Usability throu « Follow-up bits | Main | More on blind spots » Usability through fun I've heard myself say that things can be both usable AND fun, but what if things might be more usable because they're fun? Before you start rolling your eyes, let me remind us all that FUN is not the same as FUNNY. People are often turned off by the idea of adding "fun" to an otherwise serious product simply because they think it means "humour" or "silly." Jakob Nielson defines usability with five components: * Learnability * Efficiency * Memorability * Errors * Satisfaction "Fun" can directly improve three, and potentially the other two as well. Brains reward play. Brains like play, because play is important to survival. If something is made more memorable, more easily learned, and more sastifying... we've improved usability. The more fun something is, the more likely you are to keep doing it. The more you do it, the better you'll get. What got me thinking about fun today was the city of Bryan Texas Water Quality Report. Sean
Moteur de recherche des Livres - Ebook User Interface Design For Programmers - Jo by Joel Spolsky Wednesday, October 24, 2001 Chapter 1: Controlling Your Environment Makes You Happy Most of the hard core C++ programmers I know hate user interface programming. It's easy because you usually don't need algorithms more sophisticated than how to center one rectangle in another. I think most programmers' fear of UI programming comes from their fear of doing UI design. Actually, I’ve found UI design to be quite easy and quite rational. I'm not going to give you "Zen and the Art of UI Design". My first real job was in a big, industrial bakery. Well, this was the design. Alert readers will be wondering, "how did the dough get from Mixer B to production line 6?" There were other complications. The first few days, of course, I was terrible at this job. At first I just couldn't keep line 6 supplied with dough. After a week or so, I got good enough at the routine that I actually had, if I remember correctly, 2 minutes free for every 10 minute dough-cycle to rest. Clunky? Riiiight.
Life With Alacrity: The Dunbar Number as a Lately I've been noticing the spread of a meme regarding "Dunbar's Number" of 150 that I believe is misunderstanding of his ideas. The Science of Dunbar's Number Dunbar is an anthropologist at the University College of London, who wrote a paper on Co-Evolution Of Neocortex Size, Group Size And Language In Humans where he hypothesizes: ... there is a cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships, that this limit is a direct function of relative neocortex size, and that this in turn limits group size ... the limit imposed by neocortical processing capacity is simply on the number of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained. Dunbar supports this hypothesis through studies by a number of field anthropologists. Source: Boston Consulting Group Revisiting Dunbar's Number Dunbar's theory is that this 42% number would be true for humans if humans had not invented language, a "cheap" form of social grooming.
Interaction Design: An Introduction Color: An Investigation The web professional's online magazine of choice. In: Columns > Design in Theory and Practice By Joshua David McClurg-Genevese Published on November 6, 2006 Introduction What is color? The first true critical thinking about color occured during the Renaissance in Europe. In a previous article, I referred to color as an element of design, one of the basic tools that designers can use when building a composition. Over the course of my next few articles, we will explore the subject of color, including the historical underpinnings of contemporary color theory, key color theories, theorists who have been influential over the past few millennia, and the current state of color—including color in digital environments. We will, in the end, keep the focus on the discipline of design. What is color? What do you think of when you think about color? When you think about color, do you consider it primarily with a scientific mindset, or an artistic one? So I decided to start over. The origins of color M.
Color Theory Tutorial by Worqx Why study color theory? If you are involved in the creation or design of visual documents, an understanding of color will help when incorporating it into your own designs. Choices regarding color often seem rather mystical, as many seem to base decisions on nothing other than "it looks right." Although often told I had an eye for color, the reason why some colors worked together while others did not always intrigued me and I found the study of color theory fascinating. While attending the University of Minnesota I enrolled in almost every course I could from different departments: graphic design, interior design, and fine arts. Communicating Color What is red? HTML Red Pantone® Red Pantone® Warm Red TRUEMATCH® 6-a Color Application With respect to the arts, color was part of the realistic, visual representation of form, but one group of painters abandoned the traditional practices regarding color in painting. The next several pages of this site offer a tutorial regarding color theory.
Functioning Form - User Experience Software The list of software tools available for user experience professionals continues to grow. From card-sorting applications for Information Architects to prototyping applications for Interface Designers, here are a few tools I’ve been exposed to recently. Update: I'm only including software specifically built for a particular user experience methodology like card sorting, user recruiting, requirements gathering, etc. General purpose software like Photoshop, Visio, Flash, and Omnigraffle are therefore omitted from this list. Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer Deliver exciting next generation user experiences that leverage the full capabilities of the Windows platform to provide greater overall performance, improved usability, and increased customer satisfaction. xSort xSort is a card sorting application for Mac OS X developed to streamline the workflow of user experience professionals and social scientists. Axure Intuitect Aurora GenoPal A color picker and color matching software. Morae Ethnio