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Sketching User Experiences (1)- Bill Buxton
In "Interacting with Paper," Bill Buxton proposes paper prototyping which he calls 'paper interfaces' as an alternative and a better solution to testing user experiences before starting the design process. The author suggests that paper holds powerful affordances that represent systems of control that users respond to and experience, both in terms of a sketch's control over users' actions (control commands) as well as its faculty to lead users to focus on the 'experience' and 'usability' of an interface rather than on its aesthetic feel or design.
defining: Ubiquitous Computing
In 1991, Mark Weiser defined ubiquitous computing (which he also calls "embodied virtuality", as opposed to virtual reality) as invisible and indistinguishable from the "fabric of everyday life"; that is, from human behavior. Which is to say that ubiquitous computing aims at providing humane tools with which beings can continue dealing with their world in very much the same behavioral ways.
An Introduction to Usability – Patrick Jordan
Based on the International Standards Organisation's categories of "effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction," the author determines ways in which usability can be quantified. 'Effectiveness' is the capacity for a product to generate (or enable) output; 'Efficiency' is measured as the level of effort invested in completing an action or task (for example, the author categorizes usability errors as distinguished between a 'slip' and a 'mistake' in user performance and experience. For him, a slip is when a user accidentally performs the wrong action which is readily corrected by the user, whereas a mistake is when a user thinks he is doing the right thing (intuitive action), but is unable to perform his task.
Designer/Artist + Co-Creation
With the advent of new technologies and the rapid dissemination and accessibility of information, artists and designers develop increasingly sophisticated ways of thinking about the world in visual forms and of approaching open-ended questions or specific problems in new and exciting ways. It seems that design and art now represent blurred categorizations: artists and designers grow more apt at interchanging roles and are increasingly willing to collaborate and co-create.
An Introduction to Usability (continued…) – Patrick Jordan
Designing for usability is a user-centered approach to design. Jordan lays out the different considerations to keep in mind during the design process and proposes a set of methods (some empirical, others non-empirical) that can be used as testing tools and discusses the advantages and disadvantages that come with each method. His writing allows designers to understand better that there are different ways of testing users and that some styles are more appropriate depending on the content of tasks involved in using a given product or interface and its relation to a demographic/technographic target audience.
Golan Levin
As a quest for expanding the vocabulary of social practices and of the object-subject relationship, emotional technology (smart, intelligent) simulates human behaviour and creative energy. It revisits the environment anew for new types of interactions and explorations.
Golan Levin is a software artist who creates screens and robotic objects that study sound, speech, movement, and gaze.