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The AK-47 has often been used as an example in good design.
Why am I writing about military-grade human factors? A few weeks ago I saw this magazine cover in the checkout at Whole Foods. The tag line struck me. The words “good” and “gun” are not usually associated with each other, yet the use of the design of an assult rifle is a text-book example of the pinnacle of design. As if we don’t have any other good examples?

I had intended to pick up a copy, but it was replaced with the next month when I returned to the store. Yesterday, I found the magazine cover and article on GOOD Magazine’s website: Better-than-it-has-to-be Design.

seele :: Nov.21.2007 :: Design, General :: 9 Comments »

IAD to SFO 17 Jan 2008 (Arrive late morning)
SFO to IAD 20 Jan 2008 (Depart noon)

Nothing “official” has been planned for Saturday night, but I’ve heard some people talk about going out to the city that night. If anyone has plans or knows of a good hotel in town, let me know.

I’m also planning a surprise for the reception on the 17th — if you already know about it, shh!

seele :: Nov.19.2007 :: General, KDE/Kubuntu :: 3 Comments »

In my post, Some Random Thoughts on Dolphin, I am talking about the KDE 3 version of Dolphin which ships with Kubuntu Gutsy. The KDE4 version of Dolphin has some significant differences (including some of the suggestions I mention in my entry). My apologies to everyone, especially the Dolphin dev team :)

seele :: Nov.17.2007 :: Asides, KDE/Kubuntu :: Comments Off

I’ve been using Dolphin for my file manager, rather than Konqueror, for about a week now. These are just some random things I’ve thought about while adjusting my behavior and work process.

Web browsing and file management are definitely two separate kinds of activities, but what about the inbetween cases with using Google Docs or viewing wiki/documentation? I don’t use Google Docs very often, but for someone who has many online documents, I think it would be a difficult separation between reading a PDF accessed from your harddrive in Dolphin and an HTML or PDF file accessed from the web in Konqueror.

It took a while for me to disassociate web browsing from file management. It was nice only having one window to manage web and file documents and I miss having tabs to separate folders I want to access. The multiple panes isn’t doing it for me, I want my tabs back (not multiple windows).

What I haven’t been able to get use to is going back to Konqueror for web shortcuts. I view these as task functions (such as checking the weather, googling, or looking up an article in wikipedia) than just browing content on the internet. I wonder if these things could be replaced by a Plasma widget.

The new bookmark navigation model is great, but I think the way to toggle location editing needs improved. The button to change the address from bookmark to text entry is separated from the address by the drop-down bookmark list which makes for an angry Gestalt. What about swapping the bookmark and location edit buttons or putting the location edit button at the end of the location address? Also, I felt myself wanting to click-to-edit the bookmark bar instead of using click-to-navigation up a directory. This just may be from my still getting used to Dolphin, but I wonder if there is a way introduce that kind of interaction while keeping the current click-to-navigate interaction.

I love the Dolphin bookmarks. I know you could bookmark locations and use them in Konqueror, but I like how it is displayed by default and easy to add to the list. I don’t know if I like linking the icon in the Edit Bookmark dialog, especially since it is so small (has anyone else not noticed it right away)? Also, will the bookmarks in Dolphin be linked to the bookmarks in the File Open dialog? It only makes sense.

seele :: Nov.16.2007 :: General, KDE/Kubuntu :: 36 Comments »

Yes, everyone wants this usability thing! (Well, almost everyone). “Usability” is the buzz word everyone recognizes to mean a quality of an easy to use or learn interface usually through the practice of user-centered interface and interaction design. I try when I can to substitute design for “usability”, because that is really what it is — good design.

Here are 5 suggestions on how developers can get more usability (i.e. better design) in to their project without having to rely on one of the very few designers involved in open source. They are ordered in what I think is from easiest to hardest to achieve.

1. Read a good book (or blog). There are tons of design and usability related books out there, but only some of them are any good, and even fewer are good and suitable for someone who doesn’t design for a living. Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell is a good primer on interface and interaction design patterns. Try taking some of the principles you learn from the book and think about how you can make changes to one of your UIs. Blogs are a good place to discuss changes you are thinking about, and provides a resource for other developers.

2. Peer review interfaces. Have a new UI design or an idea for an improvement? Show a sketch or mockup to a friend or three to get their input. To get more out of this exercise, start a small group of developers who are interested in learning more about good design and review each other’s UI work. For every comment for or against a specific interface element, try to come up with a justification beyond a checklist or guideline. It is not quite as good as having someone with more design experience reviewing it, but one more pair of eyes is better than none at all.

3. Use a heuristics-based or guidelines-based checklist. Checklists offer a list of high-level considerations to make when creating a user interface. The classic 10 Usability Heuristics is a good place to start, and topical guidelines-based checklists are also available for KDE (wiki.openusability.org seems to be down at the moment). The problem with checklists is that they are often too general to catch anything serious, but they will help you catch the “easy” mistakes and think more critically about your UI. You might even want to create your own customized checklist for the type of software you usually develop, based from a larger and more general list.

4. Make friends with a designer. I don’t speak for all designers out there, but I can tell you that I am more likely to provide feedback or do design for a project or developer I have a working relationship with than someone I don’t. If you don’t know any designers, try soliciting the kde-usability mailing list for someone who may be interested in your project or UI. Offer to implement some UI changes or fix a bug they submitted in exchange for some expert advice. If you have a designer friend who isn’t yet involved in open source, try sending them screenshots and asking them questions. Maybe you will get them interested enough to get more involved in your project.

5. Observe a few user-based testing sessions. Nothing is more humbling than watching user-based testing on an interface you designed (or coded) for the first time. (I can’t tell you how many developers have tried to yell “Click the button!” through the mirror). After you get over the initial shock, watching users stumble over poorly designed parts of an interface helps drive home a lot of the UI guidelines and best practices you have been studying. There are not many user-based testing studies conducted for open source software, so finding one to sit in on may be a bit difficult.

seele :: Nov.06.2007 :: General, Open Source, Usability :: 3 Comments »