Picture My World

The iBot is a new wheelchair concept.  Simply amazing and addresses the fundamental needs of chair-bound people.  Seeing something like this makes me wonder what other things we could revolutionize with some creative thinking.  (Referenced over on the UIE blog.)

This is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time (because it’s so true). Check out the video on youtube.com. Sorry - the video was removed from youtube.com.

Kodak Vancouver is hiring a Usability Engineer (update: the link now points to the job posting).  That means my team is finally growing — doubling in size, even!

Hiring is tricky business and, because this is an important position, we want to make the right choice the first time.  At the same time, I know that a candidate’s life is not easy, either.

So, what are your best and worst interview experiences (either has the hiring manager or as the candidate)?

[Really](http://worldusabilityday.org/). In honor of this milestone day, I’ll do some usability work.

Wow, [news.com linked to my previous blog](http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-5929432.html?part=rss&tag=5929432&subj=news) on hacker’s and GUIs. Welcome, visitors.

[Slashdot](http://slashdot.org) links to this [interesting article in Wired](http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,69428,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_5) about [Neuros Technology](http://www.neurosaudio.com/), a company with a new portable video player, that has open sourced its firmware development. They hope to get an edge in the user interface department because, according to the article:

Open-source geeks might not represent the typical consumer, demographics-wise. But hackers don’t like to waste time with a clumsy user interface. Just like other consumers, they want a minimum of fuss when they access advanced features, such as transferring files over Bluetooth with the latest Nokia phone or establishing a Wi-Fi connection with a Hewlett-Packard iPaq — especially if they’ve spent hundreds of dollars on the latest and greatest device.

“According to a survey we conducted, the greatest concern hackers have is the user interface,” said Born.

Whoa. Really? Consumers don’t really want to know what bit rate their bluetooth connection is running at, but hackers love crap like that. Not to say an open source project can’t produce a decent UI (look at [Firefox](http://firefox.org)), but that’s the exception.

That’s nutty as in “It makes *me* nutty”.

I loath software applications that do not respond. You’d think responding would be an application’s biggest aspiration in life, too. I can point to two particularly frustrating examples on both Mac and Windows.

I have a very handy [VPN](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VPN) utility on the Mac called [DigiTunnel](http://www.gracion.com/vpn/). This morning, I woke my computer up from sleep and attempted to make the VPN connection to work. DigiTunnel’s menu was completely disabled, though. I was puzzled. I thought I saw it disconnect last night. My expert conclusion was that something was wrong, so I restarted the computer. As all the applications closed down, one Window remained: a DigitTunnel dialog warning me that a network share was open. The dialog was left-over from the disconnect but got hidden behind a bunch of other windows.

Often, on Windows, I’ll unlock my work PC and try to open a minimized Outlook. The window doesn’t open. I have done something (I think involving the Task Manager) to get Outlook to show up, but I cannot remember the exact steps. I usually restart the computer, though since it’s the one procedure I have down pretty well. If I do manage to revive Outlook, though, it turns out that Outlook has displayed a modal dialog complaining about a failed archive attempt.

In both these cases, clicking on some part of the application should have brought those dialogs forward so I could deal with them immediately. Is that so hard?

I gave a presentation to about 30 people on remote usability testing at the monthly [VanUE](http://vanue.com) meeting tonight. Here is [my name in lights](http://www.vanue.com/2005/09/04/remote-usability-testing/#comments). Judging by the amount of discussion that followed (cut short due to losing the room), I think it went well. I need to improve my public speaking if I want to do this more often, but at least I wasn’t that nervous and I think I only became incomprehensible once during the talk. Perhaps someone from the audience can give me some honest feedback (you did [Google me](http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=Jay+Zipursky&btnG=Google+Search&meta=), didn’t you?).

The rather cryptic presentation slides will be up on the VanUE site soon.

Don’t cut the cord

Originally uploaded by JZip.

What necessitates a label like this? Are people just getting dumber each day?

The label isn’t even technically correct. It should indicate that you shouldn’t cut the cord while it’s plugged into the socket.

The airline industry has to do some serious usability testing. [This article](http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/0322wsj-airbus22-ON.html) (registration required) discusses the challenges in testing the exits on the new double-decker [Airbus A380](http://www.airbus.com/product/a380_backgrounder.asp). They need to demonstrate that the maximum load of 853 people can get off the plane in 90 seconds or less. To do this, they will actually pack a plane full of volunteers and simulate an emergency. Wow.

The article goes on to say that the volunteers often get injured in these tests. It cites one particularly grim case:

In a 1991 test of a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 inside a darkened hangar at Long Beach, Calif., one attempt took 132 seconds and resulted in 28 injuries. McDonnell Douglas did the test over and got people to move faster. But in the mayhem, a 60-year-old woman caught her foot on a slide. She flipped, crashed headlong against a pile of people at the bottom, and broke her neck. She was left paralyzed for life. McDonnell Douglas failed the test and the FAA denied its request to put up to 421 people on the MD-11. (It eventually approved up to 410.)

If anyone ever complains about one of my usability tests, I’ll just point to this and tell them it could be worse.

Check out [amaztype](http://amaztype.tha.jp) a nifty Amazon.com search interface. For example, [search by author for Jay](http://amaztype.tha.jp/CA/Books/Author?q=Jay) and see what it does.

(Thanks for the link, [John](http://webword.com).)

Today’s lesson on remote usability testing: Don’t conduct intercontinental tests. We tried testing between Canada and the UK and things went horribly wrong. The biggest problem was communication. Supposedly we were both speaking English but I had the toughest time understanding what the participant was saying. His accent combined with a sub-standard phone connection made him sound like he was speaking through a gag. Then, at around 8:15 am with at least 30 minutes of testing left, his screen updates just stopped. It’s as if someone turned off the switch on the trans-Atlantic fibre. (The observer room’s WebEx feed was fine.)

The positive coming out of an experience like this is I now have an excuse to make a European visit.

Blogger just spat this message at me (my emphasis added):

> ### Internal Server Error
> The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
>
> Please contact the server administrator, support@blogger.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and **anything you might have done that may have caused the error**.
>
>More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Not only does this error message imply that *I* did something wrong, but it tells me about a server error log that I don’t have access to.

This is a prime example of why *everyone* in product development should be thinking about usability. “Internal” errors like this are usually the worst offenders when it comes to useful error messages.

Time for a usability-related blog…

A usability test is an excellent opportunity for the development team to see someone use (or *try* to use) their product. For a usability test facilitator, having observers in the testing room can increase the workload as you have to manage both the test and the observers. A good briefing can keep observers in line, but the facilitator still needs to be on his or her toes.

The obvious solution is to get the observers out of the room yet still let them see. (more…)

I went shopping during my Seattle trip in [Lynnwood](http://maps.google.com/maps?q=lynnwood%2C%20WA) at an [Albertsons](http://www.albertsons.com) grocery store. They have 4 automated checkout stands where you can scan your purchases and pay (almost) all by yourself. I was happy to get the chance to try out these devices. I didn’t take the time to observe anyone else using the system and am only reporting on my own experience.

The first thing I noticed was the store employee standing at a workstation in the middle of the four self-checkout kiosks. He had a computer screen and was obviously monitoring everyone using the system. I also noticed a pole above each kiosk that had a red, amber, and green light. I immediately envisioned myself making a mistake and triggering a flashing red light (and maybe a siren, too). I was a little nervous as I approached the kiosk. (more…)

In addition to my blogs below, Christian over at Smiley Cat Web Design (cool name, by the way) has also blogged about days 1 and 2. It turns out we were sitting next to each other for day 2. Now I see where your comment about “live blogging” the seminars comes from! Anyone else out there?

Today’s seminar was “Using Personas to Guide Design” given by [Kim Goodwin](http://cooper.com/content/company/executives.asp) of [Cooper](http://cooper.com). Kim focussed on Persona creation but also touched on the overall design process including user research and UI specification creation. (I’m summarizing the summarization of the Cooper design process here, so I may not get all the details right. I hope someone reads this and will correct me if I’m way off.)
(more…)

Today’s seminar was titled “Discovering User Needs: Field Techniques You Can Use” and presented by Kate Gomoll and [Ellen Story](http://www.gomolldesign.com/aboutus/ellen.htm) both of [Gomoll Research & Design](http://www.gomolldesign.com).

I have conducted a few field studies of my own but have been disappointed with the results. I came back with pages upon pages of notes and then struggled with the best way to analyze and present the data. I hoped this seminar would give me some ideas and inspiration and I was happy with what I learned today. (more…)

I’m driving down to Seattle today to attend UIE’s Know Your Users Roadshow. I’m attending all 3 1-day seminars on user research, personas, and usability testing. If you’re interested in the details, you can check the link for more info.

This is probably the Porsche’s last major trip before it’s sold. Too bad the I-5 doesn’t have more twists and turns.

This news is making its way around the web quickly, so you’ve probably already seen it. Google Maps is awesome. I love the large viewing area and quality map content compared to MapQuest and the rest. The panning blows them all away, of course. Google’s really bumped up the interactive quotient in this application. I love it.