Discussion Archive: January 2005

17 Jan 2005 - 6:24pm
0
Listera
2004

R.I.P. Media Lab Europe

Speaking of things overseas:

Board of Directors announces closure of Media Lab Europe
<http://www.medialabeurope.org/news/release.php?id=76>

Beyond financial issues, is there any other significance attached to this
wrt Ireland, Europe, innovation, etc?

Ziya
Nullius in Verba

17 Jan 2005 - 8:16am
0
jarango
2004

Fwd: The non-Americans

I'm Panamanian. I can assure you there's interesting stuff happening
beyond the borders of the US. Like that Pink Floyd song says, "All we
need to do is make sure we keep talking." As someone else pointed out,
the conversation is inevitably going to happen in English, at least
until a real working babelfish is produced.

The questions I asked in my blog (and one of the Spanish lists) yesterday:

- Do I lose my identity as an "hispanic" IA because I write / research
in English?
- What exactly does it mean to be an "hispanic" IA anyways?

17 Jan 2005 - 7:51am
0
8 years ago
5 replies
Marcin Wichary
2004

Mass transit.

I've always been interested in how to make mass transit (air
transport, railways, subways, buses and trams, etc.) more friendly --
not sure if it can be classified as IxD or usability, but information
visualization and industrial design are definitely playing a major role
here.

Everyone knows the ubiquitous London Underground Tube map example,
which I've read a lot about, I also have some books about other
underground maps and signage designs for airports, etc., but it's far
too little to keep me satisfied.

17 Jan 2005 - 7:50am
0
8 years ago
2 replies
Ben Hunt
2004

Internationalization

On a side point to the "We are the world" thread, I've become aware of
more British writers using the US zee for "..zation" in place of the UK
English "..sation". The weird thing is, this has all been in the past
couple of weeks!

I'm personally considering switching to the z, for the sake of
international compliance, towards a true "International English". (But
can I still call it a 'zed'?)

Which brings me onto another usability side-point: In dialog(ue) boxes,
I've seen both the following combinations of options:
"UK English...

17 Jan 2005 - 7:03am
0
Simon Winter
2005

Re: The non-Americans

I'm from Sweden (not Switzerland ***joke***) another country fighting
for their language. The main influences come from English, and since
many Swedes are good at English, some areas of our language begin to
lack Swedish words...

The positive side of it is that it is often easy to work in
international (i.e.

17 Jan 2005 - 3:17am
0
8 years ago
87 replies
Listera
2004

The non-Americans

I get a lot of private email from this list and others whenever I ask a
question about or mention something happening beyond the borders of the U.S.
(and English speaking countries). It's usually in the form of helpful
clarification and encouragement, but also of exasperation regarding lack of
such coverage/attention/comprehension.

How many designers are on this list from 'other' countries?
Is there anything that can be done to raise their overt participation?
What are the rest of us missing that get never discussed here?
Speak up, people.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba

15 Jan 2005 - 2:46pm
0
8 years ago
9 replies
Listera
2004

Look Ma, no buttons

For people who think the iPod wheel is a carpal torture test and iPod
shuffle a minimalist nightmare:

<http://www.petracolor.de/mouse/mouse.html>

Ziya
Nullius in Verba

15 Jan 2005 - 4:05am
0
pabini
2004

Response from Tania Lang to Comments on 2004 Salary Survey

Carl,
See comments prefixed with <Tania> in response to your questions.
Myhill, Carl S (GE Energy) wrote:
> ...Whilst there are some interesting data in the report, I am pretty
appalled
> with the report as it has been presented, particularly the fact that so
much
> of the data are not represented.
>
> Here are a couple of points which sprang out:
>
> - the word 'average' is used throughout the report. Which average is being
> used? Mean? Median? Mode?

14 Jan 2005 - 6:15pm
0
Josh Seiden
2003

Personas in practice (was: Academic papers...)

> We all agreed that we would take the Persona's way to enter
> in the realm of Design. But there are some obvious reasons
> that the group can't relate with the benefits of Persona. The
> reason why they couldn't see the any direct relation this
> early is -- "we have not found any direct link between user's
> motivation to use the system with the ethnographic data we
> collected". That was one surprising revelation.

14 Jan 2005 - 3:58pm
0
Ali Scheps
2004

Comments on the peak usability/spirit soft works2004 Salary Surv ey for User Experience Design & UsabilityProfessionals

I'd also like to see a bit more slicing and dicing. For example, are there enough data points to show the salary range for folks in my area with a similar job title? Or the range for folks in my area with a similar number of years of experience? In each case, it seems I can see one or the other, but not the intersection of the two factors.

-A