Ubuntu Usability Project

Over the summer I will be working with Canonical, the sponsor of the linux operating system Ubuntu. My project focus will be on the information architecture usability of Ubuntu 9.04.

Untill now I had not used Ubuntu. I had always been happy to put up with Vista. Once you have tweeked Vista enough, I find it pretty usable, even though I have heard countless usability gurus ranting on about how much they hate it. Ok so there are a few problems, but it does the job, and like I said if you know what your doing you can tweek it.

The operating system Ubuntu is built (in part) on usability, and on first impressions it appears pretty intuitive. Its a little ugly and cramped I find, but I like the way they remove the start task bar with applications, system and place drop down menus.

I find you need to live with most software (operating systems in particular) for a few weeks before you really get a grasp of its usability. So I aim to do exactly that for the duration of the project. But to be honest it’s not just my usability that’s important here. so its going to be real everyday users that need to be researched.

The aim of the project is going to be to come up with some grounded re-design proposals for the next version of Ubuntu. I will be taking an iterative approach to evaluation, starting by delving into the open source community via forums, blogs, IRC to gain some feedback from stakeholders and real users. This will lead onto some contextual inquiries, in which I will meet some real Ubuntu users (which Canonical have kindly agreed to provide payment incentive for) and conduct some open ended interview with the participants. This session will be mainly about getting to know the users and their context of use (e.g. what applications they use Ubuntu for). It will also involve the participants demonstrating their use with the system.

Fingers crossed this should uncover some usability issues and point towards where the research should go next. At this stage I don’t know what will happen, but it could lead to some card sorting tasks, icon recognition tasks or refined goal orientated usability tasks in the follow up session. And this should then lead to some re-design proposals.

One thing that’s really only just grabbed my attention, is the sheer volume of work involved in a project like this. Its huge! I thought 3 or 4 months would be far more time than I needed, but it probably not half enough time to do a complete job of the entire OS. At best what I research will provide a snap shot of Ubuntu usability. Software like operating systems need a lifetime of research and a whole lot of resources to get things just right (especially when releases happen every 6 months as is with Ubuntu). Nonethless I am looking forward to the opportunity to develop my UCD skills and contribute towards a real software project.

Just to finish, if any Ubuntu users (or people in the open source community) read this and have any interesting comments on their experiences, please let me know. The more real data there is the better the result will be, and as I’m starting to find out about, the open source community is all about... well... community participation.

Awwww... Hope the tooth fairy comes for you...

I had a conversation with someone a few weeks ago about belief in the supernatural and belief in science. I was told I was being close minded for denying ghosts, but blindly believing in science. Firstly the whole blind faith thing was nonesense, as people such as myself certainly dont blindly follow anything, instead adopting a skeptical eye untill substantial evidence is demonstrated. Secondly, if you believe in ghosts for which there is no proper evidence that can be verified beyond personal testonimy, you may aswell believe in Santa and the tooth fairy. Loads of people believe in them, so they must exist!  I was even told it was sweet that I had this nice little idea of science. What the hell... After much frustration I gave up and resorted to mocking that the tooth fairy might come tonight. If you cant beat them join them. Anyway before I bother to rant anymore, I found this video, which makes my point nicely.

Global Tennis – “Brighton to Bristol… Cardiff to Calais… Cork to New York… The globe is in your court!”

This is a blog I wrote for Brighton based GPS games developer 'Locomatrix' about some project work I have been working on at Sussex - http://www.locomatrix.com/wordpress/

One of the all time greatest computer games has to be Atari’s old school classic; ‘Pong’. For those of you that are un-familiar with the game, the aim of the game is to bounce a ball past your opponent by moving a bat left and right across a baseline. The skill is in finding the right angles off the bat, often using the sidewalls, to out-do your opponent. The beauty of Pong is its simplicity and the game-play is highly addictive.

Over the past couple of months I have been working with a team in collaboration with Brighton based GPS gaming company; Locomatrix. We have been designing and prototyping a game we have titled ‘Global Tennis’, which takes the Pong game metaphor and combines it with real world game-play. Instead of using a clunky keyboard to control the bat, players run in the real world whilst their movements are tracked by GPS. By co-ordinating ball movements on the on screen interface with bat movements through short sprints; players can now have the same fun the old school classic brought, whilst outside exercising and enjoying the weather. Plus they can compete against other players from all over the world. Pretty neat eh?!

We applied a traditional tennis scoring system to the game, with players competing for game points to win sets, and a choice of 1, 3 or 5 set matches. We were also well aware that we needed to suit the game to more or less hyperactive users, so players can adjust the difficulty through baseline length and ball speed. Want to run energetically back and forth like shuttle runs, set the ball speed high and the baseline length low. Fancy a slower jog over distance, set the ball speed low and the baseline length higher. The choice is left up to the players.

In designing the game, we followed an iterative development process. Our initial user inquiry, showed an interest for the game concept and a positive attitude in combining gaming and exercise. Our lo-fidelity prototypes of the games UI also got positive feedback from users. We kept the interface neat and simple to give it the retro character the original had. We also went down to the seafront to do some real world tests of the games speed and distance settings. The footage taken also allowed us to put together some rather amusing illustrative hi-fidelity prototype. It was a good laugh, and we can definitely see kids and families having hours of fun on the beach, in the park, or even in the back garden for those that don’t have the guts to run around in public holding a GPS unit. Over the next few weeks our team will be pulling together final prototypes of the in game menu system and developing UML diagrams and pseudo code to describe the back-end game mechanics in full. 

So if Global Tennis is produced and takes off, expect to see lots of people running back and forth - looking very odd indeed - in public at a beach or park near you soon!

Mindflex - The telekinetic super kids of the future

I recently remembered how absolutely incredible direct brain interfacing is. In particular the emotiv headset really blew my mind - which was suppose to come out last Xmas - but got delayed. It should retail at about £150, which seems like a complete bargain when you consider how cutting edge it is.

The other day, a friend pointed me towards the Mindflex from the makers of Barbie, retailing at $79.99 (see the video at the bottom). It allows kid to control a hovering ball through a maze using the powers of their mind. When I was a kid all we had was Lego. Later generations got computer games, which my generation were just as keen on. The step from Lego and action figures to immersive computer games was a big step. But today and in years to come kids are going to have toys that allow them to manipulate matter with their mind.

What I do rate is that they are going back to a physical product rather than a virtual one, taking advantage of technology and the real affordances that are naturally found in the real world. Lego was great because it got kids thinking creatively. I recently had a session in Interactive Learning Environments at Sussex University, where some research students brought out a new Lego type toy. It had movable parts and kinetic memory that allowed kids to build robotic creatures and input movement sequences through real movement. Then when hooked up to a computer the toys could replicate the movements from memory. This got kids thinking about locomotion in a very engaging way. Give a kid a text book or write stuff on a black board and half of them switch off; totally disinterested. I’m a firm believer that getting kids engaged in learning by getting them involved in creative practise is the way forward. Especially if we don’t want a future of dull robotic kids with no creative drive; “Computaa saz noo!”

The potential of DBI toys for creative learning is surely enormous and highly rewarding for a kid as well. Mind you if kids’ obsessions with games like Guitar Hero and the stupidity of certain kids taking Grand Theft Auto to the streets are anything to go by; we could end up with an army of obsessed 10 year olds terrorizing the street with their new found super power, throwing home made weapons at people with the power of their mind. But with that aside, combining DBI technologies with Lego type creative toys could be really engaging for kids. Obviously the technology needs to get a bit more sophisticated than Mindflex; but if DBI entertainment takes off properly, competitive markets will drive some very innovative products.

In fact screw giving the kids these toys. I want to try it!

Bump Top 3D interface

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ODskdEPnQ

Above is a link to a video that demonstrates a new concept 3D interface, which uses a physics engine to simulate the properties of real documents and then allow you to manipluate them in certain ways. I guess its suppose to make it easier to organize docs. The thing is there are blatently ways of implementing this sort of functionality using command prompts etc in a normal desktop like "windows". It looks like it would take forever to find things. Whats wrong with a search bar? Its almost like its on a level with just having all your documents scattered across your room in a more or less organized fashion. Computer operating systems are suppose to create solutions to file storage, not replicate clumpy real world ones prone to error. It may be better than having all your documents on the desktop like in picture (a), but who the hell is actually that disorganized. Plus check out vista and apple interfaces and the problem is pretty much sorted with their neat and tidy taskbars and shortcutbars. The one aspect I did like was the making important docs bigger, but this could be done just as easily on a normal desktop by right clicking and left clicking on a function.

What does everyone think?

Nokia Morph Concept

Nokia Morph

I found out about this concept phone a while back, but it was brought up by me today in a seminar so thought I'd post a link to the youtube video, which demonstrates its capabilites. Due to the nanomaterial it can stretch into different shapes, so it can be worn round the wrist or handsfree round the ear. It can charge through sun light, is water proof, can smell things and is pretty much indestructible. Pretty cool stuff I thought. Whether it will take off I don't know. But I want one...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Zto6aTZM9t0

A broader definition of technology

When people think of the word "technology" they usually have a pretty narrow definition. They associate it with things like computers, microwaves, cars, etc. Another way to think of technology is any man made object that serves a function. So technology is not just electronic "techy" stuff, its everywhere; cups for holding liquid, door handle mechanisms, hammers and nails, medicine, etc. In a sense beaver dams are beaver technology and ant farms are ant technology when we expand the definition of technology to basicly meaning manipulating the environment for some functional benefit.  I would even count language (particularly written) as a sort of abstract technology under this refined definition, a phenomena that allowed both an increase in idea development and sped technology growth as a result. 

Before we evolved as a species into modern man, the only technology we had were basic things like stone tools. As we evolved as a species and as a society of intelligent beings, our combined understanding of the world allowed us to manipulate the environment and things in complex ways for our own benefits. This no doubt speeded our evolution as a species. Now in this day and age, technology is evolving at such a pace that out interactions between it and us are becoming ever more complex. I have no doubt that in most reader's lives, the sort of technology we see will be mind boggling to the extent that many people will hate it (just like the ageing generation seem to hate computers, etc). It will impact on our daily lives more than ever. 

Older people actually use the word "scared" about everyday technology. They are scared that if they press the wrong button somthing really bad will happen. But people shouldn't be scared about everyday technology. Like I said we have been using technology for millions of years and the only difference today is the complexity of the interaction. I guess it will be up to designers to make sure that the technophobes don't go mad, and the pace dosn't becomes unbearable, by helping design technology that is fun, useful, easy to use and learn, and inspiring. The fact is technology growth isn't just going to stop - bar a nuclear holocaust or global warming, which will stop not only technology but our species itself - so we might as well start learning to get along with it. 

Besides everyday technology, I'm starting to think the only way we will save the planet from the threat of global warming is through massive advances in technology, otherwise we could be in trouble if the predictions are correct. I personally try to remain opptomistic about the possibility. Many people including experts say its too late, because the problem is too big now let alone in 10 years. The thing is very few people really understand how rapidly accelerating the technology curve is. I don't have a technological solution to stopping (even reversing) global warming, but I do believe science has answers. Most importantly whilst the powers of the planet are huge the powers of technology may become more so sooner than we might think.

Starting my HCCS course at Sussex

Havn't blogged for ages, but Ive just started my course Human Centred Computer Systems at Sussex, and two of the courses require me to keep an online diary. So... I will post the links to them here. Any readers feel free to read, comment, etc. 

http://josephyhci.blogspot.com/

http://josephyhccs.blogspot.com/

The course looks really good and I am well looking forward to letting my theoretical Cog Sci knowledge work with a more practical and massively expanding research area. One thing I did think was bloody ridiculous was that they make everyone do an academic development course. I mean shouldn't MSc students be pretty dam well developed academically. We have to take a test next week which involves a 200 word essay to test our ability to reference correctly, and they give us the source materials including references correctly listed. So what the hell is the point? haha. 

For most of the courses we've been told to look out for usability in the real world as we do our degree. Two things I can think off already. Firstly... I bought a new sound system for my laptop few weeks ago and you can only turn it on and off and adjust EQ levels with the remote. So if i lose it Im screwed!  Secondly... I lost my passport the other day (yer I know silly me) and the online lost passport form requires you to know your passport number. Who the hell designs these things????

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

This is a video talk by a brain scientist Jill Taylor, who experienced a stroke, which had a profound affect on her life. It gets pretty pretentious towards the end for my likings, but I found the description of what she experienced over the duration of the stroke very interesting.

Naiive realism

“Conscious experience never brings you into direct contact with external reality. Instead, experience as such, including your conscious experience of being a self, is a simulation created by your brain. And it is only because you are unable to recognize the simulational character of consciousness that you live your waking life—and, with the exception of lucid dreams, most of your dream life—as a naïve realist.”

~ Windt & Metzinger (2007)