June 2006 Issue
Designing for Bridge Experiences
Published: June 30, 2006
The practice of user experience lacks the historical pedigree of many of its constituent elements, including human/computer interaction, library science, social-science research methods, product-development methodology, and, most of all, design. What it does enjoy, however, is a pragmatic, multidisciplinary approach that encompasses the intertwined social, economic, and technological forces it engages. It’s a contingent amalgamation—an assembly of what works—and a set of perspectives and problem-solving techniques that define how we, as practitioners, think about creating products and services.
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Category: Features
Faceted Metadata for Information Architecture and Search
Published: June 30, 2006
Sometimes first impressions are a great way to gauge the likelihood of a successful experience. This wasn’t one of those times. I was deeply concerned that I’d signed myself up for some esoteric discussion on the proper use of metadata, but pleasantly surprised to find a real-world interface solution for dealing with large information collections—exactly what the summary said this course would cover.
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Category: Reviews
Journeying Through CHI 2006
Published: June 5, 2006
When I signed up to attend CHI 2006, for the very first time
in my seven-year career, I didn’t expect that I’d
spend most of the event helping to staff our company’s
exhibit space and drive hiring for the St. Jude Medical Human
Factors Engineering team. In 2001, a paper
I’d
co-authored with Robert Reimann was accepted for CHI, but I
was unable to attend due to conflicting project duties. Over
the years, events always seemed to conspire against my attending
CHI, although I’ve had the pleasure of attending other
conferences such as DIS and DUX. At CHI 2006, I hoped to educate
myself about leading research and fresh trends in the field
of computer/human interaction, as well as network with folks
I’ve worked and communicated with, especially through
the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). In the end, though,
working the St. Jude Medical booth consumed the bulk of my
time. More on that later, however.
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Category: Reviews
Returning to CHI: Different Experience, Same Rush
Published: June 5, 2006
CHI 2006 took place on April 22–27, in Montréal, Québec, Canada, at the Palais des Congrès. Its theme: Interact. Inform. Inspire.
In April of 2001, a small dotcom sent a young Webmaster to
a conference called CHI in Seattle. That was my first CHI experience.
I had been forced to read The Design of Everyday Things,
the author of which was some guy the owner knew from when he
was working on his PhD at the University of California, San
Diego—that’d be Don Norman. I’d never been
to Seattle, never been on a business trip before, knew hopelessly
little about the concept of usability—except that I was
grateful when somebody blamed her problems with doors on the
designers of the doors and not her inability to intuit in which
direction a door will open—and was chaperoned by most
of the dotcom’s management team.
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Category: Reviews