The last 15 journal posts

1. Carolyn Snyder on Paper Prototyping in the design process

An interview by UIE's Ashley McKee with Carolyn Snyder, the author of the definitive 2003 book, Paper Prototyping.

It's an interesting read and anyone new to paper prototyping will find it useful on areas of what the technique is, who can use it, and how it's beneficial to the design process.

2. An interview with Larry Cornett, Yahoo Director of User Experience Design

I do like the concept that you have with the information scent, the semantic mapping. I think it definitely ties into the mental model that a user has when they approach search and they are doing a query. They're looking for things that come back to match what they have on their mind, what they are looking for in the results, so the more they actually see those search terms and things they are having in their mind, in terms of what they're expecting to see, the more relevant the search is going to be for them.

Reference: An interview by Gord Hotchkiss of SearchEngineLand Continued...

3. A quote from Bill Moggridge's new book Designing Interactions

Artists and designers are trained to use the language of explicit meanings to a rich communicative element over and above direct functional communication. If we only design with the function of something, not what it also communicates, we risk our designs being misinterpreted. Worst, we waste an opportunity to enhance everyday life.

4. Fitt's law and the new Office 2007 interface

I came across a really interesting blog post by Jensen Harris, on Fitt's law and new Microsoft Office "Ribbon" user interface.

Fitts' law is a model of human movement, predicting the time required to rapidly move from a starting position to a final target area, as a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target. Fitts' law is used to model the act of pointing, both in the real world, for example, with a hand or finger and on computers, for example, with a mouse. It was published by Paul Fitts in 1954.
Reference: Wikipedia on Fitt's Law

5. My Presentation on Digital UK from EuroIA 2006 in Berlin

I've managed to upload my powerpoint slides from EuroIA in Berlin earlier this year on Slideshare. I've embedded it below,

6. What is etymology and folk-etymology?

Etymology is the study of the origins of words. Through old texts and comparison with other languages, etymologists reconstruct the history of words - when they entered a language, from what source, and how their form and meaning changed.

Reference: Wikipedia's definition of Etymology, viewed 10 September 2006.

Continued...

7. What is a backronym? and its relation to the word acronym

A backronym or bacronym is a type of acronym that begins as an ordinary word, and is later interpreted as an acronym.

The word "backronym" is a portmanteau of back and acronym, and was coined in 1983. [1] The term is also used for a new set of words put to an existing acronym (e.g. "advanced research projects agency" → "arpa" → "address routing and parameters area").

An acronym is a word created from the initial letters of a phrase: for example, Random Access Memory becomes RAM, pronounced as the word "ram".

Reference: Wikipedia's definition of Backronym, viewed 10 September 2006

8. Peter Morville, keynote speaker at EuroIA in Berlin September, 2006

This year's European IA summit in Berlin, to be held on the weekend of Sept 30 - Oct 1, 2006, looks to be one of this year's not-to-be-missed conferences for the User Experience (UX) & Information Architecture (IA) community here in Europe.

With some of Europe's most respected, brightest and talented professionals presenting & attending, I am truly thankful to have been given the opportunity to present my work with Grand Union whilst here in London.

I will write a little more leading up to the conference on my presentation, but head over to the EuroIA website now, Register and read up on the Summit Programme, all the Presenters & Speakers, and the Poster sessions during this year's conference.

Continued...

9. An interview with Barry Schwartz by Jared M. Spool

UIE's Jared M. Spool has recently had the opportunity to speak with Professor Barry Schwartz about his research on how people make choices, his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less and as a lead up to the forthcoming User Interface 11 Conference.

A podcast of the interview can also be found on the Brain Sparks blog.

10. A 360 degree capture of North Italy in July 2006

Last month my sister visited from Oz, and we had the opportunity to head over to Italy for the first time. It was amazing, this 360 degree stitched photo is from a village in the heart of Tuscani a few hours drive from Parma. :)

A larger version can also be found in my Flickr site.

11. Programme for OZ-IA conference in Sydney (Sept 2006)

Following my previous post on the OZ-IA conference in Sydney next month, the conference programme has now been announced with some exciting practical sessions.

Eric Scheid forwared me an e-mail with details of the conference back home in Sydney. :)

12. IBM User Experience Technical Report: Inside Social Network Analysis

I came across this interesting article the other day, whilst doing a little research at work on Social Networking. The paper titled, Inside Social Network Analysis, is a technical report from October 1995 by IBM, Kate Ehrlich, Inga Carboni on Collaboration, Social networks, SNA, knowledge management, organizations, and UCINet.

Continued...

13. Morning coastline in Cinque Terre, Italy :)

14. CINQUE TERRE! Some Flickr photos from Italy last week

There is always something amazing visiting new places in Europe. Cinque Terre in Italy, is one place you completely fall in love with! :)

15. ENGAGE! - The 20th BCS HCI Group conference

ENGAGE! the 20th BCS HCI Group conference will be held on the 11-15 September 2006 at Queen Mary, University of London.

Engage and be engaged in an exciting conference in London's East End. For the first time, the HCI conference is engaging with six core themes. These themes capture some of the established favourite ideas in the community as well as suggest new collaborations and approaches.

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