March 2011

When poor usability costs you your job?

March 30, 2011

You may have heard that an employee who managed “social media” for Chrysler accidentally posted on Chrysler’s twitter account about *ahem* poor driving in Chrysler’s home city of Detroit. Click here for the original story. The guy who sent the tweet blames the program he used for multiple twitter accounts. The article calls it a “glitch,” which would not necessarily [...]

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New Magazine-like Layout for iPad Users

March 24, 2011

Just a small programming note:  we’ve installed the new OnSwipe plugin for WordPress that shows a specially formatted version to our iPad users.  The experience is very similar to what you might get from Flipboard (an iPad RSS app) complete with page turning animations. Let us know what you think!  Don’t forget to try swiping.

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I see a very smudgey future…

March 15, 2011

As the YouTube commenter in the video noted: BUY STOCK IN WINDEX NOW!!! These concept videos are meant to show how technologies that do not yet exist could be used. Just like concept cars, they show what is possible now but hint at the not-to-distant-future (at least for the company who made the videos). Here are some more: Knowledge Navigator [...]

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Cataloging the Rights Along with the Wrongs: Angry Birds

March 10, 2011
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Charles Mauro provides a detailed analysis of reverse engineering an engaging interface: the Angry Birds game. For those who haven’t heard of it, Angry Birds is a wildly successful iPhone and iPad game. The post covers: the usefulness of examining existing artifacts that through their success must contain desirable attributes scaffolding training increasing challenge through cognitive manipulations adding “mystery”  through [...]

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The Human Factors Prize

March 4, 2011

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is announcing the Human Factors Prize, a $10,000 prize recognizing excellent human factors research.  The winner will be presented at the annual meeting in Las Vegas this fall. The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society is proud to announce the Human Factors Prize, established in 2010 by Editor-in-Chief William S. Marras. The prize, which will be [...]

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Scroll direction, touch screens, trackpads

March 2, 2011
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When we interact with a touch screen, we expect a certain “directness”; that is, if I grab something and push up, I expect that thing to move up.  Like dragging a web page up or down.  However, did you ever notice that on a track pad (like on a laptop), the direction is reversed? Trackpad:  fingers move DOWN, position indicator goes [...]

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Profiles in Human Factors: Dr. Elizabeth Blickensderfer, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

March 1, 2011
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This post is from our series of human factors career profiles. Check them all out if you’re curious about what kinds of careers you can have in this field! Dr. Elizabeth Blickensderfer received her Ph.D. in Human Factors & Organizational Psychology the University of Central Florida and is currently an Associate Professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL. [...]

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