An unexpurgated interview

In the pulp science fiction novels I read as a kid, the authors tended to work within the social norms of the day with respect to language. Here's an example from E. E. "Doc" Smith's First Lensman:

Jack started to express an unexpurgated opinion, but shut himself up. Young cubs did not swear in front of the First Lensman.

And another:

Do you think you can get away with this?" she demanded. "Why, you..." and the unexpurgated, trenchant, brilliantly detailed characterization could have seared its way through four-ply asbestos.

I liked "unexpurgated", once I looked up what it meant. Hence the title of this post. I recently exchanged email with Nikki Stoudt, a writer for the NCSU student newspaper, for an article. Here's what was said... unexpurgated. (Not that the text needs it.)

Usability problem of tomorrow (Star Trek user interfaces)

In the courses I teach about human-computer interaction, I typically open each class with an example of a usability problem. I'm putting these online, in case others find them useful.

I sometimes take examples of interaction design from the entertainment industry, whether the systems involved are real or not. Star Trek: The Next Generation is a good standby.

(io9.com)

Making computers seem a little less scary

The NCSU Technician has featured me in an article:

Making computers seem a little less scary
by Nikki Stoudt, Life & Style Editor

Though the computer science and English departments may not be known for their collaborative efforts, one professor has been working to break down the barrier between the “hard sciences” and the humanities.
More...

Me on youtube

For the Fabulous Faculty Series at the NCSU Hunt Library.

On the WSJ and the D.C. gun ban

Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, writes about the D.C. gun ban:

The D.C. gun ban, enacted in 1976... had an unintended effect: It emboldened criminals because they knew that law-abiding District residents were unarmed and powerless to defend themselves. Violent crime increased after the law was enacted, with homicides rising to 369 in 1988, from 188 in 1976 when the ban started. By 1993, annual homicides had reached 454.

Later in the article, he writes,

Since the gun ban was struck down, murders in the District have steadily gone down, from 186 in 2008 to 88 in 2012, the lowest number since the law was enacted in 1976. The decline resulted from a variety of factors, but losing the gun ban certainly did not produce the rise in murders that many might have expected.

In written form, numbers and relationships like "369 in 1988", "188 in 1976", "186 in 2008", and "88 in 2002" are not always easy to make sense of. Here's what these specific numbers look like graphically. 

Usability problem of the day (not a Kindle killer)

In the courses I teach about human-computer interaction, I typically open each class with an example of a usability problem. I'm putting these online, in case others find them useful.

A couple of years ago I decided to test my students' abilities to analyze a novel design, an artificial one in which I'd deliberately inserted a number of design flaws. I'd just bought a Kindle for my wife. We were talking about its usability and thinking about ways in which it could be much, much worse. (This was an early Kindle with a miniature keyboard; while it's fine for reading, some of the navigation facilities are poorly thought out.)

Here's the set-up: Imagine that you've been hired as a usability consultant by a company interested in ebook readers. You're shown the diagram below, a prototype for a new design. The physical device would be about 7 inches wide; all the keys are hardware keys; it doesn't have a touch screen; it's meant to be held in the hand or hands in use. Your job is to identify potential problems.

Usability problem of the day (first impressions)

Gatsby Automobile magazine

In the courses I teach about human-computer interaction, I typically open each class with an example of a usability problem. I'm putting these online, in case others find them useful.

First impressions can be important in user interfaces. We tend to judge the quality of a manufactured object, whether a physical device or a software artifact, by the fit and finish of its exterior. When I come across a Web site that looks if it it were cobbled together by a novice, I wonder about the resources that were available to build the functionality under the hood.

Usability problem of the day (gussied-up machines that aren't infinitely fast)

In the courses I teach about human-computer interaction, I typically open each class with an example of a usability problem. I'm putting these online, in case others find them useful.

In 1987 Alan Dix published a paper titled "The Myth of the Infinitely Fast Machine," in which he describes the problems that can arise when software developers assume that computers respond instantanously to user actions. Dix, originally a mathematician, has devoted much of his career to formalizing what we know about HCI, and Human-Computer Interaction (Prentice Hall, 2004), by Dix, Finlay, Abowd, and Beale, is one of the best graduate-level textbooks in the field.

Usability problem of the day (a revived Facebook hoax)

In the courses I teach about human-computer interaction, I typically open each class with an example of a usability problem. I'm putting these online, in case others find them useful.

Privacy in the digital age is complicated and sometimes confusing. If Randi Zuckerberg can't figure it out, despite being a former marketing director for Facebook as well as the founder's sister...

Sometimes usability problems can make things worse. Let's consider a persistent Facebook hoax. One of your friends posts something along these lines:

To all my FB friends, may I request you to please do something for me… PLEASE place your mouse over my name above (do not click), a window will appear, now move the mouse on “FRIENDS” (also without clicking), then down to “Settings”, click here and a list will appear. REMOVE the CHECK on “COMMENTS & LIKE” by clicking on it. By doing this, my activity amongst my friends and family will no longer become public. Many thanks! Paste this on your wall so your contacts would follow suit too, that is, if you care about your privacy -- which I know we do.

This is a clever bit of malice for a few reasons. Let's walk through the process to see how usability figures in.