July 29, 2005
Yawn
Must be more tired than I realized. I came home, went upstairs to change into something more comfortable. Turns out that "something" was a 2 hour nap.
July 23, 2005
Fonts
One of my peeves in web design is the readability of fonts. Here's my recent reading on the topic.
First, it can be difficult to achieve cross-platform consistency (at least to the point of legibility, I'm not really a designer-diva...) Owen Briggs offers an approach for sane CSS sizes
Secondly, what is readable? Many designers favour smaller fonts than I would call comfortably readable. At Human Factors International, Bob Bailey, Ph.D., asks the question – What is the best font size and font style for Web sites?. (Dated article, not quite geeky enough, but some good tidbits in there about HF research.)
July 21, 2005
Overcaffeinated
Read this comic and tell me, do you think it means I'm a barnyard animal? I do have a stubborn streak...
July 16, 2005
User Research
As usual the Adaptive Path Newsletter has some interesting tidbits, this month it's the interview with Jared Spool on the topic of user research. Haven't interviewed theater people myself, but after his comments I'll look forward to that opportunity.
July 11, 2005
Little Known Fact
I used to be a big AC/DC fan. I just recognized the intro to "For those about to rock" on the radio.
Call me nostalgic. I'm enjoying it.
July 05, 2005
Fabulous View
I'm lame with picture taking, and more lame with getting around to sharing them. So, for now I at least share one picture with you: the view from my hotel room in Montreal.
Not bad, huh. Now imagine that in a tremendous tropical storm, thunder, lightning, waterfalls coming off the ceiling, seagulls fighting the wind, and me, seated on my window ledge, dry and cozy in my robe.
I had just returned from an afternoon at the Musee des Beaux Arts, a great (and free!) place to spend Canada Day. Even better when you feel a storm coming and want to avoid the rain. I thought I had missed the rain when I came out of the museum, but apparently not! It started in earnest just after I got back to my room. Then, it dried up in time to wander out into the Jazz fest. Great people watching. I could definitely go to Montreal again!
July 04, 2005
Relinquishing Control on the Web
Catching up on my un-timely email, I found an article in my Adaptive Path newsletter to be interesting.
In the days before Google, search engines like Excite, Hotbot, and Altavista larded themselves up with content in a desperate effort to delay users beyond the two pages of a search activity — search box and results. The goal was “stickiness,” discouraging people from leaving your domain. When Google launched, one reason it shocked the Web community was its focus on getting you to where you actually wanted to go. How could there be a successful business model in actively sending people away from your site?
On that note, read "How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Relinquish Control"
July 01, 2005
UPA Tidbits
For me, yesterday was more interesting than Wednesday's sessions. Saw a presentation of the user experience process at Tivo. Sounds like they are very mature in their adoption of usability. Like they actually understand that usability is their differentiator, they don't just give lip service to it. Large team with dedicated researchers, designers, prototypers, so by the time specs are handed to engineering they have a pretty good idea they're on the right track. Sounds wonderful. If you can put up with that much TV talk. I worry for the state of the world when there are people who take their Tivo on vacation with them. :-)
Lively panel discussion about building usability in organizations. Fitting, given the team envy which had set in during the morning discussion... Nice to hear that others feel like their organizational politics present a huge battle. OK not nice but reassuring.
Early to bed last night. Must be adjusting to the timezone now... it's 4:47 Pacific and I'm half ready to go out the door.