PRESIDENT ELECT BARACK OBAMA.

Another title I had thought of for this post was “Cut the Red Wire? They’re ALL red wires!” Clearly, this title is a bit too obscure to be useful (especially for a post on usability design). It paraphrases a movie cliche we’ve all seen: a sweaty and heroic cop is defusing a ticking time bomb while communicating to a geeky b-list character who is studying a schematic. “OK, now cut the red wire,” says the geek….

I thought of this old cinema hack while reading about novel alarm clock designs, some practical and some absurd, but all ingenious. The most intriguing were the ones that harnessed the wakening, sobering power of pressure — like that endured by our bomb defuser, who always seems to get the job done!

The one design that most resembles the ticking bomb scenario is the “jigsaw puzzle clock”, which requires that you complete a simple jigsaw puzzle before it will shut up. Absolutely irritating, to be sure, but I imagine it is effective.

I can’t remember where, but I read a while back of an alarm clock that either floats or scuttles about the bedroom, forcing you to get your lazy backside out of bed to find and silence it. (Perhaps gizmodo.com?)

It’s funny: I stumbled across these designs just hours after having a discussion with a friend about our own alarm clock strategies that we’ve employed over the years. One of his was to set his television in the adjacent room to come on, volume blaring (of course), at a certain time.

The thing that fascinates me most about these design ideas is that they rely on unpleasant reactions to reach a desired goal. Is that good or bad? Thoughts are percolating, stay tuned….

Reference:

50 Ways to Wake Your Lover, uselog.com

I’m not entirely kidding at this point. In the last 24 hours I have applied to 26 jobs, and checked all the storefronts on Court Street from Carroll to Atlantic Avenue to see if anyone was hiring. Ditch digger, clam shucker, whatever. No bites!

Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence, is well-known among management consultants and assorted “life coach”-types not only for his seminal work “EI”, but also for his identification and evaluation of six common leadership styles in organizations.

He has gone on to write books on the six styles, which are worth a read but may be too time consuming for some.  Fortunately, his thesis is nicely covered in a punchy article he wrote for the Harvard Business Review in 2000 (see references below for link).

Do not be misled by the titles Goleman uses (I admit I was): they may at first seem like Steven Covey/Norman Vincent Peale self-help bumper stickers.  However, Goleman has a serious, scientific approach to applied psychology, depending always on well-designed empirical studies for his conclusions.

This is not to say that his work is cold or technical, though.  He does a nice job of illustrating his well-derived conclusions with well-told “real world” stories, such as his touching reminder of Joe Torre’s explemplary leadership during pennant races.

I find this type of applied psychology useful in both my information architecture and instructional design work.  The implications for instructional design are self-evident: an effective educator (whether human or digital) must carefully choose how to lead his learners.  An effective web site or computer application must do the same thing — UX design should aim to craft, subtly, a “persona” that will lead users to the desired experience.

Reference:

Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review, 78, 78–90.

In the immortal words of Spinal Tap, gimme some money….  I still haven’t found work and I’m about to be tossed out of my temporary space if I don’t come up with some scratch ASAP.

There is an interesting post at Boxes and Arrows written by Jens Jacobsen called “Information Architecture for Audio: Doing It Right.”

This is a subject I have pondered and wrestled with before, particularly in my career as an instructional technology specialist.  My comment to the post follows, but I (of course) encourage you to read the post itself as well.

This is an intriguing topic, one that cries out for more discussion and analysis—as does the related issue of IA for video content.

Coming from the world of Instructional Design, I find the suggestions under the “Educational Psychology” section not only compelling but also empirically valid, based both on my experience and the research that I have done. Repetition and simplicity are essential, but must be accomplished without condescension (it can be done!).

User control over audio content is also key, but is often difficult to achieve without the jarring effect of “scrubbing” the audio progress bar: speech is suddenly interrupted, as is the users attention. I recently (only last night, in fact!) saw a subtle and elegant solution to the problem of audio interruption during navigation; it was in the CD-ROM that accompanied a Verizon wireless card. Audio sections were indicated by graphic buttons, and you were free to jump from one to another as desired. The “jarring” effect was minimized by the inclusion of a looped musical “pad” or beat underlying all audio: its playback remained unbroken, flowing and throbbing along nicely while one audio section changed to another. I don’t recall if the individual sections were set to fade out upon navigating away from them, but that was certainly the effect.

For those who are interested, this was on the “Welcome” CD for the Verizon Kyocera 650 Wireless PC card.

I have ported over some recent work samples from my previous online portfolios. I will endeavor to keep them as recent as possible.

Another goal for this blog is to report progress through jobs as they unfold, thereby giving a glimpse into my quirky work process.

Enjoy!

Pardon me as I embark on this reconstruction of my online portfolio.  Others have persuasively made the case that the blog format is the way to go, as it keeps the content fresh and demonstrates to potential employers that I’m paying at least a little attention to current issues in information architecture and instructional design.

Please be patient as my work samples, etc., are ported over.  Revisit soon!

A signed Gilbert and George print.  No kidding.  Pristine condition!!

See my craigslist ad…

UPDATE, October 12: It is now on eBay, follow this link to see the listing.

In a final, mad bid to avoid actual, park-bench-style homelessness, I am selling off what I can of my meager possessions.

On the auction block today, my computer: (UPDATE, now on eBay, follow this link to see the listing)

ACT NOW!!