WebWord

Business Week — “And then we threw in a system based on taste — eight taste categories. We didn’t dumb it down, we just reduced it to the level where anybody could understand it — expert, novice, somewhere in between. And we used icons and colors so people could relate. Wine experts and wine writers […]

Here’s a great picture showing visual perspective and contrast. In the picture you can see Shaquille O’Neal (7′1″) standing next to Earl Boykins (5′6″). These two guys look like they are from different planets. It is interesting how perspective changes as you manipulate contrast. If Earl was standing next to most people, he’d look pretty […]

The user experience is a crafty little devil. Designers and developers, especially in the gaming industry, shoot for stunning visual details, amazing sounds, and overall realism. The problem is that sometimes the experience is too good.
That’s right. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing! This seems impossible or certainly unrealistic. However, if […]

“The secret to programming is not intelligence, though of course that helps. It is not hard work or experience, though they help, too. The secret to programming is having smart friends.” (reference)
And the secret of getting usability into your products is to get smart friends thinking about usability. Think about training!

Science News Daily — “The displays use metallic films featuring various shape memory alloys which are produced layer by layer on silicon wafers using thin film technology. Display pixels are generated when the metallic film adjusts its curvature partially, similarly to bimetal snap plates for temperature switches. The movement of the films is then transferred […]

Nature — “Most shoppers acknowledge that when stores entice them in with festive music and scents at Christmas time, they are encouraged to buy more. But new research suggests that it may not be quite so simple. If shops get the combination wrong, or don’t make enough of a commitment to creating a festive atmosphere, […]

“I began this trek towards SIMPLICITY based upon a simple whim. I discovered that the letters of M-I-T (the school at which I serve as a Professor) occured in natural sequence in the word SIMPLICITY. Look at this: SIMPLICITY. I was even further surprised when I found that M-I-T is also in COMPLEXITY. To ignore […]

Economist — “The best such puzzles are easy to explain, yet difficult to solve.”
Raad more…

Human Factors International — “As in 2003, we present empirically derived conclusions (rather than guidelines) so as to provide practitioners direct access to recent research citations in the justification of their design decisions.”
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As you can probably guess I read a lot. I hit a lot of web sites and I am interested in many topics. It is frustrating to deconstruct, analyze, and synthesize certain information. I judge what I read using all the usual information available: age of material, author, site, number of citations, number of comments, […]

Peter Boersma — “So I wondered: As a designer, does expressing yourself effectively help you come closer to business and engineering? I think the answer is “Yes” and I think that the key is in the word effectively. Here is a short list of what can go wrong…”
Good topic. Something worth talking about: communication!
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OK/Cancel — “Basically, I had three major reasons I felt the community was thinking too big. In each case, I’m defining “big” in a different way. I borrowed John Kerry’s “Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time” as a way to organize those points.”
My answer, again, is that more training is needed. More knowledge transfer. More […]