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Wednesday, October 31, 2001
If I had the time, and a PC, I would definately explore some of the really cool sounding software at sweetcode.org. Who knew that Pad++ had been ported to java?
Sunday, October 28, 2001
An old co-worker and friend Tonya Browning is teaching a class at the University of Texas with a great title: WYSIWYG and Other Myths of Interface Design>". Check out the syllabus; it's tough. I'm sure she has some undergrads whinging about it right now. Tonya's got some great assignments and readings in there, worth checking out.
Friday, October 26, 2001
You can always find some new interesting thing you'd never noticed at the Doors of Perception site. I kind of like this interview with Lev Manovich and David Gauntlett, particularly that Gauntlett says of academic media studies: "To make an intelligent film like The Matrix or Fight Club is a substantial achievement, whereas writing a typical academic article about it is, in comparison, pathetic." Yeah, that was sort of the feeling I had when I dropped out of academia.
Manovich calls the database "the first potentially 'radical new cultural form'" which is a cool sounding idea somehow, although I'm not sure what to do with it.
Thursday, October 25, 2001
Man, I see stuff like this and get depressed. Zaundhaus' stuff is exceptionally good; it's worth signing up for the free test account at bom.com to see thier web-application work. As Matt points out, that little "work meter" at the upper right is a cute touch, but it went down from 85% to 75% in the half-hour I was poking around the site! Hang in there!
Wednesday, October 24, 2001
Now this is silly. Corporate moralising in cartoons is plain stupid.
Of course, when it shows up in one of Apple's annual entertainment efforts, it's ok with me. :-)
Sunday, October 21, 2001
Gorgeous Flash games.
Friday, October 19, 2001
Interesting interview with Jef Raskin, John Thackera, and others on "Designing the Future."
Also, some hints of the first projects at Ivrea are online at their very nice site. Interesting stuff, although somewhat less product- and practically-oriented than I'd hoped would come out of Ivrea.
Thursday, October 18, 2001
At last, ID magazine seems to have something happening on their site. This interview with Will Wright seems interesting, though why did they have to put all the text in a little scrolling window and leave the rest of the long scrolling page empty?
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
I can hardly belive it: I'm posting from my own computer, with a net connection in my own house at last. Makes my heart go pitter pat. Simple joys.
Had a decent interview with MetaDesign today, and would sure love to work there. Maybe if they get enough client work; I hope my trump card of working for really really cheap will carry some weight.
Tuesday, October 09, 2001
Fascinating and insightful analysis of the behaviour of Google on September 11. Check this out:
"Savvy Web surfers might consider someone naive for using a search engine to locate CNN on the Web. But if we count keystrokes and mouse clicks, it may be that this behavior is not so naive after all. Suppose a user tries to type in the URL for CNN into the browser Address field. They may type www.cnn.com or the proper form of http://www.cnn.com. Assuming Google is the user's default home page, the user need only type cnn into the search box, hit Search, and CNN will be the first site on the hit list. Entering in the full address costs 12 to 18 keystrokes and a mouse click. The Google approach costs 3 keystrokes and 2 mouse clicks. This user's application of Google as a finding aid is not only not naive -- it is quite efficient. Indeed, even if the user has CNN bookmarked (and is sitting at the computer the houses his or her bookmarks) the Google approach is faster than scrolling through a long list of favorite sites....Once again, the "naive" user exhibits a rational, efficient strategy for finding the site desired. And, as with American Airlines and aa.com, the greater the difference between brand name and domain name, the more rational the user's strategy becomes."
That's smart thinking. Is it possible that people are consciously or unconsciously adapting to interactions that save keystrokes or in other ways simplify use? What other examples like this are there?
