4 Days to the Election

Pictured above, John Kerry with Bruce Springstreen in Wisconsin in front of a crowd numbering above 100,000 people.

Thanks to absentee balloting I went ahead and voted. I decided to vote absentee due to the lack of protection of secret balloting at my polling place in Tracy during the last election. That little item made me feel almost like my vote was being monitored and "bought."

Both items coupled with a secret ballot are items that are guaranteed by Federal Election laws. Unfortunately the folks in one Tracy polling place did not follow the law.

Those are some of the very big reasons why the Justice Department is deploying Federal Election Observers in record numbers to the states of Ohio, Florida, and Arizona.

This is guaranteed to be the closest Presidential Election in history. For a political and international relations wonk, it is fun to watch.

Links: 2004-10-20

• adaptive path » metadata for the masses
  (categories: IA )


• Majority of US Consumers Research Online, Buy Offline
  (categories: Business Web )


• Pat Robertson: I warned Bush on Iraq casualties - Oct 20, 2004
  (categories: Politics )

Links: 2004-10-19

• Michael Sippey: Jet Blue and the Usability of Unsubscribing
  (categories: Design Usability )


• John Eisenhower: Why I will vote for John Kerry for President
  (categories: News Politics )

Key Learnings from UI 9

So, I made it back from Boston on Friday. A few of my friends have asked me, "When are you going to post about your key learnings?" "Get it up on the blog."

I have tons of notes and key takeaways from the sessions and discussions I participated in, but based upon my motivation level from the conference and my blogs I am not sure if I will ever really post it all. Why?

The funny thing is I really don't know where to start. To paraphrase an email I sent to one of my co-workers, the UI 9 Conference had a major impact on me personally, professionally, and from a company organizational perspective. (Boy, having re-read that statement, it almost sounds like a born-again kind of statement, but it almost is true).

On a personal level, I got a clear sense of what I want to do with myself...a motivational cumbuya having been in a high energy conference. With that I have a plan of action, which is more than I can say for myself before I went to Boston.

Professionally, I learned a few techniques, such as the "5 Second Usability Test" and also got a sense that most of the usability, political, and design problems I am facing are not unique. That latter piece was very comforting considering some of the insane situations I am finding myself in the middle of these days.

Also, I came away with a reminder that the true value of Usability and User experience is not really appreciated by Senior Management. In the end usability needs to be portrayed in concepts they understand...meaning, increase revenue, shareholder value, market share, etc. So, the term "Usability Testing" is something that needs to be banned in conversations at that level because the folks don't care about it.

And then Organizationally...well, let's just say that it became clear to me that there is a need for a usability soul searching process. That's all I can say because I really don't know where it will go or where I can take it.

I will try to finish posting some of the session highlights (like I started to do while in Boston), but I am not making any promises.

Links: 2004-10-18

• BetaVote.com
  (categories: Politics )


• GUUUI - The optimal layout of search result pages
  (categories: UXP IA )


• Without a Doubt - The faith-based Presidency of George W. Bush
  (categories: Politics )

The Importance of the Battery Strip

(Photo: Jeff Veen under Creative Commons )

You really don't think about electricity until you need it. That is especially true when you are in a conference and using a laptop in sessions that are lasting 8 hours. That's me this week in Boston at UI 9. Seeing that sign at a few tables at the conference (along with the secret active Ethernet cable) is like gold.

How To Make a Crowd of UXP People Laugh in Unison

Name one thing that is guaranteed to make a crowd of 150+ User Experience professionals laugh all at once at User Interface 9 in Boston...

Give up?

A funny movie showing a bunch of guys IM'ng each other in the same room. Hilarious.

Thanks to Jared Spool for showing this in his Keynote today.

Day 1 UI 9: Honing Your Usability Testing Skills

I spent the bulk of the day in an all day techniques practicum with Ginny Riddish working on refining usability testing techniques including issue identification and task development for usability test scripts.

One of the many interesting items that came up as part of the session were in the areas of preparing and holding usability tests. The big item that sort of made my jaw drop, particularly with the numerous discussions I have had in my group, is that you really can't get good usability test results with 6 or less people in your sample. That really slaps in the face of conventional wisdom of several folks including Virzi and John Lewis at IBM.

The caveat in all this is the frequency of testing. The results that Virzi found in 1992, where 90% of usability problems were identified with 3 -5 people was derived from software interfaces and not web applications. That really is a important distinction. Riddish maintains that 6 or less participants in a usability test are only effective if you test more than just once in a software development cycle. If you are resting your laurels on one test on a web product, you cannot rely on a small sample size. The key to usability testing, especially in small sample sizes, is in iterative testing.

Another major pitfall to Usability Testing, which is something I have seen elsewhere, is the lack of focus and scope on what is being tested. It is absolutely essential to be very focused on what it is that is going to be tested--a prototype, a navigation system, or a working product, and to be very specific up front with what are some of the issues that you are concerned about BEFORE going into testing. There are instances where you will end up with mutliple issues and concerns that you will want to test, but it is often wise to segment those items into groups and then run multiple usability tests to test each of those groups.

Finally, test early and test often. This really is not news, but it reinforces what is so common in web site and web application development. All too often, Usability testing is called in midway through a project or just before a product is going to launch to fix a "concern" after it has been coded. It is much more efficient and prudent to test before there is a problem. This can be very effective even if the product is a web site that is going to be redesigned, but has not been put through that process yet. A usability evaluation of the "old site" can be invaluable in identifying issues with the site that stakeholders are not even aware of. All too often, even in a complete redesign, there are features that either have issues or just work well that are either carried over or just dropped without any comprehension of actual issues experienced by the users of the site. Early testing can help identify these types of "features" that should be examined and refined further before going into the site redesign process.

Hello Boston

Well, I have gone mobile. Getting up at 3:30 AM for a 7 AM departure from Oakland to Boston was definitely not fun. However 1 stop over in Denver and 8 hours later I made it. This is shot from my hotel in Cambridge facing downtown Boston.

Starting at 8 AM tomorrow I will be neck deep in Usability sessions at UI 9. Depending upon how ambitious I am I will probably be blogging some of the key session notes here.

60GB iPod to pack photo-viewing features

Damn...if I could only have waited 30 days longer...revised version of the iPod.

Links: 2004-10-07

• peterme.com: Taking a longer view...
  (categories: Usability Ethnographic Research )

The Husband/Wife Computer Upgrade Conversation

While this quotes comes from AppleMatters, it is almost the very conversation I go through with my wife each time I decide it is time to upgrade a computer (Mac) or expand the network with another cool device.

Every attempt I make to justify a new computer to my wife proceeds along the following lines:

"Well its time to get a new computer" say I.
"Oh did your old one break?" replies she.
"No, it's just you know getting old. Heck I bought it way back in 2000"
"But you put that upgrade card in it right?" she returns.
"YesÉ" I deftly answer.
"So what will this new computer do that your old one won't?" She asks.
"Uh, it will do everything faster!" I reply slowly.
"That's it?" She inquires
"Pretty much" I admit in utter defeat.
"Fine. Just as soon as I get that Jaguar I've been wanting. My car is a little pokey you know." She opines.

Links: 2004-10-06

• 37signals: An Introduction to Using Patterns in Web Design
  (categories: Usability WebDesign )


• Line56.com: Intranet Trends to Watch For
  (categories: Intranets )


• Intranet Trends
  (categories: IA Intranet )


• Apple's server and storage offerings are helping the company overcome its reputation as the high-priced computing option
  (categories: Technology Apple Servers )


• Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes ♫ Exporting Info
  (categories: iTunes )

Links: 2004-10-05

• Ignoring Information Needs
  (categories: IA )


• The Newton O.S. Creeps Toward New Hardware
  (categories: Newton Technology )


• Enterprise Information Architecture: Don’t Do ECM Without It
  (categories: CMS IA )


• Extensive NY Times article on nuculer weapons, Iraq, and the intelligence failure leading up to the war
  (categories: Politics )

Goodbye 2G iPod it was a fun 3 years

I am what they call an early adopter. 3 years ago when everyone was snickering at the iPod and saying that it would fail, I bought a 2nd Generation iPod with the built in firewire port.

Like a dutiful servant it served me well 12 hours a day for 3 years until the battery started to give out and die last month. New iPod versions came and went, but I passed them all up because of my love of the hardware based button and clickwheel.

However, with over 12 hours of use a day I couldn't stand a 3 hour charge from a battery that once gave me 12 hours of play on a single charge. Now, I could have replaced the battery for 30.00, but decided not to due to the fact they have introduced new features and higher capacity versions of the iPod.

For those that say the iPod is overpriced, I can honestly say that I don't think it is. For the same 400.00 I paid 3 years ago for my 2G iPod with 15GB I was able to buy a 4G iPod with 40GB of space. That is value. Besides I can take smug ego boosting comfort in the fact that I bought into a product 3 years ago that ended up becoming a cultural icon.

The one sad irony is that even with a 40 GB iPod, I still don't have enough space on the darn thing to hold my entire music collection that sits on my server. Where's that 100GB iPod I really need?

In any case, I have retired my 2G iPod to my car for playing all those audio books. Hey, just because the battery only last for 3 hours doesn't mean I won't use it anymore. That 2G iPod is actually more rugged than the iPod I just bought. That is a definite requirement for my truck.

Links: 2004-10-04

• Renewing my driving license online in 50 tortuous steps:Gerry McGovern
  (categories: IA )


• GUUUI - Creating friendly forms
  (categories: UXP )


• Creating Bulletproof and Easy to Complete Web Forms
  (categories: UXP )


• Making A Better Open Source CMS
  (categories: CMS )

Lovely Leaves

The Chronicle recently ran a great travel article on places to go to catch the change of season. Some of the places featured included the Sierras as well as Acadia National Park in Maine. Ah, Maine. Sigh.