Presenting Research on the Web

I have been Looking at different ways to make SIL’s digital research content more interactive, findable, and usable. Today I found http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/. It is interesting how they approach the facets of Location, Projects, Publications, and People up in the right hand corner. I think they did a good job. The site feels like it is balanced.

Microsoft Research

Microsoft Research Home Page

Switching Themes after 8 years

Since 2005 I have used K2, a really nice minimalistic theme for WordPress. I especially liked the spacing and the fonts used. But alas I had two people tell me that it was hard to read posts on my blog. I set out to find a new theme which was more reader friendly (especially since I am having a few longer posts). I settled with Twenty Eleven.

The Journeyler moving from K2

So in a last adieu. Good bye K2. It has been good knowing you.

Too many terms of service

You might have heard about the recent change in the Google terms of service. I have, several times. I use several Google services. Logistically, this makes a lot of sense. They sent out an email quoted below saying that they were consolidating over 60 terms of service agreements. I have had two thoughts about this

  1. Why is there no blowback or negative PR for Google like there was for FaceBook? [1]Eric Eldon. 11 May 2010. Analysis: Some Facebook Privacy Issues Are Real, Some Are Not. http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/05/11/analysis-some-facebook-privacy-issues-are-real-some-are-not [Link] … Continue reading
  2. This is the sort of scenario I have been warning one of the companies I am working for about creating. We have 3-4 separate online communities currently with separate terms of service with two other major communities about to launch. This is part of the User Experience which should not be over looked.

BTW: I am grateful for the centralization at Google.

Google Terms of service

Google Terms of service

Dear Google Apps administrator for _________,

We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read. Our new policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience for your users across Google products.

As always, Google will maintain your data in strict compliance with the confidentiality and security obligations provided to your domain.

If you permit your users to access optional additional Google services for your domain, your users may separately receive notifications communicating the new Privacy Policy. You can visit your Google Apps control panel at any time if you’d like to review the additional services accessible to your users.

We’re excited about the improvements we are making across our products and appreciate your support. You can view the new privacy policy at http://www.google.com/policies. These changes will take effect on March 1, 2012.

Please do not reply to this email. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered. Also, never enter your Google Account password after following a link in an email or chat to an untrusted site. Instead, go directly to the site, such as mail.google.com or www.google.com/accounts. Google will never email you to ask for your password or other sensitive information.

References

References
1 Eric Eldon. 11 May 2010. Analysis: Some Facebook Privacy Issues Are Real, Some Are Not. http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/05/11/analysis-some-facebook-privacy-issues-are-real-some-are-not [Link] [Accessed: 10 February 2012]

Finding your inner Zachman

The last couple of weeks I have been working on applying the Zachman's framework for enterprise architecture to two projects. I have been struggling through the first row and then skipped around a bit. I think I have found the part of the project (any project) I am most passionate about.... Working with Human Interface Architecture and explaining it as a designer to the builder of the Presentation Architecture. In my mind this level needs to be closely related to the Business Process Model and to the List of Business Goals/Strategies. [1] John Zachman. 2008. Diagram of: A framework for enterprise architecture. http://zachmaninternational.com/2/Zachman_Framework.asp. [Accessed: 2 December 2011] [PDF] [Link]

Where do I see myself most helpful in the large project...

References

References
1 John Zachman. 2008. Diagram of: A framework for enterprise architecture. http://zachmaninternational.com/2/Zachman_Framework.asp. [Accessed: 2 December 2011] [PDF] [Link]

TM in the URL for WordPress

I like my URLs to be semantic, it helps with SEO and it helps users to know what a page is about based on the URL. Today I was looking over one of my old posts and found that the TM is added to the URL. In the admin UI the title looks like this:

Title

Title in the Admin UI

Notice that I have used the & in html in the tiled. This is stripped out by the automatic URL generating engine of WordPress. However the ™ as a unicode character is not removed. Some languages with non-roman scripts need Unicode in the titles, so not all unicode characters should be disallowed in the titles. In fact, all Unicode characters should be allowed in the title field. Sometimes unicode in the URL is allowed, however it is not always best practice (unicode above the ASCII range). I in this case it should not be allowed by WordPress. I have my permalink settings set to custom. I do /%year%/%postname%/.

permalink settings

permalink settings

However, when a unicode character is put into the postname, it is not necessarily striped out. My contention is that some characters should be, or that more characters should be. The problem for users is that the unicode character gets processed to the browser’s URL bar and looks like the following:
https://hugh.thejourneyler.org/2010/selected-works™-bepress/ .
However, when the user selects the url to copy it they do not get a URL which is paste able the same as when they saw it in the URL bar, they get something like the following:
https://hugh.thejourneyler.org/2010/selected-works%E2%84%A2-bepress/ .

One solution might be for authors to use the following HTML markup in the title:

  • ™
  • ™

But this is not user intuitive or presenting a “thoughtless process for end users/authors”.

Apple App Store

I know I am bit late to the party, but I just updated to OS X 10.6.6. I have been resisting the App Store for ages. (I am doing a slide scanning project with Nikon CoolScan scanners, whose drivers require OS X 10.6 and lower.) But I needed to re-install Developer Tools and my OS disk was scratched. – A real pain. So I had to download 10.6.6 to get the new development tools to work. And a part of the package I get the App Store. So I might as well check it out. It is a real pain to use.

  1. There is no way to save an app I am interested in purchasing but am not going to purchase right now. – This is a feature in the iTunes store.
  2. No feature for saving interesting apps.

  3. The search algorithm for apps does not help me get the apps I want. – I thought I would try a search for a metadata editing tool. Some apps which I know are in the Apple App Store, and this is their primary function are not showing up. Disappointing.

Diving into the UX World

For the past few weeks I have been working with a team on redoing a large corporate website (almost two large corporate websites).

Word Cloud for UX

Word Cloud for UX

During the course of the project I have had several people, who are unfamiliar (and familiar) with web technology talk with me about UX and UI, but in terms of Design. They might say: "We need a re-design. Our branding is not displayed well." or the might say " Oh, but it was designed to do that, it is doing exactly what it was designed to do!" So, most of the people (I am encountering) talking in terms of design, are talk about the business design or the function of a website at a very high level. Not the UX and UI level of design. I have tried to explain it in the following terms

The words Usability and Design each suffer from a very unfortunate ambiguity. Usability in a very raw sense means is a tool usable. Just because every tool can be a hammer, does not mean that every tool should be shaped like a hammer. Design in computing also suffers a similar fate. If some computer tool does something, it does so because it was designed to do so. This does not mean that the computer tool is esthetically pleasing or that it creates a good impression on its user. An impression of such a nature that the user might want to come back to the site and use it again. The following diagram contrast the words, functional, reliable, usable, convenient, pleasurable, and meaningful.

User Experience model

User Experience model

Because images show so much more than words I looked around for some images to describe the difference I have been trying to communicate. This has resulted in the following collection of images. In the process of linking to these pictures I hope to introduce my readers to some of the ongoing discussion of professional UX design and development.

Layering the Design

Layering the Design

This image is from a PDF called: The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garret. [1] Jesse James Garret. 30 March 2000. The Elements of User Experience. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf [PDF]

Layering the Design

Explaining the Layers

This Image comes from a write up about UX: UX Design Defined [2]Michael Commings. 16 August 2010. UX Design Defined. Uxdesign.com [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://uxdesign.com/ux-defined [Link] In it is perhaps the best definition of UX I have come across is:

User Experience Design is the art and science of integrating all the various elements that comprise an interactive system so that:

  1. The user's needs, limitations, goals, desires, expectations, are served
  2. The publishing organization's objectives are served as a result of serving the user's (#1)
  3. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts
Peter Morville's Facets of the User Experience

Peter Morville's Facets of the User Experience

This image was take from Peter Morville's article on User Experience Design. [3] Peter Morville. 21 June 2004. User Experience Design. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php [Link]

Flickr user Model

Flickr User Model

This Diagram of the Flickr user experience model has been attributed to Bryce Glass by Kenny Chen on 5 April 2008, at http://www.kennychen.net/blog/2008/04/05/flickr-user-model-diagram/. [4] Bryce Glass. Diagram of the Flickr user experience model. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] [Link]

user experience design explained

User Experience Design

This image comes from What Is User Experience Design by Kimmy Paluch. [5] Kimmy Paluch. 10 October 2006. What Is User Experience Design. [Accessed:8 November 2011] http://www.montparnas.com/articles/what-is-user-experience-design [Link]

Multiple Roles in Web Strategy

Multiple Roles in Web Strategy

Finding the right fit of UX

Finding the right fit of UX

This image is taken from User Experience Strategy. [6] Luke Wroblewski. 27 July 2005. User Experience Strategy. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?203 [Link]

Additionally there some good articles:

  • UX ROI: User Experience Return on Investment [7] UXPassion.com. 10 October 2009. UX ROI: User Experience Return on Investment. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://www.uxpassion.com/2009/10/ux-roi-user-experience-return-on-investment [Link].
  • User Experience vs. User Interaction [8] uxrevisions.com. 23 December 2010. User Experience vs. User Interaction [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://www.uxrevisions.com/user-experience-design/user-experience-vs-user-interaction [Link].
  • The difference between Usability and User Experience [9]uxrevisions.com. 23 December 2010. The difference between Usability and User Experience. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] … Continue reading
  • Strategy by Design, the second page - about Recruiting T-Shaped People, was interesting. [10] Tim Brown. 1 June 2005. Strategy by Design. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/95/design-strategy.html [Link]

References

References
1 Jesse James Garret. 30 March 2000. The Elements of User Experience. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://jjg.net/elements/pdf/elements.pdf [PDF]
2 Michael Commings. 16 August 2010. UX Design Defined. Uxdesign.com [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://uxdesign.com/ux-defined [Link]
3 Peter Morville. 21 June 2004. User Experience Design. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php [Link]
4 Bryce Glass. Diagram of the Flickr user experience model. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] [Link]
5 Kimmy Paluch. 10 October 2006. What Is User Experience Design. [Accessed:8 November 2011] http://www.montparnas.com/articles/what-is-user-experience-design [Link]
6 Luke Wroblewski. 27 July 2005. User Experience Strategy. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?203 [Link]
7 UXPassion.com. 10 October 2009. UX ROI: User Experience Return on Investment. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://www.uxpassion.com/2009/10/ux-roi-user-experience-return-on-investment [Link].
8 uxrevisions.com. 23 December 2010. User Experience vs. User Interaction [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://www.uxrevisions.com/user-experience-design/user-experience-vs-user-interaction [Link].
9 uxrevisions.com. 23 December 2010. The difference between Usability and User Experience. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://www.uxrevisions.com/user-experience-design/the-difference-between-usability-and-user-experience/ [Link].
10 Tim Brown. 1 June 2005. Strategy by Design. [Accessed: 8 November 2011] http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/95/design-strategy.html [Link]

Some Notes on Using FLEx

During the workshop there was ample opportunity to observe how 80 people interact with the same piece of software.

About 80 people

About 80 people attending the workshop.

Of the 80 participants no more than 10 were from the university. While I was presenting my session I asked some technology owned questions and I found out that: Continue reading

Interoperability of online dictionary data: 
 A test case using WordPress as a CMS

Linked data is an effort to enhance applications and thereby lives with structured knowledge. This structure at its core is developed by human interaction. The challenge to consumers of linked data is to convince holders of unstructured data to structure it into actionable, manipulatable knowledge. Continue reading

Many Facets to Planning a Website

I found this image which I think explains many of the kinds of things that Website builders need to think through. For some in the industry this is like.. Duh! but for others this kind of layout really helps us see the complexity and the parts we need to be thinking through to implement the website.

Many of the different kinds of things that website planners have to think through.