“Google is ruled by engineers, but they make for a lousy target audience because they will try any new application that has a blinking light and makes rattling sounds. The challenge is to get to the masses.”
Yahoo to Google: It’s usability, stupid!
Color My URL: the new shopping UX — “What sets Etsy apart is its design: there’s all sorts of participatory features from forums to chat rooms. The coolest thing is some of their wacky “shop by” methods. There’s the usual “shop by category”. But there’s also “shop by color”, which brings up this wild Electric Kool-Aid UI that bubbles up a rich color palette. Click on a color and a bunch of stickies appear with items that match your color selection. Move the stickies around, pick another color…”
Very cool.
“A new IT department is being born. You don’t control it. You may not even be aware of it. But your users are, and figuring out how to work with it will be the key to your future and your company’s success.” (CIO.com)
Diversity Recruiting — “However the most powerful and effective arguments that I have made for excellence in diversity recruiting relate to the business and the dollar impact that diversity recruiting can have on the bottom line. Does having a workforce with diverse backgrounds, experiences,and ideas have impact on the firm’s profitability? Well the answer is a resounding yes!”
Think about the diversity of your users. This is a very important part of usability.
The article reminds me of a Business Case for Usability! ;-)
What comes after usability? (Kathy Sierra) — “Thanks for giving me something useable, well-designed, and useful. Now, can you make it as engaging as a game or sport? Can you keep me so immersed that time and all the clutter of daily existence drops away? Where I’m under a spell that’s never broken by an intrusion from the software itself? Where the challenge is NOT in using the software, but in what I’m using the software TO DO?”
Usability will never go away. Don’t assume from the question that the end of usability is upon us. Instead, think about where and how it fits as the world changes.
“Recent changes in my family life have led to the teletubbies becoming a household fixture. My new gig involves working with an eye-tracker in the usability lab. Just for fun, we took a look at how people view the tubbies. As with eye patterns on human faces, participants homed in on faces. ”
Not long ago, Arnold Worldwide, a Boston-based marketing firm, had six male whiskey drinkers take a look at various images to gauge their emotional power for an advertising campaign. This is not unusual. However, it was unique in that the brains of the drinkers were analyzed during the viewings using functional MRIs (fMRIs). We’re starting to see the birth of neuromarketing.
With this as the backdrop, consider how fMRIs might be used in the realm of user experience, usability testing, and information architecture. Assuming that the intention is to increase usability and improve life for users, this presents no real problem. But, if this information is used to profile or stereotype users, especially for certain marketing activites, then we should be concerned.
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