Mon, 25 December 2006
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Tue, 12 December 2006
I asked Alan Cooper (over a rather echoing connection) why he is outraged by bad software, and how he developed the concept of 'personas'. I was interested to hear the 'father of Visual Basic' say 'What I need is a computer that doesn't make me feel bad and a cellphone that doesn't make me feel stupid'. Alan's company is Cooper Consulting (www.cooper.com) The two books of his that I mentioned are: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0672326140/informdesign) About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764526413/informdesign) This episode is 19 minutes 44 seconds in duration. File size is 11.3MB. |
Sun, 26 November 2006
Erin Smith is a Senior Voice User Interface Designer and Usability Specialist with Syntellect (www.syntellect.com). Incidentally, people in the field use the word "vooey" - this is a pronunciation of VUI (Voice User Interface). Erin mentioned two books: "Voice User Interface Design" by Michael Cohen (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321185765 /informdesign). "The Art and Business of Speech Recognition: Creating the Noble Voice" by Blade Kotelly (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321154924/informdesign). Paul English's "get human" website is www.gethuman.com. And here's a link to the episode in which I interviewed Donna Maurer on card sorting: http://uxpod.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=126130 Optimal Usability is the New Zealand-based usability firm mentioned (www.optimalusability.co.nz). This episode is 16 minutes 36 seconds in duration. File size is 9.5MB. |
Tue, 14 November 2006
Karen Loasby is the information architecture team leader for the BBC. I spoke to her about metadata, taxonomy and related topics. How do you manage metadata issues when you're dealing with millions of pages, and thousands of authors? Karen referred to two sites during our discussion. The BBC Feed Factory is http://www.bbc.co.uk/feedfactory/ and Etsy is http://www.etsy.com You might also want to check out Karen's article "Changing Approaches to Metadata at bbc.co.uk: From Chaos to Control and Then Letting Go Again" (http://www.asis.org/Bulletin/Oct-06/loasby.html) and her presentation on "The Growing Pains of a Controlled Vocabulary" for the 2005 IA Summit http://iasummit.org/2005/finalpapers/66_Presentation.ppt (this is in PowerPoint and is around 260kB). This episode is 18 minutes 20 seconds in duration. File size is 8.6MB. |
Mon, 6 November 2006
This podcast contains four short interviews from User Friendly 2006, the UPA China conference in Hangzhou. UPA is the Usability Professionals' Association. I spoke to Jason Huang, Giles Colborne, Daniel Szuc and Paul Sherman. UPA China 's website is www.upachina.org, and you can find links to the conference there. Giles' company is cxpartners (www.cxpartners.co.uk) Daniel's company is Apogee (www.apogeehk.com) Paul maintains the Usability Blog (www.usabilityblog.com/blog/) Flickr tag for photos from the conference is UF2006 (http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=UF2006). |
Mon, 23 October 2006
Users of Hong Kong's public transport system will be familiar with the Octopus card, which I consider to be exemplary in terms of the user experience it offers. In this brief episode, I talk about some of the things that make it so easy to use. For information on the training mentioned at the end of the podcast, refer to the Information & Design website (http://www.infodesign.com.au/training/default.asp). |
Mon, 9 October 2006
I spoke to Jared Braiterman, from jaredRESEARCH (www.jaredresearch.com). Jared has done ethnographic research many organisations. I asked him what's meant by ethongraphic research, and how it's applied. The Mobile China work Jared refers to is avaialble on his site (www.jaredresearch.com/mobilechina). The book on user research that he mentions is Mike Kuniavsky's Observing the User Experience (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558609237/informdesign) - a book which I coincidentally described on my infodesign.com.au website as "the only 'must-read' book in the field published in 2003". (References to books on this webiste are links to Amazon.com - we earn a small commission on any purchases you make on following such links). |
Mon, 2 October 2006
Elizabeth Rosenweig is principal of Bubble Mountain Consulting (www.bubblemtn.com). I spoke to her in her capacity as Director of World Usability Day (www.worldusabilityday.org). Why do we need a World Usability Day, and will it make the world a better place? How can you get involved? Find out from Elizabeth! |
Fri, 22 September 2006
I asked John Berenyi of Bergent Research (www.bergent.com.au) why usability people are sometimes disparaging of market researchers. John has some interesting thoughts about about good - and bad - market research. The book John mentions is Vance Packard's "The Hidden Persuaders". (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671531492/informdesign). John is correct in his statement that Vance Packard died (in 1996). There's a reference to Paco Underhill in the podcast. His book "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping" (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684849143/informdesign) is an interesting read. (References to books on this webiste are links to Amazon.com - we earn a small commission on any purchases you make on following such links). |
Tue, 19 September 2006
This short podcast considers the fact that we tend to get dazzled by the 'bling' of new technologies. |
Mon, 11 September 2006
I spoke to Donna Maurer on the topic of card sorting. I think she has a very nice and practical approach to card sorting. Donna referred to the OzIA conference (http://www.oz-ia.org/2006/) which takes place on September 30 and October 1 2006 in sunny Sydney. You should also check out Donna's blog (http://maadmob.net/donna/blog/) if you're interested in Information Architecture. You can also keep up with news on Donna's forthcoming book on card-sorting (http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/books/cardsorting/). |
Tue, 5 September 2006
I asked Jesse James Garrett about his "Nine Pillars of Successful Web Teams" model. See Jesse's article (on the Adaptive Path website) for the graphical representation of his model, and his brief article on the subject. I highly recommend Jesse's book "The Elements of User Experience", which is a model of clarity. Jesse's website is well worth a visit for his thoughts on information architecture, user experience design, and his visual vocabulary for information architecture and interaction design. (References to books on this webiste are links to Amazon.com - we earn a small commission on any purchases you make on following such links). |
Tue, 29 August 2006
Good feedback is important at the User Interface and Process levels. This brief episode considers some of the elements invovled in providing good feedback. If you like the User Experience podcast, you might want to check out Tim & Tom's Design Critique podcast podcast. I met Tim at UPA in June, and he provided both encouragement and practical advice that helped get the User Experience Podcast up and running - thanks Tim. |
Mon, 21 August 2006
I spoke to fellow Irishman Ken Carroll of ChinesePod - a highly successful online language learning business based in Shanghai. A key component of the ChinesePod success is a very strong focus on user needs and the user experience. In this interview, Ken describes the philospophy that drives ChinesePod, and how it can apply to other businesses. The Hangzhou conference that Ken refers to is User Friendly, which will take place in November. |
Thu, 17 August 2006
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Thu, 10 August 2006
To err is human. This episode is a brief discussion of why people make mistakes, and what we can do to minimise errors.
The two books mentioned are: |
Tue, 1 August 2006
Choosing the appropriate user research technique can be difficult - particularly if you're not experienced in doing so.
This short podcast considers how you decide what types of activity you should undertake. |
Tue, 18 July 2006
I spoke to Josephine Wong from
Apogee - Usability in Asia about the state of usability in China. Josephine mentions the "User Friendly" conference. That's run by UPA China. Disclosure: Apogee and my company, Information & Design, work together from time to time. |
Tue, 11 July 2006
The Cultural Probes technique provides a way to explore the user's world when other methods are not available or appropriate. Gerry Gaffney discusses the technique with John Murphy, of Design4Use. Note that this interivew was updated on July 17 to provide some additional detail.
Direct download: Cultural_Probes_-_an_Interview_with_John_Murphy.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 6:06pm AEST |
Tue, 4 July 2006
We often encounter rules of thumb. This brief podcast discusses "3 clicks" "7 plus or minus 2", and the application of such rules.
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