Temporarily Stuck in Japanese Party Mode

Okay, twins. Switch! It's only been 5 weeks into my HCI program and I've pretty much been forced to change up my entire routine from sun up to sun down. Luckily, I was able to squeeze in some Japanese Street Fighter 4 tonight, along with some funky dancing. Now - ready for round two.

Dragonette - Pick Up The Phone (MP3)
Simian Mobile Disco - Audacity of Huge (MP3)

Google Suggestions

For the most part, Google suggestions has made me quite the happy camper. Sometimes, however, it just raises a bunch of questions.

Variations on Themes

People are a strange bunch. As individualistic as any person may seem, patterns will eventually emerge, indicative of a structure that controls the variation on themes across the entire human population. These themes are extractable; you just need the right set of tools.

It's best to start off simple. Because the sheer complexity of these themes, we need a means to create representation. Using physical models such as affinity diagrams, we can consolidate a team's thinking all onto a single white board - a cohesive gel of relationships revealing common issues and their themes.
We do the affinity tango when we've got "just the right amount of data." This constitutes to about 10-20 people on average, with about 50-100 notes from each person (though this varies depending on the size of the problem space). So, unless you have a wedding reception to attend to, you're going to be at it for a while.

Now, let's start. You build the affinity diagram from the bottom up - like SimTower. Not knowing what the top's going to look like, you hoard similar ideas together, using inductive reasoning to develop new design inquiries for every note. As you start to build up, you'll start to notice a string of common patterns.

Once you've accumulated enough support for a particular pattern, you can group these manageable chunks of data into even higher-order groupings. Eventually, you can use these hierarchical towers to tell a story of an entire population. Taken together, the consolidated models provide a detailed outline about work needed to inform a design.

Corn Con Queso Fresco Recipe

Now here's a goodie to boost your mood for the weekend. Whether it be dealing with the stormy weather on the East coast or blazing sun on the West, there's nothing like some grilled corn with paprika and queso fresco.

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 corn on the cob
• Queso fresco cheese
• Lime wedges

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine the butter, cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, cilantro, salt and pepper, to taste.

Rub corn with the butter mixture. Wrap in foil and put in the oven. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes. Unwrap from foil, top with queso fresco and a squeeze of lime. Serve immediately.

Vintage Goes Mainstream

Used to be only the cool shabby chic kids could grab a retro piece of hardware and call it theirs. A "thrift" find, they would call it. Nowadays, you can grab the same pieces at UO, given you're willing to pay the hipsterism premium...

Fail, A Good Thing

A couple notes to self:

When practicing interaction design, one must extensively produce rationales behind every aspect of the prototype. This includes, in part, deep creation of personas, complete with pictures and an outline of all their hobbies, passions, and beliefs - the works. That way, if and when there are road blocks, it's always possible to check back with the persona to receive valuable feedback regarding any questionable features in your design.

Usability tests are vital. More often than not, these are found to be more advantageous than any perfected creationist process or professionals' 2 cents. The users are the experts here. Conduct broadly and note all forms of feedback. Adjust, refine, and repeat.

Finally, one of the most important take away points is understanding the necessity of documentation. Simply because a design makes sense to you on paper, it merely resembles a series of scribbles to another colleague, project manager, or creative lead. Though it may seem quite obvious, you must always keep track of your thought process whenever and wherever possible. So, when it comes time for feedback, it will be in the form of edifying critiques about your design, not questions regarding its puzzling direction.

Fun with Mannequins

My girlfriend would probably kill me if I played this sort of prank on her. Though turning it into a YouTube video would mean all is forgiven, right?

Why We Need Things

If you can reduce our human evolution to one common theme, it's our gradual increasing dependency on "things." We, the people, who will own more than 400 appliances and electronic devices in our lifetime (Massimini, 1989). As a green-ist originally from the Bay Area, I can immediately point out the problem with this type of uncontrolled proliferation.

Aside from increasing resource depletion, the main problem lies in the intentionalities of man-made objects themselves. It's the need of having to improve on an existing product, whether it be to compete with another similar object or to simply "upgrade." It's how we gauge a better life with our psychological dependence on the cozy anthropocentric illusion of having control. And finally, it's the symbolic power of objects that help define who we are.

Like how the first Indian would carve his knife until sharper than any other man's in his tribe, the item he wields is an extension of his own will - a surrogate of sorts. Today, we have kinetic objects that help define us: cars, boats, and bikes. Or, for all the intellectuals out there, the act of accumulating art - fine or digital. As illogical as it is, the desire to display one's individuality is the largest driver in technological advancement, even more so than survival or comfort.

From the memories held in books to emotions held in music blaring from a stereo; all of these are experiences designed to control the cognitive entropy within our minds, tracking our greatest memories, and attaching us to objects that would essentially be without meaning if not for the contextual human connection. Hence, the paradox of human materialism isn't due to our desire to destroy our planet, but rather our need to transform the precariousness of consciousness into solid items (Csikszentmihalyi, 1981).

While the solution to this human ecological condition is probably no simple one-sentence answer, forcibly disciplining our consciousness may be the first step to a possible cure. That means inner control of Vietnamese Buddhist monk stature. Stepping away from objectified consciousness and realizing items are merely tools in our lives, not all-defining.

Though, to be completely honest, I do kind of enjoy being a materialistic goober, don't you?

Taxi Cab Yellow Vipp Garbage Cans

If you have $469 to blow on a garbage bin then this should be right up your alley. Made from the world's finest steel and leather. Built in Denmark. Also available in Chrome and White, get it here.

Probes: More Contextual Awareness

I've spoken quite openly about the importance of context lately, but I've yet to cover the tools required to do the deed. Today, I will cover a couple of them, starting with context-aware experience sampling.

This idea was proposed back in 1993 at CHI outlining the need of non-intrusive, contextually rich collection methods such as GPS tracking with multimedia (Intille, 2003). Following these studies, we've seen expansions in the design of decision theory and further development of the experience sampling methodologies (ESM).

However, the problem with cultural probes, a common ESM, is the fact that they are... well, a pain in the ass. Disruptive in nature, costly to implement, and irritatingly long in duration to analyze, researchers felt the need to dive further and improve our methods.

This came in the form of expansion of the experience sampling types. 1) Random probes (probes that appear at random times), 2) Uncertainty probes (a predictive model made to embrace uncertain situations), 3) Decision-theoretic probes (DT) (another predictive model that kicks in when it feels it's most valued), and 4) Decision-theoretic dynamic probes (DT-dyna) (an extension of DT that catches changes in context).

All of this in a mouthful is acknowledging of the cost of interruption. People don't like being bugged, let alone asked to give up information about their daily routine. Hence, a means of collecting user-data without imposing "annoyance" is an important factor in any data collection methodology. And while the methods aren't perfect, they continue to show great promise. It's just up to us to develop one that works within the context of the human psyche, along with its annoyances.

Hey There, Nice Glass

And the obsession continues! Oh, yeah. This time around, the Panasonic Lumix GF1 gets a leather case and Carl Zeiss Biogon 28mm f2.8 lens treatment. And boy does it look good.

Micro 4/3, You Sexy Beasts

Above, you can see the GF1's dimensions compared to the smallest entry level dSLRs on the market. It's a bit bigger than the DMC-LX3 as well, so it sits right in the middle between the super tiny Sigma DP2 and SLR. Coming out this October. I can't wait.

Fixies In My Sleep

Mercer Kilo TT's. Hipster heaven. I just got my first Worldsport yesterday. Just need a few cool hubs and an Aerospace front wheel and I'll be on my way to biking around this dangerous city. And when I say dangerous, I don't mean the crime rate but the incapable drivers that zoom around the school campus in a half-drunken half-moronic state.

Vin. Diesel.

Sometimes I really think I should just go to sleep at night. Anyway, this one made me laugh.

Arranging In Small Spaces

I always love the feeling of moving into a new space. Especially small, "unlivable," and cramped ones. Being able to turn it into something incredible that leaves people in complete awe - that's one of the best feelings in the world.

Scrabble Pieces as Book Labels

Ah, now here's a clever use of that Scrabble Board game collecting dust in your closet. Using them as a simple bookshelf labeling solution may just be that extra bit of spunk your home office needs.

BKRW x Albrecht Gerlach NYC Street Fashion

All these Abercrombie kids got me feelin' sick. So I gotta give it up to NYC to showin' them how to flip.

Probing Culturally, Masterfully

When trying to learn something about a community, one cannot simply toss out a survey and expect sufficient results. Like all ethnographic studies, each part contributes to another, building a demographic that's very real and culturally rich. Hence, the introduction of the cultural probe.

Understanding the local cultures is necessary when you're attempting to design within context, focusing on the needs and desires they already understood, but also to lead a discussion with the groups towards unexpected ideas without dominating it with our own.

Formalities is important. Get rid of it. Play around with ideas such as postcards (with questions on the back - "I wish I had..."), maps (asking where they've been, dream to be), and a media diary (asking them to build a story with photos, log actions during certain events). Giving the user a disposable camera is not a bad idea either.

Hurdles such as distance, respect, and cultural differences should always be addressed in the initial design of the probe. Create tests that don't require you to fly out every 2 months. Reject stereotypes. Embrace the community to get ideas for your probe materials.

Unlike most design, we don't focus on commercial products, but on new understandings of technology. This allows us - even requires us - to be speculative in our designs, as trying to extend the boundaries of current technologies demands that we explore functions, experiences, and cultural placements quite outside the norm.

And lastly, remember this - we're not looking for information. We're looking for inspiration. This is what you gain from probes; the stimulation of our imagination.

Short, Crude Laughs

It's been such a long week. I had to do it. But don't you just love Galileo?

Contexual Design at Work

Never call something state-of-the-art merely by the new choice of anodized paint. A new product - something worth nothing - is a piece made of multiple parts. Designed by multiples. Created by multiples. Because any new product developed today is almost never single-handedly delivered, this brings forth the need of a contextual and unanimous methodology of generating agreement across multiple teams.

Contextual Design, as they call it, combines design, marketing, delivery, and support all in favor of the customer. Similar to how Zappos have wholehearted dedication themselves to customer service, contextual designers are dedicated to building models around the coherent environments people work in. Going in with contextual inquiries (one-on-one interviews with 8-12 people) for details and using team interpretation sessions to extract insights from those stories can capture the issues at hand, draw work models, and develop a shared view of the customer's needs. Think of yourself as a "sportscaster," recording every tool, sequence of actions, method of organization, and interaction you see.

However, we all know systems are never designed for just one person. Designing for a general customer population is probably your next best bet. Consolidating data and using affinity diagram maps (usually via Post-It notes) to render relationships in a visible plane can help organize ideas and reveal strategies otherwise hidden from your "ah-ha" moments. With this information, you can now unleash those lovable lists, "The four functions of this product is to..." You get the idea.


Next, your work redesign sets the stage for delivery of non-technology pieces of the pie. This step primarily for the stakeholders and presents the vision behind the design - its place in the advancement of "x." Follow up with storyboards and scenarios to illustrate your future world, backed by customer data. And finally, putting in place User Environment Designs (UED) help contrast the old system with the new. It shouldn't be long until everyone appreciates your marketing and creative genius.

So, while it's no easy task, contextual design solidifies a system in context of the user's point of view, provides a holistic perspective throughout the development of the product, and gives the design team a coherent system to work with for both customers and the organization they work for.

Studio Sexy No Jutsu

Yeah, I'm feelin' it. Those San Franciscan packaging perfectionists, there's no denying Incase Studios rock!

Design Ethnography

In other words, "case reports" or "studies" regarding human societies, extending the cultural panorama to the entire world. Focusing on the patterns of everyday life, good design can generated, benefiting both businesses and production, as well as the important folks (here, yee) - people like you and me.

Because design is so broad in nature, we must rationalize it by creating some sort of process. Assumptions within design ethnography is that people are social creatures - not merely consumers. They articulate, discover, and appreciate. They don't just work, but live.

Ethnographers can thus be the mediators and creative directors between the home and the workplace. Because our perspectives of work have always tended to be negative, we can easily work to improve quality of life for all of us - so long as we use context as our guide.

Here's a good example. Italy vs. America. What's the perfect living room like? Some of us will answer, "Yeah, a TV, sofa, and maybe a computer." For Italians, you'll probably get a very bewildered look and a surprising answer, "Well, we love our dining room table. That's where everything happens. It's the center of our home" (Design Management Journal, Fall 1999). Immediate ethnographic insight.

Which brings us to the skills needed to be a design ethnographer. For one, you must be a master of social intimacy. Otherwise, no one's going to let you go into their homes to observe. You also need to ask the right questions. It's not, "How do I master e-commerce?" It's, "Why do people shop online?"

Unfortunately, these types of approaches do not use the same hardcore mathematical approaches of science nor do they allow for "deliverables" to be presented before undertaking the task at hand. Nonetheless, there is no denying the importance of understanding the context of relationships and associations between people and the world we live in. It's not our voice, but theirs, that must be heard.

Process of Interaction Design

Ah, what's in a process? Specifically, what's in an interaction design process? Something as convoluted and abstract as the human mind can't be simply mapped into an A-B-C method, can it? Yes and no. There is indeed a solution that's feasible through extensive sketches and testing, but is it perfect? The answer is no - it's never perfect.

Interaction design involves work on requirements, designing a solution, producing a protoype, and evaluation. But that's not to ignore constant trade-offs with stakeholders, the unexpected, and the task of having firm control of the gazillion ideas you might have for a specific problem space.

By employing proxies (role-playing users) can help get you started by giving a rough idea of understanding user needs. You also need to have good expectation management to keep people from expecting the next iPod (unless you have plans to deliver such a thing). It's always better to exceed expectations than not meet them.

As obvious as this may sound, the level of user involvement plays a great role developing the feeling of "ownership" of the product in the long run. However, whether it be driving around in a pimped out truck pulling users off the street or using focus groups to test your product, one must always remember - you can have too much of a good thing.

In 1985, Gould and Lewis laid down the three principles for a "useful and easy computer system." These steps are still employed today; 1) Early focus on users and tasks (with behaviors and context of use), 2) emperical measurement (prototype data for evaluation), and 3) iterative design (a never-ending cycle of feedback).

While the creative process is elusive in nature, one must keep one thing in mind - that "an expert is someone who gets reminded of just the right experience to help him in processing his current experience." (Schank) Prototyping gives everyone a better sense of the product, allowing for testing of its technical feasibility and subjective "quality" measurements by each and every one of the stakeholders in the project.

Lifecycle models can help out with showing how activities are related. That means lots of Visio work, but also milestones that make sense to different project groups. In HCI, we have three types that take precedence:

That's the Star model. Everything gets evaluated, from beginning to end. Next is the usability engineering lifecycle, which involves a fusing of usability tests within a structured software development routine. Lastly, the ISO 13407 model is an internationally renowned process, clearly identifying itself by correlating directly with the four steps of ID as listed above.

And while it's not easy to come up with a solution that everyone's happy with, being able to design via an efficient and effective process that corresponds with other experts in different fields, meanwhile keeping users as a priority, can only lead to a good thing in this blogger's opinion. Or at least until we create some killer robots or something.

Max Manus Review

Saboteurs, Nazis, and patriotism. Nice mix? Oh, yeah. The film evolves around Max Manus, one of the central heroes of the young Norwegian resistance during the World War II. Together with Gunnar Kjakan Sønsteby, Gregers Gram and the other brave youngsters not willing to see the free Norway become a part of the German Nazi empire The Third Reich. Their story - and sacrificial adventure - leaves a lasting impression for those willing to take a walk in Max's shoes for two hours. As for the direction and cinematography, I couldn't be a happier camper. Though, to be fair, I must minus half a point for a pointless story arch development. Otherwise, solid marks, all around. 8.4/10.

Fonts That Piss Us Off

Ah, Comic Sans. One of Microsoft's most disliked children. Anyone else hear about IKEA's move towards Verdana? I, myself, find the typography controversy quite entertaining. Who would've thunk a font change could stir up so much hatred?

Interfaces, Interactions & Playthings

In the 90's, we focused on improving the GUI for the single end-user. Today, with innovations in user recognition (gestures, facial, etc.), advanced feedback systems, and portability, interaction designs now have a huge bucket to pick from in their strive to advance the way we work with computers and technology.

To be fair, we must cover the paradigm - an adopted and shared approach within a research community - in which the field of human-computer interaction follows. There's this futuristic (well, not so much anymore) idea of ubiquitous computing, where computers will be everywhere, with some more apparent than others, but all playing a large part in our work, social, and everyday lives.

From this shift, we get new to see terms such as persuasive computing, ambient intelligence, and the disappearing computer. Away goes the simple touch, web, and appliance interfaces - and in comes sharable, tangible, and multimodal ones. But let's not forget about all the things we've learned over the years.

Let's start with forms and the act of filling one out. The general consensus? Annoying. Moving through tedious screens? Even more annoying. Indisguishable icons? Oh, don't get me started. We've all run into issues with bad interface design, so through extensive research (and the mind of yours truly), let us avoid these pitfalls by employing one particular mindset; context.

Context is king in the world of HCI, and research is one of the primary ways to get more context in the world we live in. For instance, playing an audio clip before a presentation actually stimulates part of the brain, encouraging more imagination and reception thereafter. Neuroscience, computer science, and education - it doesn't hurt to combine completely separate fields every so often. Heck, I would even go so far as to encourage this type of fusing of the arts and sciences in the future.

Now, let's get a little bit more complicated. Realism vs. abstraction is a fun topic, especially with virtual reality become a reality within the next decade, we're all kind of curious on how rendering reality in a computer-generated space could possibly feel. From my perspective, I'm guessing they'd feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland (as cheesy as it sounds in reference to The Matrix). Sure, they'll gain super-human perspectives as they master the art of technology (as computers master the art of the human mind), but it all takes time.

And time, really, is what we want to master. Today's web is like a flurry of billboards running through the user's mind at 90 mph. Nobody cares about how thoughtful you've placed that drop-down menu. They want information and they want it quick. So, how the hell do you master time?

It's quite simple. Accuracy, non-obtrusiveness, and prediction. Designing and planning for the future. Think in the future. Using shareable (multi-user), multimodal (combining humanistic actions), and augmented reality interfaces, we can get the user to live their lives with rich, interactive overlayed experiences awaiting them in every corner. How well everything will actually connect greatly depends on how well we plan. It all starts now.

Bringin' It Back to 2002

Birdy Nam Nam. We used to be Nam Nam's back in the day (remember Meta.4?). It's just that these guys are 10 times as cool. Thanks Nina.

We All Love Surveys

Except when they have nothing to do with our interests and seem just plain boring. However, since qualitative data (from focus groups) only work well to give insight to why people do what they do, you need an effective method to define your audience. Surveys, baby, are your best bet.

Before scheduling and writing, you must keep in mind that timing is important, as is knowing what you're trying to accomplish. "To understand if our user base has changed since last year, and if so, how; and to understand which features they find most attractive." That's a good start.

When writing a survey, you need to focus on two things: be descriptive (to profile the audience) and be explanatory (to discover their beliefs). There are three sub-categories following that; Characteristic (demographic, technological), Behavioral (web use, usage, etc.), and Attitudal (satisfaction, preference). Make sure these questions are relevant, specific, and clear, as people have a tendency to always give you answers - whether reliable or not.

The types of questions you can ask vary. A close-ended (single-answer multiple choice) questions must be exhaustively selective. Checklists give a measure of reader information desires. Likert scales (Very interesting to very uninteresting) can make answers more relevant to more people.

Fielding the survey is the hardest part. You'll need to think about choosing a proper sample size, but also considering the possibility of haphazard responses, sampling bias (hitting outside your target mark), and a flurry of other biases (timing, expectation, and invitation) that may cause less than accurate responses.

When presenting the survey, you need to emphasize importance, hold privacy ridiculously high, and always present a desirable reward. People don't work for nothing, you know. Pace the survey well by throwing in thematically relevant questions in the middle, then end it with either an open-ended (free response) question or a demographic survey.

Report it. Already? Yeah. Tabulate (count) and get back into statistics class mode because that's what you shall be doing with any apparent bell curves or measurement errors. Draw conclusions without falling into the confusion of correlation and causation. Remember, practice makes perfect - it's just that this time, you've got more studs on your belt to get started.

Micro Four Thirds, What?

Yeah. A got a motherfloppin' problem. One Lumix DMC-LX3 down. Funds barely making it to next month. I don't need to eat. Just read and wait for this camera to come out. C'mon GF1, I wanna see you dance!

In Regards to Those Evil Focus Groups

Focus groups are structured group interviews meant to reveal one thing - want. This isn't always explicit nor completely impossible to extract 100% solid info, but that's where judgment comes in. Knowing when to use focus groups is the first step.

You need focus groups when looking for desires, motivations, values, and first-hand experiences. In other words, attitudes and perceptions. Why do people value something over another?

Focus groups are not for getting usability information. They are not experts and will not outline why a certain interface fails in practice.

There are four types of focus groups: Exploratory (similar topic, observe), Feature prioritization (most attractive function), Competitive analysis (inclination to other products, why?), and Trend explanation (again, to answer, why?).

Now, how do we conduct a focus group? This is easy. All you need is a good schedule, a target audience, a scope (reasonable group size), and a carefully chosen set of topics. Your process should look something like this:

Target Audience:
Just make sure they are willing to talk about the topic at hand, and absolutely ensure that their opinions will not be judged (avoiding generational differences when speaking about music, boys and girls when speaking about cars, etc.). That is all you need.

Scheduling:
t - 2 weeks: Determine audience and scope, recruit. Select topics.
t - 1 week: Write a discussion guide, making sure it's engaging and thought out.
t: Conduct the groups and take great notes.
t + 3 days: After lots of reflection, start listening to the tapes.
t + 1 week: Analyze accordingly.

Recruiting:
Don't recruit those who know each other, those who know how focus groups work, and those who have wayyy more knowledge about the subject than all others in the group. You're looking for general balance, nothing more.

Then, Create a profile:
Demographic - Ages 20-55. Income irrelevant. Avoid $100k+.
Web Use - Has a PC. 1+ Internet experience. 5-10 hours a week for personal tasks such as shopping, comparing products, and info gathering.
Behavior - Has completed home improvement w/in 9-12 months. Cost $20K+.

Say, you can probably use this profile to recruit a couple of people. Most books say get 8-12 people, but for user experience, we're looking at 6-8 at most. For your Scope, you'll have to work systematically, using the first few groups to establish a trend and the later few as confirmation. Never use just one group to establish a conclusion.

When talking about Topics, ensure comfort by wording effectively. A Guide will help as well. Carefully ordered, nondirected, and open-ended questions will provide you with specifics and lend you personal and unambiguous experience data that will be priceless.

During the actual discussion, lay down ground rules, make everyone comfortable by explicitly dispelling any curiosities that may arise, and start sending out those Probes (aka questions), but strategically order them to avoid bias towards any subject. End it with a smile and ask them for tips to improve the session.

Now, let's Analyze. Collect transcripts (written by a helper, hopefully), quotes, observer opinions, and tapes. Create a quick hypothesis and start coding (short names categorizing and describing trends) the comments. Data Extraction time. We've got mental models, values, stories, problems, and competitive analysis. Play these into your hypothesis, carefully gauging the magnitude of trends, creating lists of components that play into the decision making, and toss in quotes for good measure. Fin.

EXTRAS: Always record the session's audio. If possible, throw a hidden camera in there to capture expressions and body language. And as a moderator, you must also be able to vanquish all that nasty "group-think." It's bound to happen, so be prepared to dispel it.

An Aviator World

Guys checking out themselves in Urban Outfitters. Smokers lighting up the street. Is it me, or has everyone suddenly joined the official Yuppie Association of America (YAA)? Speaking of ya-ya's, here's a fine tune I dig. I should warn you that it's quite emo, so grab a tissue.

The Xx - Heart Skipped A Beat (MP3)

So, What Is Design Exactly?

"Design sits uncomfortably between two extremes - a word full of incongruities, has innumerable manifestations, and lacks boundaries that give clarify and definition. As a practice, design generates vast quantities of material, much of it ephemeral, only a small proportion of which has enduring quality."

-John Heskett from Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everday Life