Hello!
The comments on this profile are unclaimed and thus are unverified.
Do they belong to you? Claim these comments.
Jim
Is this you? Claim Profile »
1 month ago
in IBM: Transform an Idea on Bannerblog
Shazam on the iPhone profiles the song as "Get Myself Into It (Prince Language Mix) by The Rapture.
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/...
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/...
1 month ago
in A Clear Case Of Design Failure on UsabilityBlog
Our credit union ATM here allows the user to enter the PIN via the touch screen, but then the user has to move to the physical buttons to do Enter. Oy!
4 months ago
in The Playground Barometer on Bannerblog
Doesn't have Palm Springs, CA in its database, but does have Temecula, CA and Cashmere, WA? Bizarre!
5 months ago
in Should Users Be “Shielded” From The Linux Command Line? on UsabilityBlog
Netbooks are purchased primarily by people who want to use them as low-end laptops. (Like me: the bulk of my laptop usage is web and e-mail and short docs, so my Aspire netbook is superb for that. Can't do the bits of Photoshop and web coding work I'd like to, but oh well.)
These users generally have no need for the command line. (But sometimes they do.) Just like on Windows and Mac, it should be there and accessible for when users need it, but not either in your face or required for 99% of the regular user activities.
Now if I can just get actual installers for software on my netbook. There's stuff I'd like to add, but the need to use command line methods has actively prevented me from pursuing such. (Compare to the dozens of apps I have installed on my iPhone.)
These users generally have no need for the command line. (But sometimes they do.) Just like on Windows and Mac, it should be there and accessible for when users need it, but not either in your face or required for 99% of the regular user activities.
Now if I can just get actual installers for software on my netbook. There's stuff I'd like to add, but the need to use command line methods has actively prevented me from pursuing such. (Compare to the dozens of apps I have installed on my iPhone.)
6 months ago
in EA: Dead Space on Bannerblog
Looks and sounds a bit like Zachary Quinto (Sylar on "Heroes", and the upcoming young Spock). When was this created?
1 year ago
in A Short Rant on the Lameness of iTunes on UsabilityBlog
Yup, iTunes' library management leaves something to be desired some of the time.
But I'm reminded of that old saw that "Capitalism is the worst basis for a society in the entire world... except for all the others." Or is that "Communism is the worst form of government in the world, except for all the others."
You take my point, I'm sure: we all have our favorite annoyance and pain points, but half of the stuff that you can do in iTunes you can't do *at*all* in other music apps. Show Duplicates. Folder structures for containing groups of playlists. A record of all your purchases. Sort Artist fields. I could go on for hours. Odds are good that few of the things being complained about are even doable in parallel apps.
We're not really bitching that iTunes does a bad job. We're bitching that they only got 98% of the way to perfect. We need to keep in mind what we're really complaining about: tiny pockmarks, where other apps have potholes and even sinkholes.
But I'm reminded of that old saw that "Capitalism is the worst basis for a society in the entire world... except for all the others." Or is that "Communism is the worst form of government in the world, except for all the others."
You take my point, I'm sure: we all have our favorite annoyance and pain points, but half of the stuff that you can do in iTunes you can't do *at*all* in other music apps. Show Duplicates. Folder structures for containing groups of playlists. A record of all your purchases. Sort Artist fields. I could go on for hours. Odds are good that few of the things being complained about are even doable in parallel apps.
We're not really bitching that iTunes does a bad job. We're bitching that they only got 98% of the way to perfect. We need to keep in mind what we're really complaining about: tiny pockmarks, where other apps have potholes and even sinkholes.
1 year ago
in My Latest UXmatters Column: How Do Users Really Feel About Your Design? on UsabilityBlog
I have the same problem. I try to put in non-published stubs for the other great topics I wan t to post on so I can be sure to remember to do them later. I don't always succeed at that, and some of the stubs linger for months!
1 year ago
in Top Three Martian Usability Problems on UsabilityBlog
It looks like that web page has been taken down. There's are still links to it on the site, but I get no content from those links or these. Mayb they came to the same conclusions that you did?
2 years ago
in CNET’s Popular Story Box: Usable? on UsabilityBlog
I find that the box is too big for my default browser window, about 3/4 of a 17" screen. It sits halfway off, limit the usefulness and thus the odds of being used.
I found it easy to find the "hot" and "older" stories.
The color scheme could be problematic for some color-blind individuals, but it's probably more useful to keep the differentiation just by the intensity of the color that varying over an entire spectrum. It's probably easier to map story "heat" on a red to yellow line than on red to green to lavender. (And sometimes the only thing worse than variations on a single color is using the entire crayon box.)
The box and font size is no worse that tag cloud representations which behave similarly.
Ultimately, though, is it worth it? For me, no. I don't care about what's "hot" in terms of what others are reading. I prefer to have What's New be in a predictable place (which it typically is, here, I think). And I prefer headlines in a list where I can scan from the same place on each line, and where I get more than three words of the headline per line.
I found it easy to find the "hot" and "older" stories.
The color scheme could be problematic for some color-blind individuals, but it's probably more useful to keep the differentiation just by the intensity of the color that varying over an entire spectrum. It's probably easier to map story "heat" on a red to yellow line than on red to green to lavender. (And sometimes the only thing worse than variations on a single color is using the entire crayon box.)
The box and font size is no worse that tag cloud representations which behave similarly.
Ultimately, though, is it worth it? For me, no. I don't care about what's "hot" in terms of what others are reading. I prefer to have What's New be in a predictable place (which it typically is, here, I think). And I prefer headlines in a list where I can scan from the same place on each line, and where I get more than three words of the headline per line.
