Monthly Archives: June 2010

Stampede leather under my feet

Posted by Marianne on June 30, 2010 – 19:21
Filed under travel|6 Comments

Apparently I’ve got a case of stampede leather under my feet – my Mormor’s words, not mine. The more I travel, the longer grows my list of places to see. Rekjavik – check. Stockholm, Warsaw, Dubrovnik, Prague, Florence, Valencia, Budapest, Amsterdam – check check check. Berlin – check. Paris – ah Paris – there’s no checking that off, I could go back again and again. Berlin & Amsterdam too. Not that you could ever really check anything off – there being a million different ways to see any given place – it can be so different every time you go back, depending on who you’re with, your own state, and countless other factors. Your classic addiction – the more you feed it the more you need it. But I don’t need to explain that here – most people I know will hop on a plane out of town given the slightest opportunity.

We’ve got a pretty interesting schedule coming up (a post for another day) but for today I’m reflecting on some of the places that have really stood out over the last few years.

Camino de Santiago. Spain. July 2007. Experience rich, challenging (well worth every blister) and a few hundred kilometers that will stay with me the rest of my life. The big take away: life is only as complicated as we make it. Fantastic the way a good long walk in the sunshine helps you to see the value of simplicity. I’ve only walked half way (time constraints) – so I still have the last half to look forward to…  Jump to the Camino photo set on flickr

Tomatina Festival. Buñol, Spain. August 2007. Hands down the funnest 2 hours of my life. Just managed to write “I need a bloody mary” on my friend’s t-shirt before all hell broke lose. The screaming: hilarious. Found tomato grunge still in my ear days later, having received (and given) a thorough tomato pelting. The Camino and the Tomatina festival in one summer – yeah, those were a good couple of months.. Jump to the Tomatina photo set on flickr

Lisbon, Portugal. July 2008. Glorious weather, lovely people, great hiking and custard filled cakes. Need I say more? Jump to the Lisbon photo set on flickr

Reykjavik, Iceland. October 2009. My sister was with us on this trip, which made it extra special. Oh – and riding Icelandic ponies had been a dream for years. The trekking, the Blue Lagoon, the tin houses – all a bonus. Jump to the Reykjavik photo set on flickr

Paris, France. April 2009. We stayed in the Saint Germain de Prés district this time, which couldn’t have been more ideal. And there’s no better weekend than Paris, walking along the Seine, sipping red wine and tasting amazing French cuisine – with the one you love. Aww. Jump to the Paris photo set on flickr

Vienna, Austria. December 2008. A long weekend with my mom (the first time we’ve ever done something like this just us two, and what with 1000′s of km between us now it was great to have the time together). So to be honest it wouldn’t have mattered where we went, it’d have meant a lot to me. As it happens, Vienna during the Christmas season was magical – full of lights, markets, mulled wine, opera, classical music, the Museum Quarter – and of course the Spanish Riding School. Jump to the Vienna photo set on flickr

Florence, Italy. April 2008. The city itself is absolutely beautiful and the Tuscan food is to die for. I was here for the CHI 2008 conference (plus a few extra days) and what sticks out in my mind (this being my second visit) – is how warm, happy and welcoming everyone is in this city (which was even more apparent after a couple of days in Venice). Jump to the Florence photo set on Flickr

Budapest, Hungary. October 2008. Thermal spas, a tough history and the world’s best goulash. We admit to not quite acquiring a taste for Palinka (slam-your-fist-on-the-table-Hungarian brandy), but the festivals at the castle grounds, ordering sausage by the meter, and ice cream in the shape of flowers well made up for it. Jump to the Budapest photo set on flickr

Impossible though, to pick just a few places – as each trip has had its own moments and amazing corners – that perfect little back garden café in Warsaw, New Years Eve under the space needle in Seattle, the brilliant bar in Berlin and the bookstores in London…

And the wish list grows…
Australia
Vietnam
Cambodia
Laos
Back to Greece – maybe Santorini next time?
The North American east coast – from Montreal, to the Martimes and on to New York
More of Sweden
More of Norway
More of Spain
Rome again
More of the Netherlands, absolutely

… I blame the stampede leather.

What’s on your list?

Tomatina Festival. Buñol, Spain. August 2007. Hands down the funnest 2 hours of my life. I can still hear someone screaming “I’m allergic to tomatoes!” And just the screaming in general (hilarious). Didn’t eat tomatoes for a while after that and I found a tomato seed in my ear close to a week later. The Camino and the Tomatina festival in one summer – yeah, that was a good couple of months.. Jump to the Tomatina photo set on flickr

Louisiana | Museum of modern art

Posted by Marianne on June 27, 2010 – 18:35
Filed under art + design, inspiration, living in denmark|0 Comments

It’s been ages since I’ve had a solo afternoon up at Louisiana. Reminded me a lot of my first half year in Copenhagen, when I didn’t know all that many people (hardly any actually) and Louisiana was the place I could retreat to, to lose myself in the exhibitions, forget how lonely it was and empty my brain of all the things there are to think about when you’ve uprooted yourself and moved to another country. Things have obviously changed since then, and I’m well settled (most days) – but being up there today, and with a lot on my mind these days – the sanctuary was the welcome break I didn’t know I’d needed.

Sophie Calle

The sheer creativity of French photographer & writer Sophie Calle has me so SO inspired. There is a follow-through with each concept that I’ve rarely seen before, and each concept is so clear, solid and well thought out – that I found myself exploring every little detail to the end. Imagine – finding an address book belonging to a stranger and deciding to make a project out of it by contacting every person in the book, interviewing them one by one to build a mental picture of who this address book owner is – coming closer and closer to knowing him, without actually knowing him.

Or how about inviting friends, family and strangers to, one at a time, sleep in your bed for 8 hours each so that you could photograph them sleeping? The result is 28 sleepers and 173 photographs. How intimate – inviting so many, even strangers (one of them drunk), to sleep in your own bed. Interestingly, despite the personal nature of sleep, the installation remains unsexual and anti-romantic – as the sleepers arrive one at a time and do not talk about anything deeply personal during their interviews.

And the biggest of all (if the others bordered on obsessive, this tips the scales) – “Take Care of Yourself.” Calle receives an email from a lover ending their relationship – at the end of which her ex-lover says ‘take care of yourself’. How she does that is just epic – she distributes the letter to 107 women professionals, from grammar professionals who scrutinize his writing, to psychiatrists who evaluate his mental profile, from actresses who act out their own would-be reactions to such a letter to opera singers who sing the ex-lover’s words. Calle is quoted as saying that at first it was therapy, seeking and documenting all these professional evaluations of the letter, but that in the end it worked – the project replaced the man, and the suffering was gone. The woman really knows how to pour everything into a project. Hats off to that.

Istanbul, and then some.

Posted by Marianne on June 23, 2010 – 00:55
Filed under travel|0 Comments

A million first impressions of Istanbul. This massive city is a brilliantly noisy, pushy, fascinating, tough and delicate swirl of tastes, sounds and sights. Definitely not European, but not really Asian either, it’s something quite its own. Our 5 day stay had us making our way down narrow market streets and up wide promenades in sweltering heat and scorching sunshine. Turkish teas and gritty thick coffee, water melon and roasted cobs of corn. Delicious cuisine (although meat is just ‘meat’ – no specifics). People, people and more people. Drivers leaning on horns. Stray cats nearly everywhere you look. Ramshackle housing and architecturally marvelous mosques.

Istanbul has long been a merchant town – there is no doubt about that. Gorgeous textiles and shining ceramics – all propped and polished to perfection. An endless choice of colours, shapes and textures. Don’t look too long (a glance is enough) – and the shop owner/cafe worker/ trinket peddler is in your face with an amazing coincidence – his best friend happens to be from the country you’re from! Now that calls for a ‘special price just for you!’

Mega sense of humor- some (they know you’ve heard it all a thousand times and have a little fun with it), and a warmth of character one might miss encountering with more regularity elsewhere. You tune out the aggression a bit more each day, but it never ceases to violate your senses just a little (which, if nothing else, might be just the thing you’re looking for..).

Watch your pockets and trust no one. Market merchants and café managers are making a bundle – one price for locals – double, triple, quadruple that for tourists (because it’s possible) – which is both understandable and infuriating – knowing you get to play the fool no matter how good you are at haggling (which I am not). But never mind, you’re here to explore – and there is no better place for it. From the Galata Bridge to the Grand Bazaar, the New Mosque to the Blue Mosque, the side streets of Sultahamet and the great dome of Haghia Sophia – every place fascinates.

Take Istanbul for what it is though, and it quickly reveals itself to be one of the most fantastic, and at first glance – wonderfully chaotic, places to lose yourself in. The calls to prayer are mesmerizing to listen to (even at 4am) and the mosques are imposing, magical.. even calming. 5 days barely covers an introduction. To know Istanbul would take a lifetime, and then some.

• See more of this Istanbul photo set on Flickr

Have you been here? What did you think?

A living map of Europe

Posted by Marianne on June 15, 2010 – 16:08
Filed under art + design, living in denmark|0 Comments

Next time you’re near Kongens Nytorv check out the European Environmental Agency building (next to the French Embassy). As part of their contribution to the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity they’ve created a living façade consisting of 5,000 plants to demonstrate some of Europe’s plant biodiversity. Their creation also shows just one possible way of bringing more of the necessary green space into cities – via vertical gardens!

The living façade will be in place until October. Just imagine how it will look by July! I also like how they’ve hung images of the plants instead of actual plants wherever there are windows – so that it’s still livable for the people inside.

Summer in the City

Posted by Marianne on June 8, 2010 – 23:02
Filed under inspiration, living in denmark|2 Comments

Copenhagen is incomparable in the summer time.

Every patch of park grass (and there’s a LOT of that) is decked out in picnic blankets and baskets, happy singles snoozing with a smile, couples lounging affectionately, and groups of friends cooking lunch on their mini-grills, drinking chilled white wine or a cold Carlsberg. The otherwise reserved Danes shed their seriousness together with their winter jackets, and it becomes clear what time of year it was when the surveyors came to Denmark to find the  ‘happiest people on earth’. The mood shift is formidable as the whole country breathes a sigh of relief and turns its smiling face towards the sun.

As luck would have it – I get to play tour guide again this year to friends and family visiting from Canada – which means even more occasion to explore new corners of Copenhagen – mixing old favourites with things I haven’t seen yet (and there’s almost nothing better than a new discovery!).

Here are a few of the events we’ll aim to check out (definitely send me a heads up if you’ve got extra suggestions) :

June 10-12
Start Festival in Vesterbro (originally called Vesterbro Festival)
Music festival with focus on DJs and World Music (100% driven by solar energy by the way)- at Øksnehallen and the space in front. http://www.startfestival.dk/

Jun. 07-16
Dansk Sommerballet 2010 (we’ll go to the June 13th production at Bernstorff Slotshave, Gentofte) http://www.kglteater.dk/

Mar. 16 – Nov.30
Argentinian Tango lessons for beginners at Tango y Vinos every Tuesday (now if I can just convince the boyfriend that this will be fun… apparently he locked himself in the bathroom as a kid when his mother tried to send him to dance classes – and he’s just done the same now after I mistakenly mentioned the Tango lessons…  but he can’t stay in there forever)

May 01 – Aug.25
Copenhagen Castle Concerts – free open air classical music concerts every Wednesday at 17.00. Every month the concerts are held at a different castle – in July they’ll be at Fredensborg Castle and in August they’re at Christiansborg Castle Church. http://www.castleconcerts.dk/

Jul.01-07
Roskilde Festival – I really do need to go to this one day (ok there I admit it – I’ve never been – which makes me so uncool, yes yes I know it).  At very least a day pass to see Prince is in order.

All summer
Kayak trips along Christianshavn’s Canals – various guided outing and duration options, with views of the old and modern mix of Danish architecture from the water. http://kajakole.com/kajakture

Jul. 01- 27
Summer Dance in Fælledparken – more open air free dance lessons (Swing, Latin, Tango) with great live bands. Monday to Thursday from 19:00 (I’d better not mention this one just yet – boyfriend might never come out of that bathroom at this rate).

Jul. 02-11
Copenhagen Jazz Festival (venues around the city, indoor and outdoor)
After July 11th – there’s jazz at the newly re-opened Montmartre Jazz House (apparently legendary)

Jul. 27- Aug. 01
Copenhagen Opera Festival – 9 (very affordable) operas to choose from at some amazing venues:
July 27 – 29 Opera On Location @ Frederiksberg Castle 20:00 (follow the opera singers around as they perform in rooms otherwise closed to the public)
July 29 – La Bohéme @ 17:00 @ Nytorv (free entry)
http://www.copenhagenoperafestival.com

First weekend in August
Stella Polaris
In Østre Anlæg (the park behind the National Art Museum, SMK) DJ’s turn out mellow slow tempo electronic music to a relaxed, sunbathing crowd of thousands. Entry is free and the atmosphere is always amazing. http://www.stella-polaris.dk

Aug. 06- 08
Islands Brygge Kulturhavn / Culture Festival
All kinds of music, dance shows, food/drink, sport, art and more, harbourside and in the sunshine. A brilliant day out each year. http://www.kulturhavn.dk/

Aug. 09- 15
Copenhagen Summer Dance (Tim Rushton) @ Politigården
19:30 each day – entry is free unless you want to reserve a seat (38kr). Imagine a ballet at the Police Headquarters! http://www.danskdanseteater.dk/forestilling.asp?ver=uk&menu=3&sublink=1&id=408

Out of addiction,  I’ve seen nearly every one of Tim Rushton’s modern dance productions over the last few years – the Dansk Danse Teatre troop are mesmerizingly beautiful to watch, and Rushton’s concepts are so original – that you sit entranced and enthralled until the dancers take their bows. Not to be missed.
There is also:
June 10-12 Dance Delicious (DANSEhallerne, Carlsberg)
May-June  (4 Saturdays) Spring Dance på Carlsberg

Aug. 15
Free open air Opera & Ballet @ Rosenborg Castle
The Royal Danish Opera and Ballet put on a free concert for the picnicking public (“bring cold wine” says the announcement) to celebrate the opening of the 2010 season – the best of last season is highlighted.

All year
Byvandringer/ Walking tours (various tours options, flat group price – so if you can get up to 12 people to join you, it’s pretty economical). When I lived in Nyhavn I saw the guide and his group quite often, overhearing the word “haunted” as they stood outside my front door and pointed at the building – I’ve been curious ever since! I was never sleuth enough to avoid notice when trying to eavesdrop – so forget quitting my day job to become a secret agent.  I love a good story from a real history buff with a fantastic gift for storytelling. www.copenhagen-walkingtours.dk

Got suggestions? I’d love to hear them…

Tiny budget, big value: unmoderated remote usability testing

Posted by Marianne on June 2, 2010 – 18:29
Filed under information architecture + usability|0 Comments

As we pull up our socks and tighten our belts in today’s challenged economy – user testing often ends up being one of the first project components bound for the chopping block.

User testing, touching base with real customers and collecting actionable user feedback isn’t a ‘nice to have’ – it’s a business imperative. Extensive big budget testing might not be an option for many at the moment, but that doesn’t mean user-testing needs to be thrown out the window altogether.

To the contrary – the squeeze has created a growing demand for less expensive alternatives, the availability of which grows daily. Not all are created equally of course, and while they’re by no means always a fool proof replacement for one-on-one moderated interviews, unmoderated remote usability testing can collect a respectable range of both quantitative and qualitative data.

Running your site or layout through one or more testing tools will assemble (quickly and inexpensively) a broad range of data from users in their natural environments, anonymously or from select participants. Survey tools such as CrazyEgg, ClickTale and TeaLeaf gather information about click patterns, clickstream paths, browser base, keyword and traffic sources, among other things, and present data in a useful visual format. A usability specialist can then provide the professional analysis that makes the most out of this data together with recommendations for improvement. *Keep in mind that many clickstream tools do not work for testing flash sites.

Listed below are a few remote testing tools, selected for their accessible price – ranging from free to US$950 – as well as the (all important) ability to apply custom instructions to each test (which is important for quality metrics). The actionability of feedback collected will depend on the types of tasks you ask participants to perform as well as the level of meaning you assign each task. Also remember to test early and test often – “You can use an eraser on the drafting table or a sledge hammer on the construction site” (Frank Lloyd Wright) – the same applies to your project.

Usabilla
http://www.usabilla.com
Usabilla offers micro usability tests and “a fast and simple way to collect visual feedback on webpages, mockups, wireframes, sketches, or any other images.”
Cost ranges from free (1 page/ 50 participants) to US$950 (250 pages/ 200 participants)

You upload a screenshot of your site (which means unfortunately that the influence of interactive effects can not be tested), set up the test (there are some default questions but it is best to use custom instructions/questions), and then share the URL with participants you select yourself. Make sure to ask your participants to view the instruction video first – as the usability of Usabilla can otherwise (ironically) be less than optimal when it comes time for participants to add notes or comments.

Five Second Test
http://www.fivesecondtest.com/
“Five second tests help you easily identify the most prominent elements of your user interfaces… People use five second test to locate calls to action, optimize landing pages, and run A/B tests.”

Cost ranges from free to US$15 (for premium features such as custom instructions and extra feedback).

With five second tests you can find out which parts of your design are most prominent, via either a memory test (you give users five seconds to look at your design and then ask them to remember specific elements) or a click test (you give users five seconds to locate and click on specific elements of your design).

You upload a design and receive a unique URL to share with participants you choose yourself, or you can have the tests run with random test users (for super quick feedback results).

Concept Feedback

http://www.conceptfeedback.com

ConceptFeedback isn’t really a testing tool, but it’s a great resource when you’re too close to the project and need a fresh pair of eyes. Ask specific questions and receive extensive and actionable feedback from other designers and developers. There’s opportunity as well to discuss specific suggestions and provide some feedback yourself.

AB Tests
http://www.abtests.com/
This is an excellent resource for, you guessed it, Split AB testing. Not only can you upload your own URLs or screen shots for testing, but you can learn from the tests other people have run.

Find out which content combination, layout format, form or button treatment results in a better conversion rate. View test examples of home pages, landing pages, sign-up forms and pricing pages – and weave top performing ideas into your own site.

I’ll be adding to this list over time, but in the meantime I’d love to hear any additional suggestions or more about other favourite remote user testing tools.