Human-Centered Design Considered Harmful

Added on 23 July 2005 Peter Bogaards
“Human-Centered Design has become such a dominant theme in design that it is now accepted by interface and application designers automatically, without thought, let alone criticism. That’s a dangerous state — when things are treated as accepted wisdom. The purpose of this essay is to provoke thought, discussion, and reconsideration of some of the fundamental principles of Human-Centered Design. These principles, I suggest, can be helpful, misleading, or wrong. At times, they might even be harmful. Activity-Centered Design is superior.” (Donald Norman)

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

Added on 20 July 2005 Peter Bogaards
“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)

Social Machines

Added on 17 July 2005 Peter Bogaards
“The underlying hardware and software will never become invisible, but they will become less obtrusive, allowing us to focus our attention on the actual information being conveyed. Eventually, living in a world of continuous computing will be like wearing eyeglasses: the rims are always visible, but the wearer forgets she has them on—even though they’re the only things making the world clear.” (Wade Roush – Continuous Computing)

The Effects of Line Length on Reading Online News

Added on 17 July 2005 Peter Bogaards
“This study examined the effects of line length on reading speed, comprehension, and user satisfaction of online news articles. Twenty college-age students read news articles displayed in 35, 55, 75, or 95 characters per line (cpl) from a computer monitor. Results showed that passages formatted with 95 cpl resulted in faster reading speed. No effects of line length were found for comprehension or satisfaction, however, users indicated a strong preference for either the short or long line lengths.” (A. Dawn Shaikh – Usability News 7.2 2005)

Using Ajax for Creating Web Applications

Added on 15 July 2005 Peter Bogaards
“In the past few years, developers could choose between two approaches when building a web application. The first approach was to create a screen-based system with very rich interactions using a sophisticated, powerful technology such as Java or Flash. The alternative approach was to create a page-based system using easier-to-learn core web standards like XHTML and CSS whose more basic capabilities force less-rich interactions. A new technological approach, dubbed Ajax, might just be the right mix between the two.” (Joshua Porter – UI 10 Conference)

When Norman Meets Chinese…

Added on 10 July 2005 Peter Bogaards
“I dream of harmony between the things in our life and the social, emotional, and experiential parts of our lives. Artifacts are not just about making us work better: they are about living better, about enjoying life more, and about spreading these benefits to everyone, everywhere.” (Christina Li – uiGarden)

First Monday Special Issue: Music and the Internet

Added on 10 July 2005 Peter Bogaards
“The relationship between music and the Internet is a site of perceived possibility and volatility. Stories of music theft, illegal downloads, unresolved court cases, and anti-piracy technologies, are now prominent. Conversely, stories about the creation of real-time music composition, music’s increasing accessibility, the regeneration of music collecting, and the development of virtual music communities have also become prominent. ” (First Monday)