UX Science – measurement gets the answer

From http://viget.com/inspire/are-hollow-icons-really-harder-to-recognize-a-research-study

The simplification of user interfaces has been proceeding quickly now that the last vestiges of skewmorphism are gone. Like any new technology, the first iterations of the interface must be familiar to the users. Early cars looked like carriages, early lightbulbs behaved like gaslight, early televisions looked like radios, and the first home computers worked like typerwriters (and still do!).

But any design trend ultimately overshoots the mark, in this case iconography has possibly become oversimlified, and buttons without outlines or contrast fill are being used because retina-class displays support the fine line widths.

Curt Arledge addresses one basic question in this user interface direction: does an outline or contrast button have more usability. Check out his results here

In summary, what seems to matter are two things. First, the users’ familiarity with the icon type: i.e. the common language all interfaces share to a great degree in the iconography alphabet. Second, that user testing is still required, since differences appear in counter-intuitive places, and some design decisions affect usability less than expected.

Book Review: Information Graphics published by Taschen

Taschen, 145,366 pages (approximately)

This is physically the largest book I own, and I managed to get it home from LA in my carry on baggage somehow. Probably the most thoughtful part of this book is the initial mini book that is slightly inset in the first 96 pages; It is a historical view of information graphics, from their origin through the 20th century.

The book is an example of its subject, being information and graphics. It is inspirational, in that it can be opened randomly for a new hint into visualizing numbers and making meaningful emphasis out of large data sets. But it can also be used systematically to identify the type of data that must be presented and solutions for its presentation: the sections are divided into graphics which best show data based on Location, Time, Hierarchy, and Category.

Of course, this is a book, and so animated, or interactive infographics can’t be easily shown, however I’ve found that if you can’t get your meaning across in a static infographic, at least as a storyboard or infographic, you are not going to benefit a user by making them play with your interactive interface.

There is a reason that the pioneer and voyager space probes have infographics written on them, as their first means of communication with any alien intelligence that may find them, and this is certainly a universal language which it is worth being literate in. As with any language, it is harder to create simplicity that it first seems, and this book is a great support to lean up against in the first few minutes of planning your next bar chart or 9 dimensional genetic map of Canadian immigration patterns.

Oh yeah, the Arduino

The California Science Center is now home to the Space Shuttle Endeavour, and while I get together my article on the exhibit, I wanted to share a bit of fun that was had with the Metal Earth laser cut “metalgami” model I picked up there:

These little models are precision made and kind of make you wish you were precision made to the same level. This is somewhere between origami and “Slot A into Tab B” kind of work and the fun is definitely in the assembly.

Still, it is a little bit of genius to see how each 3D form comes from a piece of a common metal sheet, and all you really need is a pair of tweezers and maybe a few wooden dowels and a straightedge to get some of the curves right.

Is it for Kids? Certain kinds of kids – the ones that work with Lego Technic or Kinex or, of course, origami. Is it for Engineers who grew up with the Shuttle? Heck yes.

Arduino for time-lapse

The time-lapse video was made with an arduino board that triggered the infrared remote receiver of an EOS-M every 2 seconds or so. Extra parts were a 9V battery (in the 5V board power input) and a standard IR LED. The EOS-M is a cheap way to get a good APS-C -sized sensor in a tiny package, but has no straightforward way to remote trigger via a cable.

 

Canon APS-C wide zooms – EF-M versus EF-S

Yay Canon Canada

EF-S 10-22mm with adapter versus EF-M 11-22mm The red area shows an overlay of   equivalent size.

I have had the 11-22 for a week or so now from Henry’s here in Canada and took the chance to compare it to the 10-22 EF-S with the EF-M to EF adapter on the EOS-M. Up until now I’ve kept the 10-22 on the EOS-M for tourist and casual shooting as well as a few commercial shoots as a secondary camera.

Considering that a good micro four thirds  super wide costs $650-$800 and the EF-S 10-22mm is closer to $900, $400 is a bit of a steal.

Here are my findings in using it and comparing it to the EF-S 10-22mm

What is the heart of inspiration?

From Gavin Aung Than’s ZenPencil’s

A big issue that faces anyone who has had to grow up is choosing a career. It is tied so much to our time, identity, our goals and what we want to mean.

Even those lucky enough (and by lucky we can mean any mix of hard work, opportunity, and will) still have to contend with the day-to-day reality of Living A Dream of a Certain Size.

Take Chris Hadfield – the mundane aspects of being an astronaut may dominate his time – training, studying, paperwork, details and more details; a dream job tied up in procedure manuals and velcro.  What people find most interesting about his being an astronaut is not just the experience itself, but what it took for him to get there.

So what is that? Of course there is studying, and of course there is the hard work, but what he has shared with the internet community during is the not-so-simple fact that you actually can change your future. Not just in principal, and not after a lot of preparation, but every time you make a decision, big or small.

This message, above the inspiration that science, research and curiosity, is the most human message and the one he is most qualified to share.

And of course a message like that would be lost on most of us if not put into cartoon format, so here is it, from Reddit and Gavin Aung Than