mobrec

So
Question is whether this just seems awkward because it is a new way of doing things or whether it is truly a bad thing. In any case, the iPad certainly takes it's knocks in this discussion:

In a recent column for Interactions (reference 2) Norman pointed out that the rush to develop gestural interfaces – “natural” they are sometimes called – well-tested and understood standards of interaction design were being overthrown, ignored, and violated. Yes, new technologies require new methods, but the refusal to follow well-tested, well-established principles leads to usability disaster.

Recently, Raluca Budui and Hoa Loranger from the Nielsen Norman group performed usability tests on Apple's iPad (reference 1), reaching much the same conclusion. The new applications for gestural control in smart cellphones (notably the iPhone and the Android) and the coming arrival of larger screen devices built upon gestural operating systems (starting with Apple's iPad) promise even more opportunities for well-intended developers to screw things up. Nielsen put it this way: “The first crop of iPad apps revived memories of Web designs from 1993, when Mosaic first introduced the image map that made it possible for any part of any picture to become a UI element. As a result, graphic designers went wild: anything they could draw could be a UI, whether it made sense or not. It's the same with iPad apps: anything you can show and touch can be a UI on this device. There are no standards and no expectations.”

Why are we having trouble? Several reasons:

· The lack of established guidelines for gestural control

· The misguided insistence by companies (e.g., Apple and Google) to ignore established conventions and establish ill-conceived new ones.

· The developer community's apparent ignorance of the long history and many findings of HCI research which results in their feeling of empowerment to unleash untested and unproven creative efforts upon the unwitting public.

After cataloging some of the issues with gestural interfaces in a bit more detail, the article attempts to conclude on a positive note on the 'promise' of GI. It comes off a bit mixed (if not mildly scolding):

The new devices are also fun to use: gestures add a welcome feeling of activity to the otherwise joyless ones of pointing and clicking.

But the lack of consistency, inability to discover operations, coupled with the ease of accidentally triggering actions from which there is no recovery threatens the viability of these systems.

We urgently need to return to our basics, developing usability guidelines for these systems that are based upon solid principles of interaction design, not on the whims of the company human interface guidelines and arbitrary ideas of developers.

Technorati Tags: accessibility, apple, design, gadgets, interfaces, ipad, usability

So
Here is an excellent (if not somewhat depressing) animation of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Technorati Tags: currentevents, news, visualization

So
Google is now providing a dashboard to allow you to view and review location data from you mobile device (if you have Google Maps installed and enabled Google Latitude for location reporting).

Whenever this topic comes up, privacy is usually one of the first things that leaps to mind. Google are careful to address this explicitly:

We’re really excited to make Latitude and your location more useful to you, but we definitely understand that your privacy is important. Just as before, Google Location History is entirely opt-in only and your location history is available privately to you and nobody else. Additionally, you may be asked to periodically re-enter your password when opening any Location History page, even if you’re signed in to your Google Account already (just to make sure you’re really you). Of course, you may always delete any or all of your location history in the Manage History tab or disable Location History at any time.

Technorati Tags: google, googlemaps, gps, location, mobile, webtools

So
Here is a working web version of the solar system without any of the flash cruft. Master the possibilities, lazy web 'designers'. Note how (shock! horror! surprise!) Internet Exploder doesn't handle this properly (so much for standards).

Technorati Tags: css, design, noflash, javascript, webdev

So
It is like it has been a race to the bottom in the last 48 hours in the blogosphere. Google puts out a simple announcement that now that android has achieved critical mass and is being sold by an increasing number of carriers (both in the US and around the world) that they will seek to sell their own Nexus One via carriers and stop selling it solely via a google web site. Simple, huh?

Not to read the blog and mainstream spin on the announcement. I can't count the number of hyperbolic headlines I have seen about 'Google hanging up on it's phone', 'Google abandoning their phone', 'Google forsakes...', 'Google runs away from...', etc, etc, etc ad nauseum. Really, folks, get a fracking grip and actually read the Google announcement. But I guess it gets dim wits to click on your site if you put a sensational spin on a very simple announcement, now, doesn't it.

Technorati Tags: android, blogging, googlephone, dubious, gadgets, google, googlewave, mobile

So
A thoughtful and insightful posting on the Tea Tantrum and their 'anger'. I have always regarded the 'Take Back America' rhetoric as coded language that belies a certain masked bigotry. It appears that I am not alone in that thought.

Tea Party supporters repeatedly assert that they are not racists and that their strong dislike of President Obama is not racially motivated. The Tea Party is clearly not a hate group like the Ku Klux Klan or the various militia movements on the fringes that openly advocate hate, hostility or violence toward those they do not like. Their income, education and political influence place the vast majority of Tea Party supporters much closer to the establishment than to any such fringe groups. And in 21st century America you cannot be a well respected member of the establishment and openly advocate racist positions.

But, while not overtly racist, their vision for America does not seem to include people who are not like them as full-fledged members of the same establishment of which they are a part. Tea Party supporters seem to strongly resent the educational, economic and political advances made by women, blacks, Hispanics and other minorities over the past few decades, so concretely symbolized by the election of Barack Obama.

The concluding paragraph pretty much knocks it out of the park:

Groups like the Tea Party will continue to rise, rally against these changes and try to Take America Back, egged on by the demagogues of their day looking to exploit their fears for their own power and riches. But the end is always the same. No one can Take America Back, because what they are really fighting is the fair, inclusive and democratic character of the country, a character that gets reaffirmed and strengthened generation after generation.

Technorati Tags: ideas, politics, racism, teatantrum

So
A superhero flavored take on the iPhone vs Android phone debate.

Technorati Tags: android, fun, gadgets, humor, iphone, mobile

So
I had to pass along this absolutely brilliant posting that should shine a bright light exposing the hypocrisy and idiocy of the (Fox sponsored) tea tantrum 'movement'.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Technorati Tags: ideas, politics, teatantrum

So
Though I have been a Mac convert for over a decade, I have to admit, this is one cool looking PC from YoYoTech in the UK — a bit on the pricey side, but definitely all of the sci-fi, high tech, near-future vibe you could want.

Technorati Tags: design, gadgets, ideas, pc

So
So how do you pronounce Eyjafjallajökull? Here is a little help from a native Icelander (and some not 'interesting' attempts from newscasters).

Technorati Tags: language, travel, world