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Argentine tango blog
/ with Interaction Design interludes / by Oleh Kovalchuke |
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March 2006
Mar. 28, 2006 - "The Brain", and "MindManager", and Post-it notes
I wonder if anyone used the low tech approach: mind mapping, brainstorming and categorizing with Post-it notes. How does it compare to software?
On positive side Post-it notes approach seem to be more collaborative, to have lower participation threshold by virtue of being low tech (similar to paper prototypes) and because people get a chance to physically move around, play with their hands while pasting notes on white board. Is this correct assumption about ease of collaboration?
The setbacks I see: 1. No remote participation, 2. Archiving results for reference and 3. Revising them later on. #2 can be easily solved by taking a picture of final map and printing it. Solutions for #1 and #3 are possible but messy.
Lyle Kantrovich wrote:
I've been using MM for about 4 years. I love it for notetaking, crafting agenda, brainstorming, analysing concepts or hierarchies, and for quickie sitemapping.
What's great is it frees you (and prevents you) from thinking much about presentation, and focuses you on the content. Visio, on the other hand leaves you playing with boxes and connectors way to much. Sometimes I'll move from MM to Visio or another tool, but MM has become a "must have" app for me.Mar. 20, 2006 - File transfer from mobile devices: FTP or Explorer UI?
Fahd Butt asked on IxD list:
The first is to provide a windows file explorer style UI within the application and the other is based on an FTP UI (two panels: PC and memory card..with arrows in between for transfer).
Would any of you know of the problems or benefits with either method? Any other method that we are overlooking?Why not make a one step Wizard with an option to show FTP like interface?
FTP interface is nothing more but two explorer interfaces aligned side by side. In fact its strength is that it can be quite a bit less than explorer interface. As such it facilitates the specialized task of file transfer and therefore is preferable if design clearly define target and source and means of transfer (buttons, drag-n-drop) - not an impossible task.
The problems might arise if actual user's goal is not to transfer but to transfer and... do something with the files post transfer as others have mentioned. Clarify this issue with users and you have made your choice.
Mar. 20, 2006 - On functional specs and prototypes
Two interesting links: Cooper's article and No Functional Specs.
Mar. 19, 2006 - It's the web...
Robert Hoekman wrote:
It's the web. No one has ever been killed by a badly-designed web site. Injuries are rare.
A bridge does not have the option of failing. The web does. A web app can be evolved, overhauled, redesigned, and refactored 1000 times in a year.
First on consequences: If ecommerce website were to fail me by $20 I might not be killed, but their business would suffer by more than $20. If Alta Vista were to consistently fail me by a more arcane option instead of what I am looking for their business would suffer (as indeed it did). To illustrate this further recite this sentence to a web business owner as you deliver malfunctioning web site to him:
"It's the web. No one has ever been killed by a badly-designed web site. Injuries are rare."
On causes: The ease of changes to web _application_ is a myth, which does not take into account the holistic nature of system development - as you change something here, you need to keep in mind as well as retest eleven things over there, because safety as well as usability are emergent properties of system design. In my experience changes in web application are not easy at all.
I have just finished reading "Safeware" by Nancy Leveson, it gives nice overview of these topics. Funny too.
"And they looked upon the software, and saw that it was good. But they just had to add this one other feature..." G.F.McCormick - Epigraph from Safeware.
Side discussion at IxD list on value of blogging. "Is it valuable for job search?" etc.
I blog to capture thoughts in words - blog is my scrap book. It would be too much work to do it for money.
Mar. 6, 2006 - On the lowest common denominator
"Neurath believed in a socialism that relied on information access and the democraticization of data and that the lowest common denominator of understanding was a requisite." - As long as there is medium supporting the process and so it is not imposed from above (as in the USSR for example). Internet, especially wikis seem to support that promise.
A few more thoughts on the notion of the lowest common denominator.
In general the lowest common denominator is newborn baby.
That's why respecting user intelligence, asking them about their background (building personas) and challenging that real intelligence ever so subtly is so important. For instance due to asking we know that the lowest common denominator for comprehension of scatter plots is person with intelligence developed to the level of 12 year old schoolchildren. Hence we can safely use them for adults.
As a side note, communists failed to appreciate this approach (asking different people what they want (and understanding the answers) since the notion of personas wasn't popular at the time) and drew heavily on pre-existing Christian notions and standards of human behavior. As a result about seven million Ukrainian "kulaks" were starved to death by Stalin in 1933 (hence no love lost toward communists on my part). It wasn't personal error, by the way as communists kept saying, it was systemic misunderstanding of human nature on communists part reflected in their manifesto resulting from general lack of knowledge of sociology and psychology in 19th century when the manifesto was written. Otherwise Marx's analysis of capitalism was brilliant.
I do not like the quality of Wurman's work all that much but this quote from his interview was worth reading the interview: "Lou Kahn says that you only say something new to one person. If it is more than one person, then you are giving a performance". Actually what you do in that case is you attempt to talk to perceived lowest denominator of the group of people. The more people in the audience the lower is perceived nominal intelligence (more on that in "Crowds and Power" by Elias Canetti). And that is precisely where the general internet promise lies - one can talk to his own level and find appreciative audience (of course similar promises were held and somewhat fulfilled by media before internet: roads, books, newspapers, coffee shops, radio etc.). The above talk to your own level notion is of course unrelated to design for web where one needs to design for specific if abstract personas, who are not the lowest common denominator.
Had (too) long conversation with self-described J.A.P. Among other things an irrational faith in the happy endings came up. This faith should be natural for a princess, I guess ("someday the prince will come" kind of thing). Reminded me of recent thought: "Are happy ended fairy tales harmful for kids?". In other words is Disneylization of grim endings of folk tales collected by brothers Grimm and others good for development of psyche in the long run?
On the one hand royalties without court are tremendous bores, both laughable and pitiful. On the other hand princesses are able to create courts around them (good motivators, often become successful entrepreneurs as a result). As far as I am concerned though self-centered bore is the real definition of the princess awaiting the happy end.
Random
"The Marriage of Maria Broun" - Fassbinder's masterpiece. Somewhat stagy, yet engrossing, plays with fine distinctions of being fond of somebody and being in love, life as a journey and a goal, monogamy and polygamy, sex and selling cigarettes. Has not faded with time at all. The final explosion is an unfortunate cope out, in a sense not dissimilar to usual Hollywood happy end. Well. Lola might be a sequel of sorts.
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