In 1999, Jakob Nielsen made the prediction that in the future «being disconnected will become a sign of distinctiveness». («Designing Web Usability», chapter 8 «Predictions»).
The exact quote goes something like that:

“Because of the abundance of portable devices with wireless modems, people will be online at all times and be reached anywhere. Privacy becomes precious. Users will pay extra for screening services that allow them to respite from the world. Being out of touch will be seen as a status symbol”.

In 2010, this prediction seems like a bold comment, given how social networking is all the rage and the boundaries between channels and media are practically non-existent. It’s about sharing, being visible online, it’s about being able to reach ANYONE, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE.
But has most things, it’s neither just white nor black, but made of various shades of grey.

Let’s take Jakob to his words and grade him:

• Got it right: 1 point
• Got it Wrong: 0 Point
• Total: 4 point

Let’s get started..

…”be online at all times and be reached anywhere”

I’m writing this blog using my phone as Wi-Fi Hotspot for my laptop. It’s easy and seamless. This is not what a phone is for, not primarily. Now, even without any Internet connection at home, I’m online, I’m 31 years-old and I’ve learned to use the net. That makes me part of Generation X.
On the tramway everyday I can see young kids using their phone to upload picture on their facebook. They are Generation Y, and for them it’s all natural. In both cases, we are using our phones for task way beyond its primary use. And now comes Generation Z who are “born online” and will always be connected.
An American study shows that being always connected is a trend that grows by the day. Phones like Iphones, Android or Blackberry will become the first source of data traffic in the USA by 2014. This means that man will be online EVERYWHERE. Long gone will be the days of the desktop pc.

So:
Well done Jakob, you get one points

…”Privacy becomes precious”

In 2000, the only privacy issues were essentially related to online purchase. It was amazing to be able to login anonymously to chat room. Privacy was still very much under our control. We did not spend enough time online to feel a threat to our privacy.

Nowadays, privacy online is on everybody’s mind. Facebook privacy policy and the Google buzz launch issue last year are only obvious examples of what can be imposed upon users. And yet, even with that potential threat, a majority of users just can’t get enough of social network and sharing parts of their life online. (22% of all time online or one in every four and half minutes is spent on social networks and blog sites).
There is no strong need to reclaim our privacy now, because the majority of users are willing to give it away in the first place for a poke or birthday reminder.

Well, not everybody thinks this way though…

So:
Jakob got a half-point. He didn’t get it totally right.

…”Users will pay extra for screening services”

Jakob Nielsen predicted that users would pay for service enabling them to “cut off” from the world around. Well, after a quick Google search, I can’t see it happening.. yet.
Some services are offered, but they are offering tools to control what we receive, not really what we give.
An Article from the BBC shows nevertheless that some people have had enough of “social networking”.
You can go “offline” for FREE. Services like Web2.0 suicide machine or Slettmeg.no help you commit your Online Suicide.
But those services are still relatively unknown. I guess they can’t really spread over social network can they?

So: I give Jakob 1/2 point since those services are not Free and still relatively unknown.

…”Being out of touch will be seen as a status symbol”

“Hey man, when are you finally getting yourself an iphone? You’re the only one here with an actual telephone…”

And so started a conversation with some colleagues that highlighted my suspicions.  Being out of the current trend is not yet seen as being “in”. It’s seen as being a bit odd, a weirdo so to say.
The importance of being connected outweighs the value of our private life online. Why does facebook has over 500 million users worldwide? when Web2.0 suicide machine boast a mere 4,344 so far.
Being disconnected is definitively a distinctive sign, but not yet being a “cool kid”.

So: 0 points since Jakob didn’t get that one right…. yet. (well I can this can change pretty quick).

In the end:

Jakob Nielson got 2,5/4 points. He then keeps his “web Guru” status. Remember that those predictions were made then years ago (In Internet time it’s like 1000 years)

But for the real question is: do we really want to be disconnected?
I think not, but I think the need for more control over what we share and how we share it is necessary.

Finally, if you want o be offline, join my facebook group (in Norwegian) and show your support.

And off,
E.

FRONTEND 2010 is over and and for the first even of its kind in Norway, it’s been a success and raised some interesting issues for the both the audience and organizers.
Responsibility and honesty are two values that came back again in the presentation and the informal conversations at the conference. This was the thread underlying the reason why such a conference is important, why our jobs are important.

The Power

It is our responsibility as web designer to shape the future, starting today. Kwame Nyanning in his talk “Heat – The caper movie archetype and its relationship to the design process” went as far as connecting the 2008 economical crisis to the designer’s responsibility. In his provocative talk, the traders are not (the only one) to blame, but the system, which has been designed in such a way that the flow of information could not be treated properly. This resonated widely with my sentiment that everything is interlaced, and the way I designed the smallest web pages, will actually impact someone’s life even in the slightest. As Aral Balkan (@aral) put it in the first speak of the conference “The Art of Emotional Design: A story of pleasure, joy, and delight.” We are creating for humans.

Without you (I’m nothing)

The human factor must never go out of sight. People (us, you, anyone) will use a web app, a service and will feel about it. Our job is to ensure that the experience doesn’t creates frustration. Again, it is our responsibility to bring back the human factor into the fold. Paul Boag (@boagworld) was no less assertive about the role of the designer / project leaders in the sign-off process. If “your design sucks” that’s your own faults. To deliver a product that is a success with the customers as well as the clients, one must have a methodology, create credibility and set expectations. Why is that? Because we are dealing with people to create something for other people. Matthew Smith (@squaredeye) in “Designing the business experience” put it simply as “knowing who you are”.

Can’t con an honest John

It’s being honest, nothing else. Honest with ourselves about how good we can be, and bad we’d like not to become. I won’t say it enough, but our design affect people, and to reach the audience in a manner that matters (be it to sale a pair of reinforced steel shoe or the engage user in a social network) we need to “Design with Empathy” as Daniel Burka ( and Rob Goodlatte demonstrated in their presentation “The first 15 minutes – Creating great new user experiences”.

Alexander Arnesen from Sprell.no, keeps that human factor at the center of his business model, “the customer sets the standard, it’s the driving force”. What could be described as great audience analysis, I would use see it as empathy. Recognizing it and taking the steps necessary to build a service that serves an idea.

This was once again echoed by Christian Heilmann (@codepo8) in the closing speech of Frontend2010 “Enjoying The full stack”. We has developer / coder, must use the technology to go beyond patches and hacks: we have the responsibility to come up with “solutions”.

An End has a Start

I guess my point was made without me trying to hard, someone once said  “with great powers comes great responsibility” (yes it an imaginary comic book character but that’s just great storytelling if you ask me), and I believe it was the role of a conference like Frontend2010 to bring all those talents together to challenge our daily perceptions. We can make a difference.

ps: Since I’m working for IXD, who has organized the event, It’s my responsibility and above all a pleasure to thank all the excellents speakers we had over the two day: Jina Bolton, Brian Fling, Paul Irish, Matthew Smith, Rob Goodlatte, Daniel Burka, Tove Blomgren, Lisa Lindström, Paul Boag, Nick La, Elliot Jay Stocks, Christian Heilmann, Dan Rubin, Meagan Fisher, Kwame Nyanning, Molly Holzschlag, Jonas Follesø, Alexander Arnesen, Per Martinsen AKA Tied Revolverman, Aral Balkan, Anders Norås, Nils Petter Nordskar.
ps2: It’s also our responsibility to go out of our way for frontend2011 to creates and exciting and trustworthy conference.

ps3: You can read  a norwegian version of this post on kuttisme.no

A simple collection of great stuff I found scavenging the web or simply receiving into my Reader.

I thought I’d pass it along.

So here we are for a new week of  Scary Browser (and super links). As usual, Quick and Snappy.

This week we’ll Facebook gets news feed patent (??), Luke Wroblewski gives us a run down of how Firefox was designed, a thesis about Internet Mobiles a great infographic video on the state of the internet, a look at Wired magazine for tablet and more goodies, all after the break.

• Apparently Facebook has been awarded a news feed patent that was seen as possible “social network killer”. Status updates are not included, so Twitter is sa. I’ll go tweet about that now.

• Firefox which world’s number 2 browser (in terms of users and after IE) is being exposed. Through Luke Wroblewski‘s report, we get the run down of what it takes to design Firefox by its  head designer Alex Faaborg.

A few key points :

• The role of a designer in an open source company is to facilitate ideas rather than be the source.
• Flow: cognitive state people enter when they no longer focus consciously on the means of accomplishing the task they are doing –they just naturally do it. How can the interface fade away in software products?
• The design team deals with all these opinions with this by focusing on core principles to make decisions and giving contributors freedom to explore.

• Anne Kaikkonen thesis “Internet on Mobiles: Evolution of Usability and User Experience” is available (132 pages in PDF).  Read the abstract and keep the full thesis close enough. Bookmarked and saved already.

• JESS3 has created a figures-heavy video on the state of the internet. I find it clever and easy to understand. A bit quick sometimes but worth 3 min of your time. I promise.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

• Which side are you on? Line25 is giving a breakdown of today most bloody battle on the webdesign scene with Top 5 Web Design Debates That Cause the Most Riots . So should you open that link in a new window or not?

• Neil Patel of Crazy Egg (yummm heatmaps) tolds us What [he] learned about [us]through 4 redesigns

• Cone Trees gives us an overview of the prototype wired magazine for tablets. It runs on AIR and it’s sexy… Now when is my paper copy arriving through the mail so?? (Also the player has one of the worst set of controls I’ve seen, but I digress)

• Finally some David Bowie/ Ziggy Stardust in depth analysis for the brave (and the not so, a video favorite of mine)

Enjoy and see you soon

lks, after reviewing a bit of my statsand some hard thinking, I think I’ll keep my Scary Browser (and super links) section quick and snappy.

I’ll extract the articles I found more interesting and they’ll get a post all for themselves.

Find out why playing squash is good for your UX skills.

So how did I come to the conclusion that UX would help me beat my very good friend yesterday?

“Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster” said Sun-Tzu. Well I would humbly put it this way ”Know your users and know yourself, you can build thousands of Great Experience without frustration”. I am all for peace, not war.

The drinks were on me after the game :

A simple collection of great stuff I found scavenging the web or simply receiving into my Reader.

I thought I’d pass it along.

Hi Folks, after reviewing a bit of my stats and doing some hard thinking, I think I’ll keep my Scary Browser (and super links) section quick and snappy.

I’ll extract the articles I found more interesting and they’ll get a post all for themselves.

This week we’ll find a great matrix comparing social media today, some cyber spy rumours, why Windows can be sexy in your hand, some bike tidbits and how fun can improve your design.

It’s all after the break.

• If you want to see clearly how and where to develop your social media strategy,  that’s happening here: http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2010/02/11/matrix-buzz-vs-facebook-vs-myspace-vs-twitter-feb-2009/

• Also Google and the NSA are trying to break a deal to protect all of us and our data… NSA is a spy agencies first and foremost…http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020304057.html?hpid=topnews

• Why Windows Mobile 7 looks so sexy and also can break the mold of “Iphone= Touchphone”.
  http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1002

• A geek little secret, where does the mouse go… itis  probably useful but that won’t stop me from using it  http://flowingdata.com/2010/02/09/track-mouse-activity-on-your-computer/

• Some Irish money badly spent… no not again, and this time it’s online… Damien Mulley reports at http://www.mulley.net/2010/02/12/the-e4-million-govt-website-that-you-never-heard-of/

• Everybody needs a good laugh, everyday if possible, well now your design needs it too: http://www.design-emotion.com/2010/01/08/the-science-of-fun-how-fun-helps-improve-your-design/

• And some bike goodness from NY http://www.good.is/post/new-york-turns-parking-meters-into-bike-racks

Enjoy and see you soon

lks, after reviewing a bit of my statsand some hard thinking, I think I’ll keep my Scary Browser (and super links) section quick and snappy.

I’ll extract the articles I found more interesting and they’ll get a post all for themselves.

ExplainIA is a contest put in place by Peter Morville for which the goal is to ,well let’s say it out loud, Explain Information Architecture or as the contest manifest reads:

“In this contest, you are invited to explain information architecture. What is it? Why is it important? What does it mean to you? Some folks may offer a definition in 140 characters or less, while others will use this opportunity to tell a story (using text, pictures, audio, and/or video) about their relationship to IA.”

Update:

The winners have been selected and they are all great. So go and check: http://bit.ly/9IhqS6

My entry can be seen after the break

A simple collection of great stuff I found scavenging the web or simply receiving into my Reader.

I thought I’d pass it along.

This week I’m making it quick and dirty, cause we’re all busy aren’t we??

SO i’ll show how to get creative in 30 seconds, design a city for bikes, where we really stand in the scale of the universe and other bits too.

It’s all after the break.

Hi all, today i’m making a quick and snappy sections of links.

Be ready it’s going to be quick:

• The Scale of the Universe, (in Flash, with a slider)

  http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2010/2/4/the-scale-of-the-universe.html

Just to put some real figure to the beloved Simpson universe lies within homer intro:

• How can the music industry engage with fans?
  http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-02/05/interactive-music.aspx
  Well, anybody got Simon’s Cowell twitter account???

• Making dough or spam? The perplexing case of designing lead generation pages
  http://carsonified.com/blog/design/making-dough-or-spam-the-perplexing-case-of-designing-lead-generation-pages/
  Been in that situation before, and the tricky part design a page that barely is sum of others and really only exist to justify your adword campaign. Well here’s how you can make it good.

• 30 seconds to creativity
  http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2010/02/02/30-seconds-to-creativity/

30 seconds to creativity from Brandon Schauer on Vimeo.

Maybe I should have watched that video again before writing this post.

• 
  http://johnnyholland.org/2010/01/27/when-data-gets-up-close-and-personal/Just one of the best article I’ve read in the last weeks…. go read it too.

• http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/designing-bicycle-cities.html
  What would be a week without me and my bike propaganda ?

• http://dzineblog.com/2010/01/very-cute-jacketbookmarks.html
  Getting ready to get my valentine’s her present.

• http://flowingdata.com/2010/02/01/data-underload-7-no-worries/
  Just check how the development cycle of your worries according to your age. and It’s scientifically proven.

That’s it for now. Enjoy

Those are not big “show-stoppers” issue, but I feel compelled to expose those usability quarks to help make more people happy. (Starting by me).

After getting a bit overwhelmed with my last facelift: Getting Carried Away, I’m giving you two very short UX update.

What is it you might ask me? Well it’s simple, I’m giving a “face-lift” to some website, web applications or any type of interface I come across while browsing.

It’s simple, a “face-lift” is me trying to make the interface more usable, easier to use and somehow enjoyable (I’ll try prettier but that’s a matter of taste isn’t it?)

I’m using simple usability techniques, a quick mock-up/prototype and some bullet points to highlights the before after.

But there is a trick: I only “face-lift” website that I actually use and I’m only giving me a few hours to get that done.

Let’s get started after the break

First to get on the face-lift chair today is my “MSN video player”.

The symptoms:

I’m trying to watch a trailer and due to “sensible content”, I must provide my “real” date of birth. (I never understood how this made the check worth anything in anyone’s eye but the legal team… but that’s another story).

It’s a very simple form done bad. I have to enter 3 times MM (what does that stands for anyway?) and I will, in microsoft fashion, click the left button to submit, not the right one that of course cancel my “real” date of birth.

The diagnostic:

• Give visual clue as to what is expected from the user and lead towards action.

The procedure:

• Better use of in area labels MM/DD/YYYY
• Big and clear Action button and reduce size of cancel button

Second on patient the couch today is sonystyle.co.uk

I’m on the lookout for a new laptop as my 5 year old is on the verge of retirement. Anyway, long story short, I had a go at configuring a possible machine. But it’s not as easy as it looks (I like the clear layout).

The symptoms:

• I can’t select a number of options unless I select a specific one. Dependant selection is not new, but when the dependency is only available as the 7th option, that’s a bit frustrating.

Click the image below to see how the content is ordered.

The Diagnostic:

• Just make it simple and in an order that does make sense.
• Use a bit of Information Architecture technique and common sense.

The Procedure:

• Just move the deciding choice before the others two, thus removing a cognitive punch in the face and paving the way for a nice choice selection. Choosing a laptop is a hard task for most people, and I want to be secure in my belief that I can choose what’s right for me.

Et voila for today.

What is it you might ask me? Well it’s simple, I’m giving a “face-lift” to some website, web applications or any type of interface I come across while browsing.

It’s simple, a “face-lift” is me trying to make the interface more usable, easier to use and somehow enjoyable (I’ll try prettier but that’s a matter of taste isn’t it?)

I’m using simple usability techniques, a quick mock-up/prototype and some bullet points to highlights the before after.

But there is a trick: I only “face-lift” website that I actually use and I’m only giving me a few hours to get that done.

My first face-lift is today: http://www.trafikanten.no/ and this time I already broke my own rules.

I’m telling you why (and how) after the jump.

So why “trafikanten”?

Trafikanten is my girlfriend’s favorite website when it comes to transport time. Basically when is the next train for<insert station name>?

I used it a few time when I needed to go somewhere. I’m still fairly new to Oslo and getting my way around is not always easy. And I always walk, almost everywhere, but last week, the frozen foot-walks and my bad ankle suggested that I’d take the metro/tram/bus to go to this meeting.

I went to trafikanten to find the best route, but was a bit disapointed that I could get the time for any public transport, but had no idea as to where the place actually was (north, south, central, suburb, etc…)

I jumped then to google maps to figure out where was the actual location.

Why not put all of that together, and have a nice little package with time+routes+ all the info you might need to be on time at the “rendez-vous”?

As a good facelift practitioner, I noted the following:

Symptoms:

• The info is clear and reliable, but not presented very effectively
• Everything is “grey”, there’s no highlight as to where to click: What are the actions. Is thgis button more important than this one?
• The site is overall slow
• the search box are not forgiving and alternatives/precisions are expected in a 2nd screen (delaying again the results we’re looking for)
• Default assumption is that “I want to leave after <insert time>“. Actually not so much, in most case I need to be somewhere at a certain time, and without knowing how long it takes to get there, it’s a bit hard to estimate when I should be leaving. I want to system to tell me when to go based on traffic info.
• The action buttons have a counter intuitive position and no differentiation see below.

Diagnostic:

• A wealth of information that seems to get major support from Norwegian users. This rates good in terms of findability, but could improve on the usability side.

A note: as I thought about how to “facelift” that page, it struck me that the services as such doesn’t need to change. From my user interview findings (a few norwegian friends around an øl) the site serves its purpose. But I felt it could do more, especially for the newcomers, anybody who still needs to figure his way around. And when it made perfect sense to check times on one site and then map and direction on another (google map), I was looking for a one-stop shop solution. This is what you’ll get now.

So the remedy, my very own “face-lift”.

This facelift brings the whole process to a more advanced level.
You’ll see:

• My initial ideas as I skected them out on a sleppless night.
• A paper prototype to show the interaction ideas
• A first visual design draft.

The procedure:

• Make the search form stand out more
• Use “human language”. I want to go there, and I’m coming from….
• Better use of label
• Focus on time of departure and distance. This is not just a time schedule planner, this is a journey planner
• Extend options beyond public transport
• Keep the accuracy of informations and flexibility of search
• Move suggestion and search refinement into the form, not as a 2nd step.
• Allow forgiving format in search box
• Visually differentiate action from information

My initial ideas

Paper prototype*

Paper mock up – Trip plannin Concept from Eric Haidara.

*This paper prototype is intended to convey the interaction principle for validation before coding and having a visual design fixed.

I loved doing it, and this had probably taken more time to do than allowed/ necessary in a real project. This was my first time, so it took a bit of hit and miss to get the results. I’m convinced though that my next project using this technique will see the preparation time divided by half at least.

Visual design draft

Et voila:

As presented before, this is not quite a facelift but more of a “what if” trafikanten offered a more inclusive type of services.

I’m hoping that you’ve found this case interesting and moreover, that it makes sense.
What do you think? should you come and visit me in Oslo, will you use my trafikanten-plus to be on time

Let me know what you think.

A simple collection of great stuff I found scavenging the web or simply receiving into my Reader.

I thought I’d pass it along.

So here we go for this week, I’ll show how to make the Beatles pretty, and strongly encourage you to read a book. I also had a dream about the future of bike lanes, give you some great music for free and explain you that you’re not likely to be eaten alive, in-flight by mega shark. And all of this is free, unlike the NYtimes.

It’s all after the break.

Charting the Beatles

• http://www.mikemake.com/#72772/Charting-the-Beatles
  I’m not a fab four fanatic, but I enjoy more than a few of their songs. I’m not an infographic fanatic either, but starting to be an enthusiast so when those two came together (over me….) I felt I would share. This is very good pretty, impressive in the making and only a teaser for more to come. I might even join mind you.

Read a Book

• http://www.good.is/post/read-a-book
  Good is a great website resources for all things interesting. that’s quite an empty statement, but there’s [almost] nothing bad in good. In their latest issue, they help us to slow down. And in that domain I can definitely use some help. The article “Read a book” is a list of books about the art of taking it easy. I haven’t had time to read any yet (just finished selling usability last night) but sure I will soon. When I have time

Mega Shark infographic

• http://staubman.com/blog/?cat=7
  Best link of the week, in so many ways. Anyway no need to explain more, just check that scene then view the poster, then print it and put it on the nearest wall.
  http://www.youtube.com/v/I16_8l0yS-g&hl=en_US&fs=1&
  

The Flying Bicycle Lane

• http://kolelinia.com/en/
  Let’s think for a second. You’re on your way to work (or back in my case), sun is shinning and you’re enjoying a nice ride that keeps you fit and beats the traffic big time. Then before you realise, a car take a chance turning just when you arrive at that junction. Seconds later you’re on your back, bike crush but you’re mostly fine (thanks helmet and backpack). Well, this would never happen with the flying bicycle lane. Soon in your fantasy neighbourhood.

Public Domain music for all (and it looks pretty too)

• http://deweymusic.org/
  This is a project that puts a layer of usability and web2.0 to archives.org I like the initiative, there’s loads of music to choose from, some excellent live bootlegs and it’s free. Not rapidshare free, free like enjoy and feel good about it free.

Nytimes.com to start charging for some site access

• http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/business/media/21times.html?src=tptw
  New model: will it last? is it viable? It sure creates some serious question has to use of articles, retweet, sharing and link back…

and finally when Aesop Rocks meets Philip Glass & Ravi Shankar. Greatness

That’s it for now. Enjoy