| last updated:29 Aug 2003 11: 02 Webword time, or 29 Aug 2003 16:02 UK time |
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| Webword Statistics - Recent Comments (Comments added for week ending Sun 24 Aug 2003) | View Other Weeks |
| WebWord Comment | Sun 24 Aug |
| While on the way to get some durian, we passed through a red light district. An actual sign at a Singapore hotel posted rates of $15 per minute. Wish I had my camera... |
| Sun 24 Aug 23:17 | Ron Zeno | Tell us about eating durian. I've been tempted to buy one just to try it. |
| WebWord Comment | Sat 23 Aug |
| Ive been in Singapore for the last several days. It is a clean and safe country, and very Western. Except for the high numbers of Indians and Chinese, I feel I could easily be in some city in California. I had to visit the CIA Factbook site to learn about Singapore. Im embarrassed by how little I knew. Last night I went out with some folks for a wonderful dinner. We had shark fin soup, pepper crab, fish heads, prawns in peanut sauce, chicken and beef fried rice, and much more. Im very picky but I still enjoyed just about everything. Once again I used chopsticks. Im definitely getting better! Today I was at the zoo after getting a ton of work done. (Nothing like taking a well deserved break, eh?) Now, unlike zoos in the United States, you are allowed to get very close to the animals. (Ill try to post some pictures when I return home next week.) In fact, if you arent careful you can actually step on them, or walk into them. The Singapore Zoo wouldnt work in the U.S. because, Im sad to say, that Americans cant seem to handle the responsibility. Im almost certain that some parents would allow their children to touch or pick up animals even when the signs clearly say, Dont Touch or Feed the Animals. The attitude in Singapore is much more respectful; more rules and people follow them. (I heard from a colleague here that you need a permit to speak against the government. How interesting!) Speaking of the rules, they are everywhere. It is actually entertaining to see them. (No chewing gum! Death to people who traffic in drugs!) Some Americans would love this I think, but others would find it oppressive. Ill tell you this I definitely feel safe. No personal security issues here. |
| Sun 24 Aug 08:44 | Mac | The authorities sometimes infringe on citizens' privacy rights. The Government continues to restrict freedom of speech and the press significantly and to limit other civil and political rights. Government pressure to conform results in the practice of self-censorship among journalists. Government leaders historically have utilized court proceedings, in particular defamation suits, against political opponents and critics. These suits, which consistently have been decided in favor of government plaintiffs, have chilled political speech and action and created a perception that the ruling party uses the judicial system for political purposes. From Human Rights Report for Singapore |
| Driving the Future | Sat 23 Aug |
| Audis breakthrough is a joysticklike control knob dubbed the MMI (Multi Media Interface), which simplifies the drivers life and removes clutter from the cockpit. (Dan Comments: Pictures - Does it really simplify?) |
| Sun 24 Aug 08:32 | Mac | Interaction Design for Automobile Interiors - Don Norman |
| New Government Framework a Missed Opportunity | Mon 18 Aug |
| A surprising aspect of the Framework is the conflation of user testing - putting people in front of test materials - and the idea of human-centred design, according to Fitzpatrick. Usability is not just about testing, she pointed out. I think the biggest hole is not taking the opportunity to discuss iterative user-centred methods - there seems to be this do it and throw it over the wall approach. |
| Mon 18 Aug 04:04 | Matt Round | The URL at the foot of the document doesn't work unless you add www. If you download the Word version and enable Track Changes (Tools - Track Changes - Highlight Changes; tick everything) you can see the author's thought processes. I didn't spot anything too embarrassing in there, although the removed word on p34 is mildly amusing. |
| Mon 18 Aug 05:10 | Mac | 1.19. Web managers of small sites or teams should be able to develop a list of roughly ten[deleted] tasks that users should be able to carry out if the site is to achieve its aims of having a usable interface [inserted] . From Page 9 |
| Mon 18 Aug 08:11 | Mac | It is very interesting to look at the changes in the word document and see where some of the claims stated in the report come from. I have no problem with committee members relating experiences from their companies, but the references to their companies should have been left in the report so that we would know where the claims originated, and could ask for evidence to back up these claims. Before: 3.46. It has been design agency Reading Room’s experience that the production of content by its clients is usually the single biggest delay in the development and launch of a site. After: 3.46. Design agencies report that the production of content by clients is usually the single biggest delay in the development and launch of a site. (Should Design agencies be changed to Design agency ?) Before: 1.41. Eight is the optimum number of people to use for user testing. Once groups of more than eight users are used, the law of diminishing returns applies. In a series of tests with Barclays, The Usability Company found that eight users from each target market group were sufficient. Other companies prefer to observe one user at a time carrying out tasks and to ask them structured questions about their experience. After: 1.41. Six to eight users is the optimum number of people to use for user testing. Once groups of more than eight users are used, the law of diminishing returns applies. Other companies prefer to observe one user at a time carrying out tasks and to ask them structured questions about their experience. Margaret Manning from Reading Room and Catriona Campbell from The Usability Company are both on the committee. And I don't know if it's true that a usability tesing session can really be completed in just 45 minutes. |
| Mon 18 Aug 08:30 | Matt Round | Someone from Help The Aged is listed as author in the document's Properties (under Custom), although that could come from a previous document (another thing people often overlook when using Word) The hidden dangers of documents |
| Mon 18 Aug 09:57 | fajalar | And I don't know if it's true that a usability tesing session can really be completed in just 45 minutes. Where is this in the document? I haven't read the passage (obviously since I am asking about it) but could it be a recommendation to not let a participant go longer than 45 minutes? I've found that to be generally true (some research would be nice here) when participants go toward an hour 'in the chair' they tend to get very tired and frustrated on small things that didn't frustrate them on similar things toward the beginning of the test. |
| Mon 18 Aug 10:10 | Mac | Re: 45 minutes. Sorry, that was a little joke that will make most sense to people in the UK, and refers to reports containing spurious claims. I am in no way implying that I know how long a usability session should last, but if anyone wants to adopt my '45 minute' claim and pass it off as a well-researched, considered guideline then who am I to stop them. |
| Mon 18 Aug 10:40 | fajalar | Ah, I get it. Still could be an opportunity for research. How long should a usability participant participate before they start giving you lower quality data? Along with that should be 'how short' too. I'll add it to my to-do list of research.:) |
| Mon 18 Aug 19:01 | Philip Chalmers | It's significant that this is all about British goverment's online presence. British goverment itself is not user-focussed: British goverment is a grudgingly modified feudalism which still thinks people are the chattels of the government. The most obvious sign of this is that British passports describe the holder as a 'subject', not a ''citizen'. British government is widely regarded as the most scretive and inclined to avoid accountability in the Western world. For example the present administration (now in its 2nd and not necessarily last term) promised in its election manifesto to introduce a Freedom of Information Act. The Act it produced was several years late and very watered down - for example it allows bureaucrats to withhold information which might leave them open to prosecution! It would be naive to expect any part of the British government to incur any 'administrative inconvenience' in order to make it easier for anyone else to deal with the government. |
| Tue 19 Aug 12:58 | Lyle Kantrovich | Great article Louise! Clearly the people that put together the Framework don't actually PRACTICE usability or UCD... Nothing like non-experts setting standards! |
| Thu 21 Aug 05:44 | Louise Ferguson | Thanks, Lyle! The original article has generated a fair amount of heat, it seems. It's now been reposted to Usability News, where Ann Light has contributed another article and I have done a follow-up too. |
| Sun 24 Aug 06:43 | Louise Ferguson | One more thing. AIGA Experience Design/Nico Macdonald has organised the monthly London event to talk about 'designing for e-government'. Takes place 7pm, 3 September. The speakers will include someone who was on the committee behind the Quality Framework. Let me know if you're interested in attending and I've forward you the email for the RSVP (essential - numbers limited). |
| Revealed: The secret world of doctors' slang | Sat 23 Aug |
| The slang can be cruel, insulting and highly inventive, says Adam Fox, a specialist registrar at the Child Allergy Unit at St. Marys Hospital in London, who has put together a dictionary of the terms. They include British emergency-room acronyms such as UBI (for Unexplained Beer Injury), PAFO (Pissed And Fell Over) and ATFO (Asked To F... Off), not to mention Code Brown, referring to a faecal incontinence emergency. Then there is DBI, for Dirtbag Index. This is a formula which multiplies the number of tattoos on the patients body by the number of missing teeth to estimate the total of days he has gone without a bath. |
| Sat 23 Aug 18:43 | Morris Cox | What about Indian or Native American? Some find those offensive. Or getting a placebo instead of real medication. This article was about terms used to describe a person's mental or physical condition(s), not their race or ethnicity. Still insulting, but not the same as racism. The real issue is lack of professionalism and being objective. They're supposed to write down the facts and make a professional diagnosis, not criticizing people. |
| Breadcrumb Navigation: Further Investigation of Usage | Wed 13 Aug |
| (SURL) There has been speculation that a breadcrumb trail also aids the user’s “mental model” of the site’s layout to reduce disorientation within the site (Bernard, 2003); however, we have not found research to validate this assumption. |
| Fri 22 Aug 18:49 | Lyle Kantrovich | I sort of agree that breadcrumbs *might* help web authors/coders think about their site structure. BUT - I strongly disagree that it's a good idea to add something to a user interface for the benefit of the developer/author. That's like having error codes in error messages or exposing a magazine article's reader to the authors outline or thought process. It should only be in the UI if it is beneficial to the 'U' - period. |
| WebWord Comment | Tue 19 Aug |
| Im in China right now and yesterday I ate pigeon. I used chopsticks and I think I did OK with them. In one meal at a Korean barbeque, I was using metal chopsticks which is more difficult than wooden ones because they dont grip the food as well. Still, despite thinking that I did a good job, I was a little child in skill compared with my Chinese associates. If youve never used chopsticks I strongly encourage you to try them. They make the food seem different, even the taste and texture. Consider this. If you dont have silverware you cant cut your food. No knife, no cutting. You pick it up and take a bite from it, or eat the whole thing. Furthermore, it is hard to eat only one part of food, at least if you arent experienced. This means that you take a different type of bite. I was kind of forced by my lack of skill to eat more fat on some meat than I would at home because I couldnt carve it off. It really wasnt too bad. On a different topic, Ive noticed that color is used differently. I was leaving a building today and I used my access card. The light on the door started off as green (open?) but when I waved my card in front of it, it turned red. So, at least for the door access, green is closed and red is open. Is this typical in China? I dont know. Ill investigate. Also, like many places in Europe, to turn on a light you flick the switch down. To turn the light off, you flick up. Totally different than how it works in the United States. Small scale things like this interest me very much. Why should up be on? It is just something arbitrary when you think about it. Thats all for this posting. More later. (I just read this posting. Boy, Im tired. I really rambled.) |
| Tue 19 Aug 12:30 | Ryan | Red and green do have the 'opposite' meaning in China than they do for most Western countries. My brother has spent the past two summers interning in China, and during one tour of a stock exchange he noted that stocks on the rise are marked in red and those dropping in value are in green. I found that fascinating, and am planning some international usability research on this very topic. |
| Tue 19 Aug 12:50 | Mac | I love chopsticks because they're binary. No left or right handedness. Elegant and poetic. Re: Your red/green experience. A great example of why Intuitive isn't necessarily a good thing. Intuitive = uses readily transferred, existing skills. From Intuitive Equals Familiar by Jef Raskin Any WebCams you can pose in front of at a pre-agreed time? |
| Tue 19 Aug 13:45 | Libby | I work at a large company and our access card panels are also green when you approach but turn red when you swipe the card. This has always bothered me. My interpretation is that green = secure, all systems fine whereas red = alert, door has been disarmed. In other words, the color reflects the state of the alarm system, rather than communication to the passer-by. |
| Tue 19 Aug 14:38 | Paolo | 'Re: Your red/green experience. A great example of why Intuitive isn't necessarily a good thing.' It should be pointed out that colours are something all humans deal with in a relatively similar way. Look to yellow and black striped snakes, or bright red insects. Nature uses a pretty standardized warning system in regards to colour. If in China they chose to use yellow and black striped road signs to suggest that the road ahead was all clear, I think we could all agree that it would be poorly designed. Instinctively, this is nature's warning. Of course how to properly design a light switch in regards to intuitive design is probably a more accurate example. Or which way to turn a key to unlock a door. Still, I see your point. |
| Tue 19 Aug 18:56 | John S. Rhodes | 'Any WebCams you can pose in front of at a pre-agreed time?' 1. No access. 2. No time. Sorry! |
| Wed 20 Aug 03:10 | Anonymous | What about road sign ? (In China) It's also Red = Go, Green = Stop ? |
| Wed 20 Aug 10:05 | Darin | I wonder how the Department of China's Homeland Security Alert System works... Red = no threat Green = kiss your butt goodbye On the serious side, don't Far East Asians have a superstition with certain colors? I thought I remembered seeing something about that on a Las Vegas high rollers documentary. |
| Wed 20 Aug 10:17 | Ralph | UP = ON seems like a pretty natural mapping to me, since up corresponds to more energy. Not quite as good as forward on a car seat adjuster slider = forward movement of the seat, but still pretty good. |
| Wed 20 Aug 13:30 | Anonymous | The on/off thing is just a US thing. In most other parts of the world, it's the other way around. Silly self-centred Americans. Have you eaten snake meat yet? How do you communicate? |
| Wed 20 Aug 20:26 | daniel szuc | Living in Hong Kong, China, I am always pleased to see the reactions of people when you can even say a little in Chinese, like 'thank you' or 'no problem' - it shows some acceptance and its received well. I am still mastering the chop sticks :) |
| Thu 21 Aug 12:59 | Jim Silkworth | The ultimate chopstick test (besides trying to catch flies a la Karate Kid) is how many peanuts you can pick up at once. At the very restaurant where you were, I could do 2 with the metal (and agreeably more difficult) chopsticks. I think I did 3 once a couple of years in Hong Kong. Probably luck though (or maybe lego-shaped peanuts). |
| Fri 22 Aug 13:22 | Yarone Goren | A collection of 'small scale things' that may interest you, great site: http://www.baddesigns.com/ |
| Getting cars to talk back | Thu 21 Aug |
| (The Economist) This is where data accumulated over a period of years from customers vehicles comes in. Think of the billions of dollars you can save by catching a problem early... |
| Fri 22 Aug 09:24 | Matt Haas | I just love accurate reporting. BTW, the statement 'By law, all new cars sold in America since 1996 have required on-board diagnostics (OBD) to monitor emissions.' is wrong. It's been since the very early 1980's (either 1980 or 1981, I don't recall which off the top of my head). |
| Listening to the Kids | Thu 21 Aug |
| (newsweek) Kids drive technology today, says Microsoft anthropologist Anne Cohen Kiel. By meeting their needs, we meet everyone’s needs. |
| Thu 21 Aug 20:29 | daniel szuc | A good read. Kids will also look for short cuts or create fast paths when they use products. Kids Get Parents Wired - http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/demographics/article/0,,5901_2246621,00.html |
| Book Review - Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization | Tue 19 Aug |
| (Digital Web) No other book I’ve seen covers so many types of optimization in one place with such a thorough investigation of why the tricks work. The extensive technical explanations alone are worth the list price, and each is backed up with a step-by-step approach to making your site a speedy champion. |
| Tue 19 Aug 12:53 | Mac | Don't forget the Peoples WebWord Interview with the author Andy King. |
| Design For the Digital Revolution | Mon 18 Aug |
| In this era of amazing change we will face a huge challenge of design: how to humanize our digital devices, our homes and offices, and our public places; how we will make them serve our needs; and how we will make the digitally enhanced places beautiful. |
| Tue 19 Aug 07:58 | Anonymous | Why bother to make machines more humane when we have demonstrated such willingness to meet them halfway. |
| Tue 19 Aug 09:31 | Darin | Very profound. I just read an article about scientists using DNA instead of silicon to perform calculations that might one day be used to power tomorrow's supercomputers. Neo? Are you out there? |
| Study finds Internet retailers unhappy with own online shopping experiences | Fri 15 Aug |
| Online ordering, browsing and general functionality are good, but could be better, the insiders said. And, according to the survey, while insiders know they should be doing a better job of satisfying customers, they dont think they have the tools needed to determine whether customers are satisfied and how to build customer satisfaction. (Comments: Thanks Sharad Singh.) |
| Mon 18 Aug 09:14 | Lyle Kantrovich | The online retail experience will get better (and why you should be worried about that) |
| Mon 18 Aug 18:46 | Philip Chalmers | Why should we be worried? Bricks and mortar retailing requires a significant advertising budget as well as the cost of premises. E-tailing requires less exense on premises (it can even be outsourced) and a relatively modest expenditure on site promotion and viral marketing. So e-tailing makes it easier for new entrants to gain market share, gives customers more choice and therefore gives customers better value for money (possibly from the big firms, if the new entrants force them to improve value for money). What's wrong with that? |