a n t e n n a

7/27/2000

• The myth of the big screen up on uidesign makes some good points about the various ways people need to interact with information applicances. On the other hand, there are lots of applications being shoe-horned into WML for cell phones that make more sense on a screen than as a voice application. I've said before that voice makes a lot of sense for mobile applications, but there are also lots of mobile circumstances where discretion makes sense. Not to mention trying to use a voice interface in a noisy place. In other words, I don't think the truism that different applications require different interfaces invalidates the contention that cell phone screens are too small for the apps that make sense on PDA-sized screens. (most-recently via brig) [#]

• Someone actually working to bring taylor's dream* to a cafe near you: Gesture-based interaction. Seems there's lots of interesting work going on at the University of York Alternative Interfaces Group.

* Taylor has this vision of computing in the future, where everybody will be hanging out in a cafe doing what looks like Tai-Chi. [#]

• Squeezable computers is an old Parc article on manipulative (physical) interfaces. Neat stuff. But wait.. there's more (of course all you clued in people already knew about this, right?). [#]

• Good ol' Microsoft research: Implications of Memory, Structure and Scent for Information Retrieval. (via good ol' InfoDesign) [#]

7/26/2000

• Reading The Browser is Dead, I'm aware of this huge divide between how artists and engineers think, even when they're talking about the same exact thing. I see this article about the need for different browsers to facilitate different experiences as an intimate but otherworldly companion to techy rants about XUL or "pervasive computing." As an aside, I'm proud to be able to think about both the former and the latter. (via webmonkey) [#]

• Since cam outed the "secret" Web Design World url, here's links to one of the two talks I did there. I'm supposed to be doing them again in Denver this fall, so all constructive criticism is heartily appreciated:

Scripting the User Interface: outline | slides
(slides optimized for MSIE 5: right-click for a nav menu or press '[' or ']' for prev/next)
Designing Usable Web Applications: to come. [#]

7/25/2000

• Which brings up something that's always annoyed me: when I want to link to a book title, I (like you and everybody else) always use the Amazon.com page for the book (unless I can easily find a good publisher's or author's page). And I hate it.. why should I link to some big store when what I really want to do is point folks to the definitive record for that particular book? I'd rather link somewhere like the Library of Congress record (e.g. A Pattern Language), but the LOC site is just a travesty of sloth and confusion and doesn't provide any useful information anyway. So by default Amazon becomes the world's library. Feh! [#]

• I like the idea of design patterns and pattern languages in general, and I love the book A Pattern Language, but I generally find them more useful as something to browse than as a reference tool. I think all the various (competing!) attempts to define a pattern language for web design need to keep this in mind. My guess is that they need to be written more holistically; as a survey rather than a dictionary. [#]

• IBM's pervasive computing glossary.. I like the term "pervasive computing" (which I first heard in the title of John Thackara's presentation). I like it because it describes the experience rather than the technology or - feh - the protocols being used. (via noise) [#]

7/20/2000

• So, I'm at Web Design World in Seattle, where I've been studiously avoiding being the "roving reporter from the show floor." But then I just heard Tog speak and they announced that he'd joined the Nielsen-Norman group (I guess they'll need a new domain name). And it made me laugh because I realized these guys have become like the Usability Mafia or something. - you know, the three families that control the entire illicit industry and they have this sort of detente where they split up the pie. And I keep picturing Jakob Nielsen walking around a conference room table at Yahoo brandishing a baseball bat and ranting about default link colors. [#]

7/17/2000

• This Testing User Interfaces tutorial actually has some really good heuristics for designing UI. (also via xplane) [#]

• Eye Candy from the Underground. (via xplane) [#]

7/14/2000

• More WAPlash: "The WAP Trap".. OK, enough with the silly names. [#]

• Updates will be few and far between for the next week-ish, since I'm going to speak at Web Design World in Seattle. As usual, you can always set up a spy. [#]

• I've been talking a bit with Alex about mobile applications. One of the good points he made is that voice is in some ways a much more natural interface for many mobile apps (the most obvious example is driving directions). Here's a related link to the W3C VoiceXML spec. [#]