Color affects us all the time - from a red traffic light to the placebo effect of a pill (yellow chalk pills are the most effective antidepressants it seems). And we all know that the meaning of color varies based on where you are in the world, or in what sort of society or religion. The recently created ”Colours in Cultures” chart brings this to life (click on the image to view the original)
Posted in Psychology, UI, Usability
Just recently I forecast the death of text in reading, but until that comes to pass, I’ll vent the current state-of-the art: ebook readers. I’m excluding the iPad for the moment given I haven’t seen one, and it’s not strictly an ebook (and arguably uncomfortable to read for long periods of time).
Problem #1
This is the deal-breaker for me: the screen refresh. Each page-change means watching a page that’s supposed to be a paper analog flash “black” and then “white” again. Every time. Flash. Flash. That process takes anywhere from 1 second to about 4 on the readers I’ve seen.
Problem #2
Future versions of eInk will support colour. I can probably wait.
Problem #3
Not all books are available as ebooks. So, take both? Seems heavy.
Problem #4
The “uncanny valley” describes the revulsion effect when robots get very close to being alike to humans. Actually something that is intentionally less accurate is more likely to be perceived as human-like. Hence Avatar’s colors.
This same “uncanny valley” applies to ebook readers. They are getting close to paper, and therefore the differences (like the screen flash) stand out even more, as we jolt back to the reality that we’re not holding paper.
Problem #5
Ebook readers don’t like it when you drop them in the bath.
Problem #6
See Problem #1. If it weren’t for that, I’d have bought an eReader a long time ago. I’ll probably buy an iPad, but not for book reading…
Posted in UI, Uncategorized, Usability
Who cares???
I wrote a while ago about the Palm Pre (now available in the UK) unifying messaging. It makes sense – all your messages to me are as one.
The thing is, I don’t care how your message arrives. If I’m at my work PC, sure a Skype message is handy, it’s right there. In a meeting? Email is pretty good. On a train with just my Blackberry – well, any mobile message works. But really, whether to message me in LinkedIn, Twitter, email - it doesn’t matter, it just makes your and my life harder working out which one to use. We’re supposed to be in a new bright era of unparalleled communications - but, it’s actually a mess.
Twitter? Handy when I have Tweetdeck open. And crazy when I get alerted to new messages by email (talk about duplication). Can I be bothered to install twitter clients on my Blackberry so I have yet another format of message to read? Is a tweet any more useful than a Skype IM? Do I remember whether you told me about some new great thing via MSN rather than email? No, no and no!
Sure, there are different ways you might want to message – just to me, just to our group of friends/interest group, or to the world including me. But that doesn’t need 10 different platforms, 10 different interfaces, 10 apps on my iPhone (disclaimer: I don’t have an iPhone, this guy outlines the reasons why pretty well). It just needs a simple setting connected to the message: like a “purpose” or “audience” label.
We’re running a real risk of losing out on the benefits of realtime communication by getting caught up in new brands that merely provide a way of sending messages (I’m looking at you, Twitter), rather than ways of getting that message to me in the most appropriate, useful, immediate way.
It’s a little bit like providing gas to my house in pipes that are colourful, light up, have cute names, and make their journey via London’s top landmarks. I don’t care – I just want the gas that comes out of the end, and feeds my boiler and oven. Even more than that, I just want the heating it enables, and the food that comes out of the oven. So, even if the gas itself is replaced by some new energy source, I’d be just as happy.
It’s the message that counts, not the medium.
Posted in Technology, Usability, Web
Flat screen not good enough for you? Microsoft developsa sphere-shaped one, with uber-multitouch integrated. Some applications (live omnidirectional camera, so you can spin it 360 degrees) seem to make some sense, others (pong) less so… But I’m all for innovation in HCI. As is Pat Gelsinger (of Intel, creator of the 486 processor no less), when he says in conversation with David Fearon, PC Plus Magazine:
“[there will be] a resurgence of interest and invention around the user-interface experience… as we enable the UI to become interactive, immersive and intuitive. We expect that to begin to occur as we move to terrascale computing.”
Though the whole reinvention of the obvious did make me think of the ad that’s showing on TV right now from a car company, asking how things would be if we could design them from scratch again. They then showed a world with whackily designed lamp posts, water hydrants etc., and eventually their new car. Thing is, if we designed things from scratch again – guess what, they’d look exactly like they do right now… In any case, demo of sphere-touchscreen below:
My thoughts about targeting, psychology and data - all things that drive my company, Cognitive Match.
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