Weekly links 1
Technology First, Needs Last
Don Norman stirs things up with…
I’ve come to a disconcerting conclusion: design research is great when it comes to improving existing product categories but essentially useless when it comes to new, innovative breakthroughs.
(forwarded by Angus)
A Rebuttal to Technology First Needs Last
Todd Warfel replies to Don Norman’s post…
Technology didn’t drive these innovations, it was merely the road. The driver was an opportunity for invention and design research was right behind the wheel.
When both sides of a debate are highly respected experts, it makes for an interesting read!
(forwarded by Angus)
Short-Term Memory and Web Usability
Jacob Nielsen reports …
The human brain is not optimized for the abstract thinking and data memorization that websites often demand. Many usability guidelines are dictated by cognitive limitations
(forwarded by Angus)
My big list of 24 Web Site Usability Testing Tools
Craig Tomlin shares his list…
In the past few years, there has been massive growth in new and exciting cheap or free web site usability testing tools, so here’s my list of 24 tools you may need to use from time to time.
(forwarded by Angus)
Make the logo bigger! (the song)
In the finest tradition of Spinal Tap comes this mock-metal song Make the logo bigger, sure to raise smile on the face of anyone who’s had to deal with clients who want their logo…just that little bit bigger. (Warning: make sure you turn down your volume before playing the song)
(forwarded by Angus)
iPhone app for The Independent (UK)
Over on Econsultancy, Graham Charlton reviews the latest newspaper website mobile app…
The Independent iPhone app is a departure from some other newspaper apps, as it is designed to allows readers to download all the articles while they have a decent 3G or wi-fi connection, and saves them for reading while offline.
An interesting approach.
(forwarded by Sophie)
Surrender! Foucault and Twitter
Ian Delaney laments the direction in which social media may be taking us…
Some of my early hopes for social media, that it represented, like Kevin Kelly reckons, some kind of renaissance for socialism in the western world, are starting to run dry.
Do we blindly accept “social media networks as empowering, democratic and all about spreading fresh ideas”? Delaney says “The reverse may be the case: any given information about ourselves donates some portion of control to another party”. It’s the “dark side of social networking” he says. An interesting philosophical read to break up the mountain of practical posts, articles and reports we read day in and day out.(forwarded by Chris)
A summary of user research methods
Lastly, on his personal blog, our own Patrick Kennedy summarises a whole bunch of useful user research methods…
In this article I give a quick overview of the methods I commonly use, broken down in to main categories:
- Direct user contact—where the researcher does very much interact with users, or members of the audience as I prefer to call them
- Indirect user contact—where the researcher does not actually interact with members of the audience