Discussion Archive: November 2004

ny times article on San Jose Police vehicle ui

If ever an article came along to describe why Ixd is important this is it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/technology/circuits/11cops.html

Scary part one of the officers hit a parked car trying to use the new
information system in their car while driving.

Gregory Petroff
desk 212 383 4092
mobile 646 387 2841

-----------------------------------------
This message and its attachments may contain privileged and confidential
information.

Spotlight: Centrality of search

Recently I mentioned here Apple's upcoming Spotlight as a precursor of
technologies that may fundamentally change how we interact with our PCs in
many different areas. Several people wrote me privately to inquire about the
ramifications. I'm tardy with my response, but, on the eve of Microsoft's
response to Google Desktop Search, I'll try to outline briefly here how
Spotlight is different:

1. Pervasive - Unlike third-party apps like GDS, Spotlight is part of the
OS. It's omnipresent as an icon on the OS menu bar.

2.

Utterly priceless...

...when you need to convince others of the importance of design:

The New YorkTimes
Wanted by the Police: A Good Interface

Since June, the police department has been using a new mobile dispatch
system that includes a Windows-based touch-screen computer in every patrol
car. But officers have said the system is so complex and difficult to use
that it is jeopardizing their ability to do their jobs.

Officers complain that routine tasks are so difficult to perform that they
are discouraged from doing them.

Re: Favorite projects // companies

I think my favorite project/company was working with small team of technologists, designers, and product marketing specialists. We designed some very innovating products (that dealth with video annotation/retrieval). Everybody in the team believed/practiced good product design process, but each one of us has our unique strength. This was more than 5 years ago, and the original team still keeps in touch (actually the whole company).

ji