Don’t forget that the Semi Permanent Design conference is on this weekend, starting tomorrow here in Sydney. Thanks to Tiff and Aquent for the invite and ticket on Sat. More details can be found at the conference website.
There is also a pre-conference party on tonight (Thursday the 10th) from 7pm-12am on some rooftop at 51-53 Bourke Rd, Alexandria.
What is Captology?
Captology refers to the process and design into how computers can be designed to change what people think and do. It also refers to the study of computers as persuasive technologies which includes the design, research, and analysis of interactive computing products created for the purpose of changing people’s attitudes or behaviours.
The topic is an initiative created by The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab.
Peter Merholz comments on Finding the Right Users during research
Peter Merholz has written an interesting summary in the Adaptive Path Essays section which comments on better ways of finding users for research. He looks at a more scientific approach, by commenting that too much ?user research? is conducted, analyzed, and applied without anyone ever having spoken to users.
The relevance of User Research is important when gauging usability needs for a new or existing product, interface or design. A lot has been written about this, but as Peter comments, it is important to firstly find people who are likely to use the product, then interview enough of them so that trends emerge from their collective behavior.
Design plays a huge role in Web Credibility
Small Initiatives comment on some recent research which shows that Design plays a huge role in the credibility of web sites, particularly e-commerce and e-business. Web credibility is an interesting area of concern for the web, particularly as the Semantic Web idea takes shape.
The article makes references to the Consumer Web Watch article which focuses on this topic and comments also on the Stanford University Credibility initiative.
The interesting and important aspect of this, is that it puts quite a bit of power in the hands of visual creatives.
Some interesting comments on the New Yahoo Search Engine
The New Yahoo Search Engine launched today. I came across some interesting user comments and feedback in the Signal Vs Noise post titled, New Yahoo vs. Old Google.
David Heller comments on alternatives to HTML
David Heller has written an interesting and explorative article titled, HTML’s Time is Over. Let’s Move On. The article comments on the new technologies which have and are further being developed as alternative replacements to HTML. From Water to Java2 to Curl it gives a nice overview of some languages out there that are pushing the boundaries of development solutions. The article has been published in the Boxes and Arrows website.
Live webcam of the Sun
DiscoveryChannel.com have a live webcam which points at the sun 24 hours a day. The cam shows a live Ultraviolet view of the Sun from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO).
Displayed in green, this colour code by NASA’s imagers is representative of objects that are approximately 1.5 million degrees.
Further Reading: What is a webcam on a computer?
The Secret life of Numbers
Ever wanted to find out which integers were the post popular and most used by people everywhere? Well, someone has now done a study on humanities most popular. You better check the Java Applet and see how popular your PIN is. :)
The empirical study titled The Secret Life of Numbers was created by Golan Levin, et. al. was commission by New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., and was funded by The Greenwall Foundation.
Outbreak revisited? or just smart bugs?
The World Health Organisation for the first time ever has adviced on travel to a specific geographic region because of an outbreak of an infectious disease. This precedent makes me wonder on the complexity of new super bugs and also the controlling of new generation diseases which annually combat, become stronger and fight off medicine designed to kill it.
Known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), this disease has recently killed 59 people and affected more.
The official website of director Pedro Almodovar
The official website of Spanish flamvoyant director Pedro Almodóvar. Some of his film credits include Talk to Her (2002), Live Flesh (1997) and All About My Mother (1999) which won an Oscar for best foreign film.
All About My Mother was filmed is Barcelona Spain, has Penelope Cruz as one of the cast members and was filmed along side the beautifully colorful mosaic and renaissance influenced, Palau de la Musica Catalan.
An auditorium built in 1908 to house the Orfeo Catalan choir, it has hosted orchestral performances by Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, Wagner among others.
The palau is one of the few theaters or music halls worldwide to have been declared a World Heritage Site. I have photos from the Palau when I visited a few years back on a holiday, I’ll post them in the gallery soon.
All About My Mother is screening on SBS this wednesday night.
Do usability myths need a reality check?
Signal vs Noise post an interesting comment on Usability Myths. The post comments on a recent article by Will Schroeder from User Interface Engineering (UIE), who has written a feature article on certain usability guidelines which are often overly stated or followed, one comment includes:
You have undoubtedly heard that users give up because pages take too long to download. This is also a myth. Testing shows no correlation between page download time and users giving up. How does this myth continue to defy gravity?
Excerpt: Schroeder, W. (2003) Usability Myths Need Reality Checks [Online] Available: http://uie.com/Articles/usability_myths.htm Cited: 31 March, 2003
There are some interesting comments by users on the article, example of websites where this occurs and usability concerns in general at the Signal vs Noise post.
A new PDA phone for the blind
Kinny Cheng from iMobile posts a review of the new Alva MPO mobile phone/pda for the blind. Along with other products, the device offers a Braille “display” for the visually impaired.
Packed with features common to traditional mobile phones and PDAs the device includes 20 Braille cells, an 8-dot Braille keyboard, a high quality speech synthesizer, and ALVA’s Smart-Control user interface. It comes with tri-band compatibility, built-in SMS text messaging, and PDA features such as alarm, note taker, agenda planner, calculator.
SXSW 2003 Photos & Mozilla Hacks
Matthew A. Haughey from A whole lot of nothing has uploaded some photos from the US South by Southwest interactive festival earlier this month.
He has also written an interesting article on Mozilla, which talks about hacks and other ways to take advantage of the mozilla interface, including ways of managing and viewing a blog site. His reading list is worth checking out.
Google Labs – the technology playground of Google
labs.google.com is the location of Google’s technology playground.
The site contains some of googles latest developments including the new 26 March Google Compute where you can donate your idle computer time into scientific research (similar to the seti at home, among others).
The Google Labs also contain some other interesting search software in development like, Google Webquotes, Google Sets, Google Glossary, Voice Search, Google Viewer, and Keyboard Shortcuts where you can navigate search results without using the mouse.
Update (2011): Google has retired Google Labs – Press Release
The National Geographic Photo of the Day gallery
The National Geographic Photo of the Day gallery contains a selection of beautiful photography from the world’s best photographers and exotic places on Earth.
The gallery is separated into categories including, Adventure and Exploration, Culture, People, Animals, History, Science and Technology, Archaeology and Paleontology, Landscapes, Travel, Black-and-White, Photography, Nature &Underwater.
All the photos can also be downloaded as wallpapers in 800×600 and 1024×768 resolutions.