obso1337.org

I missed this Ask Slashdot: Improving Software Usability? the other day (not suprising, I try to stay away from /.). It is interesting to see some of the responses, although it is a bit reminiscent of our own usability mailing lists. I am really happy to see a growing interest in software usability, but I fear for F/OSS falling for the same ‘usability expert’ boom we saw in the early 2000’s. It really is more than reading a book and following guidelines, and I am cynical towards this only to preserve the integrity of my work. Selfish? Perhaps, however I have a duty to myself and others doing lots of hard work to help keep the trust and quality of our work in place. On a lighter note I am also optimistic that this ‘publicity’ will help draw more usability and human factors professionals to work in F/OSS.

seele :: May.26.2006 :: General, Usability :: No Comments »

Justin and I went to Tryst last night with our laptops to hang out for a bit. Tryst remains very bohemian, although I was surprised (or maybe not) by how many people had portable Macs. I spent most of the time researching guidelines for the HIG while Justin played cards. Speaking of, I’ve forgotten how long and wordy the Apple HIG is. So much for cross-product simplicity.

seele :: May.25.2006 :: Asides :: Comments Off

You know summer is around the corner when concert season begins! This weekend a bunch of us dorks from D.C. are going to pre-party in Pachriot and then head out see Depeche Mode. Depeche Mode is one of the bands I have been trying really hard to see before they retire, they’re on the same list as David Bowie, Tom Jones (hey don’t laugh :P), Radiohead, and Tool.

My summer line-up I either have tickets for, or are planning to purchase:

• Depeche Mode (5/21)
• The Crystal Method (6/02)
• Nine Inch Nails (6/13)
• Front Line Assembly (6/22)

On a damper note, Nation, the biggest club in D.C. (and one of the biggest on the East Coast) is closing its doors this summer. Rising real-estate costs are to blame (or so they say) and AFAIK a new venue has not been found for club nights such as Alchemy and Cubik.

There are plenty of other clubs in D.C., including the 9:30 club and FUR, but none of them have the same size, layout, or atmosphere Nation provides. Nation makes me reminiscent of Metropol back in Pittsburgh.

The only thing to do now is to wait and see what else is coming my way this summer. I’m lucky to have Thievery Corporation in my back yard so they should definitely be around this summer. There are also always the shows on the National Mall and random protest concerts which visit. Yay for summer, good weather, and great music!

seele :: May.18.2006 :: General, Life, Music :: No Comments »

Today I launched a developer survey to gather more feedback about KDE and interface usage, similar to the one Jan and I conducted at aKademy. We got good feedback from the developers we interviewed, but I wanted to offer the opportunity to all KDE developers. In the next week or so I will begin serious development on the HIG, and all feedback is welcome.

The URL of the survey is http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=h6ulgyuuzozpwnz191835, hosted by FreeOnlineSurveys (although this one wasn’t free, I had to get a subscription to collect more than 50 results). I will keep the survey open from today (May 15) to May 30 to allow for two weeks of feedback before I have to start analysing comments.

I appreciate your participation!

seele :: May.15.2006 :: General, KDE/Kubuntu, Usability :: 1 Comment »

..and its only 2 weeks until summer semester (fake cheer)! Just finished my Algorithm’s final exam which puts me at 2/4 finals completed (mis-counted last time I blogged about this.. Algorithms had 2 projects — a research paper and a final exam). Now to finish up my presentation for my IA project for tomorrow night.. and I’m clear to finish SeqViz for next Wednesday. Oi, an just think my thesis will be even more crazy!

seele :: May.09.2006 :: Asides :: Comments Off