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.