Amazing amounts of work going on around here, so it’s been hard to find the time to blog (I know: excuses, excuses). Here are a couple of things I’ve been meaning to post about recently:
I go to 20+ conferences a year and while many of the conferences have excellent programs, I often find myself learning the most from the after-hours activities. Often, these activities happen in bars, with a group of like-minded, extremely bright people. No specific agenda is on the table, yet somehow, the conversation turns out to be fun, thought provoking, and interesting. Inspired by some excellent podcasts I listen to regularly, I thought we could reproduce the fascinating discourse I’ve experienced at these non-official conference events for everyone’s benefit. I contacted some folks who I thought would make great conversation and, to my surprise, they all jumped at the chance to partake in our little experiment. From this was born the first SpoolCast. It’s a 90-minute recording of fascinating conversation on topics of user experience, usability, and design. In this inaugural recording, we discuss:
- What can we learn from the new Brown University web site?
- What does it mean to be usable?
- Why is MySpace so successful?
- Which is better designed, the new Brown Web Site or Craigslist?
- How important is the design of a home page? (I think not so much. Everyone else disagrees.)
- The value of social networking
- The UPA Body of Knowledge project
- The design experience, as it applies to conference design
and Alun Machin’s Everyday Usability group on Flickr (quoting Jackie Moyes from the IxDA discussion list):
He’s collecting photographic examples of bad usability that can be used during World Usability Day on November 14th Please submit photos, and pass this link on.
