Information Overload: New Study Finds Data increasing

"There is twice as much new information in the world as there was just three years ago -- and most of it isn't very interesting. The researchers concluded that the amount of new information produced last year was about 23 exabytes. An exabyte is a million terabytes. A terabyte is a million megabytes -- roughly equivalent to the content of a million books." (from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
There's a whole lot of boring information out there)

The original Berkeley report "How Much Information? 2003" has a section dedicated to Internet and Web that is quite interesting. It agregates a lot of other research and provides some interesting statistics. For example, they estimate the total size of the surface web as 167 TB. There are also stats on Blogs, Spam, Instant Messaging, and Peer to Peer networking.

See also:
- The Register: US outguzzles world+dog in paper, bandwidth consumption in which they comment "it should come as no shock that EMC, HP, Intel and Microsoft 'supported' the study"
- Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Misuse of usability report findings continues

Sigh. Why should the twisting of words and meanings be limited to politics?

Linux on the desktop is a snap, study finds:
"According to a recent study on Linux desktop usability, the graphical user interface for the open source operating system is no sweat, even for the novice user. A report published by Relevantive, a German IT consulting firm, found that laymen Linux end users could grasp Linux as easily as Windows XP."

Who ever said Windows XP is a "snap"?

See also:
- Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics: The Worst Social Statistic Ever
- Lyle: Sez U: Linux nears Windows XP usability
- Phil Hodgson: Usability test data - good clarification on what's qualitative vs. quanitative
- Lyle: Usability and Open Source Software
- Lyle: Open Letter to a Power User / Developer

Counting Australia with computers

Australia will be conducting a census in 2006 with an online option:
"In August, [the Australian Bureau of Statistics] conducted a test of the 2006 form among 6000 households in Brisbane, focusing on design and usability. Nauenburg said the trial was a success, with 4.5 per cent of households choosing to complete the electronic form. 'We learnt we have to continue to focus on accessibility and usability but it was good to hear that people would be prepared to conduct the census electronically,' he said."

Also in the article: the Swiss Federal Statistical Office ran their first electronic census in 2000 and only saw a 10% failure rate. (10% of questionnaires started online were not completed.)

The U.S. and Britain are projecting their first online censuses in 2010.

See also:
U.S. Census Bureau Usability Lab - an interesting site that appears to be under development.

Nokia launches TV phone

Now I can watch TV while driving to work... :-)

"New Nokia cell phone model allows users to watch television, listen to radio, take photos, video."

Usability.gov gets some press, and quietly releases new version of guidelines

The usability team at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are highlighted in two articles today talking about their web usability guidelines. Government Computer News (GCN) has an article called HHS issues usability guide for site design -- but read on here for the most exciting news for designers and usability practitioners...

First, it's great to see the head of a government agency announcing and promoting use of usability guidelines. This is clearly the result of a great job at promotion by Sanjay and the Usability.gov team, who should be congratulated.

From the foreword by Tommy Thompson, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services:
"Unfortunately, too many federal agencies have developed their websites according to their own needs, not the needs of the citizens they serve. For this and other reasons, the PresidentÂ’s E-government Act indicated that federal IT systems should be citizen-centered. An important part of creating a citizen-centered website is the use of research on how citizens interact with websites. This book, which translates research into practical, easy-to-understand guidelines, helps those in charge of federal websites save time and valuable resources."


The guidelines have been majorly updated

The GCN article points to a new page that has printable PDFs for download, complete with an introduction, forewords, indices and much more. What's strangely not mentioned, yet good to see, is that the article points to a completely revised version of the guidelines when compared to what's currently available from the top of the usability.gov site. (The forewords are both from 2003.) If you compare the PDF versions, the usability.gov site has a page for "printing complete guidelines" which looks old (from 2001), but maps pretty closely to what's available under "guidelines" on the usability.gov site. The old print version is much smaller than the new one (73 pages and 2.6 MB versus 128 pages and 39.2 MB). Also, the old PDF is basically a printout of the web site, while the new version is formatted like a book - much better for printing and using as a hard copy since it has accurate pages numbers, a TOC, indices, etc.

In comparing the content of the new version versus the web site, it's clear the new version contains a lot of new work. There are now 17 sections to the guidelines (versus 14), and a number of old sections have been restructured and renamed. I noticed that the ratings for "relative importance" and "strength of evidence" for each guideline have been updated as well.

So, this all means the guidelines currently on the usability.gov site are outdated, and the NCI team (hopefully) has a major web site update coming. The more current version of their usability guidelines is available as a PDF printable handbook. Go get it!


Finally, I'd agree with usability guru, Ben Schneiderman, who in his foreword says:
"These new NCI Web usability Guidelines carry forward one of the most enduring success stories in user interface design. They continue the noble tradition of thoughtful practitioners who have hacked their way through the unruly design landscape and then distilled their experience into compact and generalizable aphorisms or patterns. Compilations of such guidelines offer newcomers a clearer roadmap to follow, helping them to avoid some of the swamps and potholes. Guidelines serve experienced experts and busy managers by giving them an overview and reminding them of the wide range of issues."


See also:
- Federal Computer Week: Guide released for federal Web design

eBay Save Homes from "Fibber McGee's Closet" Syndrome

NEWS FLASH!

....Complicated stuff sold to unknowing public who, after beating heads against walls, squirrel it away in closets and pass it off to other rubes on eBay....

Read all about it in Seductive Electronic Gadgets Are Soon Forgotten

"People acquire these things — hand-held personal digital assistants, flatbed scanners, compact disc copiers and a host of other objects — because they promise to make life more efficient, more fun, or, some confess, simply because they appear to help them keep up with what their 'wired' friends and neighbors have.
But many such products are simply too complicated for their own good. And all too often, the buyers find that they cannot really change their lives just by acquiring something new and different."

"Ms. Kirschner, 52, has developed a theory, which she said applied not only to herself but to most anyone buying gadgets. "If the setup is hard and you're not sure why you need it, chances are it will head to the graveyard," she said. "If you really need it, by dogged determination you'll make that thing work."

More:
- Fibber McGee's Closet
- Photo: Fibber McGee's Closet
- Don Norman: The Perils of Home Theater

Men say too many legit emails = spam

From He Spammed, She Spammed:

"Men were more frustrated, offended, by e-mails from companies they may have done business with but haven't given permission" for e-mail, said Scott Knoll, vice president of marketing solutions at New York-based DoubleClick.

"And even if they do give permission, men react strongly to getting too many e- mails from companies.

"Men tended to think being flooded by legitimate companies was more offensive to their sensibilities than receiving pornographic spam. The sheer quantity of legitimate but unwanted e-mail is turning men off to this marketing channel, Knoll said."

So What ARE the Defacto Web Standards Today?

"Web Design Practices is a site devoted to helping designers understand what design practices are currently in use on the Web—and aims to gather research about the usability of commonly-employed design practices."

The WDP site is excellent - great, valuable content in a nicely designed package!

Don Norman Interviewed on Emotional Design

BBC News has published an interview with "the Don" entitled "Technology to make you go 'wow'". In the interview, Norman summarizes some of the points he made in a talk I went to at the University of Minnesota; points that are surely expanded upon in his forthcoming book.

"He argues that the levels on which the brain works correspond with three different levels of design."

'The visceral level is the low biological level and there's where beauty comes in and appearances matter. 'On the surface something looks attractive and something feels good. That is very important and that makes the brain function differently.'

"On a visceral level, the brain is a little bit more creative so if there something does not work well, people are more willing to forgive it if they like it.

"Then there is the behavioural level which controls muscles, perception and language. It is at this level that usability and how something feels lie, something which he and his colleagues have examined in great detail.

But Dr Norman wants to move on and think at the deeper level of reflection, the level that dictates how we feel about things, he says.

'That is where having a good brand name matters. Having a good brand name has to earned because they stand for trust,' he says.

"Good design must incorporate all three levels, and that is what emotional design is all about."

You can pre-order Don Norman's upcoming book:

Great customer service example

I'm a Blogger user, but have only used the free service for quite some time. Blogger used to offer a for-fee service called "Blogger Pro." They recently changed the *free* service to include all the features of the "Pro" version and eliminated the Pro service. Naturally, those who'd been paying for the Pro version might get a bit miffed at this news, but the Blogger team has handled this well.

The announcement Evan at Blogger sent to Pro users amazed me. How many companies would do what they are doing: giving out sweatshirts or refunds (your choice)? If Google were a public company, they'd not likely want to give out refunds, but private companies don't have to worry so much about quarterly results and can do what's right for the long run.

Kudos to Evan and all the folks on the Blogger/Google team! Great attitude!

From the "Important Blogger Pro Announcement" (emphasis is mine):

"More importantly, I want to stress that we couldn't have gotten to where we are today without you. Pro subscribers helped keep us going as a struggling start-up, when servers and bandwidth were at an extreme premium. We wanted to keep basic Blogger free, but we needed to start charging in order to keep the lights on. So we built new things that would appeal to some Blogger users (namely, you).
Thanks to supportive people like yourself, this plan allowed us to grow and build a better service -- and, eventually, get us to much more stable ground. We're eternally grateful, and I hope you were happy with the relationship, as well.
Today, as you may know, Blogger's situation is much different. For one thing, we're part of Google. (If you missed that announcement, check the FAQ). Google has lots of computers and bandwidth. And Google believes blogs are important and good for the web.
This is a good thing.
So we're in the fortunate position of being able to give back to our users. Specifically, to each of you who paid for Pro (and never cancelled), we want to send you a Blogger hooded sweatshirt as a way of saying thanks. Just fill out this form* by October 1, 2003 to claim yours. (If you'd prefer to have a pro-rated refund instead, just let us know.)"

Presentation to UPA-MN Chapter on usability research

I gave a little presentation last night at our local UPA-MN chapter meeting. I discussed the role of research, highlighted some good resources for research, and also gave a quick run-down of some recent research I found interesting. The slides are available in PDF form

Drop me a note with your comments! (See my masked email address in the "About" box at left.)

Poorly designed user interfaces suck the ROI right out of enterprise software

In Pigeons can push random buttons, Rupert Goodwins makes a few good points about the lack of focus on usability in most enterprise software implementation projects:

"It continues to amaze me that twenty years after Apple showed the world what well-designed software looked like, most IT departments think the word "Usability" is shorthand for user stopping, activity blighting, information losing, irksome travesty...

"There is little point in shelling out six or seven figures on a major IT project in the name of efficiency if you never bother to find out whether the people who use it have a fighting chance of being efficient at their jobs. In the great scheme of business, everything boils down to what the employees do and how well they do it: that this never enters the design equation of IT projects is one of the great unmentioned sins of technology."

Working on a big system implementation? Do the right thing for your business: hire a usability consultant to make sure you're not wasting millions of dollars in development and user productivity.

Nokia's CEO says usability heart of their approach

In the Financial Times' Squaring up to usability at Nokia:
"Jorma Ollila, chairman and chief executive, says usability is 'at the heart' of the company's approach. He adds that it was one of the first to realise that ease of use had to become 'the main goal in design.' The company also describes design as 'a fundamental building block of the brand', adding that it is 'central to our product creation and is a core competence integrated into the entire company'. It thus devotes a considerable amount of time and money researching what customers will want and then designing products that are intended to fulfil these needs"

There you have it, from a CEO of a large company:
usability is the key to design, and design is key to the brand, AND THEREFORE, they invest heaviliy in User Centered Design. I knew this about Nokia because I keep running into Nokia folks at UPA and CHI conferences...

Technology should be simpler, more robust and more transparent

John Seely Brown makes a number of good comments in Forbes' "Back in Touch" interview, including this one:

"The real spirit of ubiquitous computing is to let technology disappear. I drive high-performance automobiles. What is the question you never ask when you buy a car: Is it powered by Unix or Windows? There is serious computing going on inside the automobile, but you don't even know it's there. With ABS braking, you don't have to activate a system. It diagnoses when you need help, moves seamlessly to help you, and then moves out of the way again. We're incredibly far from that with most technology. There has been no new innovation in interfaces for 30 years. We have to use the power of Moore's Law not just to design things that amplify our computing abilities but to keep things simple, robust, and transparent."

Related:
- John Seely Brown's page at PARC
- The Social Life of Information

New Usability Testing Software in Development by Techsmith

Just got an email from the folks at Techsmith with info about a a new product they are working on to help automate recording usability testing sessions. (Techsmith is the company that makes SnagIt and Camtasia - two tools that are often cited as the best screen capture and screen recording tools on the market.) Techsmith was present in force at the UPA 2003 conference and was actively doing research into the needs of usability professionals when it comes to recording test sessions. From their calendar, it looks like they plan on continuing their research.

Evidently the product will:
- Record audio and video (synchronized)
- Record system events like mouse clicks, dialog boxes, and keyboard use.
- Log marked events during sessions (maybe like Twinview does with its little remote control "clicker"?)
- Allow you to search recordings
- Help with creation of highlight videos
- Reduce amount of hardware needed.

The product is called Morae (not sure what that name means), and more information is hidden on their web site here. Not only could this new tool make the jobs of usability professionals easier, but it could also help promote usability testing by making it just a bit easier for people to do.

12 Click Rule for Mobile Sites?

Just read this bit about a usability study of mobile web portals and as one who does not believe in the "three click rule" for web sites, I question the validity of the "12 click rule" for mobile. I DO however buy into the fact that more clicks is bad all other things being equal:
"The situation is rather acute with the average portal click-distance (number of clicks/menus to arrive at the desired content) is in excess of 16 and often greater than 20. Moreover the number of mobile services that are within the critical click-distance of 12 (believed to be the point at which users loose interest) is, on average, less than 36%!’

"The Plight of the Mobile Navigator makes it clear that the success of the mobile Internet is at a critical juncture. Smyth argues ‘Unless usability is treated as a priority it is very hard to see how mobile service usage will increase –an issue the industry at large requires to happen"

Mobile Metrix is a company focusing on the Mobile Internet. In their coverage of the "Plight of the Mobile Navigator" report they say:

"Two years ago, a report from Norman Nielsen Group examined WAP Usability. That analysis documented the results of a WAP user survey based on a series of timed information tasks such as locating a news article, a weather report or TV listings. The survey results highlighted the usability problems that existed then with current 2G WAP services, with users taking an average of 120-150 seconds to locate target content across the various studies.

"The survey participants of Nielsen Norman report indicated that, to be genuinely useful, mobile portals must be able to bring content to users within approximately 30 seconds. In other words, mobile content services that are more than 30 seconds from the portal homepage are unlikely to attract regular users.

"That analysis was conducted in December 2000. Two years later based on the results of an analysis undertake by ChangingWorlds the situation does not seem to have improved."

According to ChangingWorlds' CTO in an article called "The Missing Link - User-Experience and Incremental Revenue Generation on the Mobile Internet":
"Every second saved on navigation time creates an additional three seconds of content-viewing time," Smyth suggests, meaning that mobile operators would be well advised to start channeling bigger percentages of their portal-development budgets to usability and away from snazzy content that might never be viewed. Achieving the balance between the offer of stimulating content and easy access is the challenge."

No more e-mail in France

The French government has banned the use of the word 'e-mail' in all its ministries, documents, publications and websites.

"In the latest step 'to stem an incursion of English words into the French language', the Culture Ministry says the term should be replaced with 'courriel'. The ministry's General Commission on Terminology and Neology insists Internet surfers in France already use the phrase courrier electronique (electronic mail) instead of e-mail. The commission ruled: 'Evocative, with a very French sound, the word courriel is broadly used in the press and competes advantageously with the borrowed mail in English.' The commission has links to the Academie Francaise, the prestigious institution that has been one of the top opponents to the seeping of English terms into the French language."

God forbid languages evolve.

Note also that the Oxford Dictionary staff estimates that roughly 28% of English words come from a French origin.

Maybe we should purge the English language of French words. Here's a list of words the American government should ban. After all, we should keep the American language pure, shouldn't we?

How to design a good web site

Great advice from an expert on design below:
Strong Bad's design tips (warning: plays audio)

Standard "sytem is down" error message

404 Error

Strong Bad's Web Site

Thanks Jeremy!

Proof that search still sucks - even with Google

Here are some search keywords and phrases that have lead web browsers to this site via Google and other search engines:

- lap dancers
- how do monkeys communicate
- impact of architecture on health
- pictures of hitlers dead body
- some things that start with letter o
- spanish lap dancers
- elrond action figures
- fun colored 13" tvs

This site has nothing to do with these topics, yet it's a prominent search result for these word combinations without even making it a "phrase search" by putting them in quotes.

How could THIS site be the #2 site listed on Google when searching for "fun colored 13" tvs"?! I need to start offering advertising for electronics stores!

Search has come a long way, but it still fails miserably when it comes to helping someone find what they are looking for.

SAP Style Guide for PDA Applications

If you're working on mobile, handheld, or PDA applications, the SAP Design Guild has a nice style guide for PDA applications built using SAP. Also interesting is the "SAP Style Guide for Blue-Collar Worker PDAs" and "Touchscreen Usability in Short" from the Interaction Design Guide for Touchscreen Applications.