Monday April 28, 2008

Off to create something new...

Well, the time has come. I am leaving Sun as of May 1st after 16 plus years. I have worked on many different things in that time. Putting Java onto cell phones was the most challenging and the most fun.

What will I do next? I am not certain to be quite truthful. Its time to stop doing what I am doing, let the old structure fall away, make time for a new space and new things to grow in that space. Then I can answer the question of what I will do next.

I am a creative person and have no inclination to pursue my next step in a proper career building manner. In fact, doing that just feels wrong. Instead, I am going to do what I do best. Seriously devote myself to creating and see what happens.

To those of you who I have worked, mentored, collaborated, and laughed with - I wish you the best of luck on whatever path life takes you on. Or you take life on.

If you want to follow my journeys, my personal blog is here. Its opinionated, philosophical, silly, and sometimes downright odd. Your mileage may vary.

[evil laugh]

( Apr 28 2008, 02:46:52 PM PDT ) Permalink

Tuesday January 23, 2007

Did you know?

I am Wonder Woman.

You are a beautiful princess with great strength of character.

I scored 79% on the SuperHero quiz. I am either Wonder Woman or Supergirl. Go figure. Wonder Woman at least has reasonable hair.

[evil laugh]

Monday January 22, 2007

I've been tagged...

Five things you don't know about me.

I suppose now that Kathy has posted her five things, I have to do mine...

1. Many years ago I and two comic book artists published the comic book Four Fisted Tales. This was in the days before computer based publishing. I had a degree in graphic design with a minor in offset printing technology so I knew about getting stuff printed. But this was still an adventure. We had to find a small newspaper publisher to do the insides and someone else to do the covers.

2. I was raised on five acres in Santa Cruz County, California out in the country. One night, someone shot a bullet through our house. I was probably about 6 years old and will never forget how terrified we all were. My father had us laying on the floor of the family room while he got a shotgun and went out to see what was up. Turned out that someone up the hill from us had let a teenager try out a new gun and it kicked him so hard the bullet went way up and then down the hill into our house, through two walls to land 3 inches to the left of my father's foot. Made me wonder how different my life might have been if it had not landed there.

3. Pink has not always been my favorite color. As a teenager I painted my bedroom orange because I was determined to not be pink. The room has pink shag carpet. Needless to say the combo was BRILLIANT. Took three coats of white to cover it when my mom had it painted after I left for college.

4. When I was a little kid we had a party-line phone and a black and white TV that only got two channels.

5. I write myths, mostly for kids. Comes from a thread throughout my life of wanting to know about goddesses and gods, mythology, symbology, and what effect all of that has on our culture.

Ok, now I get to tag some folks! Yoojin H, Patrick C., Stuart M., Nezumiko, Eran D. [evil laugh]

( Jan 22 2007, 11:28:10 AM PST ) Permalink

Tuesday November 07, 2006

State of California Voting Experience Case Study

Did you vote today?

User experience design is about designing the ENTIRE experience a person has with a product, exhibit, or thing.

The State of California voting experience starts when a voter recieves their voting pamphlets in the mail. Its ends when they get their little sticker that says they voted.

I voted today at my local fire station and - given the length of the line - observed several patterns of behavior. This admittedly unscientific observation (even if done by an expert observer) provided some immediate insights into the problems still facing the voting public.

The first issue comes about when you recieve your pamphlet in the mail. In general, the layout of the material has steadily improved in the last several years. There are clear summaries of the propositions, good use of typefaces and headers, etc.

The problem lies in the heart of the booklet - what I call the mock voting ballot. All the candidates and propositions are listed on this mock ballet and most folks mark this up with their choices ahead of time and take it with them to the polls. A very useful beast in California, the land of MANY propositions.

The mock voting ballot was put into the middle of the pamphlet like regular pages yet were not printed out like standard pages. Instead of being printed in an 8.5 X 11 page format like the rest of the booklet, they were printed in an 11 X 14 page format and folded in the middle and put into the book sideways. mistake one.

No title page or instructions were provided as to what these pages were or what to do with them. Mistakes two and three.

I discovered after examining these pages several times that the only coherent way to deal with them was to take both pages out and read them as 11 X 14 pages. The pages were otherwise entirely confusing and unusable. Most other folks I was able to observe at the polls did not do this.

The second issue came from the mapping of the mock voting ballot to the ballot display on the touch-entry voting machines. Or, more correctly, the complete and utter lack of a coherent mapping between the two. Sigh.

Even when one takes out the pages, the mapping between the mock ballot and the machine is less then optimal and results in quite a bit of flipping paper over and over - and dropping it on the ground.

When one does not take the pages out, it can clearly result in failure.

An elderly couple had started voting as I joined the line. They each were at a machine and were desparately trying to map between what they had written on the mock ballot to the display. Add in the factor that they were struggling a bit to read the display and the mock ballot - eyeglass adjustments and leaning were observed repeatedly. The lady could not get the touch input to work. A stylus was supplied.

She had trouble finding her notes on a proposition - much page flipping of the mock ballot which was still in the booklet and comparing with the display. This resulted in her walking over and interupting her husband several times. He walked back and they worked to figure out what she wanted to vote and how to make that happen. Then he would walk back to his machine and work on his voting. And so it went.

By the time I went up to vote, 20 minutes later, this couple was still trying to complete their vote. I ended up at the machine between them. The gentleman was clearly getting angry and frustrated. The lady was bewildered. The election workers were gently trying to step in and offer help. I completed my voting and they were still trying to complete theirs. And the gentleman's machine had timed out as he was at his wife's trying to help her.

This is a great example of a user experience that isn't. I will not point fingers or blame. Instead I hope it improves by the time I turn 80 years old.

[evil laugh]

( Nov 07 2006, 12:58:27 PM PST ) Permalink Comments [2]

Thursday November 02, 2006

Your friends are...

your family.

2. Cell phones are all about people communicating with people.

Make phone call, talk to person, right? Nope.

In the last 25 years or so, the size of families has gotten smaller and smaller. I remember when I was a kid meeting someone from a family of 20. That was an anomaly. You were far more likely to have 4-6 kids in your family. Today its 2-3 kids or none.

What happens when families get smaller from a cultural perspective? You can't depend on your big brother to take care of you when you don't have one. So, someone else has to fill that gap in your life.

Your friends become your family.

This changes the dynamics of communicating with your "family". Your family no longer entirely lives with you so you have to use other means to stay in contact. This goes a long ways towards explaining why internet based social networking sites and text messaging and chat are so popular with the younger generation.

Thats where the cell phone comes in. Now you have a beast that you can take with you everywhere. Many of the same tasks you can do on your personal computer can be accomplished on your handset.

Oh, and, if you really want to, you can call someone and actually talk to them.

[evil laugh]

Next up is how all this changes tasks as they move from PC to mobile handset. ( Nov 02 2006, 01:50:01 PM PST ) Permalink

Tuesday October 24, 2006

Desktop app to cell phone app?

Its not that easy.

So another UE designer who works in the desktop area asked me how one moves a desktop application to a cell phone. What does one change in the user experience?

This of course prompted a reaction. Why "move" an application from the desktop to a mobile phone? It usually works far better to start from basics.

Why? Cell phones operate in a very different reality then a desktop machine, even one that is a laptop. Those reality shifts ripple through the entire user experience. Let me show you what I mean....

1. Cell phones are personal devices.

Consumers see them as an extension of themselves. Ask any teenager what three items they never leave home without. Then ask a soccer mom the same question. Cell phone is on both lists and pretty high up on the list too.

When a device becomes personal to this extent, one of the obvious implications is that the device must be robust and not crash. It has to be available 24 x 7. Thats all ok but it doesn't really get at the heart of what it means to be personal.

When a device becomes personal, it means the person depends upon it. What this means is somewhat open to discussion, however there are some aspects we can review here.

When someone gets a new phone, they will learn just enough to make the device useful to them. This is called the paradox of the active user. Over time people will also learn to adapt to the idiosyncrasies of the user experience of the device.

Depending on a cell phone means that people think of the phone as an extension of themselves. Over time, many people will start to get frustrated that the device doesn't adapt to them. The phone should remember how they use it. These users tell us that the device should remember where a person left off on a task, that they should not have to re-enter information, or, the phone should know where they are, and so on.

Your homework is to think about what it means to apply this idea of personal to how one creates a user experience for a cell phone and to a application on that cell phone.

[evil laugh]

Next post: 2. Cell phones are all about people communicating with people.

( Oct 24 2006, 11:31:31 AM PDT ) Permalink

Sunday October 15, 2006

Kids are...

Fearless.

Back from my vacation during which I did my little experiment with the younger set and PhotoBooth on my new mac. Three kids: 4, 4.75, and 6.75 years with a racing about 18 month old cramming himself in sideways periodically. Just opened up the laptop and fired up the app and then let the kids take over. One of them knew how to use it.

The 4 yr. old lost interest quickly - she was too busy racing about playing horses. The older two, girl and boy, stuck with it longer with the 18 month old poking in and getting a picture or two in. They lasted about 20 minutes. Less then I had predicted. Got correspondingly fewer photos - mostly singles not multiples. But they tried out most of the visual effects.

They did not need any adult help in figuring out how to use it. The adults were employed to extract the 18 month old when he became annoying.

What I observed was that the entertainment value of photobooth was not more or less then any other activity that day. Exploring around the perimeter of the rental house we were in or climbing on top of the big upside down canoe sans space rocket appeared to get as much or more bandwidth.

Somehow the interest level they showed relative to other activities made me feel better. Which is likely a truly scary thought.

[evil laugh]

Friday September 29, 2006

Thats why...

they call it a vacation.

No email, no internet. Just enough signal for my cell phone to get voicemail. Smile. I'll be back in a couple weeks. Ready to battle the demons of going open source even.

Maybe.

[evil laugh]

( Sep 29 2006, 08:37:40 AM PDT ) Permalink

Tuesday September 26, 2006

techno foo Set up a Technorati Profile. Can't decide if thats a good, bad, or ugly thing to do. [evil laugh] ( Sep 26 2006, 09:54:14 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [2]

Wednesday September 20, 2006

Keys?

Who needs those stinking keys?

You know - the keys on your phone's keypad? I mean you don't really need them to work do you?

Apparently not on MY phone. Sigh. Yup. I killed off another one. They are sending yet another SE w600i replacement unit. First the camera and now this.

It was sort of a chuckle. First the 1 key died, then the 3 and 4 key. I call the warranty folks. They tell me to pop the battery out. Then power up again. Then the * key stopped working. And the 7 and 8 key. The poor fellow just sighed and filled out his form.

I am starting to think Sony Ericcson doesn't do proper drop testing on their units. Perhaps I should offer to run some tests for them?

[evil laugh]

( Sep 20 2006, 10:11:27 AM PDT ) Permalink

Monday September 18, 2006

There are days...

...and then there are days.

I have little patience for being frustrated, especially when other people create a frustrating situation and then refuse to amend their ways. And then continue their behavior ad naseum.

The kind of situation that hits the frustration button square on is behaviors around information hoarding, CYA, and control. You know, those power things that people do because they think it matters. (It doesn't but this is no time for a post on the philosophy of life.) Those behaviors where people exclude other people and refuse to be open in their work and communication style.

I found myself in one of those frustrating situations today. It was infuriating but not perhaps for the reasons you might suppose. Oh I was likely annoyed due to many of those reasons, but the one that really got me was not the one I started out angry about. What really annoyed me was the amount of time wasted by these folks.

Presentations get shown with inaccurate representations. Implications get passed on that start from incorrect assumptions. Folks end up off track and have to work to get back on track. Excuses get made when missing information is pointed out. All because someone doesn't want to be inclusive. All this in organizations that don't have enough time or people as it is.

Sigh. Depressing. So what does one do about such things?

Snicker. Chuckle. Having a creative mind is fun. Ever wonder where all those phrases like "whack him with a 2x4" or "cut him off at the knees" come from? Now extrapolate.

[evil laugh]

( Sep 18 2006, 09:57:19 PM PDT ) Permalink

Wednesday September 13, 2006

Current Project State:

Head Exploding.

The conversation goes sort of like this:

Management type walks by. "How's it going?"

You answer, "My head's exploding."

Them, "How come?"

Me, "I just put together a rough work list of all the stuff we have to do for the next release. There is no way we have enough people to do half of it."

Them, "Ok, so how many people do you need?"

The conversation continues a bit. I wander off to mull over how to scope, define, and tackle said work list. Head exploding appears to be a normal phase in the course of coming up to speed on a new project.

Then I realize - there must be a management training module called "How to Handle Employees under going Head Explosion". Right?

[evil laugh]

( Sep 13 2006, 12:48:05 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

Tuesday August 22, 2006

Open source means closed communities.

Get your attention?

Why do I state that OSS communities are closed communities?

• Because they are designed and created primarily for only one constituency: programmers.
• Programmers are also defined as the "user".
• Without influence one cannot impact an OSS community.
• Influence is gained through contributions.
• Contributions are defined as code putbacks.
• Code putbacks are done by programmers.

The above is a synopsis of the model for a typical open source community. Its a model that promotes a closed community culture. The meritocracy is not open to other skill sets by the nature of how contributions are defined and influence is gained.

Now that I have thoroughly annoyed you with the above statements, I will point out that not all OSS communities follow the above model. As the OSS movement has evolved, contributions have been broadened to include things like documentation or specificiations. Governance policies have been written to broaden what is meant by "user". Module putback requirements have been changed to include testing, user experience, and docs.

However, I seriously wonder if that goes far enough. Rather then focusing primarily on the programmer, what about creating a community that focuses on product teams?

Why do this? Because just broadening some definitions and requirements does not address how other skill sets work within a product team. Documentation has a different work process then user experience design who have a different work process then engineering.

The real challenge is how to create a community that supports participation by many different skill sets in such a way that all parties can contribute and gain influence.

Hmmmmmmm. Does that mean that a QA engineer might just have more influence than a programmer one day?

[evil laugh]

Monday August 21, 2006

Is user experience....

Front-loaded or Bass-ackwards?

User experience design is a misunderstood discipline sometimes. Of course, most folks don't really know what the heck UE is. The definition I like the best is:

"...[the] field concerned with improving the design of anything people experience: a web site, a toy, or a museum. UX is inherently interdisciplinary, synthesizing methods, techniques, and wisdom from many fields, ranging from brand design to ethnography to library science to architecture and more." -UXnet.org

So what does that definition really tell you? The job is not just about icons, themes, or how a list component gets converted into something usable on a handset. Oh I do work on those things but they are not the heart of what user experience design on a handset is all about.

Ever thought about how security on a handset is implemented? About how figuring out policies for how certain applications do or do not get access to certain sets of APIs impact the experience the consumer has when they try to run that application? Solving those kinds of problems are the heart of user experience design.

And thats why that definition appears to scare the snort out of most engineering managers. They start by not understanding what UE is all about. Then they move into freaking out because they start to understand.

If a product really is to be designed with the consumer in mind from day 0, then a UE designer needs to be there too - BEFORE the architecture is drawn on the whiteboard. BEFORE the set of features are written down. Otherwise, you waste a very large amount of time and money creating something that has a much larger chance of failing.

So which works best? Front-loaded or Bass-ackwards? You decide.

[evil laugh]

( Aug 21 2006, 03:05:16 PM PDT ) Permalink

Wednesday August 16, 2006

Me Bad.

Phone Lust.

Am I easily bored or a gadget freak or ? Don't answer that. It's just too obvious.

What phone shall I get next? The Nokia e61 or the Sony Ericsson m600i? (and no I haven't yet killed my current one so getting a new one might take a week or two. :) )

The Sony Ericsson is pretty cool product design, very slim, and uses a touch screen. Haven't figured out how the keypad works with regard to entering text. Those buttons might be rocker switches. The silly beast is however only a tri-band and not a quad-band which is annoying. And I haven't found anyone who owns one that I can play with. Yet.

I have played with the Nokia e61. Its wide but thinner and ligher than expected. Series 60 Edition 3 user interface which means if you have ever used a series 60 you can find your way around pretty easily. I did however totally hang the web browser attempting to enter text on the one I played with. Its a good email device if you use Edge. Nice resolution screen - wider than usual which makes web browsing more useful.

One cool thing about the e61 is that it has wi-fi. But the rumor is that carriers in the US are going to dumb it down and remove the wi-fi. That sucks. Means I have to buy it unlocked somewhere else.

The e61 makes one think you could live without a laptop in a long meeting. Hmmm. Live without a laptop in a long meeting. Do I really want to be connected all the time????

[evil laugh]

( Aug 16 2006, 10:42:50 AM PDT ) Permalink