| Predictions
of the Future - Web Bloat 01.06.2000 |
| I am looking forward to the
day when affordable, high-speed Internet access
is as common as telephone service or cable TV.
That day is coming soon and as I've said before,
it really changes the nature of one's experience
on the web and the uses of the Internet. |
| However, it has also occurred
to me that web designers are also waiting for
this day. They are suffering silently - having to
design fast-loading, low bandwidth sites, without
much animation or interactive widgetry. If you
are prepared to wait, go to many web-design firm's sites and you will find beautiful sites with
Shock Wave required, heavy use of Java widgetry
and all sorts of bells and whistles. |
| Just as throughout the history
of desktop computing, as the technology grows
capacity, so does it's content. Computers have
gained huge amounts of memory, processor speed,
storage capacity, etc. Yet we are still
struggling with the same memory problems, slow
applications and quickly overloaded drives. |
| This cycle is about to repeat
itself again. As high-speed access becomes the
norm, web developers will throw off the chains of
speed optimization. The web will quickly bloat to
make 56K modems as anachronistic as 386
processors. The proliferation of newly
hyperactive websites will drive still more
increases in access speeds and bandwidth. As with
desktop computers, the web will get more capable,
but not more useful. |
| Why do
cell phones irritate people? 12.09.1999 |
| Who cares? I was looking for
everyday examples of what could be wrong with
speech recognition as a public user interface.
Cell phones may provide some clues. |
| FYI: I don't currently have a
cell phone, so don't be irritated. |
| Some say it's "class
envy". True, complaining people often assume
that the person using the phone is
self-important. Perhaps the irritated person is
under the misconception that these devices are
only for the rich. Indeed, before cellular
technology made it possible to create virtually
unlimited mobile phone accounts, the scarcity of
available mobile phones made them attainable only
for the rich. But this isn't true anymore. |
| I think other things
contribute to the irritation. No one complains
when two people are having a conversation in a
public place. Yet a similar conversation on a
cell phone causes sneering. Why? This could be
because the bystander can only eavesdrop on one
half of the conversation. Also, in some settings,
any conversation could be distracting. My own
experience of trying to watch TV while my wife
settles on the comfortable couch with the
cordless phone. I turn up the TV to hear over her
voice and she starts talking louder to
compensate. In the "good old days"
phones were tethered to the kitchen wall. |
| Speech recognition is at a
place where it's minimally workable. It's only a
matter of time before someone makes the mistake
using it as the primary interface for a public
device. A PDA, wearable computer, ATM or something will be the first
victim. The people buying these products will be
the second. |
| Borg-like
technology 12.07.1999 |
| Wearable computers have been in the news lately. IBM has a TV commercial where a guy is
sitting on a bench in a picturesque plaza,
suddenly jumping up alternately yelling
"BUY!" and "SELL!" causing
all the pigeons to scatter. |
| As cool as this technology is,
the IBM commercial points out a basic flaw in
their reliance on voice recognition. This guy is
alone (except for the pigeons). If shouting out
commands to a speech-activated device disturbs the pigeons, just think
what it will be like in the airport or the
office. I experimented with speech-recognition
software on a Macintosh
a few years ago. It only took seconds before
heads started popping up over the cubicle walls
all around me. It only took that long for me to
realize too that this is a bad way to interact
with a machine. It's not that the software wasn't
good, it's the mode of interaction that was
inappropriate. |
| What intrigues me the most is
not the Borg-like image it puts in my mind but the exciting
possibilities for new design forms. Because the
wearable video display is not coupled to the CPU
as in current laptops, the device can be much
smaller. No monitor, no drives, no keyboard, just
a thin CPU with battery, cellular net and
trackball. I think a keyboard is unnecessary for
many tasks and drives are only occasionally used.
|
| Compared to my laptop, a
stripped down the portable computer would be
lightweight and truly portable. I could sit in
the airport surfing the net and reading
documents. (I do wonder about the resolution of a
wearable monitor). When I get on the plane, I
could plug in the keyboard if I wish and work
without anyone reading over my shoulder. Back at
the office, I would plug this device into a dock
and have a full traditional monitor, keyboard and
peripherals. |
| Usability Lawsuits
12.03.1999 |
| Amazon.com has successfully
barred Barnes & Noble from using
one-click-ordering on it's e-commerce site
according to this C-Net story. A federal
court has ordered an injunction against B&N. |
| Also in C-Net, Yahoo!
is being sued by a firm over it's use of multiple
vendor shopping cart technology. |
| Although these stories characterize these
suits as being about e-commerce, they are also
about usability enhancement and the value it adds
to these applications. |
| Growing Pains of a
Free ISP 11.30.1999 |
| Having given up on NetZero's free
but painfully slow net access, I opted instead
for the AltaVista free access at one-tenth the download
size. |
| Because of net congestion, the connections
sometimes time-out. This is not such a problem by
itself but when the little ad window (that pays
for the service) times-out, the application
promptly disconnects me. How aggravating! |
| So far I'm not impressed. However,
considering that this has grown into one of the
top ten ISPs in just a few months, I'm still
holding out in hope that they will add more
bandwidth to catch up with the demand. After all,
this is Compaq/Digital behind this
service. Unlike the other free access providers
backed by start-up companies. |
| The Adult Easter
Bunny 11.04.1999 |
| Although children will readily believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, they just can't
seem to grasp daylight savings time. My
youngest used to get up at 7:30 until we changed
our clocks. Despite his bedtime shifting an hour,
he continues to awake at what is now 6:30 AM. |
| Check out this proposal to end daylight savings
time. |
| "Banner
Content" 11.02.1999 |
| AltaVista has redone it's
site (actually about a week ago). Overall, I like
the new layout and design. Check out the
customizable AltaVista Live: A portal that allows you to
change the content you see on your own
personalized version of this page. Sure, most
other portals do this too (like My
Yahoo!), but this is much more flexible. |
| As before, instead of banner ads, they have
"banner content". The content (a search
engine form) takes up just a small sliver of the
page. The real reason most people go to AltaVista
is for the outstanding search capabilities
anyway. The rest of the page are links to other
services and advertisers. |
| Not that there's anything wrong with that.
This is appropriate, as a search engine doesn't
need to take up any more space. I think this is
an interesting reversal of the usual situation. |
| Yahoo!... er,
yippee! 10.14.1999 |
| Still almost too busy to write. |
| Yahoo has finally done away with geocities
policy of "display our ads on you page or we
will annoy your visitors with a surprise pop-up
browser window". They now use dhtml to put a
less obtrusive ad into your
site that actually minimizes itself after a few
seconds. Unfortunately, this is no longer an
option. It shows up even if you put their ads in
your site. All things considered, this is better
than it was. I've removed the ads formerly at the
top of this site. |
| Previous Interaction Design thoughts |
