Re: [IxDA Discuss] getting into a master's program when youhavepoorundergraduate grades?

2008-05-21 Thread j. eric townsend
It never hurts to contact someone in the program, or the head of the program and just ask how seriously they take grades. Some schools put a lot of value on things like GRE / portfolio / work experience, but sometimes it is simply a matter of what the admissions committee for a specific

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is blogging about work OK?

2008-06-18 Thread j. eric townsend
Prachi Sakhardande wrote: Hi There Here's a question to all the avid bloggers on this list. How do you draw the line between what work related stuff you can blog about? I think it depends on where you work, both in terms of the firm and the country. In the US, we have this recent thing

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Importance of Masters Degree for IxD Professionals

2008-06-20 Thread j. eric townsend
Uday Gajendar wrote: Speaking as a Master's degree holder, i'm biased but I'd say the advantages are primarily: That pretty much lines up with my desire to go back to grad school, especially #3. I've got a ton of industry experience in related disciplines, but taking a year or two off of

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Importance of Masters Degree for IxD Professionals

2008-06-20 Thread j. eric townsend
I'm sorry, but what's your point? Angel Marquez wrote: spectator On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 5:11 PM, j. eric townsend [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Uday Gajendar wrote: Speaking as a Master's degree holder, i'm biased but I'd say the advantages

[IxDA Discuss] Update: CMU's Master of Tangible Interaction Design

2008-07-07 Thread j. eric townsend
More info on the new Master of Tangible Interaction Design, including instructions on how to apply: http://code.arc.cmu.edu/mTID -- jet / KG6ZVQ http://www.flatline.net pgp: 0xD0D8C2E8 AC9B 0A23 C61A 1B4A 27C5 F799 A681 3C11 D0D8 C2E8

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Article: Is Google Making Us Stoopid? from The Atlantic.com

2008-07-17 Thread j. eric townsend
Benjamin Ho wrote: Instead of the catchy title naming Google, the author should have called it, Is the Internet making us stupid? I've been taking some classes at CMU with people half my age. It's amazing how few of them are familiar with the research tools I grew up on, say, the Readers

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Adaptive Path's Aurora ... Discuss

2008-08-06 Thread j. eric townsend
Shaun Bergmann wrote: (however yes, the repetitive strain injuries yet to be discovered are going to be fun to watch for) Why are those 3d/space balls always sitting way forward on someone's desk? Why not beside the chair, or held in the lap like a game controller? In the dark ages I

Re: [IxDA Discuss] best practices for login security?

2008-08-13 Thread j. eric townsend
Meredith Noble wrote: Hi folks, Does anyone know where I could find a list of best practices around login security? I'm looking for an overview of the most common techniques and how they relate to both security and user experience -- pros and cons. Putting on my professional security hat for

Re: [IxDA Discuss] best practices for login security?

2008-08-13 Thread j. eric townsend
One other note: - Emailing lost passwords to users Never, ever, ever store passwords in the clear, anywhere. If a user forgets their password, generate a temporary one and ask them to create a new password. Plenty of people re-use passwords on different sites, all it takes is for one of

Re: [IxDA Discuss] best practices for login security?

2008-08-14 Thread j. eric townsend
Meredith Noble wrote: I meant more of email a reset password link to users. Then again, your approach might be better because people can navigate to the site on their own rather than trusting a link in an email (which could be phishing them, technically). Would you agree? Well, it's not

Re: [IxDA Discuss] twitter and IxDA once again

2008-08-19 Thread j. eric townsend
seth b wrote: Think of it as a blog with smaller updates. Many of the people I know who use twitter will ignore it for hours at a time during the day and *not* come back and play catchup. These days, if I want a specific person to know something, I stick to the email. -- jet / KG6ZVQ

Re: [IxDA Discuss] twitter and IxDA once again

2008-08-21 Thread j. eric townsend
David Malouf wrote: What makes twitter work where other micro-blogs fall short? Critical mass. Seriously, I tried the other ones but not enough of my friends were there to keep me there. Sames goes for LiveJournal -- I don't use it because of the feature set, but because it has critical

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Is Chrome bad for designers?

2008-09-03 Thread j. eric townsend
Alan Wexelblat wrote: Google's EULA for Chrome claims the right to use, redistribute, and profit from, any content created in Chrome. If so, ow on earth can that be legal, much less enforceable? -- jet / KG6ZVQ http://www.flatline.net pgp: 0xD0D8C2E8 AC9B 0A23 C61A 1B4A 27C5 F799 A681

Re: [IxDA Discuss] The New Facebook Redesign: The Beginning of The End?

2008-09-21 Thread j. eric townsend
Damon Dimmick wrote: This reminds me on a few years back when Salon.com (which I admit I don't read much except for articles by Paglia) was going down the tubes, tried a pay-subscription based solution (which didn't work) and ended up shifting its model. Salon still has paid memberships, you

Re: [IxDA Discuss] password strength usability studies?

2008-09-21 Thread j. eric townsend
I haven't seen this posted yet, Bruce Schneier on how to pick a secure password. Some good information in here, and while he's not a usability expert, Schneier totally gets the security-vs-usability problem: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/01/choosing_secure.html -- jet / KG6ZVQ

Re: [IxDA Discuss] The New Facebook Redesign: The Beginning of The End?

2008-09-21 Thread j. eric townsend
of FB, especially when compared to the value I get out of Salon's news/entertainment articles. Damon Dimmick wrote: Would you be willing to watch similar ads at log-in time? Just curious. -Damon j. eric townsend wrote: Damon Dimmick wrote: This reminds me on a few years back when Salon.com

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Felt boards

2008-10-04 Thread j. eric townsend
About 10 years ago when I was making my own magnets, blank fridge magnets were much cheaper at craft stores than at office supply stores and there was a wider range of sizes/shapes. Chauncey Wilson wrote: You can buy magnetic sheets and print out whatever you want at most of the large office

Re: [IxDA Discuss] The biggest problems

2008-10-08 Thread j. eric townsend
David Malouf wrote: 1) Why is the only way up, out? Why can't we do what Luke Wroblewski and others at Yahoo have done and go the route of the Design Principal, the non-management role? This is the sort of thing that's been done with engineering for at least a couple of decades (that I know

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Twitter

2008-10-22 Thread j. eric townsend
Regnard Raquedan wrote: My issue with twitter is that discussions I don't think I'd ever try having a dicussion over twitter. IMHO, twitter was designed for @jennyholzer and the rest of us are just tagging along for the ride. -- J. Eric jet Townsend, CMU Master of Tangible Interaction

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design Research: Practice noticing stuff and telling stories

2008-10-25 Thread j. eric townsend
Will Evans wrote: Does anyone have a 'suitcase' where the stick stuff they find? When I was taking undergraduate design classes, this was called a sketchbook. :-) As much as I like the computers and tah wehbs, I still prefer working with tangible objects. Lately if I see something online

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design Research: Practice noticing stuff and telling stories

2008-10-27 Thread j. eric townsend
I've been doing this with my xv6800 (and before that, the 6700). I take pictures of stuff then when I sync, they get transferred to my incoming photo directory for me to sort/massage as needed. I've also started shooting video this way -- the xv6800 camera is 2M and shoots some pretty nice

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Design Research: Practice noticing stuff and telling stories

2008-10-27 Thread j. eric townsend
Andy Polaine wrote: I have 33 notebooks going all the way back to my university days when I first started numbering them - these days they're mostly Moleskines or Miquel Rius ones (if I can my hands on them). It's not a terribly formal process though. They switch from being notebooks to

[IxDA Discuss] question for tablet pros -- where do you use it?

2008-11-03 Thread j. eric townsend
Other than, On the computer. Where do you use it relative to your keyboard -- which I'm (incorrectly) assuming is directly in front of you. Do you hold it on your lap? Put it where your mouse pad would go? Prop it on the keyboard? I'm just getting around to learning to use an Intous3 6x9

[IxDA Discuss] anyone here from Newsweek?

2008-11-08 Thread j. eric townsend
The Secrets of the 2008 Campaign is an excellent read, but there's a really screwy navigation flaw. When you get done with each chapter (which are divided into pages much longer than my screen), you can't just click go to next chapter or something. You have to remember what chapter you're on

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Clock Burn-In

2008-11-10 Thread j. eric townsend
Mark Ahlenius wrote: Trust me this is a pain. I think right now if I had to purchase another appliance, I'd go out of my way to not get one with a clock. ;-} No wonder so many households have the flashing 12:00's on their (old) VCRs. Or at least a way to dim or turn off the display. I've

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Clock Burn-In

2008-11-16 Thread j. eric townsend
William Brall wrote: the on pixels off. This will prevent burn in, as all the pixels will get exactly the same amount of wear, Just to be pedantic, this will not prevent burn-in. This solution causes the display to fail sooner-but-evenly. *All* the pixels will wear out at the same time --

Re: [IxDA Discuss] dead technologies ( Any thoughts on placement of company contact information?

2008-11-18 Thread j. eric townsend
Andy Polaine wrote: The assumption is that a faxed document is somehow a proof of veracity than an EPS signature on an electronic document. They are, of course, both easily faked. I've been in security for a long time now, and while I know that things are easily faked, I also know what makes

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Spatial Interaction Design

2008-11-19 Thread j. eric townsend
Lindsay Watt wrote: Hey folks, This may interest some of you. Oblong Industries has created a mind-blowing Minority Report-like operating system. Be sure to watch the (3 minute) video in its entirety. http://oblong.com/ v. cool looking, but my arms got tired just watching that... Maybe if

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Readability of Reverse Color Text

2008-11-19 Thread j. eric townsend
Disregarding how quickly or efficiently studies have shown that we can parse text under different color combinations... I'm somewhat light sensitive and I can easily say that black text on a white screen is something I can only handle for an hour or two at most when I'm looking at a computer

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Declaration of User Rights by Dan Saffer

2008-11-20 Thread j. eric townsend
Andy Polaine wrote: Seriously, though, the reality of many goods and services isn't once bitten, twice shy but once bitten, forever a walking vampire of whatever system bit you. Buy a Nikon DSLR and a few Nikon lenses, it's a bit switch to move to Canon. ...but at least you get to take all

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Retain obvious instructions?

2008-11-25 Thread j. eric townsend
For what class of users can we assume that? I ask because I'm around a few 60+ people who have trouble with many sites on the web and the feeling they have to re-learn how to use the bank website because it changed. Can you better define the people who are going to be using this? It would

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Public Transportation Experiences

2008-12-07 Thread j. eric townsend
Peter Bird wrote: shows the projected physical locations of trains in Switzerland based on the published timetables. Which is what, a junior high word problem in algebra? If a train leaves Zurich at 0900 and has an average velocity of 148kph, at what time will it arrive at Winterthur? I

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Google by default

2008-12-08 Thread j. eric townsend
Juan Ruiz wrote: Interesting thread. A new trend that we are noticing on the standard internet users is that instead of bookmarking a page, they are remembering the keywords on which they found the site (page). I'm curious -- in what context(s) are you seeing this? Using their own

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Interaction Designers: What is your elevator pitch?

2008-12-22 Thread j. eric townsend
Angel Marquez wrote: what's a vcr? Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it. :-) -- J. Eric jet Townsend, CMU Master of Tangible Interaction Design '09 design: www.allartburns.org; hacking: www.flatline.net; HF: KG6ZVQ PGP: 0xD0D8C2E8 AC9B 0A23 C61A 1B4A 27C5 F799 A681 3C11

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Strategic Interaction Design

2009-01-05 Thread j. eric townsend
[note: I'm looking at this as someone who's done a fair amount of engineering/project integration across disciplines, not as a designer. So maybe strategic means something very different for me. If that's true, it does for lots of other people outside the design field, and it will have to be

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Thinking about an abuser and not only a user

2009-01-08 Thread j. eric townsend
Both of their books are excellent reading. They're short and to the point, with line staff and QE managers as the target audience, not security professionals. a...@amroha.dk wrote: I am watching a discussion with Dr. Herbert Thompson: Dr. Herbert Thompson is an internationally renowned

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Password reset / retrieval Best Practices?

2009-02-09 Thread j. eric townsend
I'd be interested in seeing that as well. However, (putting on my security hat) do not store passwords in any form that can be retrieved and displayed to the user. Store them in some sort of one-way encryption or hash and require the user to reset the password if they've forgotten it.

Re: [IxDA Discuss] The UX Challenge organizers might be insane

2009-02-11 Thread j. eric townsend
Jay Morgan wrote: Todd wrote: Part of the challenge is getting there. I left that out of my other message, but this was another part of it. There are barriers to getting there. There are barriers to entering. There are barriers to participating. The playa would be much cheaper and more

[IxDA Discuss] VMWare vs. Parallels (was Re: A business case for switching Mac

2009-02-18 Thread j. eric townsend
VMWare also doesn't slow down your OSX install the way Parallels does due to how the virtual machine is implemented. I regularly develop for linux and OSX, running linux under a VMWare partition with no hassles. When needed, I also run a xp pro instance under VMWare, and it's also quite

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Why are there no Executive MFA / IxD programs? (response to RPI online HCI program phase out)

2009-02-25 Thread j. eric townsend
(No research here, just my personal experience/opinion) I worked my way through college for my first undergrad degree (BA Journalism/CS, took me 7 years) and tried to work while going to school for my second degree (BFA ID). I finally gave in and took unpaid leave to get a Master's, and

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Teaching to program: arrays.

2009-02-28 Thread j. eric townsend
Leonardo Parra Agudelo wrote: Hi all, I have been teaching how to program to non-engineers, mostly designers, artists and a few musicians, and it all goes well until we hit the arrays. I've seen similar problems, and I usually find that physical world examples help introduce the concept

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

2009-03-16 Thread j. eric townsend
Russell Wilson wrote: Admittedly maybe a few for programming: Software Engineer Software Programmer At my past three software engineering jobs, I was a Member of Technical Staff on paper, as was pretty much everyone who did anything remotely technical, from QE to circuit board design. On

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Joel Spolsky claims the Program Manager role does UI design... ????

2009-03-16 Thread j. eric townsend
Andrei Herasimchuk wrote: If the title in the software world is going to be called interaction design then that person needs to know these hard skills: Interesting list. I can think of a number of graduating seniors here who can handle 2/3 of your list pretty well and who are catching up on

Re: [IxDA Discuss] What music for interaction designers

2009-03-16 Thread j. eric townsend
Mayur Karnik wrote: Adrian's comments are noteworthy... I was just thinking the other day how workplace environments have changed over the last decade. As 'open offices' and laptop / docking cultures manifest (now it seems, just about everywhere), there is an increasing clamour for private

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Berkeley\'s MIMS vs Carnegie Mellon\'s MDes in IxD

2009-03-21 Thread j. eric townsend
The first question is, What do you want to do after you graduate?. If you have a good idea as to the answer, compare what people from these programs end up doing. I have a lot of respect for the students in the IxD program at CMU and have learned a *lot* taking classes with them. However, I

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Kinetic Design (Core77 article)

2009-03-23 Thread j. eric townsend
From the article: Presently, there is no specifically designated class of designers qualified to decide how products move. I can't argue for/against that, but there is a solid history of artists who have worked in kinetics as an art form that we can look to for inspiration. Whether it's

[IxDA Discuss] ixd failure(?) exploited for voting fraud

2009-03-25 Thread j. eric townsend
The entire article is worth reading (and has actual hot links), but I'll call out how the design failure(?) was exploited by pollworkers to change votes: http://www.crypto.com/blog/vote_fraud_in_kentucky/ [...] The Kentucky officials are accused of taking advantage of a somewhat confusing

Re: [IxDA Discuss] ixd failure(?) exploited for voting fraud

2009-03-25 Thread j. eric townsend
Speaking as someone who has done security in consumer electronics for 10+ years, I've never been asked by any sort of designer to be involved in the design process. It's usually the case that engineering receives the requirements docs, then I go through those and start looking for problems.

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Designing (for) Experiences

2009-03-30 Thread j. eric townsend
Todd Zaki Warfel wrote: I'm only aware of two distinct architectural titles: Architect and Landscape Architect. They don't bother distinguishing between an Architect who designs train stations vs. small houses. Oh, they have other titles, they just save them for people who aren't architects.

Re: [IxDA Discuss] JJG's IA Summit 2009 Keynote

2009-03-30 Thread j. eric townsend
marianne wrote: Machiavelli said it best, truth is the outcome, regardless of the title. Who went to IDEA? Both. Who went to Interaction09? Both. Who went to SXSW? Both. Who went to IA Summit 10? Both. For me it is about engagement. Engagement with information through systems facilitated by

Re: [IxDA Discuss] JJG's IA Summit 2009 Keynote

2009-03-30 Thread j. eric townsend
Score one for making assumptions, I thought that the Tangible and Embedded Interaction conference was well known: http://www.tei-conf.org. Todd Zaki Warfel wrote: TEI? On Mar 30, 2009, at 8:54 AM, j. eric townsend wrote: TEI Cheers! Todd Zaki Warfel Principal Design Researcher

[IxDA Discuss] Why vs.? Why not both? Re: Command line vs. menu driven interface

2009-03-30 Thread j. eric townsend
Jared Spool wrote: If you really want to get Old School, in 1985, at Symbolics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolics), we had a combined window-based and command line system. (You can see what a screen looked like here: http://is.gd/oE1s) (I'll save my Symbolics fanboying for later... :-)

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Command line or GUI

2009-03-30 Thread j. eric townsend
Alan Salmoni wrote: made a lot easier with a CLI. As I said in another thread, a former lecturer of mine mentioned some research she did way back when which showed sys admins performing more efficiently with a CLI than a GUI. Speaking as a sysadmin of one sort or another for the past 22 years,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Command line or GUI

2009-04-01 Thread j. eric townsend
Something I forgot to ask earlier Ananya Vetaal wrote: I am working on redesign of a product having a command line interface and as of now it seems users are pretty comfortable with that. Why are you redesigning it? If the users are comfortable with the interface and there's no outside

Re: [IxDA Discuss] JJG's IA Summit 2009 Keynote

2009-04-02 Thread j. eric townsend
Gabby Hon wrote: We still can't force anyone to use the titles appropriately or to copy and paste our version of job descriptions. Architects and Interior Designers seemed to have figured something out. -- J. Eric jet Townsend, CMU Master of Tangible Interaction Design '09 design:

Re: [IxDA Discuss] the alignment of the practices and outcomes of IA and IxD

2009-04-06 Thread j. eric townsend
Jim Leftwich wrote: It will always come down to the same directive: Just stop talking and do the work. Shut up and skate. -- J. Eric jet Townsend, CMU Master of Tangible Interaction Design '09 design: www.allartburns.org; hacking: www.flatline.net; HF: KG6ZVQ PGP: 0xD0D8C2E8 AC9B 0A23

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Password Strength Requirements

2009-04-16 Thread j. eric townsend
Alan Cox wrote: Does anyone have any evidence, anecdotal or formal, about how different password strength requirements impact the usability of a web-based application? Tangental, but here's a great article by Bruce Scheneier on Choosing Secure Passwords based on how people actually attack

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Password Strength Requirements

2009-04-17 Thread j. eric townsend
Katie Albers wrote: This is true. Which is why password fields that you *can't* make strong are evil. All password fields should at the very least *accept* all typeable characters. To go to the trouble of entering a strong password and then be told that you can only use upper and lower case

[IxDA Discuss] JOB User Interface Designer Alviso, CA, TiVo, 6mo contract

2009-04-18 Thread j. eric townsend
[disclaimer: I've worked for TiVo as a security/privacy engineer for ~8 years, am currently on leave to finish my MS Design. I can answer questions about the general work environment, but don't know details about this particular opening other than what is in the listing. --jet]

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Password Strength Requirements

2009-04-18 Thread j. eric townsend
Lost in this discussion of password strength is, how do we handle multiple failed logins, forgotten passwords, and compromised passwords? If your overall design (is this where we get into service design?) is put together correctly, a compromised password (or an attack on an account) isn't

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile security vs. ease-of-use

2009-04-19 Thread j. eric townsend
Barbara Ballard wrote: I actually don't know of very many other folks who are using any sort of password protection on their phone. Google's Android has a really nice feature where the password protection is integrated into how you swipe the screen to unlock the phone. There are a grid of

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mobile security vs. ease-of-use

2009-04-20 Thread j. eric townsend
Erik Wingren wrote: @ jet: That is a really clever twist - using the touchscreen interaction to make login fun! Is this from the Android OS-level security or an app running on Android? If the latter, which one? This is OS-level security on Android. -- J. Eric jet Townsend, CMU Master of

[IxDA Discuss] Any IVR experts in the house?

2009-04-30 Thread j. eric townsend
I'm doing a really quick, one-off project for a class involving interactive voice response (IVR) systems. What I'm looking for is detailes on one or two really bad IVR systems, or maybe a study pointing out the N most egregious flaws of IVR systems. So far g5/Y! isn't getting me anything

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Any IVR experts in the house?

2009-04-30 Thread j. eric townsend
Thanks for all the replies so far... My deadline is Tue am, but I'll continue to collect replies after that. Caroline Jarrett wrote: Jet asked for: advice/pointers on IVR Best resource I know of is the chapter on IVR, Designing Usable Voice User Interfaces, in HCI Beyond the GUI (edited by

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Bill Buxton just might be my design management hero

2009-04-30 Thread j. eric townsend
FWIW, that's an excellent write-up of why I went back to school to study design... mark schraad wrote: Holy cow, I wish that I had written this... http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/apr2009/id20090429_083139.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_top+stories

[IxDA Discuss] game design, ixd, and making people cry

2009-05-11 Thread j. eric townsend
Nice write-up of Brenda Brathwaite's return to non-electronic game design: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/conferences/tgc_2009/6021-TGC-2009-How-a-Board-Game-Can-Make-You-Cry One of many things it has me thinking about is how (if?) I can create emotional responses using only

[IxDA Discuss] seating and ergo Re: Tale of buying a chair

2009-05-21 Thread j. eric townsend
I had similar experiences buying a Hag Capisco here in PGH. There is a huge disconnect between the Hag company that designs/makes chairs and the antiquated distribution system of getting chairs to people. I spent more time trying to get the local dealer to order one than I did anything

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Who am I?

2009-05-21 Thread j. eric townsend
dave malouf wrote: So, I'd say, don't look for a position as a dual designer/coder. Look for a position as a designer or as a programer but just BE the designer/programmer that you are! As a writer/coder, I completely agree. My first degree is in Journalism and Computer Science, and I've

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Interaction flow as subterfuge.

2009-06-20 Thread j. eric townsend
There are always slimeballs who will ask you to compromise your beliefs. Back in the webmaster-as-designer days, a marketing manager type came to me and said something to the effect of, I read that there's a bug in Netscape that lets websites get the email address of anyone who visits a

Re: [IxDA Discuss] On tactile feedback, I just can't place the analogy here...

2009-06-23 Thread j. eric townsend
I confess to checking the date of the post to see if we were being pranked. j...@smorgasbord-design.co.uk wrote: Saw this [1] and thought of all of the IxD people on here who deal with the haptic tactile. Now, there's something analogous to nature in this particular concept but I'll leave

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Layar app - What do you all think this portends for IxD?

2009-07-08 Thread j. eric townsend
Fritz Desir wrote: [...] Video demo of Layar here: http://snurl.com/lncqj Setting aside ixd for a moment, it appears to run on Android, which means it isn't going to be limited to keitai.Something like that on a netbook would be pretty amazing for someone like a real estate agent,

Re: [IxDA Discuss] HTC hero - what are your thoughts?

2009-07-10 Thread j. eric townsend
I haven't gotten to play with one yet, but (on my G1) I really like the haptic feedback they added in 1.5 for things like the screen unlock and other touch events. -- J. Eric jet Townsend -- designer, fabricator, hacker design: www.allartburns.org; hacking: www.flatline.net; HF: KG6ZVQ PGP:

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Getting a start in IxD from a technical background

2009-07-14 Thread j. eric townsend
Mark Goetz wrote: I'm looking for my first job in interaction design or something similar, having recently earned my Master of Science degree in HCI. I'm having a bit of difficulty with the job search, in part because I have a background in computer science and most of my experience is in web

[IxDA Discuss] Macrovision's Rovi

2009-07-16 Thread j. eric townsend
Looks like Macrovision decided there is real money to be made in the licensed-UI department: http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/07/16/macrovision-re-invents-itself-as-rovi-kicks-off-with-new-guide/ -- J. Eric jet Townsend -- designer, fabricator, hacker design: www.allartburns.org; hacking:

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Colors and Usability

2009-07-16 Thread j. eric townsend
Also remember that some users might need to change to colors that a designer might consider non-optimal.There's a strong belief that dark-on-white text is best for screen, but for those of us that are light sensitive, green or orange on black is best if we're manipulating large amounts of

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Carnegie Mellon Admission Questions

2009-07-20 Thread j. eric townsend
Kevin Tu wrote: Not sure how heavily weighted GRE scores are for their Graduate Interaction Design program is, but can someone speak of an average or range of successful applicants? While I honestly have no idea (I didn't know they required GRE, even), I did take classes with many students in

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Interaction design can affect everyone, not just people who own a computer. What does this mean for IxD?

2009-07-20 Thread j. eric townsend
I think the problem is that we (I'm a USAian) tend to care less about our fellow humans and more about whatever specific product we're trying to sell and the bottom line. I just spent two weeks in Tokyo and I often felt like someone actually cared about me, even during impersonal

Re: [IxDA Discuss] How could I deal with my ex-employer for not releasing the design work I\'d done?

2009-07-20 Thread j. eric townsend
mark schraad wrote: The ugly reality here is that if you were an employee or a work-for-hire contractor you have no rights to access or show that work. Doesn't it depend on the contract? I've gotten away with using a photographer's contract that allows me to replicate things in my

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Are We The Puppet Masters? The Ethics of IxD.

2009-07-26 Thread j. eric townsend
Jared Spool wrote: Then Dr. John's Products released a line of children's power toothbrushes. (Subsequently acquired by Proctor Gamble.) The battery powered devices only have an On switch and automatically turn off after 3 minutes. The 3 minute run time forces the child to brush the entire

[IxDA Discuss] game timers (was Re: Are We The Puppet Masters? The Ethics of IxD.

2009-07-26 Thread j. eric townsend
Brian Mila wrote: Civilization would display a message saying You've been playing for 3 hours, take a break. Naturally, I dismissed the dialog and I think Everquest was the first commercial MMORPG with the /played option that told you how long you'd been playing. I knew people who had

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Are We The Puppet Masters? The Ethics of IxD.

2009-07-26 Thread j. eric townsend
Jared Spool wrote: Over the past 20+ years, the ADA has tried a variety of solutions. Nothing has been as successful as the introduction of children's powered toothbrushes. Now, you can debate whether they missed something or the resulting design is somehow suboptimal. However, that misses

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Are We The Puppet Masters? The Ethics of IxD.

2009-08-05 Thread j. eric townsend
they wouldn't normally do? -- J. Eric Townsend, IDSA Designer, Fabricator, Hacker design: www.allartburns.org; hacking: www.flatline.net; HF: KG6ZVQ PGP: 0xD0D8C2E8 AC9B 0A23 C61A 1B4A 27C5 F799 A681 3C11 D0D8 C2E8 Welcome

Re: [IxDA Discuss] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.

2009-08-26 Thread j. eric townsend
On Wed, August 26, 2009 08:18, Asbjorn wrote: Consumers don't equal users. Customers do. That's not universally true, especially here in the US. Motorola's customer for mobile phones are the carriers, not the end users. When Verizon had Motorola disable Bluetooth on the RAZR, it wasn't to

Re: [IxDA Discuss] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.

2009-08-28 Thread j. eric townsend
Jordan, Courtney wrote: People need to make an emergency call in as little time as possible - as you said, it can make the difference between living to tell this story and not. And that emergency call could just as easily be a senior who fell down the stairs in their home or a cyclist who

Re: [IxDA Discuss] We don\'t make consumer products, hence no need for a User Centered Design development process.

2009-08-28 Thread j. eric townsend
Joan Vermette wrote: With my old phone in that instance, I would have quickly dialed 911 and kept my thumb poised over the call button. The motion involved in that would have been: Flipping open phone. Feeling for raised keys on a keypad very like every other phone I've had since 1978.

[IxDA Discuss] profit centered design

2009-08-31 Thread j. eric townsend
Adrian Howard wrote: And, a Todd says, if the majority of your customer base isn't replacing batteries - is it customer focussed to add a feature that they don't want or need? If you take away the choice before they ever have it, how do you know they want it? What if what the majority

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Golden oldies: pre-web-era book recommendations

2009-10-19 Thread j. eric townsend
Murray Thompson wrote: 'Design for the Real World' by Victor Papanek (from 1971) Ethics for design, including ecological and sustainability principles I'd suggest the revised edition with Papanek's extensive updates. -- J. E. 'jet' Townsend, IDSA Designer, Fabricator, Hacker design:

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Google Maps Navigation Beta on Android

2009-10-28 Thread j. eric townsend
greg wrote: New version of Google maps navigation is pretty amazing. Take a look at this techcrunch write up. Navigation UI is worthless if the map data sucks. Google has dumped their prior vendor for map data and as of late their maps are often wrong to the point of being totally useless.

Re: [IxDA Discuss] The newest generation of IxDers and our (lack of) exposure

2009-11-02 Thread j. eric townsend
David Farkas wrote: With that in mind I ask what are we, the new generation of designers, missing from the puzzle? Speaking from my experience as an engineer working with designers, history of the domain. Nobody can be an expert on everything, obviously, but you should know something about

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Process Books

2009-11-15 Thread j. eric townsend
Dan Zollman wrote: The CMU page seems to refer to design notebooks rather than deliverables. The others appear to have a strong focus on layout and graphic/information design, but they have the same types of content that I'd put in a design report. Process was a deliverable within class --

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Selling Interaction 10 to Management

2009-12-05 Thread j. eric townsend
FWIW, I'm paying for it out of my own pocket and taking vacation days to go. When I get back I'll do a presentation on what I learned and hope it impresses them enough to pay for next year's trip. --jet David Shaw wrote: Thanks everyone for their comments. I'm actually surprised there

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mint (ok now Intuit) CEO gets it

2009-12-06 Thread j. eric townsend
Jared Spool wrote: How does one show value for quality? How does one show value for technology? How does one show value for service? Answer those questions and you'll know how one shows value for design. Here's an example that's probably terribly uninteresting to most designers:

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Mint (ok now Intuit) CEO gets it

2009-12-07 Thread j. eric townsend
Evan Meagher wrote: about the complexity of customer service is a good example of this. If you stick to solid design and UX principles to make things easy to use out of the box, you'll prevent having to screw around with unproductive business practices later on. It's not just about reducing

Re: [IxDA Discuss] are we an early indicator of economic recovery?

2009-12-20 Thread j. eric townsend
shelly wrote: I think its more an indicator that people are realising the need more for our line of work, which does not necessarily go hand in hand with the need for other professions. Companies have realised to survive they need to look at the best way to move their business forward. In a

[IxDA Discuss] nomadic/cycling/research BOF at ixda10?

2009-12-30 Thread j. eric townsend
I'm working on a cycling-related portfolilo project and looking for people to share notes with. If you're interested in or working on things related to unsupported/untethered cycling, nomadic lifestyles, or testing products where the rubber-hits-the-road, let's get together and share notes.

Re: [IxDA Discuss] [anthrodesign] Norman replies to Nussbaum

2010-01-01 Thread j. eric townsend
Jarod Tang wrote: Take for example food preservation. Before refrigerator ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator#History), food is preserved by baking it or natural ice. Or pickling, canning, salting, etc. -- J. E. 'jet' Townsend, IDSA Designer, Fabricator, Hacker design:

Re: [IxDA Discuss] PINs for passwords

2010-01-01 Thread j. eric townsend
PINs aren't actually that secure. They can be easily compromised in all sorts of ways, do a search for ATM pin vulnerability or ATM pin theft for gory details. -- J. E. 'jet' Townsend, IDSA Designer, Fabricator, Hacker design: www.allartburns.org; hacking: www.flatline.net; HF: KG6ZVQ PGP:

Re: [IxDA Discuss] nomadic/cycling/research BOF at ixda10?

2010-01-01 Thread j. eric townsend
dave malouf wrote: There are quite a few SCAD IDUS cycling enthusiasts who have done projects for me in the past in this area. As classes are starting next week, I'll try to spread the word around a bit in case they aren't reading here (though they should be). -- dave Sweet! -- J. E. 'jet'

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Thought experiment: Law against usability that's TOO good?

2010-01-10 Thread j. eric townsend
R. Groot wrote: Companies like Google and Apple have gotten so skilled in getting it right, in having such an outstanding user experience, that we are drawn to their products like months to a flame. They're also skilled in buying companies who got it right and burying it when they get it

Re: [IxDA Discuss] Thought experiment: Law against usability that's TOO good?

2010-01-11 Thread j. eric townsend
R. Groot wrote: Companies like Google and Apple have gotten so skilled in getting it right, in having such an outstanding user experience, that we are drawn to their products like months to a flame. They're also skilled in buying companies who got it right and burying it when they get it

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