Deploying user-centered design testing (Web 2008 training session)

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This was a training session offered by Matthew Winkel of The College of New Jersey – this kind of training normally costs about $600!! the training is called Certified Usability Analyst, by Human Factors International.

We looked at the iPhone website – $199 iPhones go on sale July 11th! My calendar is marked.

Question: How can we make Web sites easier and more intuitive to use? Capture the attention and meet the needs of our users? Reduce dependencies on help desk staff?

The presenter is dealing with similar issues of deployability of projects with months-long development times. A familiar theme. Nice to know that even the usability experts run into this! Here are some general tips for planning a usable site (and maybe avoiding the scrapping of lots of hard work):

  1. Get to know your users – compile user profiles using different user characteristics and consider design implications for each. Look at usability.gov for ideas for “personas”.
  2. Interviews – important to come up with 2-3 questions for 3-4 users.
  3. Card Sorts – a way to organize the different areas of your site visually
  4. Paper prototyping – we did an example for a hypothetical video sharing site. How could you go wrong with video?
  5. Fireworks – Can also use Fireworks for prototyping – very useful for drag ‘n’ drop of box elements on your page.

Twitter as public brainstorming

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I have a confession to make. I am an introvert in the online environment. Meyers-Brigg has me straddling the border between introvert and extrovert in reality, but in the online environment, my introverted tendencies prevail. Perhaps it’s writer’s block getting in the way in this still largely text-based environment. Perhaps I am intimidated by the lack of inflectional cues and body language that help me appreciate the deeper meaning in others’ communications, and the fear that my own meaning will be missed without these cues. Whatever it is, it has kept me from fully participating in the many social networking tools that many of my colleagues embrace.

That being said, I’ll come back to the reason for this post. I’ve been alternatively ignoring, lurking, or even occasionally participating in Twitter. Aside from the aforementioned introvert factor, part of what’s been keeping from being a full participant is the fact that I’ve been waiting for a really good use for the tool to come to me. I will probably not ever feel comfortable tweeting a lot about my personal life (get to know me and let’s go have a beer if you really want to know). But I have occasionally experienced a need to bounce an idea around for feedback and Twitter was the handiest thing around to do so. Colleagues and like-minded people (or not so like-minded people) might have a different angle or perspective on a problem that I might not consider on my own.

So there – I’ve found my killer app for public brainstorming.  I promise to try to hang around Twitter should the opportunity come to return the favor. Alas, there will inevitably be times when I’m in “off” mode rather than “lurker” or active participant. When these times come, don’t worry about little ‘ole me – I’m just hiding in my little virtual corner, nurturing my introverted side. Maybe you’ll see me out ‘n about and more than likely, I’ll be delighted to talk about your cool new idea.

The real Slim Shady

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OK I’ve officially been hoodwinked into my first April Fools Day joke. I subscribe to the rss feed of the blog of Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Work Week. Among other things in his lifestyle design recommendations, Tim recommends various methods of “personal outsourcing” as ways to save time and cut corners in our world of information overload and alway-on expectations. Well yesterday he revealed in a posting that he had outsourced his blog to two individuals and that it had been a year since the real Tim Ferriss made a post. WHAT? I alternated between feelings of betrayal, and being distinctly impressed by the fact that such good advice came from the blog in this time period, including such great productivity tips as using a bigger computer monitor (I would add the option of a dual-monitor setup) and only checking e-mail twice a day (I’m working on getting it down to 3X a day anyway, and skipping the autoresponder – would probably be a turnoff to my colleagues and stakeholders).

Thank you, Tim, for owning up to your prank.

Taming the e-mail beast

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I’m a casual follower of Tim Ferris, recreational lifestyle guru and author of The Four-Hour Workweek. I honestly think the guy has some solid ideas when it comes to reducing stress and just generally having a more fun and fulfilling life. A recent post on his blog regarding e-mail autoresponders caught my eye:

http://tinyurl.com/223lvc

Now, while I think the use of an autoresponder for vacation time when you will be genuinely unavailable by e-mail is appropriate, using it as an everyday tool seems over the top – spammy and unprofessional. Nonetheless, it is rare enough that I get an e-mail that honestly demands an immediate response that I’ve been seriously pondering ways to reduce the time I spend with it. Limiting my e-mail checking to two or three times a day seems perfectly reasonable. I’ve started today with two approaches:

  1. Previously I’ve had my e-mail client set up to automatically check e-mail every 30 minutes. Additionally, I have developed the very bad habit of checking mail manually every time I was bored! I called it the “Crackberry effect”. I’ve turned off the automatic feature, and I am training myself to stay away from that check e-mail button except for the appointed times. I’m not sure what those times will be yet – maybe 9, 1, and 4?
  2. I used to have e-mail automatically forward out of ANGEL so instructors could contact me through ANGEL should an emergency arise in a course that requires my attention. The unfortunate drawback to this was that I was getting a TON of e-mail that was not directed to me and that I was required to destroy. I’ve turned off this feature and direc

FCK editor and dokuwiki customization

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Recently, I’ve been working with some possible open source solutions to the problem of how to allow our World Campus faculty the ability to easily access and edit content on their own. For a long time, the World Campus model has been somewhat inflexible, forcing faculty to meet deadlines months in advance in order for our instructional design staff to have time to convert this content (usually Word documents) to a Web-deliverable format. This division of labor, while perhaps seen by some as a form of job security, is ultimately inefficient, especially in light of today’s world of Web 2.0 and (easily) user-generated content.

On that note, I’ve taken my charge of finding a workable solution to our IT staff. We’ve been using dokuwiki in-house for a while now, and it’s really taken off as a suppository of information and documentation relevant to our staff. I had started looking at other wiki options (it had to be installed, not hosted), but was basically told, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Happily accepting the challenge that this limitation imposed, I started looking at all the different customizations that are available currently for dokuwiki. I ran across this one:

https://fosswiki.liip.ch/display/FCKW/Home

I have to say that I was wowed (check out the demo if you have the chance). Well we’ve done it and we’re getting closer to something workable for faculty. We knew that the wiki syntax would not go over big, and that a familiar, Word-like editing interface was a much more desirable option. Now we have it. My next step is going to be testing and tweaking a variety of interface customizations (style sheets).

Net Neutrality

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At the request of a colleague, I am re-posting something I posted for the online ADTED 460 class I took this Fall about Net Neutrality. I hope that the analogies I use to describe the issue make sense and that they are close to accurate in their depiction of the problem:

I’ll give an analogy to describe how I think an internet without net neutrality will look. The mediums of radio and television as they exist today are something like what a non-neutral internet would look like. Yes, there are a lot of choices for the consumer, but it is still largely controlled by corporations who have the capital to provide the equipment to produce for these mediums and the licensing from the FCC. The FCC is in place because these mediums are inherently limiting – there are only so many frequencies available to broadcast on, so some regulation is in order. The internet has no such regulation or restriction because it is really not needed – there is nothing limiting how big it can get and how many “nodes” (Web sites) can exist. Also no one “owns” the internet. I’m going to attach a sort of sad attempt at a line diagram I’ve done to illustrate the difference. The first diagram shows how I envision radio and television. There are a finite number of nodes and each one radiates out to the consumers. My diagram of the internet, though, shows all nodes connected in a web-like fashion (that’s why we call it the Web), with no node having any particular importance over any other. Also there is no limit to the number of nodes. What I think eliminating net neutrality will do is start to make the internet diagram look more like the first diagram. What will happen for us as consumers is that we’ll have no trouble connecting to corporate Web sites but we’ll see slow or no connections to anything else. Penn State’s lead IT administrator recently testified before Congress in support of Net Neutrality. You can read the text of his speech here: http://live.psu.edu/story/18325

Happy New Year!

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I have plenty going on in 2008. Taking a class in the Spring, another in the Fall. Drupal training this month. Trip to Utah/Wyoming in the late Spring. Taking it easy this summer. Yay! Plenty to look forward to. Of course with the new year comes the usual promises to myself to take it easy and take care of myself. Stay off the computer and away from technology as much as possible. Yes, you heard that right. Though I do enjoy the work I do very much, I also enjoy my downtime and my time to take care of myself. Reading, cooking, working out, maybe a rock climbing trip or two. With this promise of downtime comes a promise to make the very most of the time I DO spend with technology. How can I help to make the user experience as pleasant as possible for today’s student? What can I do to make the learning spaces I touch as engaging and FUN as possible? I hope to come up with some answers this year.