crime of imperialism, for I have French blood.

Come throw rocks at me for the crime of the holocaust, for I have German blood.

Come spit on me for putting innocent Japanese-Americans in interment camps, for I am American.

Come defile my church, as my people did to black churches in Georgia, for I am American.

Come throw a Molotov cocktail at me for killing innocents children at Kent State, for I am American.

Come throw garbage at me for killing 35,000 women, children and older people in Dresden, for I am American.

Come traumatize my children for acts of terrorism, for I am native born American, just like Timothy McVeigh.

But do not, please do not, hurt Middle-Easterners and Muslims who have committed no crime beyond the one you have:

being born with the same blood as killers.

"In Brisbane, a schoolbus packed with Islamic children was damaged by stones and bottles and there had been abusive calls to mosques, said Queensland Islamic Council chairman Sultan Deen."

"In Chicago, a Molotov cocktail was tossed Wednesday at an Arab-American community center. "

"In Huntington, N.Y., a 75-year-old man who was drunk tried to run over a Pakistani woman in the parking lot of a shopping mall, police said."

"Mosque windows were shattered in Texas, a New York man was arrested for an alleged anti-Arab threat, and a prison fight broke out over Muslim slurs in Washington state. "

"In Suffolk County, N.Y., authorities arrested a man who allegedly made an anti-Arab threat and pointed a handgun at a gas station employee. "

"In Asbury, N.J., Ramandeep Singh, a Sikh who wears a turban for religious reasons, said he had garbage and stones thrown at his car and stayed home from work. "

"At the Kuwait Embassy in Washington, Tamara Alfson spent Wednesday counseling frightened Kuwaiti students attending schools across the United States. One student was told, ``You should all die,'' Alfson said. "

testing, testing

Matt sent me OTIVO's automated test tools review a few days ago, but what with one thing and another....

did you know amazon sells books?

After donating to the Red Cross through Amazon, I noticed this in the corner of the confirmaiton page. My reaction was "No duh." But then it reminded me of one of the cardinal rules of page design-- never assume that the customer knows what you do. I don't know how many home pages I've visited where I'm looking around trying to figure out if I'm at a useful place. New people visit your site everyday. And much as it may bore you to say "Gromits Inc, We sell grommits online" on the homepage month after month, it may just the thing to turn a visitor into a buyer.

Another best practice from Amazon.

Wednesday, September 12, 2001

visual explaination

InContext Enterprises - Contextual Design: How We Design is an excellent well illustrated explantion of the contextual design process and how it applies to IA.

understanding open source

Cam posted his talk "A Guide to Open Source Technologies for Project Mangers " which is a nice --if a bit biased-- introduction to open source technology.

logos and icons

from the wonderful Web Page Design for Designers - Symbolism

"One of the most important aspects of navigation, and interface design generally, lies in an understanding of graphic symbolism.

If you have had a good art college training, you will probably have been introduced to the theoretical concepts behind symbols and logotype design.

Capturing the literal or abstract essence of a company identity and making a visual representation of it in the form of a symbol or trade mark is something a graphic designer has to do all the time.

Designing icons and navigational devices for computer programs requires exactly the same skills and, for those readers who have not had the advantage of such a background, I will give a brief introduction."

Italics mine. I had not made this connection before, but it rings very true and provides a clue to why so many icons fail....

missing one thing

Stages in the Design Process is not a bad outline of approaching a technology problem. However it would have been nice if they included why each stage was necessary and what advantage it gave.

good old nasa

Just found the Design for ... Home Page while researching a project.

"To gain the competitive advantage we must
Design for Value (choice).

From the perspective that each person must design so that those to follow in the process can do their best, we must also:
Design for Conceptualizability
Design for Evaluability
Design for Marketability
Design for Designability
Design for Prototypeability
Design for Testability
Design for Producibility
Design for Deployability
Design for Operability
Design for Supportability
Design for Evolvability
Design for Retireability
Design for Manageability "

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

How buildings fall

Salon.com explains Why did the buildings collapse?

"According to Gregory Fenves, a professor of Civil Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, the planes weakened the buildings' structures at key points. Fenves, working on information gleaned from preliminary TV reports, stressed that he was speculating. He said that if the planes had hit the structures higher, they could have merely damaged their tops; if they had hit lower, they would have been up against the enormous weight and resistance of the base of the buildings. "

amazing photos

Yahoo! News - Top Stories Photos

I'm done. i'm tired, and I don't really know what to think much anymore. I know I have no way to process something like this. I hoped my blogging might clear my head, but it's about the same. Maybe I'll sit in the backyard and feel the sun, maybe I'll watch a movie, maybe I'll read a book or try to concentrate on the work I need to be doing but can't seem to ramp up to. Or maybe I'll crawl onto philippe's lap one more time.

please be wrong.

Charles says

"This is the start of a new era in civilization. God (if you exist) help us.
The coordination and scale of this attack is unbelievable. It's important for us to realize that the creatures who do this evil will never stop. Their intent is to bring the entire world into a religiously dominated Dark Age.
I'm very afraid of what happens next."

more trembling still

what's in rebecca's pocket?

"Who did this? To what end? I can anticipate the draconian measures our government will now take in the name of safety and democracy; and this terrorism will rally the country around the most extreme measures. And the people in those planes and in those buildings, the firefighters.... I'm heartsick in so many ways...."

more fear

kottke says

"i'm so scared right now. I don't want to hear any reports of Americans grabbing the nearest Arab and beating the crap out of him or her. Don't do it. Please."

if you are okay

Please check in here.

my sister says

In musings

"the thought of the people in the plane seeing this building coming toward them as their flight gets rammed into it, the thought of office workers just like me going into the Pentagon as if nothing unusual might happen only to have the floor buckle under them then the roof collapse on them, the thought of terrified workers running down stairs to get out of a burning building only to find it crumble around them...my stomach churns and my throat chokes up."

anil dash

anil dash says "I've been sitting here this whole morning, choking back tears... this is just too much, too big. I can see the smoke and ash from the street here."

frightened ramble

Last night I was puking-- mild food poisoning, flu, something I don't know. I had decided to stay home the next day, and I got up this morning just to drive my husband to caltrain. We aren't much for tv or even the radio, but the traffic was a bit congested on the way to the station to I turned on kqed.

This is how I found out. Taking the third street exit onto bayshore to the caltrain station, learning the pentagon had a "notch" in it, and smoke and something about the world trade centers... a bomb? what had happened? planes? An accident like that?

Philippe and I sat listening at the station in horror as we learned about the two planes that crashed into the world trade center, how they collapsed, how the pentagon also suffered from a plane crash-attack. Philippe turned to me and said, "Let's go home."

We've spent the last few hours on the couch, trying to call Andi, receiving calls from friends and family. Nobody has much to say. These are phone calls that you make just to say, "Are you still there? is this happening? Do you feel it too?" We sent out emails well, little pings to other friends and coworkers, and discovered Gabe is staying home, wondering about a friend in Manhattan, and Noel is also gone home to hunker down with his loved one, and Carbon IQ is empty today. As you can see, I've been surfing the blogs looking for reassurance.

Philippe called his mother to let her know he's okay (mothers worry, no matter what coast you are on), and found out there was an earthquake in Holland. Sometimes it seems the world is going insane.

I think they said forty-thousand people were in the world trade center. Mayor Giuliani said he saw people jumping out of the top floor windows. I could imagine those people choosing their death-- they could not live, so all they could do was choose their death. I cried for about the fourth time this morning.

I guess this is one of those events... people will ask you where you were when you found out. I'll see the third street exit, when they ask me about the beginning of world war three, or about the event that ended civil liberty in America, or the event that caused us to bomb Libya/Iraq/Iran, or led to the relocation of Palestine... or maybe it will be merely the worst tragedy in my lifetime. I hope that this is all I remember when I take that exit again, that this was an isolated incident, that this will be the worst tragedy in my lifetime and none will ever overshadow it.

I'm going back to sit with my husband now. I wish I could stop watching, but I can't. The only thing scarier than what has happened is what will happen next.

victor

Noise between stations interrupts your regularly schedualed blog to give info on how to help in New York. As the new stations all seem to be slowly but steadily whispering the word "war" more often, I'm heartened by his quote

'An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind'
- Mahatma Gandhi

but doubtful it will make much difference.

another heard from...

from CamWorld

"9:50 AM: I was supposed to be in Manhattan this morning for a doctor's appointment at 9:30 AM, but skipped it. I have no answer to why I skipped it (a feeling?). I've never been so glad I listened to my intuition."

a few more pictures...

Rob's pictures of NYC

Carrie and Zeldman are okay

Jeffrey Zeldman and Carrie Bickner, friends in New York are alright. Thanks for those folks blogging this tradgedy, even breifly so we know people are okay...

is she okay?

andi moved to new york last month, and the phonelines are jammed, so I don't know. She's probably fine, but I'm scared.

Monday, September 10, 2001

nothing works as well as it used to...

I found Designing for the elderly a thought-provoking article. Rather than tossing it aside-- oh, that isn't our audience-- you might ask yourself if some of the changes you make to your site might help other user bases beyond the elderly. The rolling suitcases you see in every airpost pulled along by everybody were originally invented to meet the unique needs of flight attendents. Yet they seem to have managed to be useful to everyone. larger fonts, simple designs may also help the impaired and the impatient...

I had a great chat with Mark at Web2001 about using his skinning css work to provide an easy "large-text edition" to websites. very exciting. I think I need to take two days to recode (and apply the redesign) to my site.

oh, p.s. a few horrid pictures from that event I've posted here. Feel the excitment! Panels of speakers! Hugging geeks! Giant numbers!

the bottom line

Site Design as Business Decision looks at the user-centered nature of a nonprofit, and the lessons that can be learned by for-profits. Well written interesting article -- be sure to read to the end.

"The insidious and damaging obstacle to quality Web sites is a lack of respect for users and a presumptiveness with regard to what they want and need. Indeed, the majority of the companies we spoke with either were involved in or had recently completed major redesigns of their sites, yet most had not invested in any type of usability testing before launch. Formal user surveys were not conducted. Even more disturbing, nearly everyone expressed surprise that we would ask such a question."

"It may sound arrogant," says Geric Johnson, vice president of marketing services at shoe manufacturer Skechers, "but we really believe that we are the best judge of what our customers want."

However, there is hope that the economy may be changing people's attitudes:

"Savvy businesses are beginning to take the advice of The Usability Group's Rubin by tying clear and measurable business objectives to site design. Such objectives can be as straightforward as deciding that customer service calls should decrease by 20 percent or that sales leads generated by the site need to increase by 20 percent."

I don't know how many times I've seen redesigns that have made a site worse. Sometimes they are better looking sometimes they are not but too often they are way harder to use. Conversely "evolutionary" site redesigns where the site slowly changes to meet new needs and features tend to be much more effective (though not always 100%... remember Amazon's "tab cancer" before they revamped the tab scheme?)

Thorough and thoughtful requirements gathering is a way to protect a redesign's success.

Wednesday, September 5, 2001

nice diagram

Making use of user research

"Take the time to choose and plan user-testing techniques. Match the appropriate technique to your development cycle and needs -- your product will benefit, and you'll avoid wasting time and resources. Simply putting a product "to the test" in a lab to see whether it passes or fails may provide a lot of data, but not necessarily a lot of value. " Click through for a great looking diagram....

for jesse

here you go jesse, more puppy pictures.

think!

Guerrilla usability mary Deaton tells it like it is:

"Before we look at when and how to test, let's list some guiding principals:

• Test early and test often.
  
• Test the right people--only those who fit your user profile. If you do not have a user profile, create one.
  
• Avoid biasing the results in any way. The purpose of the test is not to win an argument but to find out how people actually use a Web site.
  
• Test only the things that are not strong conventions or standards. Don't waste your time or the company's money on problems that other people have solved."

Consumers Love Permits!

"The Golden Gate Tunnel is the first tunnel in the world to provide a true transportainment experience."

A HA

Thinking a lot lately about the creative process and problem-solving mindsets. It occurred to me yesterday while contemplating my toes that we IA's are a terribly rational lot, and often forget to trust our instincts. Graphic designers often work from the gut first, then explore or "reverse engineer" a rational later. IA's study all the available data, digging for more and more until we are quite saturated it, then every aspect of our design is carefully calculated based on our information and analysis of it. I think that ability to justify sometimes makes a little-- unsure? fearful? unwilling to leap after a gut feeling. I think we need to trust those instincts; our unconscious mind is a powerful processor and those strange moments of "a ha!" are often simply our gut processing the data faster than our conscious brain.

Three a ha's I trust.

1. Dumb Questions. Often at the beginning of a project I'll get a completely wild idea, something that just can't be feasible. I am then faced with the prospect of asking a dumb question "what if," "is there..." or "why not...?" I usually know I'm about to be slapped down. But out of the answer I often get a hint of the solution. Brainstorming can be done out of a brainstorming session; we should always trust ridiculous flights of fancy-- how else are we ever going to do impossible things?

2. Inexplicable lines. Sometimes in my schematics I have an urge to put down a line, or sometimes a box. I don't know why. I always do. Then, later before presenting I go through and justify them all-- if the weird appearing line has no purpose I remove it. Schematics are not design, after all. But often it is standing for something... perhaps I'll make a note to the designer: be sure to create a visual divider here" or sometimes my unconscious brain is coaxing me to add a search box just where I might want to use it. By allowing those early schematics to be loose and sketchlike, I allow myself to play and thus gain a better understanding of the problem and its potential solutions.

3. The single user test. I suppose I could call this the "Doh!" moment as easily as an "A Ha" moment.... Sometimes during usability tests I see a user having a problem and I'll instinctively know that this problem will be had by a large section of the populace. As semi-scientific types, of course, we don't like to get data from just one user. But after seeing hundreds of users interact with websites, I'm pretty good at separating the idiosyncrasies of one person versus the archetypical behavior of a user. If I will listen to my gut when it says "Doh! Why didn't I see that before?" A good example would be a single fifty-five-year-old not reading one-point-font instructions modifying a form field. My gut will say "Doh! Of course people won't see that! It looks like legal text!" Later my rational brain will come in and point out that over 50's often have failing eyesight, and instructional text probably should be more easily readable.

Our gut is a fine tool in the IA toolbox, and illumination is sufficiently precious we shouldn't throw it away. Follow your gut, use your brain to sort it out after. But do trust that strange gut feeling, the uneasiness about a project, the weird idea for a solution, that oddball dream about the product... all those signals that your unconscious is about to deliver up a true "A HA!" moment.