If you’re ever involved with field research, or if you just have an interest in human behaviour, you will find this video fascinating. It’s a clip from William H. Whyte’s “Social life of Small Urban Spaces” (1979).
Moving on to something linked but rather different, if you liked the clip above, you will probably enjoy the movie Kitchen Stories (2003). It’s a swedish film that involves a very whacky ethnographic research project. A researcher is sent to observe a single man use his kitchen - and he does so by sitting on a tennis umpire’s seat and tracking the flow of his subject’s movements around the room in his notepad. The clip below shows the credits, where they’ve used the theme of the flow diagram in a lovely way.
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Short video of the OLPC UI actionFrom: 90percentofeverything.com
Post Date: 2006-11-21 07:44:49
The makezine blog has a great guide on how to try out the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) system yourself on Windows, but if you cant be bothered, I have put together a video clip of the OLPC UI in action . I’m amazed to see how unusual the UI is. Apps are full-screen by default, and the black border around the sides pops over when you put the cursor at the side of the screen (as shown in screen grab). And that’s just the start of it…
It’s really n...
more Tabbed browsing - hopefully the writings on the wall for pseudo-linksFrom: 90percentofeverything.com
Post Date: 2006-11-20 06:09:43
Now Internet Explorer used tabs that means there isn’t a major browser on the market that doesn’t use them.Tabbed browsers work nicely when used with a mouse that has a wheel or (a third button) for the following reason.
You’re on one of those pages that has loads of content including links to things you’d like to read some more of. Wikipedia articles are a good example of this kind of page. You don’t want to stop reading but you want to open the intere...
more Is it just me or are IE 7’s tabs too loud?From: 90percentofeverything.com
Post Date: 2006-11-16 07:07:55
Look at IE 7’s tabs. They use more pixel space than Firefox, they are bright blue and they have Aqua-style 3D beveling. They are basically shouting off the rooftops “Hey, look at me, here I am, great new tabbed browsing!”
Is this really a good thing?
Alan Cooper refers to this kind of everyday “screen dominating” application as having a “ sovereign posture “. He says sovereign applications should have subtle controls that fade into the background.
...
more Bad usability is like a leaky pipe.From: 90percentofeverything.com
Post Date: 2006-11-13 11:38:07
In his recent blog post , Paul Adams got me thinking about metaphors, and how useful they are in explaining usability in a hurry.
A friend recently asked me for some advice to help him “improve” his website. The site involves selling advertising space for employers to post jobs. This is how the conversation went:
Me: “On the jobs page, the search box should be made bigger, since it’s
the site’s main offering”
Site owner: “But the search box is right there! How coul...
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