HCI

Bill Buxton's Bad Ass CHI 2008 Keynote

"In 1997 you yelled out that you would never come to CHI again because they just didn't get it. What changed your mind to come back? Ultimately I can't figure out a better community to work on these problems. It surprised people that I went to IBM, and that I came back here I guess. I had some time to think. I'm glad I came back. I was younger and wilder then and not so calm and cool and collected. I also stopped blaming you and CHI for not getting what I need. Instead, it's my fault. I can say what can I do to get fulfilled." (Bolt|Peters User Experience)

Posted on April 15, 2008 | Permalink

Being Human 2020 

"In March 2007, Microsoft Research organised the ‘HCI 2020’ meeting at the El Bulli Hacienda Hotel near Seville, Spain. The event’s title expressed its key question: what will Human- Computer Interaction (HCI) be like in the year 2020? That question is important because HCI, significant as it was in the late 20th century, has a pivotal part to play in the 21st, when computers will become so pervasive that how humans interact with them will be a crucial issue for society. HCI 2020 produced many ideas, both thrilling and troubling. This report is not a conventional publication of an academic conference but seeks to convey the passion of those ideas, both for the general reader and the HCI practitioner. For the general reader, this is important because knowledge of what the future might be may empower, while ignorance harm. For the HCI practitioner, its purpose is to map out the terrain and suggest new approaches while keeping an eye on the main prize: the embodiment of human values at the heart of computing." (Microsoft Research) - courtesy of markvanderbeeken

Posted on April 02, 2008 | Permalink

Cues, The Golden Retriever

How our natural responses to stimuli can inform the design process - "I'd like to frame a discussion of cues by touching on a mixture of topics including memory, a few theories from cognitive psychology, and multimedia research. It may get a little dry, but stick with me. The integration of these three areas not only affects how information is encoded and retrieved, it influences how and when cues might best be used." (Jamie Owen - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on March 20, 2008 | Permalink

Tap is the New Click: Designing Gestural Interfaces

"Even though the technology has been around for decades, only now are we starting to see mass production and adoption of touchscreen and gestural devices for the public. Jeff Han's influential 2006 TED demonstration of his multitouch system, followed by the launches of Nintendo's Wii, Apple's iPhone, and Microsoft Surface, have announced a new era of interaction design, one where gestures in space and touches on a screen will be as prominent as pointing and clicking." (Dan Saffer - O'Reilly ETech 2008)

Posted on March 18, 2008 | Permalink

Where HCI comes from (and where it might go)

"This week, a new book appeared in my mailbox: HCI Remixed: Reflections on Works That Have Influenced the HCI Community (eds. Thomas Erickson and David McDonald). This book helped remind me that human-human interaction was part of HCI, even if the field seems not to emphasize that these days." (danah boyd - apophenia)

Posted on February 26, 2008 | Permalink

My Vision Isn't My Vision 

Or, 'Making a Career Out of Getting Back to Where I Started' - "This was a golden time. My experience with this system surpassed even the motorcycle ride up to Ottawa – including those glorious hilly curves through the countryside. And given my relationship with Mabel, that is no faint praise. But truth be told, even this is an understatement. I am still striving to be worthy of the folks who gave me this, my first introduction to what has become my career. And, as the title of this essay suggests, since then, a huge part of my professional life has been an attempt to get back to where I started. My only hope is that I succeed. I at least owe them that. And the recognition. And thanks." (Bill Buxton - HCI Remixed)

Posted on February 06, 2008 | Permalink

Manifesto of the UI

"I've been thinking more and more lately about the state of user interface and it’s evolution path — it's something that I can't get out of my mind. Over the past few years (we're talking less than 5), we've seen user interfaces across the digital world morph from a static experience into highly dynamic interactive experiences. Web sites like Facebook and MySpace have proven that interactivity and the ability to relate real world ideas to the digital realm wins over features and functionality. Applications like iTunes have shown that how data is presented and you interact with that data is more important than how your computer processes the same data. As such, I'd like to pose a simple question to those front end developers out there: What do you think the future of UI technology will look like?" (Kyle Neath - Warpspire)

Posted on February 01, 2008 | Permalink

Towards a Model of Innovation

"For the last few years, innovation has been a big topic in conversation about business management. But despite all the conversation, there is little consensus on what innovation is and how to get it. Hugh Dubberly, well known for producing highly visual, exploratory models of complex topics, has produced a new model that explores the rich subject matter of innovation." (Hugh Dubberly - interactions magazine) - congrats with the fresh site

Posted on January 04, 2008 | Permalink

Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface

"The ubiquity of frustrating, unhelpful software interfaces has motivated decades of research into 'Human-Computer Interaction'. In this paper, I suggest that the long-standing focus on 'interaction' may be misguided. For a majority subset of software, called 'information software', I argue that interactivity is actually a curse for users and a crutch for designers, and users' goals can be better satisfied through other means." (Bret Victor)

Posted on December 20, 2007 | Permalink

HCI in SciFi Movies

"Science Fiction movies have been a source for speculation about the future of technology and human computer interaction. This paper presents a survey of different kinds of interaction designs in movies during the past decades and relates the techniques of the films to existing technologies and prototypes where possible. The interactions will be categorized with respect to their domain of real-life applications and also evaluated in regard to results of current research in human computer interaction." (A. Butz, C. Endres, and W. Wahlster) - courtesy of michelvuijlsteke

Posted on October 01, 2007 | Permalink

Multi-Touch Systems That I Have Known And Loved

"Since the announcement of the iPhone, an especially large number of people have asked me about multi-touch. The reason is largely because they know that I have been involved in the topic for a number of years. The problem is, I can't take the time to give a detailed reply to each question. So I have done the next best thing (I hope). That is, start compiling my would-be answer in this document. The assumption is that ultimately it is less work to give one reasonable answer than many unsatisfactory ones." (Bill Buxton)

Posted on August 23, 2007 | Permalink

IndieHIG

"The IndieHIG project is an initiative created out of the necessity to document the new look and feel aspects of the Mac OS X experience, outside of the supervision of Apple itself." - courtesy of slashdotorg

Posted on May 16, 2007 | Permalink

Giving You Fitts

"One of the most well-understood and salient principles underlying the ergonomics of graphical user interface design is Fitts' Law. Named for Paul Fitts, a psychologist at Ohio State University, Fitts' Law is a mathematical model of fine motor control which predicts how long it takes to move from one position to another as a function of the distance to and size of the target area. Papers outlining what became known as Fitts' Law were published in 1954 and 1964." (Jensen Harris - An Office User Interface Blog)

Posted on January 21, 2007 | Permalink

OLPC Human Interface Guidelines

"These guidelines are targeted primarily at developers who are building tools for the OLPC laptop. They provide an in-depth view of the various features of Sugar, the laptop user interface, and focus closely on the parts of the UI that pertain directly to software development and the ways in which applications, presented as 'activities', interact with the operating system. However, as these guidelines are intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the user interface, these pages should also be of general interest. Hopefully the descriptions of the various UI elements, particularly in the Laptop Experience section, will quench the thirst of all who want to better understand the project and its goals." (The OLPC Wiki) - courtesy of usernomics

Posted on December 15, 2006 | Permalink

From GUI to E(motional) UI

"In 1988, Apple Computer produced some video scenarios showing how future computers would be able to understand hand gestures, read text, and respond to voice commands. Almost 20 years later, the world is still waiting for a natural way of using computers—though we are beginning to see some of our wildest dreams slowly emerge from the chaos of high technology and become real. In 2006, it is easy to believe that the masses will soon be able to use a computer without any keyboard or mouse. Beyond the constrained space of our personal computer's monitor, keyboard, and mouse, I'm looking for the sort of revolution that would overtake the wild dream of Blade Runner. I can envision huge 3D virtual worlds and systems that are smart enough to feel a user’s mood and respond intelligently. Now, where do you want to go today?" (Leandro Agrò - UXmatters)

Posted on September 11, 2006 | Permalink

Experiencing CHI 2006: From a Practitioner's Viewpoint

"This course explored the operational, organizational, and strategic impacts of user experience groups within product development companies and provided a conceptual framework for relating UX activities to strategic business processes." (Pabini Gabriel-Petit - UXmatters)

Posted on August 20, 2006 | Permalink

A Crash Course in User Interfaces

"Whenever the topic of interface development comes up, I'm always surprised to see most software engineers cringe as if they’re being told they need a root canal. Almost all modern applications require some sort of graphical user interface, and yet the UI is commonly the last consideration of development. Worse yet (particularly when it comes to web development) the user interface is often created by a graphic designer who isn't familiar with software development. The resulting separation that occurs between the application's internals and its interface can cause serious problems with the project." (Nate Kohari)

Posted on August 03, 2006 | Permalink

International Usability Evaluation: Issues and Strategies

"Like many UX practitioners, I'm often involved in designing products that will be sold across the globe. Half of the challenge is acknowledging there is no one-size-fits-all set of design criteria. The other half is knowing the tradeoffs when choosing between usability methods for requirements gathering and evaluation. What many may find surprising is that our tried-and-true methods themselves can have limitations, depending on the context in which we apply them." (Michele Marut - UXmatters)

Posted on July 25, 2006 | Permalink

User Interface Design: Taking the Good with the Bad

"The key to any successful marriage is compromise. While things may not always go the way you want them to, in the end, coming to an agreement helps you to achieve a greater good. The same holds true for user interface (UI) design. After all, what else is the user interface if not a marriage of form and function?" (Mike Padilla - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on July 18, 2006 | Permalink

Experiencing CHI 2006: From a Practitioner's Viewpoint (1/4)

"One of the great things CHI offers to both practitioners and academics is an opportunity to reconnect with people from their respective communities. Though the intermingling between these two separate communities is not what it might be. Over the many years since this conference began in 1982, conference attendees have forged and annually - or at least from time to time - renewed friendships with their peers from around the world. Unlike conferences focusing on a particular UX specialty, attendees represented the diversity among practitioners - including designers, usability specialists, user researchers, and UX managers." (Pabini Gabriel-Petit - UXmatters)

Posted on July 12, 2006 | Permalink

History of the button

"Tracing the history of interaction design, software/web design and the future of environmental design through the humble button." (About HotB)

Posted on June 30, 2006 | Permalink

Journeying Through CHI 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." (Elizabeth Bacon - UXmatters)

Posted on June 05, 2006 | Permalink

Returning to CHI: Different Experience, Same Rush

"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." (Jessyca Frederick - UXmatters)

Posted on June 05, 2006 | Permalink

USer Interface eXtensible Markup Language

"(...) a XML-compliant markup language that describes the UI for multiple contexts of use such as Character User Interfaces (CUIs), Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs), Auditory User Interfaces, and Multimodal User Interfaces. In other words, interactive applications with different types of interaction techniques, modalities of use, and computing platforms can be described in a way that preserves the design independently from peculiar characteristics of physical computing platform." (UsiXML.org)

Posted on June 01, 2006 | Permalink

Opening Plenary of CHI2006: Scott Cook (Intuit)

"This plenary is the story of why customer connectivity is hugely important - Cook insists this means not doing surveys which can reinforce the company's existing mindset, but to get out into the customer's actual space - to get out the old ideas and let new ideas come in." (CHI 2006)

Posted on April 24, 2006 | Permalink

Videos in the CHI Video Retrospective Special Collection

"We've added 87 videos from the Assocation for Computing Machinery (ACM) annual Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) conference. These videos were digitized from the CHI conference VHS video proceedings for the years 1996 through 2002, with the exception of the video proceedings for the year 2000. We expect to add videos for the year 2000 and 2003 video proceedings soon." (The Open Video Project)

Posted on April 13, 2006 | Permalink

The Future of Interfaces is Multi-Touch

"This demonstration was simply amazing -- all running real-time off one laptop and all designed by grad students. I suggest that you take a look at their video that demonstrates the multi-touch interface." (Robert Kaye - O'Reilly ETech)

Posted on March 08, 2006 | Permalink

Interface in Form: Paper and Product Prototyping for Feedback and Fun

"Sketching and modeling are integral features of the design process, critical for both the generation of ideas, and the communication of concepts to others for discussion and evaluation, particularly in the context of human-centered design. While these methods are a natural component of the designer’s education and professional tool kit, there is immense value in exposing other professions involved in the development of products and interfaces to at least a limited set of these same basic tools." (Bruce Hanington - uiGarden.net)

Posted on March 01, 2006 | Permalink

Usability for Rich Internet Applications

"In this article, I provide some practical tips for designing usable RIAs, based on fundamental principles of HCI." (Donna Maurer - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on February 21, 2006 | Permalink

Small Multiples Within a User Interface

"Many software programs provide access to, and let users work with, large amounts of information. In addition to interactions that allow users to create, edit, and expand massive data sets, these information-rich applications must also support effective data interpretation." (Luke Wroblewski - UXmatters)

Posted on December 20, 2005 | Permalink

Beyond Menus and Toolbars in Microsoft Office

Audio presentation and slides by Jensen Harris (Microsoft) - "This talk will provide a historical perspective on the evolution of the Office user interface and the battle against the mounting complexity of the product. You'll get a behind-the-scenes look at the different design iterations, and an in-depth look at the new Office UI constructs, including the Ribbon, galleries, contextual tabs, and the MiniBar." (BayCHI)

Posted on December 18, 2005 | Permalink

Blog Interface Design 2.0

"(...) many blogs suffer from interface design shortcomings. Unlike issues of spam and authority, these problems have relatively straightforward solutions that could considerably increase the utility of blog content. Assuming a blog is not filled with spam content (splogs), spam comments, or spam trackbacks, there's often a wealth of information to be found therein: information that is frequently buried deep within archives and comments. This article looks at ways to bring that information forward." (Luke Wroblewski - Functioning Form)

Posted on December 14, 2005 | Permalink

Emotion and the sense of presence in HCI design

"Emotion is becoming accepted as an important ingredient of successful humancomputer interaction design. It has always been important in design, but as a discipline rooted in the methods and mindset of the cognitive psychology of the 70s and 80s, HCI has been slow to accept that affect (as exhibited in feelings of happiness or anxiety) is an essential component of reasoning about the world, not an opposing force. Although we may loosely speak of emotion versus reason, both too much and too little emotion will have a negative impact on cognition, with the latter being the more pathological." (John Waterworth - uiGarden.net)

Posted on October 20, 2005 | Permalink

Web 2.0 Interfaces: The Future of Design

"So, at the end of the talk I re-asked the question about what Web 2.0 means to people. I felt like there was a general consensus: that Web 2.0 is a big deal, especially the architecture of participation. We're turning to new methods to find value for us, and those methods are systems built upon the notion that users add value." (Joshua Porter - Bokardo)

Posted on September 16, 2005 | Permalink

Designing user interfaces with gestures and sound: Towards the performance and appeal of voice mail browsing

"In the current paper, three dimensions of multimodal access to content are explored: tangible media, use of gestures and sound. To this extent, the current study considers the role of sound feedback in support of user-product communication and gestures towards accessing voice mail via a tangible interface. In the case of voice mail representations, information can be directly represented by the recorded media, whereas the use of abstract sound representations creates a higher level overview of content." (Marco C. Rozendaal and David V. Keyson - The Journal of Design Research)

Posted on August 04, 2005 | Permalink

Why Do Current Graphical User Interfaces Not Work Naturally & How They Can Be Fixed?

"User interface design, a part of the broader field of ergonomics, has been a challenging field to work in since man first tried making a tool for somebody else. Consider the lowly garden trowel. A trowel is simply a piece of wide metal connected to a handle, whereby its wielder may move small amount of earth to place seeds or seedlings in a garden." (Warren M. Myers - ACM Ubiquity)

Posted on July 20, 2005 | Permalink

Seminar on Cognitive Modeling for UI Design

"This seminar presents the current state of the art of evaluating user interface designs using models of human performance that are based on cognitive architectures. Such models can yield usability results without the delay and expense of user testing of prototypes, but because they are new and still under development, whether and how to apply them is a challenge. This seminar will survey current theory and practice; no 'how-to' of actual model construction will be presented; rather the goal is to enable a good choice of whether a modeling approach will be useful, and which type of model would be best to pursue." (School of CS - CMU)

Posted on June 29, 2005 | Permalink

Google vs. Yahoo! Interface Design

"As Google and Yahoo! continue their volley of product offerings, I thought it would be useful to compare the interface design solutions each company employed to solve similar user needs." (LukeW - Functioning Form)

Posted on June 06, 2005 | Permalink

Human Technology

An Interdisciplinary Journal on Humans in ICT Environments - "Human Technology presents innovative, peer-reviewed articles that explore the issues and challenges surrounding the human role in all areas of our ICT-infused societies. The journal seeks to draw research from multiple scientific disciplines with an eye toward how applied technology can affect human existence or how it can, for instance, foster personal development and enhance research and development in industry, education, communication and other fields." (Agora Center - University of Jyväskylä) - courtesy of usabilitynews

Posted on May 20, 2005 | Permalink

A History of the GUI

"Why did computers come to adopt the GUI as their primary mode of interaction, and how did the GUI evolve to be the way it is today? In what follows, I'll be presenting a brief introduction to the history of the GUI. The topic, as you might expect, is broad, and very deep. This article will touch on the high points, while giving an overview of GUI development." (Jeremy Reimer - Ars Technica) - courtesy of lucdesk

Posted on May 08, 2005 | Permalink

The State of Computer-Human Interaction

"You might say it's the toughest problem to solve in the modern world of computing; it's certainly the hardest to define. This month more than 1,800 designers, programmers, academics, professional researchers, industrial engineers, artists, and musicians gathered in Portland, Oregon, for another bash at the question, How do you make these monstrous electronics we've created easier and more pleasant to use? Welcome to CHI 2005, the annual meeting of the Association for Computer Machinery's special interest group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI)." (Quinn Norton - O'Reilly Network)

Posted on April 15, 2005 | Permalink

Jef Raskin The Movie

"Beginning with conversations on interface design and creating a better computer, Our footage reveals a remarkable man who changes the lives of people around him. Passionately described as an inovator with an unfailing moral compass and a gifted educator with an active commitment to play Jef attributes his success in part to a foundation based on music, math and physics." (Dave Burstein) - courtesy of cityofbits

Posted on March 01, 2005 | Permalink

Jef Raskin Passed Away Peacefully

"(...) on Saturday February 26th, 2005 our condolences go out to Jef's family, friends and wider community." (DigiBarn Friends) - Jef's spirit will live through.

Posted on February 27, 2005 | Permalink

Report: Aesthetic Approaches to HCI

"This is a report of the NordiCHI 2004 Workshop on Aesthetic Approaches to Human-Computer Interaction, which took place in October at the University of Tampere." (John Knight - Usability News)

Posted on January 20, 2005 | Permalink

The Role of Design in Software Product Development

Video Lecture - "ePresence Interactive Media is a research project of the Knowledge Media Design Institute at the University of Toronto." (Bill Buxton - KMDI)

Posted on January 17, 2005 | Permalink

Ten Most Wanted Design Bugs

"(...) design bugs that have been around so long that we've begun to think of them as folk heros. However, the usual requirement for turning a public enemy into a folk hero is death, not longevity, and so it should be for these worthies: Their executions are long overdue. These bugs aren't necessarily fatal. The are all at minimum highly irritating, and they have all survived for a minimum of five years or five product release cycles, whichever came first." (Bruce Tognazzini - AskTog) - courtesy of slash dot org

Posted on November 29, 2004 | Permalink

Rich Internet Applications for Revolutionary Interface Design 

"The use of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) for complex, transactional web applications is a significant leap forward for user interface design and development. It fundamentally changes the foundation of the presentation tier for today's web applications." (Benjamin Wigton - Avenue A / Razorfish Perspectives) - courtesy of brett lider

Posted on November 11, 2004 | Permalink

Ergonomic Soft Mouse and Armrest Mouse Pad

"In this paper, it is shown that a teddy bear skin spongy mouse is a better option than a conventional plastic mouse design and that a portable arm rest mouse pad platform is far better than the conventional mouse platform placed to the side of the keyboard tray." (Bhaskar Gupta - ACM Ubiquity)

Posted on September 28, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Checkboxes vs. Radio Buttons

"Even prominent websites make elementary errors in the use of basic user interface controls. The main guidelines are clear, but there are ten other things you should consider when using checkboxes and radio buttons." (Jakob Nielsen - Alertbox)

Posted on September 27, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Ambient Intelligence: Changing Forms of Human-Computer Interaction and their Social Implications

"The paper describes developments to date in ambient intelligence and its closely related counterpart, ubiquitous computing and communication. It discusses the driving forces behind this digital information technology, describes the equipment and devices involved, the obstacles to implementing ambient intelligence on a large scale in real-world scenarios, and considers the future outlook. The authors believe that the introduction of this digital information technology will have wide-ranging implications, which will for the most part be beneficial and valuable." (Mahesh S. Raisinghani et al. - Journal of Digital Information 5.4)

Posted on August 26, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

User interfaces: The next generation

"Keyboards and mice will face competition from motion-sensing, gesture recognition and haptic technologies." (Computerworld) - courtesy of lawrence lee

Posted on August 12, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice

"(...) addresses the critical area of 3D user interface design - a field that seeks to answer detailed questions that make the difference between a 3D system that is usable and efficient and one that causes user frustration, errors, and even physical discomfort. The authors present practical information for developers, the latest research results, easy-to-follow guidelines for the UI designer, and relevant application examples. While there are quite a few books devoted to user interfaces in general and to 2D user interface design in particular, 3D user interfaces have received significantly less attention." (Doug A. Bowman et al.) - courtesy of nooface

Posted on July 27, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Gummy World: Thoughts on the Graphical User Interface

"The world can be divided into two basic categories: people who like chocolate, and people who like gummies. Chocolate is serious, sexy, and secretive. Gummies are fruity, cheerful, and transparent. Whereas chocolates are often shaped as simple cubes, bars, and domes, gummies masquerade as worms, sharks, strawberries, coke bottles, teddy bears, cartoon characters, and more. Gummies promise a bright world of postmodern illusion, while chocolates imply a dark modernist sublime. It looks like the gummy people were behind the visual design of Apple’s OS X." (Ellen Lupton - Voice: AIGA Journal of Design)

Posted on July 20, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Exploring the mnemonic user interface 

"The manner in which files are visually organized, all according to the popular desktop metaphor, concur with conditions applicable twenty years ago. Over time, these conditions, technical as well as user oriented ones, have radically changed. The desktop metaphor has not. This article is an offspring of personal reflections over too much time being spent traversing file structures and organizing windows in the user interfaces of today's modern operating systems." (Christian Lagerkvist) - courtesy of nooface

Posted on July 12, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Prolegomena to Future Interface Design

A 80 mins. video of Jef Raskin's talk entitled 'What's wrong with the state of interface design today?' - Make sure you have the proper codec. (Microsoft Multi-University/Research Laboratory) - courtesy of vuk cosic

Posted on July 02, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

The SIGCHI Bulletin Web Site is here

"Welcome to an exciting new development in our organization: an interactive Bulletin Web Site. You not only can read about the latest developments at SIGCHI you can participate in those developments via discussions, letters to the editor, and your own articles. Likewise, articles can be read on line, printed out or sent via e-mail." (ACM SIGCHI)

Posted on June 13, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Apple Software Design Guidelines

"These guidelines are intended to help guide you through the obstacles that confront Mac OS X developers. They cover different aspects of the design process and offers tips on how you can use Mac OS X features effectively in your design." (Apple Developer) - courtesy of vanderwal

Posted on May 31, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Fundamental issues with open source software development

"The lack of focus on user interface design causes users to prefer proprietary software's more intuitive interface. Open Source software tends to lack the complete and accessible documentation that retains users. Developers focus on features in their software, rather than ensuring that they have a solid core. (...) If Open Source software wishes to become widely used and embraced by the general public, all issues will have to be overcome." (Michelle Levesque - First Monday 9.4)

Posted on April 09, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Structure and Style in Use Cases for User Interface Design

"Various styles for writing use cases are presented with examples and discussions of their relative advantages and disadvantages, particularly their consequences for user interface design and software usability. Essential use cases, a variant employed within usage-centered design, are contrasted with conventional use cases and scenarios. For the most efficient support of user interface design and particularly for large, complex projects, a highly-structured form of use case has evolved. New narrative elements and relationships among use cases are introduced. These include means for expressing partial or flexible ordering of interaction, relationships with business rules, as well as a clarification of the often misunderstood concept of extension that recognizes two distinct forms: synchronous and asynchronous extensions." (Constantine & Lockwood, Ltd.) - courtesy of guuui

Posted on March 14, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

The complexity principle

"Overly complex interfaces significantly impact usability and must be avoided. While there are plenty of studies researching this issue and plenty of data to point to how complexity hurts a product, in order to truly address the root of problem, designers must understand where complexity originates." (Design by Fire)

Posted on March 08, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

A Tangible Interface for Organizing Information Using a Grid

"We present a new tangible interface platform for manipulating discrete pieces of abstract information, which attempts to combine the benefits of each of these two alternatives into a single system. We developed interaction techniques and an example application for organizing conference papers." (The Open Video Project)

Posted on March 02, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

How Would You Redo the Google Interface?

Four designers share their (re)visions (Wired) - courtesy of lawrence lee

Posted on February 26, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Zurgle: The Squeak Desktop Enhancement Project

"The Zurgle project is a campaign to help clean up some of the sharper edges on the current Squeak desktop by adding things like emulated widgets and window skins." (Squeak)

Posted on February 18, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

segusoLand: Screenshots and tutorial

"(..) a program for GNU/linux that enables users to specify any kind of action in a very uniform way, with an artificial intelligence that aids you while you are composing the action, by showing you only the relevant options. segusoLand features a completely new user interaction paradigm called 'reciprocal list narrowing'. You won't find it anywhere else. Some people would call segusoLand a 'desktop environment', some a 'file manager", some a "start menu' ... it is difficult to classify it because it is quite innovative." (Maurizio Colucci - segusoLand) - courtesy of nooface

Posted on February 11, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

User Interface Design — Is it A Science, An Art, or A Craft?

"My answer is: It's a craft that takes its wisdom from science, its inspiration from art and the design disciplines, its possibilities and limitations from software technology and corporate culture, and its directions — ideally — from the users." (Gerd Waloszek - SAP Design Guild) - courtesy of ben hyde

Posted on February 11, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

World's First HCI Rap: 'We Got It'

"Yo -- this is an OK/Cancel exclusive; for the first time in history: HCI and hiphop together. For your educational pleasure; now check this while I wreck with some buttons and levers; give me 10 seconds and I'll start this endeavor" (Tom Chi and KC - OK/Cancel) - courtesy of design by fire

Posted on February 09, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Jef Raskin, Macintosh inventor, looks to the future of computing

"Twenty years ago, Pacifica resident Jef Raskin was a 40-year-old software designer and writer for Apple Computers. He was also a cutting-edge thinker, (he still is, by the way), who imagined a world of connected computers providing infinite bits of information to people sitting at home in front of user-friendly machines. He imagined those machines would be named after his favorite fruit - the Macintosh apple, and that they would have a very simple, graphic interface; designed to be used the way humans think and work, not the way machines do." (Chris Hunter - Pacifica Tribune) - courtesy of lawrence lee

Posted on February 07, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Multimodal Systems

"The interface between humans and computers still suffers from many deficiencies. Multimodal systems using multibiometric elements, multimodal interfaces and multisensor systems are beginning to alleviate many of them." (Juan C. Dürsteler - Inf@Vis!)

Posted on February 02, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Interface Design Issues #02: Consistency and standards

"Consistency is one of the golden rules of interface design. There can be no question about this. It's important on many levels. When applied effectively in a design, consistency creates a foundation for a user to interact with the product in a predictable manner. Consistency creates usage patterns, offering users the opportunity to succeed in the face of an unknown feature encountered for the first time." (Andrei Michael Herasimchuk - Design by Fire)

Posted on January 29, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Project Looking Glass: A Revolutionary Evolution of Today's Desktop

"Project Looking Glass is being created to work with the Solaris and Linux desktop environments using Java technology. When completed, it will work alongside applications designed for a 2D window system, without application modifications." (SUN Microsystems) - courtesy of nooface

Posted on January 27, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

The Role of Business Analyst - a Need but no Room for HCI?

"(...) I certainly believe more than ever that there is room for those with qualifications and experience of customer centred design principles in the position of Analyst. However, finding those with the power and faith to appoint these people to an analyst position will continue to be a difficult task." (David N. Clarke - Usability News)

Posted on January 21, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Auditory Interfaces: The Use of Non-Speech Audio at the Interface

"The following is the manuscript of a 'work stopped in progress' in 1994.  That is, it is a book that we started, but never finished.  Nevertheless, we used the manuscript in its various forms for tutorials and courses that we taught, always with the expectation that we would finish. Well, the reality is, that is not going to happen. Nevertheless, despite its lack of completion, the manuscript represents a fair bit of work in an area that does not have much of a literature." (William Buxton, William Gaver, and Sara Bly - Buxton Design)

Posted on January 14, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Audio Interfaces for Online Environments

"Sound is one of our most sophisticated senses, from the time we are babies our entire world is filled with sounds designed to stimulate our behavior. We grow to expect pleasure or annoyance as were are introduced to surprising new sounds as well as established ones. Sound has a variety of forms - voice, music, effects, nature, or other communication forms - and these can be incredible rich, complex, and subtle." (Clark MacLeod - Kelake)

Posted on January 13, 2004 | Permalink | TrackBack

Design Differences: VUIs versus GUIs

"Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) are a new concept to many who now have the task of doing everything it takes to develop a VoiceXML application. This article describes the difference between the VUI and the long-familiar GUI." (Rick Beasley et al. - informIT) - courtesy of nooface

Posted on January 06, 2004 | Permalink

Widgetopia

"Collection of widgets and UI elements from various websites, with notation of their sterling or plate metal qualities." (Christina Wodtke - Elegant Hack)

Posted on January 01, 2004 | Permalink

User interface design for web applications: It is a different world from web site design

"The first lesson I learned was that each design decision is dictated by the focus of the project. The focus of my previous Web site projects was content; the focus of the application's user interface was task-based user entry forms." (Jean Tillman - Digital Web Magazine)

Posted on November 13, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

From Function to Form

Invited presentation at TU/e Industrial Design, Designed Intelligence Group (2003) (Matthias Rauterberg)

Posted on October 28, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

Aero: The Desktop To Come

"The future of Windows is determined by Longhorn, the new operating system that Microsoft is preparing for 2005 that will imply, according to them, the 'life immersion' of the customers in this new technology. We review what is known about it up to now." (Juan C. Dürsteler - Inf@Vis!)

Posted on October 28, 2003 | Permalink | TrackBack

The ZUI Demo

"Zooming is an important part of THE and this simple demo illustrates some of the ways that zooming solves the navigation problems posed by our present system of links, tabs, and other click-and-go-there interfaces." (Jef Raskin - THE) - courtesy of brad lauster