I got to thinking the other day that the usability field is now subject to local theories rather than a fully fledged theory of interaction per se. As usability professionals, we will take tools, research, ideas, inspirations from where we will to make the experience good

For instance, we don’t now only use usability labs to get the best picture of what is going on. That might be the best tool, but it might not. We might prefer quantitative data, numbers, to complete our experiment so we’ll choose an online survey. Or we might use eyetracking or analytics. Or both.

Problems with being postmodern come about when the tools are selected because of sexyness or cost rather than whether they can answer the question. I still have problems with understanding why anyone would use eyetracking as a first pass analysis tool as it provides no answers, only more questions. Finding out that a particular area has been fixated upon maybe great to know … but hardly actionable. And from the psychology we know that people can’t introspect at this level.

I’ve started to think that we need to make this more explicit. We don’t ‘only do labs’ and on the Hawdale Associates site we’ve set up some video evidence to show a kind of expert review, also a local theory. I think we need more of this and using YouTube video media makes this even more possible. Even more a stamp of postmodernism, in fact…

Share This

Sometimes it’s nice to be able to apply good usability techniques to real world items. This concerns the esteemed River Cottage Diary. Nice diary, nice concept - recipe issues are seasonal, mixed in with the regular diary pages.

But what doesn’t work is that a key orientation cue - the month - is set way out of eyeline. So when you look at a date it’s not immediately obvious what month it is. The 12th of what, exactly?

(Not my spot, credit due to Alison Hawdale, whose diary it unfortunately is…)

Share This

A clock designed to be a specifically bedside clock needs to do one extra thing that a regular clock need not do, or it is not usable. As well as the clear imperative to Tell the Time. There is a key secondary imperative Be Visible In The Dark.

(more…)

Share This

Flowers are a very popular gift at Christmas, and are an almost perfect internet purchase. But with flowers the delivery date needs to be right. (more…)

Share This

A key factor in being able to buy something is being able to find it. When people seek things out on the web, they typically will know the details of what they want, and have been intimately involved in deciding to buy it. But at Christmas many potential childrens gift buyers like uncles, aunties, cousins are often looking for things they don’t know about, haven’t decided on buying themselves, and might only have been told about on the phone. (more…)

Share This