Uselog – product usability weblog (tags: blog design usability interaction interactiondesign delft) The Skateboard, The City, and Socio-Spatial Censorship via http://www.blackbeltjones.com/work/ : “Skateboarders have encountered a politics of space similar to the experiences of the homeless… [they] occupy urban space without engaging in economic activity […]
links for 2008-05-30
Living Streets Creating better streets and public spaces for people on foot (tags: urban urbanism spatial architecture pedestrians livingstreets) Tripping over the barrier Emergent behaviour… Thanks to Max Kashner for sending me this! (tags: barrier art protection emergent behaviour unintended interaction interactiondesign gallery museum) Canadian […]
“Steps are like ready-made seats” (so let’s make them uncomfortable)
Adrian Short let me know about something going on in Sutton, Surrey, at the same time both fundamentally pathetic and indicative of the mindset of many public authorities in ‘dealing with’ emergent behaviour: An area in Rosehill, known locally as “the steps”, is to be […]
The world’s energy meter
One of the presentations I’m really looking forward to at OpenTech 2008 in London is by AMEE, self-described as “The world’s energy meter”: If all the energy data in the world were accessible, what would you build? The Climate Change agenda has created an imperative […]
Designing Safe Living
Lancaster University’s interdisciplinary Institute for Advanced Studies (no, not that one) has been running a research programme, New Sciences of Protection, culminating in a conference, Designing Safe Living, on 10-12 July, “investigat[ing] ‘protection’ at the intersections of security, sciences, technologies, markets and design.” The keynote […]
Discriminatory architecture
The entries in B3ta‘s current image challenge, ‘Fat Britain’, include this amusing take on anti- $USER_CLASS benches by monkeon. (There’s also this, using a slightly different discriminatory architecture technique – don’t click if you’re likely to be offended, etc, by B3ta’s style.) […]
What are Architectures of Control?
Increasingly, many products are being designed with features that intentionally restrict the way the user can behave, or enforce certain modes of behaviour. The same intentions are also evident in the design of many systems and environments. Continued… (+ readers’ comments) When this research started, […]
The asymmetry of the indescribable
Like the itchy label in my shirt, there’s something which has been niggling away at the back of my mind, ever since I started being exposed to ‘academic fields’, and boundaries between ‘subjects’ (probably as a young child). I’m sure others have expressed it much […]
links for 2008-08-03 [delicious.com]
Judgment and Decision Making, Journal "Relevant articles deal with normative, descriptive, and/or prescriptive analyses of human judgments and decisions. " (tags: decisionmaking heuristics biases cognitivebias behaviouraleconomics behaviour journal architecturesofcontrol,)
links for 2008-08-04 [delicious.com]
INDEX: 2007 – User-centered design & innovation Interesting writing, but the Issuu interface is completely unusable. (tags: design interactiondesign userexperience usability usercentreddesign) Vodafone | receiver » Jan Chipchase: Small objects travel further, faster "Much of our research started out as an attempt to understand the […]
Salt licked?
UPDATE: See the detailed response below from Peter of Gateshead Council, which clarifies, corrects and expands upon some of the spin given by the Mail articles. The new shakers were supplied to the chip shop staff for use behind the counter: “Our main concern was […]
links for 2008-08-05 [delicious.com]
Attention and awareness in stage magic: turning tricks into research : Nature Reviews Neuroscience Randi and Teller among the authors. [No longer behind paywall: thanks, Cory] (tags: magic neuroscience psychology misdirection behaviour attention cognitivebias heuristics JamesRandi Teller) How magicians control your mind – The Boston […]