Discussion Archive: September 2006

Portland, OR: Tutorial on Using Scenarios to Drive Design

Hi folks,

I thought this event might be of interest to people on this list (with the
disclosure that there's some self-promotion involved here, too, this time):

CHIFOO Presents - October Tutorial
Saturday, October 21 - Using Scenarios to Drive Design

This half-day tutorial will teach students about the ways in which scenarios
are both a crucial conceptual design and vital communication tool for the
successful practice of interaction design.

Sea-sickness (was RE: XGL Linux Desktop GUI)

> Most of our usability metrics (laws, etc) are based on the
> constraints of 2D, what are the 3D analogues? Why are some users
> totally intimidated by 3D representations? Why do some 3D
> simulations
> make some people feel seasick?

I think about this topic often, and to me it is b/c the I/O devices we have
available to us were not intended to work in 3D environment and the "hacks"
we have created to make them work, are not as approachable as they should
be.

As for seasick ...

corporate users & usability

Hi All,

1) Do you know interesting literature or other resources about the needs of
"data entry users" and usability?
2) Do any of you know of any Microsoft guidelines for applications for
corporate users?

My education was more focussed on website usability for media companies and
B2C applications. B2B can be a rather different world.

In my case I have to deal with users that have to use the program
intensively. They want to put a lot of information in the system in a
efficient flow. Things like a inductive user interfaces (Microsoft), or
wizards don't work for them.

Interactive Newspaper Demo

For those who were asking about online newspapers here¹s a blog entry about
the demo I mention for the NYT. It¹s using WPF (Windows Presentation Format,
formerly Avalon, I think) to deliver a richer experience.

http://firstlook.nytimes.com/?p=22
Only screen shots for the moment, but it says it¹s launching soon...