Author Archives: Barbara


Tired of your personalized Google home page?

Monday, January 21, 2008 – 7:32 PM

There are a couple new and different themes for the Google home page. The Earth Light theme is very nice if you want to see if your friends around the world are in daylight or not, and the Simplicity is Complex is a cool and very different look from the other themes.
By the way, [...]

Posted in Design, Personalization | Comments (0)

Better user experience for Vancouver bus riders

Monday, January 21, 2008 – 7:29 PM

Good news for people in Vancouver guessing whether they should walk or take the bus (especially when it’s raining). You can now text the number of the bus stop to 33333 and you’ll get a text back telling you what time the next six buses are coming.
I tried it out, and it seems to [...]

Posted in User Experience | Comments (1)

Convenient travel feature from Google

Monday, January 14, 2008 – 6:01 PM

Another nifty feature from Google: you can now get your flight status directly from the Google search box. Typing in Westjet 76 or whatever flight you are on will tell you the exact departure and arrival time of your flight, and whether it’s on time or delayed.
Very handy for the winter season.

Posted in Search, Uncategorized, User Experience | Comments (0)

Alternatives to a usability lab

Friday, January 11, 2008 – 6:03 PM

I’ve come across a couple of alternatives to usability testing in a lab recently. The first is (extremely) rapid testing at a trade show booth, as described in the paper, Extremely Rapid Usability Testing.
Another is usability testing with a number of different audiences at museum conferences explained in, “ Usability@90mph: Presenting and evaluation [...]

Posted in Usability Testing | Comments (0)

Our future is bright!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008 – 4:28 PM

USA News & World Report (Jan. 2, 2008) listed 31 careers with bright futures. Last, but not least (it’s in alphabetical order), are usability/user experience specialists.
Librarians are also on the list, cousins of usability/user experience specialists (both have strong ties to information architecture).
See the entire list of professions or the the summary for usability [...]

Posted in Usability Testing, User Experience | Comments (0)