For a few months now I’ve been visiting a site called Word Spy, if you haven’t heard of it, it’s a great site by Paul McFedries which identifies recently coined words and phrases, old words used in new ways, and existing words that have enjoyed a recent renaissance.
I came across this word a little while ago and it was sitting in my Draft posts for a few weeks now among others.
Here it is:
Captcha
(KAP.chuh) n. A computer-generated test that humans can pass but computer programs cannot.
Here is a nice summary by SAP Design Guild of the new and old trends identified from CHI 2003 New Horizons Conference held in Florida, US in May.
Some identified trends include, Emotional Design (also the title of Don Norman’s 2004 forthcoming book), Ethnographic issues and cross culture, New Media and E-Learning and different methodological approaches. The article also has a great list of references, links, books and further reading.
The annual CHI conference (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems) is “the leading international forum for the exchange of ideas and information about computer-human interaction.”
The Next will be held in Vienna Austria on 24-29 April 2004.
Related Australian Conferences:
OZCHI2000 held Dec 4 – 8, 2000 and organised by the CSIRO and held at the Uni. of Technology Sydney.
OZCHI2003 to be held 26-28 November at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
I came across the other day IBM’s Exploratory user interface design microsite, which shows examples of interface solutions that extend beyond the traditional graphical user interface (GUI) models and explores the use of realistic objects and places in user-interface design.
The microsite is part of IBM’s Ease of Use website which looks at User Engineering, Design among other areas.
Some of the examples includes:
* SmartMarkers – used for Data visualisation.
* RealThings design guide – The structure and elements of interfaces based on real-world objects.
* RealPlaces design guide -The structure and elements of user-interface environments patterned after real-life places.
* Desktop evolution – The history and thinking behind the RealThings design approach.
I’ve just completed a HCI post-graduate subject which taught me a lot about the process of Heuristical Analysis and Usability of interfaces and devices.
I did a little search online and found some interesting books I wouldn’t mind reading,
1. Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions by Gary Klein
2. Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart by Gerd Gigerenzer, Peter M. Todd, ABC Research Group
3. The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making by Scott Plous
4. Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases by Daniel Kahneman (Editor), Paul Slovic (Editor), Amos Tversky (Editor), Amos Tversky (Editor)
Recently I read an interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald which commented on the problems new Mobile camera technology is causing social environments.
Some of the concerns involved the banning of mobile phones in communal areas, such as pools and gyms, where mobiles can now be used to send photos of people nude or changing in dressing rooms.
Is this a serious problem for social habits and behaviour? Or will it simply lead to more restrictions of technology use and greater surveillance of society?
There are some beautiful digital photographs in Sean David McCormick’s – Digiteyesed online portfolio site.
The collection includes, Black-White and Colour stills, people, architecture, landscape, animals, nature and macros. The website also contains a collection of 1024×768 px wallpapers available for download.
One of the key areas of delivery for the Web today is the compliance of Standards. Initiatives such as the WebStandards.org Project among many others help build awareness and help also improve future directions for the medium.
An important element of web development-design today are Content Management Systems (CMS), particularly lately where the use and adoption of Blog-like sites are so common and depend on them.
There is a great article in A List Apart this week which looks at Typepad, one content management system by the makers of Movable Type that has constantly been developed with Web Standard in mind.
Andrew Francois from my post-graduate class forwarded this message about the World Press Photos exhibit which is visiting Sydney until the 22 June 2003 at the Mitchell Galleries.
It is open from 9.00am-5.00pm weekdays, 11.00am-5.00pm weekends and admission is free.
The World Press Photo exhibition showcases 190 evocative and dramatic images that capture the spirit and essence of the year 2002, including works by four outstanding Australian photographers.
The winning photographs were selected by the World Press Photo Foundation from a record 53,597 entries (submitted by 3,913 photographers) across 118 countries.
Boxes and Arrows posts a summary of Five Lessons learnt from the recent Designing for User Experiences conference (DUX) held in San Francisco, June 6-8.
The article has been written by Erin Malone, Product Design Director at AOL (America Online).
Pete let me know of an interesting documentary tonight on ABC’s Four Corners which reveals the current extent of the threat of terrorism in Australia.
Four Corners reporter Sally Neighbour presents the definitive account of the Australian connections to international terror.
There is a public lecture this coming Wednesday 11th June, 6-8pm by Professor James Elkins from the Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism at the Art Institute in Chicago.
The lecture is free, opened to anyone and is titled, What is Visual Literacy? and Who has it? It will be held at the University of Sydney (Lecture room 209, RC Mills Building, Fisher Rd.)
For more information, contact power.institute@arthist.usyd.edu.au or (02) 93514211
The entire 52 minute program by PBS Frontline on Cyber War can be downloaded from the programs website.
The International Space Station’s science officer Don Pettit took this photo of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, near Luxor.
Ok, so you’ve heard of portable storage devices (key rings, etc.) and their convenience at storing and moving around large amounts of data…
Well, here’s the next best thing, a watch that comes with a built in USB port.
It is available in multiple sizes including 32, 64 and 128MB and has been developed by a company called LAKS from Vienna, Austria.
Listening Post, an art installation that grabs text fragments in real time from thousands of Internet chat rooms, bulletin boards and other public forums has won a 2003 Webby Award in the Net Art category.
The art piece was created by Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin from Ear Studio and was housed in the Whitney Museum of American Art, in New York from Dec 17th, 2002 to March 9th, 2003.
The captured text is read or sung aloud by a voice synthesizer, and simultaneously displays this across a suspended grid of more than two hundred small electronic screens.
