SensoryMetrics

One of my favourite blogs is Heathervescent – by an L.A. based ajax guru. She points us to a great web site dedicated to the discarted. I love this picture. It’s a great poster for UX design. Even when you get it right – eventually it will wear out. User Experience is a continuous process.

[tags]discarted, Heathervescent[/tags]

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Innovation, User Experience discarted, Heathervescent

All things virtual are not always the most satisfying user experiences. A biometric iris scan to start your car wouldn’t be the same as a satisfying turn of the key. Do you remember those big tower PCs that had a key for security?

What about a physical key for a website? Along comes QiGo. It’s a preloaded USB drive that gives access to specific content – like promotional material, games, or restricted access websites.

The business case behind this is interesting because it takes the current web 2.0 mantra of more users into reverse. This allows a site operator to limit and highly target who their users are. Sorta like when Facebook registration was limited to universities! The “key” to their success will be how cheap the drive can be produced – it doesn’t need that much memory. Second – how will they be distributed? Third – are they secure enough not be be clonable?

The company is headed by Dan Klister – Chief Ideas Officer – an art college graduate and prolific inventor.

[tags]QiGo[/tags]

Popularity: 24%

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Business, Gadgets, Innovation, Long Tail, User Experience, Web 3.0 QiGo

So what would you do if your favourite web 2.0 app decided to cancel your registration and block you from the service? Call the FBI???

We just got a comment from “Shawn” on an older post about Vancouver-based dating site Plenty of Fish. The writer’s 2-page rant describes how he’s been “unfairly banned” since Independance Day 2006. He blames owner Markus Frind for “actions that are unfair, irresponsible, reckless and monopolistic.” From Markus, his demands are clear: “You owe me and my friends better treatment than this. You owe the People of the United States better treatment.” But after a year of getting nowhere with the POF support line, his plan is getting more intense:

I will file complaints with the following government agencies:
1. All 50 U.S. State Attorneys General
2. The U.S. Attorney of Phoenix, AZ.
3. Various government agencies in Canada
4. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission
5. The U.S. Dept. of Justice.
6. The FBI.
Also, I will solicit similarly terminated former male members to participate
in a class-action lawsuit against you. I will be using the same attorneys
who are suing your competitors.Time is of the essence. I am losing friends and romantic opportunities as you read this, and my damages continue to mount.

Yikes dude – there are OTHER dating sites… (obviously I’m not publishing his rant – maybe the FBI should be called…)

Got me thinking though. Where’s the line between unfairly blocking people from your service – versus protecting site operators from abusive “customers”. Clear terms of service is a start – but no one reads them. As for Plenty of Fish and many other social sites – their users often have the responsibility of policing, yet aren’t legal officers of the company. Makes for a pretty fuzzy experience.

Note to Shawn: I think those Plenty of Fish girls are laughing at you!

[tags]plentyoffish, markus-frind, blocking[/tags]

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Business, User Experience blocking, markus-frind, PlentyOfFish

Now that O’Reilly owns the trademark to Web 2.0, they’re going after all of the W5!! Where 2.0 launches today in San Jose. It’s a conference dedicated to location-based services. There’s lots of web 2.0 mash-ups including Quakr, loopt, Weogeo, Nearby Now, and Botanicalls… As an interesting sidenote – many of the speakers are user experience designers!

But – I don’t need to be There to be SomeWhere… so I’m saving my O’Reilly bucks for the upcoming WTF 2.0 conference!

[tags]O-Reilly, location-based-services[/tags]

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Events, User Experience location-based-services, O-Reilly

Ok – I’m a big Neil Young fan. Didn’t mind Crosby Stills Nash & Young either. But YIKES – what a rendition of the US national anthem by Stephen Stills. He sure could have used some harmonies to smooth things over! Can’t really complain though – he remembered the words!

Well, Stephen, I’m lovin’ the one we’re with: the Ottawa Senators!!

BTW – I think this picture was taken just as the Sens scored its first powerplay goal.

[tags]Stanley-Cup, Senators, Ducks, Stephen-Stills, off-topic[/tags]

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User Experience Ducks, off-topic, Senators, Stanley-Cup, Stephen-Stills

Following up from the last post, it’s perhaps ironic that this startup HQs from the city that also hosts the RCMP and The Canadian Security Intelligence Service… Spy vs Spy is as common as tulips here in Ottawa.

But as they say… if you’ve got nothing to hide, why not share it. That’s the premise behind Cluztr – a browser widget that publishes your clickstream as you surf. You can track and follow your friends… From their blog, they’ve only been in beta for a month – but already had great press from TechCrunch. Currently Cluztr only supports two browsers: Firefox and Flock.

It’s a cool idea. Just make sure to turn it off before surfing to HemorrhoidsHomeRemedies.com!

[tags]Cluztr, spies[/tags]

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Business, Innovation, User Experience, Web 3.0 Cluztr, spies

In a great tip to Canadian technology and entrepreneurs, the alarm clock published a list celebrating top up and comers and current success stories. With the assistance of B5’s Mark Evans – these are the companies to watch!

Toronto’s Extend media (video ASP)
Kelowna’s Club Penguin (tween social net)
Vancouver’s EQO (mobile IM)
Montreal’s Weblo (virtual world economy)
Montreal’s OZ (mobile messaging)
Guelph’s GeoSign (web publisher)
Vancouver’s Plenty of Fish (dating)
Toronto’s FreshBooks (online invoicing)

Runner’s Up:
Toronto’s QuickPlay (mobile video)
Vancouver’s Marqui (public relations / marketing)
Montreal’s Airborne (aggregator)
Montreal’s NuVu.tv (Global broadcast network)
Montreal’s Tungle (meeting organizer)
Quebec’s Inpowr (personal empowerment)
Toronto’s Peekamo’s (mobile social net)
Vancouver’s Mixpo (personal publishing)
Sudbury’s Conceptshare (social whiteboard)
Toronto’s OurFaves (Toronto things to do)
Ottawa’s Cluztr (clickstream log)
Vancouver’s Sxip Identity (identity management)
Winnipeg’s Blockrocker (classifieds)
Vancouver’ Bryght (open source Drupal)
Toronto’s b5 Media (publishing)
Toronto’s Qumana (blog tools)
Vancouver’s Now Public (citizen journalism)

The SAD part about this list is the sole Ottawa entry. Do we lack 2.0 entrepreneurs? Our various camps over the past year would say NO. But a common longstanding issue in this city is a lack of business and marketing talent. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver may own the bulk of the alarm clock list – but at least Ottawa gets a chance at the Stanley Cup!

[tags]the-alarm-clock, mark-evans[/tags]

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Business, Innovation, Long Tail, Web 3.0 mark-evans, the-alarm-clock

If you’ve got a complex UI to architect – you know that organizing, prioritizing, and updating tasks can be daunting. This is especially challenging when many use cases intersect, or have dependant behaviours. Task Architect – an Ottawa company specializing in designing human factors tools has the solution in its task analysis software.

The latest .net version allows you to enter, track and reorganize tasks on the fly. It lets you map those tasks to a timeline. It produces hierarchal groups of tasks in easy to print flow charts. You can export this stuff out and create reports, and even specify goals.

This solution is perfectly suited to the initial planning phase of task analysis: collection, organization, and analysis for large, complex applications. It wouldn’t be much use for your 1-page web 2.0 gem…

My wish list for TA would include the ability to view a cluster map of all the interrelated tasks.

BTW – One of the co-founders of Task Architect is Dick Penn – my first UI mentor at BNR 20 years ago.

[tags]Task-Architect, task-analysis, tools[/tags]

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Innovation, Usability task-analysis, Task-Architect, tools

Gartner is well-known for its analysis of technology’s impact on business. They rarely consider the user interface. But it seems the UI is becoming more “business-critical”. They recently* published an overview titled “The Evolving User Interface From Graphical UI to Environmental UI“. It’s an interesting hypothesis – though perhaps a tad pedantic.

It’s main point is that businesses have to invest in UI to stay competitive – and that UI will evolve into an interoperable framework and away from device specific GUIs.

The conclusion…

The traditional model of a user interface is insufficient for a more-robust environment in which most computer interaction is not through a traditional desk-bound keyboard and screen. In this new environment, the focus shifts from interfaces on individual devices (desktop devices, for example) to the overall experience users have as they interact with the interconnected devices that surround them.

The UI shifts from GUIs attached to individual devices to an “environmental user interface,” acting as a contextual user access and information delivery engine across multiple devices. Today, this model is only a concept, driven primarily by the projected intersection of technology, business and consumer trends during the next 10 years. However, focused implementations of location-based services linking a bounded set of devices in a targeted environment, as well as the explosion of Web 2.0 “mashups” combining Web applications into a new UI, are indicators of this trend.

By 2015, the focus will shift from designing individual interfaces for particular devices to creating a proactive UI framework for the environment (0.6 probability).

Update: * oops – I guess March 2006 isn’t so recent!
[tags]Gartner, social UI[/tags]

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Business, Innovation, Usability, User Experience, Web 3.0 Gartner, social-UI

So sure – I’d love to be a rock star. But the “musical talent gene” somehow didn’t make it in. Lucky for me Pete Townshend (of Who fame) launched The Lifehouse Method this month. It’s a web site where you upload various samples of your voice and rhythms. Pete’s software then mixes it up to create a unique composition. The UI is very simple, although the upload function may be a bit confusing.

I composed my first single “You’ll get a bad rap if your UX is crap” in a few minutes. It may not be the greatest tune, but its mine! The method if free until the end of July. When you register you get three “session sittings”.

The Method lets you download your tunes (they call them Portraits) as mp3s. It would be really cool if they linked this to Facebook so you could share them directly.

[tags]Lifehouse-Method, music[/tags]

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Innovation, Long Tail, Usability, User Experience Lifehouse-Method, music