May 2006

  • Triple Bottom Line Usertarianism

    As the designers of user interfaces we have an obligation to not only our clients, but our users and their greater working environment. In practical terms, Triple Bottom Line Usertarianism usually means expanding the traditional user experience framework to take into account not just user and client satisfaction but the overall user-ecology. Usertarianism is a…

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  • Taking Stock…

    Well – Webstock was a blast. Here’s snippets from my seven days of coffee and haze… Sunday (PM) I join the Provoke crew to wine and dine the phenomenally busy Kelly Goto. Monday Running a packed UPANZ event with Kathy Sierra + Bert Bates… Kathy gives us plenty of food for thought – Phil and…

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  • It’s K-Time!

    Webstock is the biggest thing to hit the Wellington web industry since Trade Me sold for $700m in cash – the difference is that, this time, almost everyone gets to share the riches. For me the Webstock Experience started last night over a relaxed dinner at the Matterhorn with the Provoke DUX team and  (a…

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  • Google Trends is Misery

    Google Trends is the new hot topic – but apart the fun it gives you (by comparing search terms), in most cases the information it spits out is quite useless. This is because Google can’t read our minds (yet). It doesn’t know the goal of the individual user, and the context of what they’re searching…

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  • “I aint got no use-a-bill-latty”

    As the President of the Usability Professionals’ Association of New Zealand (you can just call me ‘Mr President’), I\’m charged with supporting and growing “usability” in this country. Well, things seem to be ticking along quite nicely, with the latest UPA survey of over 1300 usability professionals worldwide (including a healthy 21 responses from little…

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  • To submit, submit or submit?

    I’m sick to death of screens containing multiple submit buttons and in recent years I’ve been culling submit buttons from any web application I can lay my hands on. Most of the time users will click on ‘NEXT’ so there’s no need to offer extra buttons saying ‘BACK’, ‘SAVE’ or ‘CANCEL’My rule is simple… “One…

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  • Usability is Bad for the Environment

    Soon after I relaunched my blog in January 2006 my subscriber base shot up from about a dozen regular readers to over 300 – and now fluctuates wildly between 150 and 250 I’ve been wondering about these fluctuations and discovered an interesting trend… Whenever I write about environmental issues – the subscriptions increase. …and… Whenever…

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  • ‘Absolute Beachfront’ by 2050

    What will New Zealand look like in 20 years if we don’t have fresh Water, are still dependant on Oil and human-induced Climate? A sea-level rise of 5m will make my house ‘absolute beachfront’.To debate this I recommend you subscribe to Future Blog – which has a focus on Wellington/New Zealand environmental issues. It’s well…

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