Triggering Back
Random items while wondering which of the two weekends that bookend July 4th this year is the official US Holiday Weekend:
The @media 2007 conference was held in London this past month. Thankfully, many of the presentations are available on various blogs and Web resources – I found this list to be the most comprehensive. There are two in particular I want to point out: one is Nate Koechley’s “High Performance Web Sites:14 Rules for Faster Pages”; the other is the oddly-titled “When accessibility is not your problem” by Joe Clark.
The always-excellent Jonathan Follett writes about audio and the user experience for UXmatters. It’s an interesting concept considering recent events in web accessibility, although Follett broadens the context to include such digital utilities as software applications and input devices:
(W)e can expand task-based audio cues to include actions that are specific to expert users. For example, in Photoshop, visually aligning an object to a pixel-specific guideline can be a challenge, especially when viewing an image at less than 100%. An audio signal—say, a simple click—to let you know the object is aligned to the guide—could increase the productivity of digital artists and visual designers.
Additionally, we often take for granted the offline audio cues that assist input to digital devices. The click of the mouse and the tap-tap of the keyboard reinforce the fact that we’ve completed a particular action—for instance, entering a line of text or selecting an object. This is fine when a user has a physical keyboard, but in cases where the user inputs data via a touch screen displaying a virtual keyboard, these sounds are noticeably absent.
Jakob Nielsen considers whether designers and developers should be entrusted with conducting usability initiatives. I’m almost afraid to offer a viewpoint, because I know a lot of very smart and respected folks whose opinions reside on both sides of this argument. I will say, however, that project teams vary widely in their definition of “design” and what exactly that process entails. In my mind I see visual and experiential output as a tightly-coupled deliverable, and thus operate my cycles that way. That being said, I very much respect the value of specialists trained to conduct research, define benchmarks and evaluate measured data. On the fence I shall remain.
Beauty and brains are a deadly combination. Consider my wife, who today delivered a stirring presentation on the topic of library acquisitions as part of her MLS program. Now she’s done for the summer and relief is in the house. Way to go, kitten.