I vividly remember an appointment with a sonographer when my wife was pregnant. On one hand, it was a skilled professional using a combination of acoustic gel, a wand that contained a microphone and loudspeaker, a portable computer that did signal processing on what the microphone picked up, and a monitor that displayed a visual … Continue reading Emotion and software development
Category: User Experience
Security and a voice-controlled internet-connected cooker
I have seen adverts for a NEFF cooker that you can control with your voice via Alexa. This is spiffy, but I can also see potential security problems. I’m not advocating attacking Alexa or a NEFF cooker – this article is a standard-issue discussion of security problems, to help people improve security. I hope I’m … Continue reading Security and a voice-controlled internet-connected cooker
Language can teach us about usability
I think that the way people use language can give some insights into the usability of the software we design and build. By definition, if you're reading this then you use language, and also use some kind of computer, and in this post I'll try to show how what we have already observed about language … Continue reading Language can teach us about usability
The user, not your user interface, is the star of the show
As programmers and designers, it's easy to get really invested in our work. This is great if it helps us do a good job, but the temptation is to think that we and our work are the most important things. That's not true - it's the user. When I was at school and college, I … Continue reading The user, not your user interface, is the star of the show
Turn the information up to 11
Much of the job of communication is to pass on information to someone. When we design a user interface, it communicates on our behalf. When we write code, including test code, we communicate our purpose for the code to someone else (which could be a future version of ourselves). Sometimes we communicate more obviously and … Continue reading Turn the information up to 11
Writing documentation can be in your own interests
Introduction Some people take the agile manifesto's ... We ... value ... working software over comprehensive documentation the wrong way. They think it means We don't value documentation This is: a) not the same as what the agile manifesto says; b) wrong, even if you act purely from self-interest. There are at least two selfish … Continue reading Writing documentation can be in your own interests
When is a speech and language interface a poor choice?
Introduction This post is in a series about computers, speech and language: Why are speech and language interfaces useful? What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 1: Overview What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 2: Speech What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 3: Language … Continue reading When is a speech and language interface a poor choice?
What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 3: Language
Introduction This article follows on from a few about computers, speech and language: Why are speech and language interfaces useful? What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 1: Overview What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 2: Speech What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 3: … Continue reading What makes speech and language interfaces hard to create? Part 3: Language
Why are speech or language interfaces useful?
This is the first article in a series about speech and language: Why are speech or language interfaces useful? What makes speech or language interfaces hard to create? Part 1: Overview What makes speech or langauge interfaces hard to create? Part 2: Speech What makes speech or language interfaces hard to create? Part 3: Language … Continue reading Why are speech or language interfaces useful?
UX Design: Good out of bad
Jared Spool has an excellent technique for helping people of varied backgrounds work on improving user experience. He starts off by deliberately pointing them in the wrong direction, gets them to enjoy themselves being nasty to their users, and then turns that into improvements.
Random Tech Thoughts 