Picture My World

This is only of interest to my Jewish readers.

Steven Weis points to this Jewish Week article about the demise of Edah.

*** This is not a Rogers web site.  Stop posting your contact information in the comments.  ***

Our latest phone bill had a URL to redeem a free gift for one of our Rogers services. I went to a page that offered a free ring tune. I never buy these things and thought it’d be fun.

First, I had to choose my phone type. I knew it was a Sony Ericsson, but what model was it? J300, T236, T237, W600i, or one of 5 others? Luckily for me, I remembered the phone had a status page that reported its model number (it’s nowhere on the phone’s case).

That hurdle jumped, I selected the ring tune and it said it would send it to my phone. I quickly got a message on the phone and selected “Load” only to be greeted with:

Unauthorized
We’re sorry, you are unauthorized to view this page (ip=205.205.50.3-0)

Thanks, guys. Another customer experience shot to hell.

*** This is not a Rogers web site.  Stop posting your contact information in the comments.  ***

I posted some of my UPA photos on flickr. I didn’t take very many pictures at all… That’s the problem with an SLR.

Right now, my biggest take away from this conference is “don’t fly to Denver”. As I wrote, my flight here was delayed multiple times and now my flight home is also delayed over an hour (so far). I also got security screened which included a lovely pat down. (And, no, I haven’t been away from my wife so long that I enjoyed that at all.)

Let’s forget the immediacy of my current situation.

The conference itself was excellent. Everyone at the conference was approachable and, unlike a conference like CHI, I didn’t worry that I’d strike up a conversation with some stuffy academic operating on another planet. It was a given that everyone was doing the same sort of work and facing the same challenges. I even had a great chat with next year’s conference chair, Alain Robillard-Bastien, on the shuttle to the airport. To Matthew, Matt, Steph, Ashley, Trent, Scott, Suzanne, Larry, Daniel, Josephine, and others I’m forgetting: it was great meeting you all. (more…)

Matthew Oliphant created a Wikipedia entry for the Usability Professionals’ Association.

It wasn’t someone else.

I attended Larry Constantine’s tutorial titled Breakthrough Design: Innovation That Works for Users. When learning from the “big names” I always look forward to real stories and insight that only experience brings. Larry didn’t disappoint. He’s also a great speaker.

He touched on innovation and then plunged into design topics such as techniques to break away from preconceptions and frames of reference and using abstraction to your advantage. The remainder of the day covered what makes a good interface and how users learn novel interactions. There was, of course, the obligatory hands-on design exercises. As a refreshing change, we worked on real design problems tutorial participants’ were facing at work. (more…)

I always learn something new at conferences, even if it’s not directly related to the conference theme.  Scott Kincaid, a Texan, and I were chatting and he asked me what I thought “don’t mess with texas” meant.  I said something like you shouldn’t attack Texas or they’ll kick your ass.  Another conference goer said something similar.
It turns out that the phrase is part of an anti-litter campaign launched in the 80’s! Who knew?

Weather is the bane of air travel. My 2.5 hour flight extended itself to almost 4 hours in the air due to storms around Denver. Add a 40 minute departure delay to that and you have a pretty long trip for such a short distance.

The guy wearing the “I (heart) to Fart” shirt at the airport made it all worthwhile, though. (Who would wear something like that in public?!)

I think the Denver airport is one of the worst airports I’ve ever visited. First, there’s the train you must take to get to the terminals. It was packed and the herd got bottlenecked a number of times. The ground transportation story is also very confusing. I got my bag and then proceeded to look for a shuttle to the hotel but there was nothing in view from the baggage claim except the exit. I poked my head out there but none of the signs said “To your hotel” to me.

I called the hotel and they told me which shuttle company to find, so I searched for them. The map of the terminal was useless — there was no “you are here” label and there was something about it that confused this tired traveller. Anyway, it turned out that I walked right by the desks for these shuttle companies after getting off the train. Since my goal was to find my bag and I was stuck within a herd of people all doing the same, I didn’t even notice them.

What’s the worst airport you’ve passed through?

I’m heading to Denver for the UPA 2006 conference tomorrow. It’s my first UPA (Usability Professionals Association) conference and I hope it’s a good one. I hear these conferences are much more practioner-oriented than CHI which has historically been heavily academic (although, that is changing).

I’ll take my camera and hope that the higher-than-I’m-used-to-temperatures don’t keep me inside the entire time.

Remember when your parents told you not to let go of the balloon? Remember the feeling in your gut as you watched the balloon float away?

“Dad!”

Captured at Second Beach, Stanley Park. I added motion blur to an already blurry photo but I think the effect works.