From: Gleanings
To: flashaholics
Subject: Gleanings: I lied
OPENING THANG
Okay, I wasn't going to glean today, but it was link-mania yesterday: the universe was conspiring to share interesting stuff with me, and how could I not share back with you-all?
IA & DESIGN MATTERS
Human Factors International Articles
ones I'm excited to read include: Managing Your Defense Against GUI's from Hell, Pull Down Menus: Out of Sight, Out of Mind, Key Tips for User-Centered GUI Design and Icons: Much Ado about Something
http://www.humanfactors.com/library/mar01.asp
~~~
Like to critique other people's work?
http://www.sitecritique.net
~~~
Information Architecture, an electronic web guide
"How many times have you gone to a web site looking for specific information and you weren't able to find it? Organizing informational content on a web site can be a very difficult and complicated endeavor, and most web developers lack the skills necessary to perform such tasks. Luckily, a new discipline is emerging in the web world that is tackling this very problem.It's called Information Architecture. "
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/class/clis748/webguidesf98/informationarchitecture_index.html
~~~
How Architects Think
"The purpose of the experiment was to study the role and potential of mental
imagery in the architectural design process."
http://anshuman_singh.tripod.com/protocol.htm
LEARNING MATTERS
Good site for learning the basics of web design and webmastering. Simple and friendly.
http://www.designsbymark.com/
~~~
Barnes&Nobel University
"It's FREE - join today! Enter an online classroom now and learn everything you wish they'd taught in school. Live instructors and students are online now! "
http://www.barnesandnobleuniversity.com/bnu/
USABILITY MATTERS
The Non-Verbal Web
"In preparation for a class I'm teaching this quarter on Interface Design, I re-read Norman's The Design of Everyday Things (aka POET), which I am using as one of three pillars of the class.
I was struck (again) by the concept of perceived affordance. My communications background causes me to think of this as "the non-verbal language of objects" -- it's how I perceive the object's mode of interaction. Whether my perception matches the design reality will determine my satisfaction. "
http://www.cyberwriter.com/TFM/2001/01-06.html
~~~
Helping and Hindering User Involvement - A Tale of Everday Design
"This case study provides a detailed account of the obstacles and facilitators to user involvement that were identified during the design of a computer application. The factors that affected user involvement included contracting design services, selecting users, motivating users, facilitating and mediating meetings and offering points of focus for user contributions. "
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi97/proceedings/paper/sw-obf.htm
~~~
Bad Human Factors Designs
"A scrapbook of illustrated examples of things that are hard to use because they do not follow human factors principles. "
http://www.baddesigns.com/
my favorite:
http://www.baddesigns.com/mopsnk.html
NEWS
Greenfield Online: Consumers don't want Net-enabled cars
"Consumers are far less interested in having email or music downloading
facilities in their cars than they are in having built-in systems to
deter thieves and sensors to alert them to hazards on the road."
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905356666&rel=true
~~~
IDG.net: Unproductive email like "being killed by friendly fire"
"While lawmakers and company bosses are increasingly concerned about
the levels of spam email, a new study says that unproductive internal
emails take up 30 percent of employees' time spent reading email."
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905356675&rel=true
~~~
Netcraft: Domain name registration slumps
"New data from Netcraft shows that there has been a dramatic reduction
in new domain name registrations."
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905356677&rel=true
~~~
SBC: DSL users just love their high-speed Net
Internet users with high-speed DSL connections at home say their DSL
link is an important household technology and would rather sacrifice
other media before they gave up their DSL.
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905356682&rel=true
~~~
MSNBC: Gadgets offering 'convergence' show whole can be less than sum of
parts. (via tomalak.org)
It is an old story that keeps getting retold. Bewitched by the promise of "convergence" -- the blending of communications, entertainment and computing -- and galvanized by the Internet, engineers and marketers are dreaming up a new class of high-tech Swiss Army knives.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/564130.asp
~~~
Guru: Engineers Won't Design Next-Gen Systems
"It's not you guys" who will build equipment and systems that are easy to use, said Norman, of the Nielsen Norman consultancy. "You're the wrong people." Instead, future systems will be designed "by psychologists and social scientists working in combination with engineers and technologists," he said he predicted.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990507S0002
comment on this article in the blog
http://www.eleganthack.com/blog/archives/00000030.html
APROPOS OF NOTHING
why are we glad flash exists? today's apropos of nothing should prove the joy of the medium:
Kung-fu, stick figure style. it was just like the tavern scene in "crouching tiger, lousy title" except everyone is a stick figure.
http://www.collegehumor.com/temp/fight3.swf
this arrived with the subject heading"The latest demonstration of the power of the Internet..."
http://user.tninet.se/~prv247p/hatt/hatten.swf
and in that same category of "because we can, we will"
http://member.iquest.net/~derecho/pika.swf
I cannot recommend these two short flash works too highly. my jaw dropped onto the floor (esp.. the second) turn up the sound and enjoy.
~~~
kate points at the very goofy swedish
http://www.fjallfil.com/
she says "Have you run across www.fjallfil.com in your travels? It seemed timely in light of a recent chi-web discussion about drag-n-drop interfaces (but since I'm fairly new to the list I felt a wee bit shy about submitting such a very silly site). enjoy. "
no one should ever have anything against silly! (oh, and you can click over to English at the bottom)
posted by Christina Wodtke 4/26/2001 08:40:38 AM
From: Gleanings
To: humptyhump
Subject: Gleanigns: a little bit of everything today
OPENING THANG
Hump day.. I'm holding down my publishing to three times a week. Saner for me, saner for you.
in the blog.. conversation happens! two topics, one on the nature of the blog and one on personal sites, are spurring fine little chats.
http://eleganthack.com/blog/index.html
IA MATTERS
White Paper: Analyzing the Analysts
"Chiara Fox and Keith Instone evaluate the information architectures of the major analyst firms. Find out if these "thought leaders" in the IT industry practice what they preach."
http://argus-acia.com/white_papers/analysts.html
~~~
a garden of experience design papers. yum.
http://www.parc.xerox.com/istl/members/woodruff/publications.htm
~~~
Less academic is the Human Factors collection, including titles like
"Managing Your Defense Against GUI's from Hell " and "Screen Writing: "Brevity is the Soul of Wit""
http://www.humanfactors.com/library/GUIdesign.asp
~~~
while poking around xerox parc, I discovered this, an interesting overview of the makeup of the web (the html version has some of the ugliest clipart known to man)
http://db.cs.berkeley.edu/~woodruff/inktomi/
~~~
Interesting look at video games "as a way to play around with strategies and ideas." on captain cursor
http://www.captaincursor.com/archive/2001_04_22_blog.xml#3357642
DESIGN MATTERS
continuing to debunk the myth of 800x600
Real-World Browser Size Stats, Part II evolt.org, Site Development
http://evolt.org/article/Real_World_Browser_Size_Stats_Part_II/20/2297/index
and from Human Factors International
"A website is best when it is designed for a monitor resolution that matches the monitor resolution of the majority of your users. This provides a full-screen layout for those who desire to use the full width of their monitor for web pages."
http://www.humanfactors.com/library/mar01.asp#bailey
~~~
For those who don't know, it is free to subscribe to emigre magazine if you are in the US. and quite worth it. don't be fooled by the spartan website, the magazine is delicious, if sometimes obtuse.
http://www.emigre.com/EMaSu.html
NEWS & COMMENTARY
Salon: Time to buy a new computer -- but why? (via tomalak.org)
Scott Rosenberg. This year, though, when the alarm went off, something strange
happened: I woke up, took a look around at both my current computer of choice
and the possible replacements, hit the snooze alarm and went back to sleep.
Maybe next year.
http://salon.com/tech/col/rose/2001/04/23/buying_pcs/index.html
~~~
Music Protection Faces Fresh Battle
"The recording industry has threatened a Princeton University computer scientist with legal action if his research group presents a paper at an academic conference this week describing how it is possible to circumvent an industry music-protection system. "
http://www.iht.com/articles/17931.html
~~~
Online Courses to Improve Teacher Technology Skills
"Teachers seeking to boost their technology skills can choose from a growing variety of online offerings ranging from three-week skill boosting courses to labor-intensive master's degrees. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/25/technology/25EDUCATION.html
~~~
Business Travel: Singapore Airlines Introduces In-Flight E-Mail
"For over a year, airlines have been fiddling around with technology and fretting about when and how they're going to introduce in-flight e-mail and Internet capability on their airplanes. "
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/25/technology/25TRAV.html
TECH MATTERS
love it!!!! (via xblog.com)
"Still can't decide whether to use PHP scripts, Perl CGIs, or Java servlets for your next Web development project? This article will help you decide by providing a side-by-side comparison of the functioning source code of all three languages. The three simple example programs provided take you from the most basic server-side scripts through object orientation to a simple Web storefront presenting product information to a user. Reading this article will give you a good idea of the difference between these three languages, and a better idea of which one is right for you."
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/web/library/wa-sssl.html
MARKETING MATTERS
from one of the cluetrain kids
Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices By Christopher Locke
"This is a serious book. No fooling.
Now right off the bat that has to make you wonder, right? Because most books, especially business books, pretty much take it for granted that you believe that going in. Of course the book is serious. That’s why you bought it. Either that, or you needed an over-the-counter alternative to your regular insomnia medication. Don’t laugh. Recent studies show that seven out of ten business book buyers are really looking for semantic Sominex. And, as Harley Manning of Forrester Research points out in his insightful report – “The Snooze Factor: Sleepy Time in the Management Aisle” – these consumers find what they’re looking for in 82% of all online book transactions."
http://205.178.173.189/gonzomarkets.com/intro.html
and from another...
Pulp Email: Spring Cleaning, Tarantino-Style By Eric Norlin
"I have received so many badly written, badly constructed, just all around Bad email newsletters as of late that I have reached my personal tipping point (with a hat deferred to Malcolm). As such, I’m about to get viral on your, um, bum.
Eric’s Rules for Writing a Decent Email Newsletter"
http://www.marketingprofs.com/emarketing/pulpemail.asp
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Kottke points to "Pseudodictionary: "this is the place where all of your made up words, slang, webspeak and colloquialisms become part of the dictionary as well. we take the words you use every day, but aren't in the dictionary, and put them into ours. all you have to is submit them. you'll even get credit and a link to your website (if you've got one). help us grow our dictionary by sending us your entries now! everyday more entries are added, so check back often.""
http://www.pseudodictionary.com/
~~~
Fun picture, though I'm sure it's not so fun for the residents of davenport, Iowa which has flooded.. again.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Midwest-Flooding.html
posted by Christina Wodtke 4/25/2001 08:57:56 AM
