Robin Christopherson (AbilityNet) - The art of attractive yet usable websites
Posted by rmp at 12:43 3rd Oct 2007
Now I think I've seen Robin talk before at either OSCON or Apachecon but it's always an incredible eye-opener to see simple use of a screenreader. Amazon.. how crap is that? That's a stunningly unusable site and it's far from being the only one!
How many developers do you know who actually have a screenreader installed on their development system for testing basic functionality?
Audio descriptions for multimedia & core content/functionality. Must recommend this back at basecamp for at least YourGenome .
Magnifier usage, perhaps something more of us have tinkered with, but usually only as a gimmick/toy not as critical to usability. Check your site's navigation again, but this time through magnifier.
Robin demonstrates a series of high-profile example websites almost all of which fail to meet accessibility requirements. I'm sure I'm as guilty as the next developer of not catering for these users but these are worldwide corporations with buckets of cash to throw at web design and who are immediately alienating a significant proportion of their users. Google comes out of the wash impressively well.
Push keyboard accessibility hard. All those HTML attributes we don't have time to put in are legally required. I'm sure there'd be a huge stink if/when high-profile legal cases start being brought against non-compliant services.
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Psyphi Blog v5
Heidi Pollock (BluePulse) - Taking Your Application Mobile
Posted by rmp at 17:40 3rd Oct 2007
Interesting resume of experience in terms of mobile devices and development covering Yahoo and Twitter as a background to the "in my experience"-style points.
The biggest growth in mobile use is in places like Africa, far east on a range of low-end, (ugly) phones. A big misconception about mobile web use is that most users are high end and this doesn't hold up in real experience.
About 3000 phones, all with different browsers - every one's unique. So baseline targetted is 176px and 10k page weight limit.
Ref: WURFL
e.g. Arguably the most popular is the Motorola v3 8 lines * 30 characters. For multilingual sites, e.g. German, words can become unworkably long.
Code should be limited to basic XHTML Mobile 1.0 and basic CSS. WML is unworkable (memory limits etc.) unless you know your targetted community is largely WML. Notably missing from XHTML Mobile are things like headings and lists. Semantic Web ideals tend not to stand up. As CSS doesn't work all the time then it can't be relied upon to do things like unindenting lists.
Recommended, appropriate tools: Firefox extensions: Modify headers, user agent switcher, WML Browser, XHTML Mobile Profile.
Users are bored or in need. Preserve your brand with logo, colours & copy. Navigation links are overrated - replace dropdowns with search/autocomplete etc.
Development tips: Target a device list; think like a phone; learn to live with it; mobile acid test http://jwtmp.com/a (0 comments)
The biggest growth in mobile use is in places like Africa, far east on a range of low-end, (ugly) phones. A big misconception about mobile web use is that most users are high end and this doesn't hold up in real experience.
About 3000 phones, all with different browsers - every one's unique. So baseline targetted is 176px and 10k page weight limit.
Ref: WURFL
e.g. Arguably the most popular is the Motorola v3 8 lines * 30 characters. For multilingual sites, e.g. German, words can become unworkably long.
Code should be limited to basic XHTML Mobile 1.0 and basic CSS. WML is unworkable (memory limits etc.) unless you know your targetted community is largely WML. Notably missing from XHTML Mobile are things like headings and lists. Semantic Web ideals tend not to stand up. As CSS doesn't work all the time then it can't be relied upon to do things like unindenting lists.
Recommended, appropriate tools: Firefox extensions: Modify headers, user agent switcher, WML Browser, XHTML Mobile Profile.
Users are bored or in need. Preserve your brand with logo, colours & copy. Navigation links are overrated - replace dropdowns with search/autocomplete etc.
Development tips: Target a device list; think like a phone; learn to live with it; mobile acid test http://jwtmp.com/a (0 comments)
Leisa Reichelt (disambiguity.com) - Ambient Intimacy
Posted by rmp at 13:18 5th Oct 2007
Leisa presents an enjoyable voyage through cognitive psychology and the social network scene. Makes me wish I'd taken more of the psych options as part of my computer science degree.
ref: http://graphpaper.com/
Personal information bandwidth & learning speed has increased. New, lightweight yet extremely powerful means of communication represent ambient intimacy - a personal social platform. This isn't one to one messaging or one to the masses broadcasting, it's pushing messages into a defined area (multicast if you will). It represents the creation of a techno-social system beyond personal interaction - a more continuous interpersonal awareness.
In his book, "Grooming, gossip and the evolution of language", Dunbar describes how better social understanding leads to evolutionary growth of brains, improvement of language and better flexibility when competing for shared resources (food, sex etc.).
This intercommunication is largely a phatic expressiveness for virtual spaces. In linguistics a phatic expression is one whose only function is to perform a social task.
The phrase "continual partial friendship" coined by David Weinberger describes the almost permanent interconnectedness and friendship users feel when part of a collective virtual community built on these sorts of communication media.
"It's not about being poked and prodded, it's about exposing more surface area for others to connect with" - Johnnie Moore
New media (mobile 'phones, the internet) overcome geographical dislocation.
But it's often a love/hate thing (ref: http://twitter.com/ ) and can also cause problems with cognitive dissonance with false human interaction. Interacting virtually the subconsciousness is devoid of its usual cues - facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, resulting in unnatural stress.
The other problem associated is information overload - "infomania dents IQ more than marijuana"
- anticipated reciprocity
- reputation
- sense of efficacy
- identification with a group
ref: tom coates' presentation on social software
It has been noted that a social networks' pooled knowledge makes the whole network grow smarter. I'd personally take this further and suggest that any open data, social or otherwise but particularly in scientific contexts, makes the network grow smarter. ref: PLoS
As developers we need to support ambient intimacy. Applications need to be sympathetic to the fact that we as people are easily distracted. They need to be undemanding but intrusive enough to increase awareness of events.
- keep it lightweight
- stay out of the way
- open your API
- portable social networks
- use the periphery - antithesis of classical interface development/design
- allow for time-shifting
ref: twitterific
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ref: http://graphpaper.com/
Personal information bandwidth & learning speed has increased. New, lightweight yet extremely powerful means of communication represent ambient intimacy - a personal social platform. This isn't one to one messaging or one to the masses broadcasting, it's pushing messages into a defined area (multicast if you will). It represents the creation of a techno-social system beyond personal interaction - a more continuous interpersonal awareness.
In his book, "Grooming, gossip and the evolution of language", Dunbar describes how better social understanding leads to evolutionary growth of brains, improvement of language and better flexibility when competing for shared resources (food, sex etc.).
This intercommunication is largely a phatic expressiveness for virtual spaces. In linguistics a phatic expression is one whose only function is to perform a social task.
The phrase "continual partial friendship" coined by David Weinberger describes the almost permanent interconnectedness and friendship users feel when part of a collective virtual community built on these sorts of communication media.
"It's not about being poked and prodded, it's about exposing more surface area for others to connect with" - Johnnie Moore
New media (mobile 'phones, the internet) overcome geographical dislocation.
But it's often a love/hate thing (ref: http://twitter.com/ ) and can also cause problems with cognitive dissonance with false human interaction. Interacting virtually the subconsciousness is devoid of its usual cues - facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, resulting in unnatural stress.
The other problem associated is information overload - "infomania dents IQ more than marijuana"
- anticipated reciprocity
- reputation
- sense of efficacy
- identification with a group
ref: tom coates' presentation on social software
It has been noted that a social networks' pooled knowledge makes the whole network grow smarter. I'd personally take this further and suggest that any open data, social or otherwise but particularly in scientific contexts, makes the network grow smarter. ref: PLoS
As developers we need to support ambient intimacy. Applications need to be sympathetic to the fact that we as people are easily distracted. They need to be undemanding but intrusive enough to increase awareness of events.
- keep it lightweight
- stay out of the way
- open your API
- portable social networks
- use the periphery - antithesis of classical interface development/design
- allow for time-shifting
ref: twitterific
(0 comments)
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