Great summary article from Dave Cronin at Adobe covering a range of prototyping methods as well as a solid list of reasons why prototyping is a good idea.
“In the broadest sense, all kinds of design artifacts are prototypes. Pencil sketches, blocks of wood, storyboards, wireframes, foam-core models, pixel-perfect state renderings, clickable demos, and functioning production code are all strategies for representing a thing being designed. However, in the world of interaction design, we usually reserve the term for ways of representing interactivity—not just the form but also behavior.”
“Prototypes are meant to be a cost-effective way of experimenting with ideas… and are generally considered part of the pre-planning phase.” Read More »
There is this tricky business of learning to speak and write the Danish language.
One of my big reasons for moving to Denmark 3 years ago was to better my Danish, but admittedly, my enthusiasm for 3 hour long grammar classes twice a week at the end of a busy work day waxes and wanes. Danish and the perfectionist in me – we have our horns locked. I don’t expect to win (I know the beast I’m up against), but I’d like to at least have fought the good fight and earned my way to a level of fluency I could be pleased with.
I was born in Denmark to Danish parents, and we immigrated to the west coast of Canada when I was a year old – and for the most part we have always spoken English at home & with each other. We still do, even when my parents are visiting me in Denmark – to the horror of our family here in DK of course (which in itself is reason enough: pissing off “we know best” Jysk family = fun). Going from being (relatively) well-spoken to being limited in vocabulary – can be more than a little frustrating, to put it mildly.
We foreigners in Denmark have the great luxury of living among a people so well versed in English and (with rare exception) a very polite willingness to switch to it for our sake – that we could easily get away with not needing to learn Danish at all. There is, however, something that feels terribly arrogant about relying on that luxury, and expecting someone in this country to speak any language but their own. I work in Danish now, after these 3 years, and I might even email in Danish if there’s time for some extra grammar checks. Progress. But there is still a ways yet.
And so it goes – I make about a million mistakes, mix up “en” and “et” words repeatedly, and learn a little more each day about a language so fraught with ‘exceptions to the rules’ that many Danish instructors will refuse to teach some of them – there’s just no point. “That’s just the way it is… I don’t know why,” is the answer I’ve heard a few thousand times – from instructors, colleagues and not least my boyfriend – who by the way – is one of the few Danes I’ve met that isn’t so eager to switch to English – which, now that I think about it, has done me a world of good.
Thankfully, I’m not the only one tackling the Danish language. Apparently the Danes themselves are having problems:
I also love this little piece by a Norwegian living & working in Denmark Om at lære dansk
Vi starter med lås, der i flertal er låse, men flertallet af gås er gæs – ikke gåse.
Vi taler om fod, er der fler’, si’r vi fødder.
At flertal af mand er mænd – ikke mænder – er svært at forstå, når en tand bli’r til tænder.
Skønt flertal af and som bekendt hedder ænder, så hører man aldrig, at en spand bli’r til spænder.
En anden mærkværdighed er her til lands:
I tredje person er det han, ham og hans. Er det sund logik – ja derom spø’r jeg kuns -
at man ikke om damer si’r hun, hum og huns?
At synge i datid på dansk hedder sang, men gynges imperfectum er ikke gang.
Og hvem kan forstå, hvorfor springe er sprang, når bringe det ikke i datid er brang?
Korrekt hedder datid af bringe jo bragte, hvor er så logikken, når man siger bagte
på basis af infinitiven at bage?
Et andet eksempel: Det hedder at tage. Det bøjes til datid ved, at man si’r tog.
Sku’ bage så ikke i datid gi’ bog?
Når bringe er bragte, sku’ bagte vær’ binge, men så måtte ragte vær’ datid af ringe.
Men ragte det findes på dansk faktisk ikke – derfor må vi hel’re la’ spørgsmålet ligge!
Karl Nielsen
(Skrevet af en norsk fremmedarbejder.)
Came across New York photographer Erin Mulvehill at FFFFound recently and was mesmerized by her remarkable “Underwater” series.
They’ve got an ethereal quality to them that’s sometimes dream like, sometimes eery, sometimes deathly and sometimes like an awakening – depending on the photo. Yet regardless of their differences, all of them are strangely intimate.
1. People have banner blindness
People don’t notice banners. It’s been found in eye tracking studies their gaze literally avoids settling on any area that looks like an advert instead it seems people actively try to avoid looking at them.
Banner blindness affects most people, and has a startling side effect. Useful areas of the site that are overly graphically designed (and end up looking like an advert) are ignored by users as though they were adverts.
A good way to avoid banner blindness is to ensure your site banners are mostly text, so that they look as much like useful site content as possible.
2. People develop tunnel vision
People who come to watch user testing for the first time are amazed at the tunnel vision participants develop when they are doing a task. An example from a recent round of user testing – The link the participants required was placed in the right hand column, next to an article, but only 2 of 8 participants found it.
If the link users are searching for is not named correctly or not placed where they expect then they will, surprisingly regularly, get stuck. Participants simply don’t notice things on the screen unless it’s where they expected.
Unfortunately there’s no clear way to avoid this problem. The best method to ensure you help users who’ve developed tunnel vision is to perform user testing on key tasks and see if they get stuck.
3. People won’t hang around on your homepage
4. People don’t have patience
5. People’s gaze trails are manic
6. People don’t take in what they look at
7. People are happy to scroll
8. People don’t read
9. People are creatures of habit
10. People are happy to click through more than 3 levels
A clever concept, the SleepBox (area: 3.75 m2) addresses the need for quick access to sleep facilities for people on the go. The designers envision it being placed in airports, train stations and shopping centres.
Architects Goryainov and Krymov have thought convenience and hygiene (to some degree) into the design (between users the bedding would be automatically changed, with sheets wound from one roller onto another) – but my imagination immediately starts doing laps thinking about their application in reality (something perhaps a little human supervision & maintenance might address). Apparently I’m not the only one: here are some of the more entertaining comments posted at various blogs:
SexBox
“Love the general idea but wouldn’t be a place for young lovers (or something worse) to express themselves????”
“Great idea but will clearly become a rude box in no time, I can see prostitutes loving them, finally they get their own offices.”
“Japanese coffin hotel meets love hotel. Perfect match. I would only use it for sex. I’m not a day time sleeper.”
“Wank Bank “
” If the box is rock’n don’t come knock’n…”
When shopping and eating less is not an option
“I can recall so many times when i’ve been out shopping or had a big meal and just want to have a little nap before going off and about my day.”
As a long time lomography enthusiast, the Blackbird 35mm Fly camera (a successor to the classic Holga) made a quick hop onto my wishlist…
“…the Holga is also known for its unpredictability, as every one is just a little different. Most have light leaks, and those leaks are not going to be the same between any two Holgas. This unpredictability contributes to much of their charm, and was taken to the extreme by some photographers as it became a popular camera for “shooting from the hip.”
What the hell is lomography? It was in the early 1990s when two students in Vienna, Austria, discovered a small enigmatic Russian camera, the Lomo Kompakt Automat, and started a new style of artistic experimental photography of unorthodox snapshots. In the blink of an eye the Lomographic message spread around the planet and people from North to South were screaming for Lomo LC-A’s.
Great summary article from Dave Cronin at Adobe covering a range of prototyping methods as well as a solid list of reasons why prototyping is a good idea.
