Monday, March 28, 2005
Bloglines categories
Not all Bloglines subscribers makes their feeds available, but those that do provide an interesting set of information about the way people classify things (aka folksonomy, or what user-centred design people have studied people doing in card sorting for the last umpteen years).
Among those Bloglines subscribers who've made their feeds public, I've found the City of Bits placed in the following categories:
techno-culture
social software
tech
e-politics
e-democracy
design etc.
info space
usability / info arch
blogs
design
usability
social networks
general
blogs
Userati
ia
HCI
blogs of people (not Techy People, mind)
People
media, networks and research
IA, IxD, UX
Blogs assorted
PR (as opposed to NGO and Blogs Mexico)
pkm-blogwalkers
PR Tech (as opposed to PR Personas)
Dev
Design and UX (as opposed to People I Know)
And the biggest category of all is, of course, no category.
The most interesting aspect is the category relationships in each case. That is, which categories the blog has *not* been placed in, as well as where it has.
9:50 AM|
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Sunday, March 27, 2005
Horses, water and all that
It's dispiriting to continue to see sizable amounts of brochureware on enterprise portals, intranets, extranets and websites.
The pattern often goes something like: firm thinks employees/agents/website visitors need to know management vision/what the top people think/what the directors are up to. They therefore insist that this content is placed centrally on the home page/force it on to the top of personalised intranet pages/feed it to extranet dabblers. Along with photos of their smiling faces, which contribute significantly to the time it takes to download the page.
I'd advise any stakeholder thinking of doing this to sit in on some user research sessions. After the first couple of sessions, they'll realise that
(a) few people notice such content - they're busy trying to do their job;
(b) those that do notice it get annoyed by it;
(c) those that can, set up their system to avoid that content, by personalising their page to force it to the bottom of the page, when they can't get rid of it;
(d) many users are so put off that they don't explore the site any further and believe the website/extranet/portal has no useful content for them; and
(e) some users find such content so annoying that they stop using the site altogether, even if it's supposedly central to their job.
Many people are so busy in their jobs these days that they have little time for the 'frills'. If what you're trying to get them to read is not central to the tasks they have to achieve, your content may be seen as unhelpful. If you are forcibly trying to fill up prime real estate on their screen with such material, they won't thank you for it. In fact, you'll be perceived as part of the 'them' that is trying to stop them doing their job. Please don't do it.
Management is about enabling others to do their job, not about raising the office temperature against technology and management.
1:13 PM|
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Revising user requirements
Can it really be that I'm considering buying yet another new laptop owing to running out of space owing to thousands of mp3 files, and the 'requirement' for many more...? (all legal, I hasten to add)
Looking at what's available out there, laptop hard disk storage is not really keeping up with users' multimedia demands..
1:01 PM|
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All those cables
I'll be in Manchester most of the coming week, first speaking at Manchester Usability Group (Manchester Museum), then attending and speaking at the British Psychological Society annual conference.
Every time I pack for a trip, I can't get over the number of cables, charging devices and adapters I seem to have to carry. Every piece of kit has its own connecting cables and its own chunkly mains adapter, sometimes heavier than the device itself. Around 20% of my luggage seems to be made up of a snake pit of tangled cables and large adapter plugs, together with a bag of assorted batteries and supplementary power units for every occasion.
Little progress is currently being made on battery power, and Moore's Law doesn't apply to mobile device batteries. As an interim measure, I'd like to see manufacturers coming out with some useful standardisation on mains power sources. So that I can take one adapter - with several inputs - rather than six, seven or even eight, to keep my equipment alive over a few days. Is it really necessary for every piece of kit to require a unique power adapter?
PS Michael points out that there are universal adapters out there, and yes, I have seen piles of them in Maplin. But my gripe is more with the manufacturers: not so long ago, every product had a plain standard plug. These days, every product has different power input sockets, different power requirements, different-sized plugs (some of which are so chunky they stop you plugging in other equipment nearby), different everything. Why should I have to solve the problems caused by their products by buying yet another product?
11:49 AM|
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The art of taking part
There's been plenty of activity on the e-democracy and participation front recently. First, the government's e-democracy website has relaunched, and much improved it is too.
Then the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has formally launched its Local e-democracy National Project this month.
And last but not least, David Wilcox's activities in the civil society and participation arena now benefit from a new online presence in the form of Partnerships Online, a combination of blog and wiki.
11:08 AM|
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Saturday, March 26, 2005
Cats, dogs and beasts
My neighbourhood is currently talking about little else but the Beast of Sydenham. Just as summer has arrived, we've been warned not to wander into our green and pleasant open spaces such as Sydenham Hill Wood (my wonderful local woodland) in case the Beast, spotted twice in the neighbourhood over the last week, should re-emerge and eat our babies. Scotland Yard is now involved.
So what exactly is this Beast? There's been some speculation of a black panther, while a spokesperson for the British Big Cat Society suggests a melanistic leopard might be a possibility. A police officer is apparently among those that have spotted the Beast; he judged it to be a cat the size of a labrador dog.
Quite different emotions are evoked by these various labels. Cats are fine, dogs are fine, but unknown cats the size of dogs are something else: this goes against the natural order of things, our expectations about the British landscape. And if we don't know which type of cat, we get Beast, a term with a tremendous literary and historical baggage.
Labels have terrific power to affect our expectations and feelings.
2:03 PM|
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Wednesday, March 23, 2005
The proliferation of pointless public sector websites
I recently had reason to refer - in a report I was preparing - to ITsafe as an example of yet another government website for a niche area; in this case IT security for small business and home users.
So when I had a moment, I decided to check out the website. And I found it distinctly unimpressive.
The website seems to assume that everyone is a Microsoft user, and there is an underlying assumption that everyone should stay that way. Microsoft products are the only ones mentioned, as far as I can see. Moving to safer alternatives to Outlook Express, for example, doesn't seem to be on the agenda.
These is no information on current threats, and no advice on virus and firewall software. There are few links to truly useful websites, such as A-V software suppliers or virus databases (though a number to essentially irrelevant ones). Others have commented that "the pages are hopelessly incomplete". I'd suggest that the website might lull any visitors into a false sense of security.
I'm sure many of us could come up with something better in a few hours; a website that would include essential links to A-V products and reviews, to online services for checking machines etc etc. The public sector seems to have a problem linking to the commercial world, which is strange considering that's where the money comes for these half-cocked projects.
12:50 PM|
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News snippets
Sometimes I wonder whether to give up my daily paper - there is only so much time, after all, and somehow there seems to be less of it these days.
And then I read stories such as Town to be designed round world of silence, Drivers baffled by road signs, and Pupils 'do worse with computers', whilst also discovering that mobile phones and latops have finally entered the 'basket' of goods used to calculate the Retail Price Index in the UK.
12:37 PM|
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Monday, March 21, 2005
Media Literacy
I went to an Ofcom conference on media literacy (ML) last week. Ofcom is given responsibility for promoting ML by the 2003 Communications Act, and the meeting brought together a wide range of movers and shakers from across old and new media.
Ofcom defines ML very widely, to include providers' responsibilities in traditional, electronic and convergent media access, understanding, and creation. The Act also has a whole section devoted to ease of use (section 10). Perhaps we can view ML as the other side of the coin of usability, accessibility etc.
One of the big discussion points was the increasing role of citizens as creators of content. However, the Act only gives formal representation to 'consumers' of media, via a Consumer Panel. My fear as that as long as we call ordinary people 'consumers', they will be regarded as passive recipients, and never be taken seriously as producers or creators. The labels and categories we create have a habit of influencing how the world is seen (see Sorting things out: Classification and its consequences).
There's a good literature review of adult media literacy by Sonia Livingstone, as well as a report on ML of children and young people, both available from the Ofcom website.
4:25 PM|
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Monday, March 14, 2005
Exhibitions
Carl Myhill has posted a short review of the 'You Are Here' exhibition (currently at the Design Museum), as well as a little rant about poor UX at such places, on the Cambridge Usability Group website.
If only the Design Museum curated exhibitions as well as the Whitechapel Art Gallery does!
6:42 PM|
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Sunday, March 06, 2005
Selling education=selling ringtones: Discuss
In its cover story 'MPs identify where UKeU wnt wrong', the sector weekly Computing this weeked looked at the report into the UK government's flagship elearning initiative.
The report from the Education and Skills Committee concluded that 'the main reason for the scheme's collapse was its failure to research potential customers' needs, preferring to pursue costly IT plans', according to Computing.
This was pretty much the impression I got at the time UKeU was being developed. In 2001, the UKeU had two white papers on its website, both concerning the marvellous new 'platform' it was developing (with Sun). As it turned out, fewer than 900 students chose to avail themselves of that platform, as most of those who signed up (900i in total) preferred to study via existing universities elearning infrastructure.
I wrote to UKeU, in 2001, about user experience issues, which were not addressed in their material, and never received a reply. Instead, I was placed on their 'spam marketing list', receiving lots of unsolicited marketing material, which seemed to have been outsourced to some direct marketing outfit in the US (I complained to UKeU but again received no reply). Perhaps this is the way ringtone and viagra salespeople work, but it's not I believe the best way to sell higher education. I'd imagine such antics have harmed the image of UK higher education in other countries. Will UKeU directors - who have walked away with large 'performance-related bonuses' - be asked to foot the bill for that?
3:07 PM|
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Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Bill Buxton
Bill Buxton is visiting Cambridge (UK) right now and giving talks here and there. Last night he was speaking at Cambridge Network, and there was a good turnout from the local usability and user-centred design community (small), and many more people from the local tech community (large).
Bill reckons bloggers have got too much time to spare (or that's what he suggested last night). I promise to blog something about last night's talk - on innovation, user experience etc. - before the end of the week...when I get some time.
7:33 PM|
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What role for academics?
Over recent years, I've had quite a few rants - verbal and written - about the relationship between UK academia and the real world. This is a constant debate in a commercial field (user-centred design) that has a closely linked (?) academic presence (human-computer interaction etc etc.).
On today's Thinking Allowed (BBC Radio 4), Steve Fuller said much of what needs to be said on the topic, and very well too. It's available on Listen Again.
7:22 PM|
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Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Panel rant
Last night's LSE panel, The Fall and Fall of Journalism, which addressed the issue of how blogging and journalism might co-exist or compete in the future, was a bit of a curate's egg.
John Lloyd (Editor of the FT Magazine) knows little about blogging but contributed solidly - if a little too extensively at times - from his knowledge of journalism. Robin Mansell (LSE new media) is perhaps spread too thinly. She seemed to know little about the subject at hand: throwing out a Livejournal figure as a measure of the blogosphere will really not do these days, and it was a bit of a surprise to see a new media academic doing so. Leslie Bunder, well, I really don't know what he was trying to say; he rambled, his statements seemed to double back and contradict each other. Suw Charman was the only speaker who knew the blogging world and had done her homework. But she was asked to respond to some fairly pointless questions, leaving her limited room to put her own perspective.
I would have far preferred to have heard Mick Fealty (of Slugger O'Toole fame) rather than some of the speakers on the panel. He was in the audience and could have added much useful content to the debate following his extensive experience blogging on Northern Ireland politics and culture.
At least the audience was not packed with the usual blogging suspects, with plenty of interested students present, as well as people from the publishing world. As I've come to expect, the after panel discussions were probably more interesting and useful than what we heard from many of the speakers.
PS Mick has extensively blogged the event. Well worth a read.
10:41 AM|
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Consultation on Underground hours
Pulbic consultations are only any use if people take part in them. So if you live or work in London or are a regular visitor, why not respond to the current Transport for London consultation on whether the Underground should run for an extra hour on Friday and Saturday nights?
The downside of the proposal is that trains would also start an hour later on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
10:10 AM|
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Observer's got a brand new blog
I've been meaning to blog the first Observer blog since Sunday, but it hasn't happened. Instead, I nodded off on Sunday night in front of Capturing the Friedmans while Suw Charman tapped away responsibly on my laptop (we had problems getting her Mac and my broadband to talk to each other, grrr) about the new venture. Read her account.
9:43 AM|
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