humor

Solving Beer Estimation Difficulties

November 20, 2009
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The subtle change in the diameter of a glass can hide large changes in volume. Unfortunately for us, we’re terrible at estimating this, even when we logically know it to be true. For example, a few millimeters at the top of a pint glass equals an ounce of liquid, while the same height measure at the bottom of the glass [...]

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HFES Conference Part 5: Automation & Trust & Google Maps

November 4, 2009

During the conference I had a very personal experience with the effects of automation reliability on trust and subsequent behaviors.  First, a bit of background.  There is a large body of research examining how humans interact with automated systems (Global positioning systems, for example).  Human-automation interaction is quite complex; being affected by many factors. Julian Sanchez (of MITRE) presented a [...]

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HFES Conference in San Antonio, Part 1

October 24, 2009

Anne and I just got back from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society conference held in San Antonio.  We plan on posting some snippets of posters/talks that we found interesting in an upcoming post.  But in the mean time, here is a panorama of the view from our hotel. Being in San Antonio, TX, we also visited a Cowboy bar [...]

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STFU Usability Protocol

September 25, 2009

I‘m glad that open-source software is taking usability seriously.  I think that not having a good user experience may be one of the biggest hurdles to more open-source adoption (e.g., compare GIMP to Photoshop).  Shuttleworth (of Ubuntu) has a great plan: the STFU protocol. During his keynote, he extended an invitation to any open source application to submit their software [...]

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Consequences of Mobile Phone Usability…big consequences

September 16, 2009
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Time.com is reporting that part of the economic recession may have been caused by Warren Buffet not being able to check his voice mail: as Buffett was rushing out to a social engagement in Edmonton, Alberta, he got a call from Bob Diamond, the head of Barclays Capital…[ed. Diamond was creating a plan to save an investment bank and needed [...]

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Fitts’ Law and Your Microwave

August 12, 2009

Most of you are familiar with Fitts’ Law and how it can be used to calculate movement time in an interface. You may even be familiar with how it ostensibly speeds up your use of menus on the Mac. But did you know it could improve your daily life? My friend Jeff Wilson did, and posted this helpful note over [...]

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911: Trying to fight slips via warnings

August 4, 2009

I got a newsletter in the mail today from the City of Raleigh. Here are some excerpts centering on the problems with our area code: RALEIGH/WAKE 911 CENTER WANTS YOU TO KNOW THAT HANG UPS HURT What do a child playing with a telephone, an unprotected non flip cell phone and someone dialing a ten-digit phone number in the 919 [...]

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Is Older Adult Interest in the Wii Interface Just Hype?: or “I want to try bowling”

July 6, 2009

I’d like to share a conversation with my mother that occurred today. She is in her 60s, and although she uses a computer for communication, has never even played solitaire or shown any interest in a video game. Nikki says: The wee? Is a game that lets you think you are doing a sport? Anne says: Yes, you use the [...]

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(face) Gestures Interface

June 17, 2009

Peter Squire sends in what is most likely an early April fools joke by the creators of the Opera web browser (right before 4/1/09). It is an interesting interaction idea nonetheless.

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Watch out for Un-Equalsteppings!

June 10, 2009

Reader Joe C. sent in this unusual warning on a door. It was on the entry door to one of the screens at a local cinema. The un-equalsteppings just turned out to be a slope! Not sure why they couldn’t of just told me it was a slope.

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Bad Astronomy on Usability

June 9, 2009

One of my favorite science blogs, Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy, recently touched upon a usability topic which gives me an excuse to link to his blog!  The story gets goofy from there (a rivalry between him and actor Wil Wheaton ensues). He is complaining about an upgrade to Apple’s iMovie which reduced features but more important reduced the usability of [...]

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Cannot be Undone (double negatives on iphone)

June 8, 2009

I just saw this image from Apple’s introduction of the new iPhone: Notice the wording:  I understand that this action cannot be undone or cancelled [ed: British spelling, huh]. Does that mean it can be done?  Not a huge deal but the double negative slowed me down for a second.  Not a place where there should be any confusion!  Off-topic, [...]

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Solution for ATM glare

June 1, 2009

I was trawling Flickr for some images for a project and ran across this funny picture. It is clearly a solution for bad glare on the screen. Update, it is clearly technology appropriated from the 23nd century…see below (thanks Steve for pointing it out):

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911! I’m Locked In My Car…Oh, Pull Lock? Thanks

April 1, 2009

There must be a human factors angle here somewhere in this story.  Perhaps the consequences of automation leading to out of the loop syndrome?  Click through to the story to hear the 911 call. KISSIMMEE, Fla. – A woman locked in her car in Kissimmee called 911 on Tuesday. “It’s getting very hot in here, and I’m not feeling well,” [...]

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It’s Right There, Right on your Left

February 16, 2009

Found this sign at a rock climbing gym, then watched three groups of people do the opposite of what the sign requests, despite reading it.

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High-tech Grandma

February 4, 2009

This really isn’t human factors related other than the fact that my research interests include older adults and the web.  Just to give you a teaser, here is some of the grandmother’s dialog: The other day, I was hacking around thinking I was running port forwarding my POP packets through SSH encrypted tunnels.  Turns out I got the port number [...]

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