I thought this little realisation might help tech and non-techs understand each others perspectives a bit better…

I was updating some website content with my CMS and I asked my developer ‘How do you include a new nav item?’  She said, ‘You can’t create a menu item without content there already… so you have to create the content first…. derr.’ So I laughed and smiled, ‘Yeh ok.’

I forgot about that conversation until a few days later.  After much cursing I finally got some content up! Then the difference in thinking dawned on me!

My developer had the ‘database’ perspective. You have to have something there to point the navigation items at. Kinda makes sense right .

But…

I had the ‘end user’ perspective.  You have to have a nav item there (to see what lies beneath) and also to attach something to. All I see is the user interface, not the database.

Has anyone got any other examples of this miscommunication?

Seth talks about how students were blogging as they listened to a lecture the other day.  He suggested that these blogs were useless but the blog posts that people did after were much better.

Is Liveblogging lecture notes really useless? 

Yes, if the lecture notes were written simply to assist the individual with recall of the lecture at a later date.

No, if the notes are written with the objective of informing the reader in the first place?  That might work, but would the note taker remember anything?

If right strategy for lecture note liveblogging is used it can help both the reader and the writer. 

What if you mind mapped the lecture online with MindMeister or similar?

Mind maps, popularised since the 60’s, are known for problem solving, managing complex stories (screenwriting), memory and creativity etc.  AND now you can do them online there are tons more applications for them.  They are very easy to share, reorganise, reformat and export to other programs.

Imagine if you liveblogged with a mind map in a lecture.  You could reorganise it really easily on the fly as you reconsidered what you were hearing, as your were hearing it.  You could then quickly restructure it all for the ‘other’ audiences when the lecture finished!? 

Other people can even add their two cents to your map too!

I’ve been reading Seth’s blog tonight.

When bloggers do stuff

Seth writes that he’d rather read blogs about the process of writing them and less so the stuff reported in them.  Content Blog talks about the fact that what you write is more important than how it’s written. Blogs are about learning, feedback and creativity. Don’t forget that…

Reframing
Andrew Boyd has listed a technique for breaking the block that uses cards and at technique called reframing. It requires you to put down all your experiences and topics on cards, then pick them out to help you look at things from different perspectives.

Mind maps break the block
For various reasons I couldn’t seem to get myself to put fingers to keys on UsableWorld over the last month. I don’t fancy writing prose much… Then, UsableWorld got a mention in the local newpaper and I thought I’d better put something up quick!

I’ve been busy with work and have been mind mapping strategies quite a bit lately.  I decided to mind map my blog posts.

Bloggers’ block broken!

Then, still suffering from a Block Hangover, I thought why not just put them up as they are?  With some messing around I finally worked out how to make them fit on Terapad!  As you will see in my ‘Usability’ section

Now the Jury’s out…I ask you:

• Are unfamiliar people overwhelmed by them?
• Are they engaging to read?
• Should I turn them into paragraphs?

Are you always writing lists in reports or presentations and aren’t quite sure whether you should use caps, commas or colons?

A friend sent me a really good link and a podcast from Grammar Girl that sorts out any confusion you might have!

There’s a few rules; but much of it is up to style. Just make sure you’re consistent!

I like this quote from Seth Godin.

‘The sooner we view the web as a process, not a place, the quicker we will understand it. It’s two flows. The flow of information and the flow of attention.’

When you’re usability testing, it’s not just about the application at hand.  It’s also about where someone has come from and where they are going to next!

What really is this usability stuff?

The question really is, why am I here? What will I be known for? 

If I can make help technology work the way it really should then this is what you’ll get…

What do you reckon?

My thoughts in how to leverage user testing.

Do you agree?

Check out the first 7 minutes of this educational eyetracking video.  John S Rhodes links to StomperNet’s ‘Getting Serious’ Video.  It works really well if your trying to explain eyetracking to someone new to it.  You might even learn something too!