Why do we have to fight so hard to convince clients (and that can include bosses and/or coworkers) that we should think about the problem before we start designing the solution? And that we should test out solution while it's still in a cheap and easy-to-change form (say, paper prototypes) before spending a ton of time and money building the wrong thing?
Reading through Jeff Rubin's terrific Conceptual Design: Cornerstone of Usability I kept going, "Well, of course. Well, yes, of course." Sometimes because I've been doing user-centered design for a while now and I'm familiar with the techniques, but too often because he was
saying one needs to fight for the right to research the problem, sketch out a few solutions, test a prototype and then start building the product.
Is this a shocking protocol?
1. Study the problem, including the competitors' solutions.
2. Sketch out a couple of different solutions.
3. Test a rough protype of your solutions with the people who will use the product to see if you have a good solution.
4. Revise the solution based on what you learned.
5. Build a prototype that is close to the finished thing.
6. Test with the people who will use it.
7. Make fixes based on what you learned.
8. Ship the product. Include a feedback devise so you can make the next version even better.
Can anyone read that and find it a revelation? Do we really need to proselytize common sense?
Don't answer that...
My husband sent me a series of links to GIS systems. Why do you care? There may be inspiration here in a way to visualize data in a meanful way. I'm exploring it...
Geographic Information Systems
Some freeware and an image gallery.
Esri, the company that makes Arcview and Arcinfo, two of the big GIS software programs.
It's foggy and cold again. While the rest of the northern hemisphere puts on shorts I get the pleasure of wearing a turtleneck. Thank you for letting me have my whine-- for cheese to go with it, scroll down to Apropos of Nothing, where new of the weird seems to have taken over.
This is one of the most beautiful sites I have come across.
Old thread on the 800x600 pixel war (found because I was catching up on the kaycee thing and no I won't bring it here, don't panic). The thread is as interesting because of the arrogance of the factions --both geek and design-- as it is for the discussion of the problem.
IASlash redesigned while I was away and looks 10000x better (IMHO). They do seem to be suffering from the summer news lull everyone else is, though. even kottke is full of his travel pictures...
Yes, I will read anything lance (glassdog) arthur does. No, the world does not need another community discussion site. And yet.... you gotta dig a place where it's not only okay but required to be mean.
http://www.glassdog.com/unhip/
(mostly via nua.ie)
Nando Times: Turkish authorities clamp down on Net
"The Associated Press reports that Turkey has passed a law making websites subject to the same censorship as print media."
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Van Dusseldorp & Partners: European broadband access set to surge
"Over 21 percent of European households will have broadband Internet
access by 2003, up from the current figure of 1.79 percent."
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Reuters: US loss may be India's gain
"The downturn in the US economy could prove a boon for technology
workers in India, according to a report from Reuters."
San Francisco hires 500 goats to eat weeds, trash
"Until they were driven out by rising land prices, goats were a common sight in the more bucolic parts of the city, particularly on the grassy slopes of Potrero Hill and in odd corners of the Glen Park district."
It is a damn shame when the rent gets too high for goats to afford to be able to raise their kids in the city.
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Hoax warning tricks some into deleting AOL
metafiler giggles over it
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OSLO, Norway (AP) - "What the new bouncer at a Norwegian pub lacks in
brawn, she more than makes up in experience: She's a 91-year-old
great-grandmother. "
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Titanium PowerBook causes bomb scare