#Usability In The News (Atom 0.3) Usability In The News (RSS 2.0) Usernomics Home Usability User Interface Design Human Factors Ergonomics Consulting Contact Usernomics Usability In The News Current News & Articles for Usability, User Interface Design, & Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), from Usernomics. Usability Quote of the Day October 20, 2006 Whenever we capture the complexity of the real world in formal structures, whether language, social structures, or computer systems, we are creating discrete tokens for continuous and fluid phenomena. In so doing, we are bound to have difficulty. However, it is only in doing these things that we can come to understand, to have valid discourse, and to design. -- Alan Dix, p. 427 in "Upside-down A's and Algorithms - Computational Formalisms and Theory" (via interaction-design.org) Saturday, July 16, 2005 Peter Merholz Interviews Jared Spool on User Research Methods An excellent interview with Jared Spool on how he goes about website design ... "Adaptive Path's Peter Merholz recently talked to the founder of User Interface Engineering Jared Spool about user research. Peter Merholz: So someone comes to you, and needs to better understand why their site is or is not working. How do you set up the approach that you're going to take? How do you know what kinds of methods and what kinds of research will get the desirable results? Jared Spool: Well, we start with trying to understand the business. One of the first questions I ask them is why do they think they need to do any research, which interestingly enough they almost never volunteer without prompting. What I'm looking for is the business rationale behind the research. You know, research costs money, there's no way to do it without costing money, there's expensive research, and there's inexpensive research, but it always costs some money. So the question is: Why spend any money at all? So when we're looking at working with a client, we want to understand why they want to spend the money. It's almost always because they figure they're going to make it back with the information they'll gain, but we need to understand what that information could be. Doing research just for the sake of doing research is a losing proposition. We're looking to enhance people's business." continued ... (Via Via adaptive path) More information on this topic at User Experience Week ... User Experience Week - User Interface Design, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Ergonomics Full Article 11:38 AM Permalink Top 0 Comments: Post a Comment << Home Selective & Timely News _______________ Search OUR SISTER SITE Ergonomics In The News Topics in Workplace, Occupational, Office, and Physical Ergonomics plus Safety and Biometrics. Ergonomics In The News INTERNET RESOURSES Usability User Interface Design Human Factors Ergonomics CONSULTING SERVICES Usability User Interface Design Human Factors Ergonomics USERNOMICS HOME LINK TO US Subscribe to Usernomics Feed Subscribe with NewsGator Online Subscribe with Yahoo Online Subscribe with Bloglines Subscribe to Usability In The News GET UPDATES VIA EMAIL Enter your email to subscribe: __________________________ Subscribe me! RECOMENDED BOOKS Human Factors, User Interface Design, Ergonomics. AMAZON BOOK SALE Usability Books from Amazon. RECENT HEADLINES * Customer Storytelling at the Heart of Business Success * No Touch dispenser serves up clean, cut paper towels * Evaluating the Usability of Educational Websites for Children * The Effects of Line Length on Reading Online News * Is Multiple-Column Online Text Better? It Depends! * Experimental Sony Interfaces * New-age keyboard: Trace, don't write * It Bugs Me, It Bugs Me Not * Learning Objects and Motivation Theories * Sun 'Open-Sources' Its Authentication Technology More Articles In Archives Return To Top << Home