While reading old postings on Push Click Touch (start at that post and go forward for a very interesting history of buttons throughout the history of technology), I came across a reference to an interesting-sounding […]
Category: Usability
A Search for Symbols Opens Many Doors
I’m currently researching the design of elevator button symbols—the door open and close symbols, to be precise—and my search for reference material and real-world usage has taken me to some pretty bizarre places. My initial […]
Bookless Stanford Engineering Library is a Bad Idea
Stanford University’s Engineering Library is in the process of getting rid of 85% of its books, as it moves into a new building, and I have some huge philosophical and practical problems with this. The […]
Fail: Twitter Location Divining
Hey Twitter! I love the idea of being able to tag my current location in the Web interface, but it has a serious flaw. Your code assumes that it knows where I am better than […]
SF-PechaKucha #38 Inspiring
Last night was my third time presenting at the San Francisco PechaKucha Night, and perhaps the most inspirational of the four(?) events I have attended, partly because of the response I got to my presentation […]
Fail: Facebook Hides Unconfirmed Status
Now I understand what’s going on that bothered me in my previous posting. Since a Ping.fm posting was the first time I had tried to Like an item and couldn’t find the link to do […]
Failure—Ping.fm inside Facebook
There’s a cool posting by a friend that popped up on my Facebook wall, automatically included from his Ping.fm account. I’d like to comment on this posting. I know it’s possible because I see two […]
What’s the Frequency, Kenwood?
Among the last changes I’m making to my Red Cross communications response guide for San Mateo County is the final touches on a recommended list of frequencies for programming into our team’s amateur radios. Because […]
Sell-By or Use-By Dates Too Confusing
During my usual Monday volunteering at the local Red Cross, I was involved in a conversation about the dates printed on the food and drinks we keep in order to feed the victims of local […]
Tutorial: Making Better PowerPoint Templates
I recently needed to make a couple of presentations at a local the Red Cross preparedness exercise, and like the persnickety guy I am, thought it would be best to use one of the the […]