Monthly Archive for May, 2006

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HCI

Published on 25 May 2006 in Site news and Visual/Technical Communication. 0 Comments

Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days. I just returned from taking the first of four courses that prepare usability professionals for the CUA exam.

This particular course focused on the most current research regarding issues of human-computer interaction (HCI). We spent a little time covering some cognitive psychology and human-factors basics, then dove right into the research. Quite a bit of what we covered surprised me… as computers and interfaces evolve, a lot of long-standing conventions and “must do’s” are being challenged. The User Experience field has to scramble to keep up with these changes.

Of course, some things never change. Certain guidelines and rules for interface design (especially those that account for how eyes, brains, and perception works) will always be safe to rely on. But a lot of other notable guidelines are being challenged by current research.

I’ll try and post some interesting summaries and articles in the upcoming day(s). Stay tuned…

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You’re reading this page in an F-shaped pattern

Published on 19 May 2006 in Visual/Technical Communication. 0 Comments

…says usability analyst Jakob Nielsen.

Nielsen released the results of his latest eye-tracking study at the Usability Week 2006 Conference. The heat maps made from the eye movements of his test subjects seem to show that their eyes moved in an F-shaped pattern across the page.

This is contrary to the Z-shaped path that humans use to interact with printed documents (or “reverse-Z” among cultures that read right-to-left).

Of course, anything from Nielsen should be taken with a grain of salt… but the results are still quite intriguing. Hopefully, he’ll publish a comprehensive scientific paper on the study; but for now, you can visit his site for an abstract and summary.

One question I want answered is whether this F-shaped pattern is a natural (innate) way that humans interact with online documents, or are web designers forcing this pattern by the way they design their pages? Is the tail wagging the dog? It’s an important question that’s not addressed by Nielsen’s study.

Image credit & copyright: Jakob Nielsen.

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Trippy blast from the past

Published on 19 May 2006 in Music/Books/Movies/Games. 0 Comments

Come take up your Hats, and away let us haste
To the Butterfly’s Ball, and the Grasshopper’s Feast.
The Trumpeter, Gad-fly, has summon’d the Crew,
And the Revels are now only waiting for you.

The Butterfly’s Ball and Grasshopper’s Feast is a children’s poem written by William Roscoe in 1802. It’s a delightful poem about a party for small animals thrown by their insect friends. It’s about youth, innocence, love, tolerance… - you know, all those same motifs that were common to early 70′s heavy metal.

So Roger Glover (of Deep Purple fame) wrote an album that used the poem as a theme. A full-length animated movie was planned, but the only thing finished was this psychedelic short.

Yes, that is Ronnie James Dio singing a children’s song. Way cool. Go here to see David Coverdale (of Whitesnake) sing another trippy tune with Glover.

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Tuna Scare

Published on 14 May 2006 in Fiction and Humor. 0 Comments

ANN ARBOR, MI - A local subdivision was evacuated yesterday after a Hazmat team responded to a reported tuna contamination. Paula Flemming, of 432 Culver Dr., found the can of tuna in the trunk of her car, a Lincoln Mercury.

“I opened the trunk, and it was just sitting there,” said Flemming. “I couldn’t believe it. I grabbed the kids and ran to the neighbor’s house to call 911.”

Sheriff Wesley Muntz was the first responder on the scene, and made the decision to call for Hazmat support. “I wasn’t going to take any chances. There’re a lot of young children in this community,” said Muntz.

Hazmat removed the tuna from the Mercury without incident, and the evacuees were able to return home a few hours later.

“The scary thing,” said Flemming, “is that it was the same brand of tuna I buy every week at the grocery store. And it was just sitting there in my trunk - right where I usually bring my groceries home.”

She is considering her legal options, which may include joining the class-action lawsuit filed against Ford Motor Co. by a number of former customers, who also claim to have found tuna in their Mercurys.

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Mirror looks into the future

Published on 14 May 2006 in Technology. 0 Comments

The Persuasive Mirror is a device that monitors your appearance and behavior and “reflects” an image of the future you. The goal is to provide motivation for people who aren’t taking care of themselves… for instance, a poor eater might see his reflected self as overweight.

Just to see what would happen, I purchased two of them and aimed them at each other face-to-face. There was a rip in the fabric of spacetime, and the mirrors disappeared into a vortex of spinning light. The only thing left over was this bizarre image, which slowly faded away. It’s still giving me nighmares.

Image credit & copyright Accenture.

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Yay parenthood

Published on 13 May 2006 in Family and Humor. 0 Comments

“Daddy, whatcha doin?”

“Making dinner, sweetie.”

“Daddy, whatcha doin?”

“Still making dinner, sweetie.”

“Daddy, whatcha doin?”

“Making. Dinner. Where’s your mother?”

“Daddy, whatcha doin?”

“Mixing a drink.”

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Feel small?

Published on 12 May 2006 in Astronomy. 0 Comments

This is comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann3, which is “buzzing” the Earth this week at a distance of only 10 million km (about 25 times as far away as our Moon). It took about 30 seconds for the light to travel from the comet to the Earth.

The nebula in the image is M57 (the “Ring”). It took over 2,000 years for that object’s light to reach the Earth.

The tiny, faint galaxy just to the upper-right of center (almost halfway between 73P and M57) is IC1296. The collective light from the stars in that galaxy left over 200 million years ago.

Try to appreciate the “depth” of this image; don’t look at it as two-dimensional.

Imagine looking out the window of a moving car… the comet is a smudge on the glass in front of your face; the nebula is a passing street sign; while the galaxy is a faraway mountain peak on the horizon…

Image credit & copyright: Stefan Seip. Click it to embiggenate (610 KB file). You should also check out Vic Stover’s wide-field animation of the comet’s passage.

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