Userfaction Blog

Bibliography of multi-touch interaction research

2007-01-22T23:07:11Z

Given the recent interest in multi-touch interaction following the announcement of the iPhone, I thought I would point to Bill Buxton's brief history of multi-touch interaction research. There's also some background in the Fastcompany interview of Jeff Han.

By the way, I much prefer this latest video of Jeff Han's work than his TED presentation.

Apparently you can make your own multi-touch screen (by following Jeff's original paper) but it would appear the real wizardry is in the software...

Best Interaction Design Blogs 2006

2006-12-04T22:22:09Z

Dan Saffer of Adaptive Path has posted his 2006 list of best interaction design blogs.

I'd add two more to the list: Christopher Fahey's Graphpaper and Humanized.

Building web apps: don't start with the home page

2006-11-27T21:32:41Z

Great advice from Cameron Moll over at Authentic Boredom - When building web apps, don't start with the home page ....

Interaction Design in Europe

2006-11-27T21:26:54Z

Convivio - the European Network for the Human-Centered Design of Interactive Technologies - has kicked off a series of interviews with leading voices in the field of human-centred design. Interviews will feature people from all over the world, but with an emphasis on European voices (and I'm biased, but it's wonderfully refreshing to have a European perspective on all things HCI).

The first interview is with Jan Chipchase, Principal Researcher at Nokia, who maintains a photo-blog at Future Perfect.

The second interview is with Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware: The dawning age of ubiquitous computing.

Adam finishes with some great advice for designers who are interested in getting involved with 'ubiquitous computing':

"[...] I’d imagine that getting comfortable with user observation and ethnography, contextual inquiry, and other techniques for the qualitative understanding of the experience of use will stand you in good stead. And if neither of these two suggestions appeal, about all I can say is sit just where you are - because it seems fairly likely to me that some kind of Everyware will come to you."

In a related vein, and also from Europe, Nat Torkington blogs about his conversation with Matt Webb, who works for creative design consultancy Schulze & Webb.

The perfect wall for information architects

2006-11-24T04:18:59Z

Ooh - this post-it notes wall works for me. Can I get it in orange?

Duncan Wilson and Sirkka Hammer's Pixelnotes (via Swissmiss)

Usability Man sighting in London

2006-11-13T20:33:38Z

Reported sightings of a previously little know superhero, Usability Man, in the streets of London....

Usability Posters

2006-11-08T21:40:51Z

A few usability posters to brighten up your cubicle and celebrate World Usability Day next week:

The original UPA poster, Designing the User Experience

Experience Dynamics' The Importance of User Experience (the image is also on flickr)

Netlife Research's Bad Usability Calendar

and a few World Usability Day posters

Designing Web Applications - Structure and Flows

2006-11-07T20:06:50Z

User Interface Engineering (UIE) have released a 54 page report called The Designer's Guide to Web Applications, Part I - Structure and Flows . It's US$35 - but there's a free chapter available for download.

I've read the free chapter, and it's very good. It helps conceptualise how most web applications should be structured - useful if you're struggling to envisage how screens should 'flow' from one to the other.

In a similar vein, there is Bob Baxley's Task Flow for Web Applications, part 1 - Views & Forms and Task Flow for Web Applications, part 2 - Wizards & Guides.

Two great events in Auckland for World Usability Day

2006-11-07T02:43:59Z

There will two events in Auckland for World Usability Day on Tuesday 14th November.

At lunchtime, we will be making some (visual) noise with some red balloons in the streets of Auckland, highlighting good and bad examples of user experience.

In the evening, Shona Bishop, GM of Marketing & Business Development at the Bank of New Zealand, and Natasha Hall from Trade Me will be talking about how they've introduced usability into their organisations.

Find out how you can get take part in the events calendar.

I'm hoping for lots of people at lunchtime (and in the evening too, of course). We've ordered 100 balloons so there should be enough to go around....! Don't be shy - come along!

World Usability Day 2006 and Making Life Easy

2006-10-27T02:37:47Z

World Usability Day 2006 is only 20-odd days away on Tuesday 14th November.

UPA Auckland is putting the finishing touches to what promises to be an evening of great speakers and activities - more details anon.

In the meantime, here's another great opportunity for you to get involved in World Usability Day.

Leisa over at Disambiguity and the guys at Flow Interactive have put together a great a little project called MakingLifeEasy.org.

The aim is to get people to make some noise about the things that make their life needlessly difficult.

Confusing cash machines, unclear signs, frustrating websites - poor usability is everywhere and it gets in the way of life. Sometimes it is just annoying. At other times it stops us doing what we need to do.

World Usability Day and MakingLifeEasy is about promoting the value of user-centered design, and every user's right to ask for things that work better.

I'm thrilled about both initiatves and have contributed a few of my Auckland pet-peeves to the project. Here's how you can get involved too:

1. Help get more people involved! If you have a blog, give us a shout out and send people to www.MakingLifeEasy.org to participate. If you have a Flickr account, join the Making Life Easy group and invite all your friends!

2. Share your examples of the best and the worst of usability where you live (or visit or holiday!). Add photos to the group and your submission will be added to the website and potentially to the Hall of Fame or Shame.

3. Cast your vote! Take a look at the website and have your say in what *really* drives you crazy and what you really love.

'Usability Techniques' Workshop Slides and Notes

2006-08-03T06:26:27Z

Here are the presentations slides and notes for the workshop I gave to TCANZ members this month.

TCANZ Workshop - Usability Techniques: Slides (zipped PDF, 4MB)

TCANZ Workshop - Usability Techniques: Workbook (PDF, 240 KB)

Usability Techniques Workshops

2006-07-11T05:15:52Z

The Technical Communicators Association of New Zealand (TCANZ) has asked me to run some Usability Techniques workshops at the end of the month.

Full details and registration at the TCANZ website: http://www.tcanz.org.nz/Events/Workshops/UsabilityWorkshop2006.htm

I'm really looking forward to running these workshops. I'm aiming to make them as practical and hands-on as possible. There'll be some "theory" of course, but mostly I want to give participants the opportunity to practice some core usability/user centred design methods.

We'll create some user profiles (personas), carry out a card-sorting exercise, develop some paper prototypes and practice running some usability evaluations.

If you are thinking of attending the workshop, feel free to leave a comment as to what would make the workshop really useful and relevant for you.

The Future of UK marketplace for usability services

2006-03-27T04:51:40Z

Usability News - E-Consultancy's Friedlein predicts the Future of UK Usability Consultancy

Ashley Friedlein, CEO of E-consultancy.com, about the future of the UK marketplace for usability services and how he expects usability agencies to evolve.

Fonts & Typography for the Web

2005-12-08T20:48:33Z

Richard Rutter of Clagnut has launched his The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web - a practical guide to web typography, based on Robert Bringhurst’s classic book The Elements of Typographic Style.

Richard states that it is a "work in progress. I am adding to the site in the order presented in Bringhurst’s book, one principle at a time. You can subscribe to an RSS feed for notification of new additions."

I am looking forward to the next installments.

Intranet Review Toolkit

2005-12-01T20:17:35Z

Step Two Designs, in conjunction with the IA Institute, have just released a free Intranet Review Toolkit

This toolkit provides intranet managers and designers with an easy-to-use method to assess the strengths and weaknesses of their intranets.

While I don't necessarily agree with all of the guidelines (or applying them blindly without considering your specific circumstances), it's a good starting point to get you thinking about the various aspects of your intranet.