Monthly Archives: May 2008

Do we need to be a little bit more Luddite?

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Hi, I’m Aaron and I’m a technofetishist.   I love everything new and shiny that promises to make my life better and easier.  I sometimes love technology just for it’s own sake.  Yes I know it’s at least a little out of whack with what I stand for: thoughtfully designed technology that is sensitive to human needs, values, and ethics. What are we to do?
It seems to me that at least some of the many problems we have with technology is the rapid rate at which it changes, and is improved, and we replace it .  As soon as something starts to get really stable, well used, and developed, a new version comes out.  In the case of commercial products like windows or OS X, another version comes out and we are asked to pay for an upgrade.  With hardware we have no choice but to upgrade at least every 7 years or so or we will be left high and dry because the programs we would like to use are no longer supported by those that make them (or those companies have gone out of business or have been sold etc.)  Honestly though, most people upgrade their whole computer, if not major parts of it, every 3-4 years it seems.  This creates a massive amount of waste.Sites are upgraded so often that any kind of documentation to help those that use it is outdated almost as soon as it is written.

I honestly don’t know what to do, but  it is clear to me that the technology industry, from hardware to software and design, is totally reliant on this kind of constant upgrade to keep their current business models functioning.  While I am happy to see that initiatives are happening in the HCI community on sustainability (notably many of them right here at IU Bloomington), I don’t know if it’s enough.

What this comes down to for me is that I think:

  • We need to replace less often.
  • We need upgradability/modularity
  • We need things that actually work well and stand the test of time
  • Escape the current business models that are entrenched in the world today.

I am not optimistic on many of these points, but perhaps by starting a discussion and developing my thinking here we can find a starting point.

Usability in the age of UX (Part 2)

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I know it’s been over 2 months since I started part one in this series, but my life has been very busy, but I’ve had many opportunities to think about this and other issues at CHI2008 and in my work.

I’ve been doing some consulting and usability work for medium-sized organization. Part of that work has included some usability work, and I have tried desperately to incorporate some UX ideas and methodologies as well, with very limited success.

What seems to be the theme in all that I do is that usability ends up being post design phase work, and UX MUST be part of the design phase, preferably in the earliest conceptual phases in order for it to really work. As an outside consultant or evaluator it is almost impossible to implement any meaningful UX ideas or methodology no matter what phase of the work you are brought into if the organization is not open to it and/or does not understand the power of it.

Almost everyone has a vague idea of what usability is, and it is generally thought to be positive, although there are a lot of misconceptions about it. It is easy enough to run usability tests at all phases of design and implementation and have significant ROI on it in terms of improvement of the product, bottom line (if applicable), and client satisfaction.

So what is usability in the age of UX? I guess the easy answer for me is that it is that usability is part of 2nd wave HCI, and UX is part of 3rd wave HCI. Those of us working in 3rd wave cannot forget about 2nd wave ideas and methodology, as they are vital, but the promise of 3rd wave is that there is so much more beyond it.

I’ll post more on being a Luddit later (from part 1).

Usability studies on a book?! YES! from UXmatters

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 From UXMatters

This is an interview from a new publisher who is printing books in the UX and Usability area.  They conducted a Usability study on a book, yes a printed book.  It just goes to show what you think you know about how people use and own things is not usually true.  User studies of all kinds will give you valuable data on all these kinds of things.  Does anyone think Amazon did this with the Kindle? Some maybe, clearly not a lot.