Earlier this week the United States Department of Transportation released guidelines for automakers designed to reduce the distractibility of in-vehicle technologies (e.g., navigation systems). : The guidelines include recommendations to limit the time a driver must take his eyes off the road to perform any task to two seconds at a time and twelve seconds total. … [...]
Potpourri
Another edition of potpourri where I surface some of the more interesting HF/usability links that have crossed my path. The blog Touch Usability finds a great video of Bill Buxton discussing Designing for Ubiquitous Computing Smashing Magazine illustrates a simple and effective UX tool (the rainbow spreadsheet) to visualize user behavior during testing The Atlantic Magazine wonders [...]
Usability of a Glass Dashboard?
I had heard that the Tesla Model S (the luxury electric car) had a giant touch screen as one of the main interfaces for secondary car functions and always wondered what that might be like from a human factors/usability perspective. Physical knobs and switches, unlike interface widgets, give a tactile sensation and do not change [...]
Programming note: Please update your feedreaders
You may have heard the news that Google Reader, probably the most popular RSS reader on the web, is shutting down in a few months. Feedburner, also run by Google, is the service we’ve been using to distribute our RSS feed for readers who use Google Reader or who prefer email subscriptions to our blog. [...]
Continuing Adventures of an Academic’s Use of the iPad (mini)
My previous posts on using the iPad have become some of the most popular posts on this blog. So I thought I would give you an update on my evolving use of the iPad. My history of use of the iPad started with great skepticism, moved into curious and active experimentation, and has settled into [...]
The Other Father of Human Factors: John E. Karlin
Paul M. Fitts is widely regarded as the father of human factors. He gets mentioned a lot in HF texts because of his (still influential) law. In more modern times, Donald Norman gets a lot of recognition as the author of the Design of Everyday Things (mentioned in my post below) which introduced the idea of psychology and [...]
How Do You Teach Human Factors?
Reader Mark C. asked the question: “I plan to offer a class on Human Factor’s Psychology in my school. I’ve looked around to internet for resources…there really isn’t much out there….” How did you start teaching human factors? If you had to teach a semester-long course, what would be your resource? Please chime in! My [...]
Anne & Rich Interviewed about Human Factors
Anne and I are big proponents of making sure the world knows what human factors is all about (hence the blog). Both of us were recently interviewed separately about human factors in general as well as our research areas. The tone is very general and may give lay people a good sense of the breadth [...]
Begging robots, overly familiar websites, and the power of the unconscious?
Hello readers, and sorry for the unintentional hiatus on the blog. Anne and I have been recovering from the just-completed semester only to be thrown back into another busy semester. As we adjust, feast on this potpourri post of interesting HF-related items from the past week. In todays HF potpourri we have three very interesting [...]
Paper prototyping made easier
Paper prototyping is a common usability technique to quickly test out an interaction before expending too much effort on programming or designing. The value in paper prototyping is that with extremely low effort, you can test the interaction rather than the appearance of an interface. I just came across a great iOS app that lets [...]
Effective visualization of an ongoing process
What does pop music visualization and neural imaging techniques have in common? Keep reading…You may have already seen this (i’m a little late) but have you ever wanted your favorite song to last forever? Enter “The Infinite Jukebox“. You upload your favorite MP3 (or select among recent uploads) and the site will analyze and parse [...]
HF/Usability Potpourri
It’s the return of HF/Potpourri: Touchscreen voting machine insists on voting for Romney. This is either just really bad touchscreen calibration or a conspiracy… The navigation system made me do it. Yet another story of too much trust in automation leading to complacency. Prototyping a digital experience using analog tools. Clever use of lo-fi tools [...]
Principles of Animation in UI Design
Smashing Magazine posts a great article on some principles for including animation in mobile UIs. I think the use of animation is under-estimated by some HF people because it’s hard to quanitfy the “performance benefit” (e.g., they may not increase the speed at which a user completes a task). Some notable examples of animation are [...]
Goodbye Mouse?
Story in the Washington Post about the impending demise of the computer mouse in favor of touch screens: “Most children here have never seen a computer mouse,” said Hannah Tenpas, 24, a kindergarten teacher at San Antonio. … “The popularity of iPads and other tablets is changing how society interacts with information,” said Aniket Kittur, [...]
What Apple Maps “PR Disaster” Says about Human-Automation Interaction
With the release of Apple’s in-house developed mapping solution for the new iPhone 5 (and all iOS 6 devices) there has been a major outcry among some users bordering on ridiculous, frothing, outrage1. Personally, the maps for my area are pretty good and the route guidance worked well even with no network signal. However, [...]
Product Confusability: Tide Pods
Kim Wolfinbarger sends along a new case of dangerous things being confused for food (the story is the same but the actors different, see previous examples). Before you reflexively say, “only an idiot would confuse the two,” remember that 5-year olds don’t know the difference. First rule of HF-club: you are not the user (or victim): In [...]
App Usability Evaluations for the Mental Health Field
We’ve posted before on usability evaluations of iPads and apps for academics (e.g.,here, and here), but today I’d like to point to a blog dedicated to evaluating apps for mental health professionals. In the newest post, Dr. Jeff Lawley discusses the usability of a DSM Reference app from Kitty CAT Psych. For those who didn’t take [...]
User Testing for Interplanetary Expeditions
I was listening to the Big Picture Science podcast on my way to work this morning when I heard a great example of how to test equipment prior to a mission. Hosts are Molly Bentley and Seth Shostak. The interview was with Dr. Jennifer Heldmann, an astrobiologist who studies “Mars analogues” on earth – the [...]
Anne McLaughlin is an Associate Professor at North Carolina State University
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