'Mobile Suica' phones board Japan's rail system

"Consumers here will soon be able to use their mobile phones on Japan's extensive railway network.

By next January, the marriage of mobile phones and public transportation is scheduled to begin when Japan's largest train company, East Japan Railway Company (JR East), is scheduled to launch a service named Mobile Suica.

The new service will enable mobile phone users to conduct all ticket-related transactions such as reservations, purchases and fare collection. Moreover, Mobile Suica-ready phones can be used to pay for purchases in stories at JR East railway stations and other stores that support the service."

Ariane 5 technology turns the lights on

"Soon we may be able to fill the bath, turn the lights on and play our favourite CD without moving from our chair or pressing a button. Technology, developed by ESA for European spacecraft, is now being used to create small sensors that can make any flat surface - walls, windows or tables - interactive.

'The idea is to use an accelerometer to determine the exact position of touch on an object", says Nicolas Delorme from Nodal Consultants, part of ESA's Technology Transfer Programme's (TTP) network of technology brokers. For example, an accelerometer can determine exactly which part of the interactive surface on a window or a door has been touched, making the surface as sensitive as keys on a keyboard."

New styling lifts S40

"Volvo's customers have come to expect style along with their safety and the company's new small sedan, the S40, adopts the design themes that have turned the company around."

The floating console's ergonomics are superb, the telephone-dial pad and the four knobs really allow you to do all you need to do with a minimum of distractions and all of the controls and display graphics are typically Volvo: large, readable and informative at just a glance.

The storage area "liberated" by the floating console may have a lot of apparent volume, but in practical terms, it's not much more usable than a bin.

User Experience Diagrams

Several User Experience Charts ...

The Elements of User Experience (PDF) Conceptual model of the considerations involved in designing successful user experiences for Web sites. -Jesse James Garrett User Experience Cycle (PDF) The user experience is not one simple action -it is an interconnected cycle of attempting to satisfy hopes, dreams, needs, and desires. -Jess McMullin Designing the User Experience This poster illustrates the path to more usable products. -Usability Professionals’ Association User-Centered Design Process (PDF) Collateral created to communicate the SCM User Experience Group's design process and how it fits within the PeopleSoft development cycle. - John J. Stickley The User Experience Cosmos (PDF) A Cartesian representation of our field....

Mobile QuickSilver-like User Interfaces

"Tom Hume pointed out an app called Qix which is essentially QuickSilver for your Series 60 phone. Until I got my Mini, I had no idea what exactly QuickSilver did, but now I can't live without it and I get frustrated when I'm on my work PC and have to hunt around for apps and docs. In case you don't know either, QuickSilver is this program running in the background which you call up by hitting control-spacebar (or whatever combo you want) and then you start typing the name of the application, document, link, etc. and a list of items that match that name come up and you can quickly choose that item to launch it. It's very useful. "

Samsung to intro the i730 next month

"Can we say how excited we were when we first peeped the i730, Samsung's new EV-DO capable Pocket PC Phone? We thought we'd finally found what we were looking for - the i730 is only slightly larger than the Treo 650 and sports a 2.8-inch QVGA (240x320) 65,000 color touch screen, 64MB RAM, a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard - but then we played around with it. Yeah, the screen is nice, and the prospect of having EV-DO on a phone like this really, really, really appeals to us, but that slide-out keyboard (which is one of the big selling points) just wasn't cutting it for us (typing on it wasn't pleasant). Anyway, not that we care as much as we used to, but apparently the i730 is going to be launched at the big CTIA wireless trade show in March, with Verizon all but guaranteed to be the carrier (it really couldn't be anybody else now, could it?)."

A new twist on controllers

"In what they are reporting to be the first ever controllers designed in tandem with a game developer, Intec will soon be releasing a set of 8 controllers to coincide with Lucas Arts' upcoming Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The forthcoming game is set to be released on both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and Intec has designed a set of 4 controllers for each system. Each controller will feature a turbo button, rubberized grips, dual vibration motors sporting an on/off switch, a 3-position rumble switch, and an auto-sensing, auto-connect technology that will allow up to 16 players to connect without needless interference. The sets for each console feature one black wireless controller, one black controller that glows red, and a double-pack of red and blue controllers that glow (what else) red and blue.

Now here's the part where that whole "designed in tandem with a game developer" schtick becomes important. During the in-game lightsaber battles, there will be instances in which your lightsaber will become locked with your enemy's. Once this occurs, quickly press the dedicated lightsaber button on the controller to allow your character to swiftly gain the upper hand on your opponent. Cheating? Yes. But it could signal the start of a few interesting trends."

LifeShirt used to evaluate mood effects in athletes

"In research at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, researchers are using the LifeShirt(R) system by VivoMetrics, Inc. to assess how mood may affect the physiologic performance of athletes. The LifeShirt is an ambulatory system to monitor cardiac, pulmonary and other physiologic functions over time. It has been used to accurately measure cough in COPD patients (.pdf), perform home pediatric sleep studies (.pdf), and in research into pathology as varied as breast cancer and bipolar disease."

Honda To Build GPS Into Motorcycles

"Honda Motor Co. plans to unveil April 28 built-in GPS navigation as an optional feature for some motorcycle lines."

The first Honda product to get the gadget will be its Forza 250cc scooter.

The system, created though a partnership with Garmin for the GPS technology and Zenrin for mapping, features a 3.8-inch LCD display and tells drivers when to turn and where they are with voice commands. A switch on the motorcycle's handlebar controls the device.

Bus Usability, Part III

"It was with a mixture of pity and silent frustration I watched poor passengers struggle with the new mechanism. Often people were just baffled by the closed door in front of them. A lot of people didn't even notice there was a sign with instructions. In usability, knowing your users is paramount. Here, the very people who need the instructions most are likely to be flustered and will not read anything with more than three words, and smaller than a 50 point font.

Not long after the introduction of these buses, I began seeing words scrawled on the doors. They said, 'touch here,' and had arrows pointing towards the general location of the beam of light. Maybe they were written by bus drivers, tired of explaining the system and tired of delays. I felt this to be a vindication of my own idea. There was no hand symbol, but they followed the principles that led me to my design: forget about the mechanism; use few words; elicit the right behaviour. It gave me a great deal of dark satisfaction to see those homemade signs.

Eventually, most of those light-beam mechanisms were replaced with a couple of completely different and more obvious systems, one of which is pictured here on the right. Again, I apologize for the poor focus. The French translates as 'to open door, wait for green light, then push bar.' Now, to be clear, the bar is still a trigger for a mechanical door; the passenger is not merely using the bar to push the door open himself."

Doing the Leonardo

"A week or so ago, I offered a pair of posts (one and two) about an article by Milton Glaser that explored Leonardo da Vinci's use of ambiguity in his The Last Supper. Glaser explains that 'DaVinci clearly believed that ambiguity was a way of arriving at the truth. As a result, the painting moves us in a deeper and more profound way than any direct statement.'

It led me to this thought: As interaction and visual designers, as information architects and engineers, can we 'do a Leonardo?' That is, can we use the brain's fascination with ambiguity to improve our users' experience, better facilitate their accomplishment of goals and (at the same time) interest them a bit in other services we offer? "

I'm not saying we should mislead our users. No sirree. But I am saying that there are definite opportunities to build in some misdirection (or other perceptual techniques) that engage our users more fully than a cut-and-dried taxonomy, IA or modified-L navigation scheme. And engagement is the Magna Carta of UXCentricity.

Taxonomies and Tags: From Trees to Piles of Leaves

"Now autumn has come to the forest of knowledge, thanks to the digital revolution. The leaves are falling and the trees are looking bare. We are discovering that traditional knowledge hierarchies that have served us so well are unnecessarily restricted when it comes to organizing information in the digital world. The principles of organization themselves are changing now that they are being freed from the constraints of the physical world. For example:

- In the physical world, a fruit can hang from only one branch. In the digital world, objects can easily be classified in dozens or even hundreds of different categories.
- In the real world, multiple people use any one tree. In the digital world, there can be a different tree for each person.
- In the real world, the person who owns the information generally also owns and controls the tree that organizes that information. In the digital world, users can control the organization of information owned by others. (Exception to the rule: Westlaw owns the standard organization of case law even though the case law itself is in the public domain.)

These differences are so substantial that we can think of intellectual order as entering a third age. In the first, we organized the things themselves: We put books on shelves and silverware into drawers. In the second, we physically separated the metadata from the data: We built card catalogs and drew diagrams. In the third, the data and the metadata are digital, untying organization from the strictures of the physical world. In response, we are rapidly inventing new principles and tools of organization. When it comes to innovation on the Internet, metadata is becoming the new content."

An Interview With Dave Shea

"DW: What is "responsible" Web design?

DS: Pandora's box, this question. I've rewritten my answer three times already, finally deciding that talking about interoperability and semantics is getting a little stale.
Simply put, responsible Web design is saying, "We're going to try and leave none of our users behind." It's one simple phrase that encompasses the entire spectrum, from usability and accessibility to interaction and user experience. Follow that maxim for your own work, or find a developer that believes in it too; there's no marketing-driven Web strategy that can compete with it. (Even better, combine the two for best results.)"

Networked Robots

"This talk presents new results on robots collaboratively controlled by humans via networks such as the Internet. The Tele-Actor is a system that combines a human agent with distributed audience control for applications ranging from distance learning to journalism to entertainment and gaming. I'll describe our experience with a series of field tests, architectures, technologies, and applications, including an unsupervised scoring algorithm that automatically computes and rewards 'leadership' behavior among players.

In the second half of the talk, I'll discussed networked robotic cameras. Newly available robotic cameras offer pan, tilt, and extreme zoom capabilities with built-in network servers at low cost. I'll describe a recent project where we installed such a camera at Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley to raise questions about privacy in public spaces. Such camera motivate the Single Frame Selection (SFS) problem, where n users share control of a single robotic camera.

I'll present several algorithms, O(n^2 m) for a set of m zoom levels, and O((n + 1/\epsilon^3) log^2 n) for an infinite set of zoom levels. The algorithms can be distributed to run in O(n m) time at each client and in O(n \log n) time at the server."

Stanford HCI Seminar on People, Computers, and Design ...

BBC World Class encourages worldwide school twinning

"BBC World Class, a new pan-BBC initiative, will encourage schools to establish links between classrooms across the globe through its new website - bbc.co.uk/worldclass.

Supported by a raft of programmes across BBC TV and Radio, BBC World Class aims to raise awareness of school twinning amongst children, teachers and parents.

It also provides support to schools who wish to get involved in an international partnership."

It's the Steps that Count

"I am not a fan of long, scrolling web forms for tasks that people are likely to perform infrequently (for example, a sign-up flow). Yet, I encountered such forms regularly in my work with clients - forms created in most cases with the goal of "reducing clicks."

The problem I've seen in testing with very long forms (particularly when people need to enter information carefully, as with financial data) is that they are difficult for people to check over before submitting. Errors can be hard to find because it requires scrolling up and down the page to locate them. And, if something technically goes wrong, people potentially have a huge amount of re-entry to do.

I sometimes have a challenge convincing a client we need to break a form into smaller, simpler steps. There is a fear about creating "extra steps" (even though we are obviously working with a fixed quantity of information that must be completed)."

Why Consistency is Critical

"There is often a tendency to do clever things with user interface elements -- frequently, with the best intentions -- that cause problems. For example, some sites execute an action when a user selects an option button (or radio button). This behavior can be very confusing if it is unexpected. Saving a single click at the expense of consistent behavior is probably not a good strategy.

The most basic requirement for consistency in UI elements is to apply them as they are originally defined. For example:

- Option buttons (radio buttons) only for mutually-exclusive items, so that the user can choose only one option
- Check boxes if the user can choose one or more options
- Avoid applying unnecessary graphical treatment that can confuse the user, making them user of the type of UI element they are using. Option buttons should be round, check - - boxes square. Editable fields should have white backgrounds; non-editable fields should be grey.

As an example, consider the Google 'advanced search' page, which contains text fields, push-buttons, drop-downs, option buttons, links and various other elements, all of which are clearly discernible for what they are."

Mapping del.icio.us with Anthracite and OmniGraffle

"Several people have asked me how I produced the visualizations that I used in my talk on del.icio.us. While those visualizations were constructed with a rather eclectic mixture of homebrewed code, assorted applications, and a good bit of elbow grease, I decided to put together a tutorial for people who might be interested in this type of visual exploration, but are not inclined to write custom Perl code to do so. Hence, I have selected a combination of two very nice applications for Mac OS X - Anthracite and OmniGraffle - to produce similar visualizations. Neither application is free, but both have free trial periods, should you be inclined to check them out. As an alternative to OmniGraffle, the excellent open source program Graphviz may be used, although it is less user-friendly than OmniGraffle. Finally, since the files that will be produced by Anthracite are in a simple text-based format (known as the dot format), a good text editor might come in handy for those people who want to modify these files by hand - TextWrangler is an excellent and powerful text editor, and is available for free."

Why Social Software Makes for Poor Recommendations

"Another interesting question that came up at the Nokia workshop was whether social software networks, such as Friendster, would prove to be a good source of recommendations to filter the Tail. At first blush it makes sense that they would. After all, whose recommendations would you trust more than those of your friends? But the truth, parodoxically enough, is that strangers typically do an even better job.

The problem with social software as a recommendation network has its roots in the problem of social software itself. 'Friend' is a pretty blunt instrument when it comes to describing relationships, especially in matters of taste. The sad reality is that most of my friends have rotten taste in music (I don't hold it against them), while the music recommendations I actually follow are mostly from people I've never met, be they Rhapsody editors or MP3 blogs. Same for virtually every other narrow category where I need advice; odds are that the real subject matter experts aren't anyone I know."

IBM User Experience Research group puts the dot on the "I"

"There's a lot more to user experience than a pretty graphical user interface.

That's the way Steve Cousins, senior manager of IBM User Sciences and Experience Research (USER) group, starts to describe his team's work at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California.

'User interface design is a very important piece but not the whole story,' Cousins said. 'User experience is broader.'

While IBM USER group is often asked to develop user interfaces, the team also explores new areas that people don't typically associate with the user experience. For example, USER group is currently working in the area of content protection, or how the the media and entertainment industry deals with the issue of lawful distribution and copyright infringement of digital media.

How does content protection apply to the user experience? Cousins gives a scenario in which a consumer buys a movie but can only watch that movie on one DVD player, because of technology that is designed to protect intellectual property."

Tinmith Augmented Reality Research

"This is the official web site for the Tinmith project, performing research into mobile outdoor augmented reality. This project is part of the Wearable Computer Lab at the School of Computer and Information Science, University of South Australia. The project is operated by Dr Wayne Piekarski, as well as Dr Bruce Thomas."

LG Electronics supplies keyboard-equipped mobile phones to Cingular Wireless

"LG Electronics has unveiled an innovative mobile phone model equipped with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, unique designs and functions, in the U.S. mobile phone market. The model is aimed primarily at young people. LG Electronics announced on February 22 that it is introducing the QWERTY messenger phone (model: LG-F9100) through the largest U.S. mobile operator Cingular."

The model is equipped with a slide-out keyboard featuring standard English alphabetic QWERTY keys 1, enabling the user to do instant messaging more conveniently.

The prime feature of the QWERTY messenger phone is the slide-out keyboard, making it easy to type, and allowing the users to do instant messaging such as AOL, ICQ, and Yahoo messengers, SMS, and e-mail on a wide screen.

SAMSUNG Demonstrates Push-To-All Technology

"Samsung Electronics, a leading wireless communications company, is proud to announce the development of a working PTA (Push-to-All) solution. The demonstration of the PTA solution proto-type took place at the company's Telecommunications R&D Center in Suwon, Korea. "

The core benefit of PTA handsets is the synchronous video conferencing. Similar to a walkie-talkie with video capabilities, the speaker's image appears instantly on the handset screen of the user or multiple users on the call. It is a convenient and time-saving function that allows people in multiple locations to easily conduct virtual meetings. In addition, the PTA handset allows one to send image, video clip and music contents to multiple users through one simple operation on a mobile device at one time.

Macmini-Equipped Lexus, Land Rover

"Accounts of automotive applications of Apple's Mac mini as a digital audio/video hub are rolling in, with Macmini.com publishing interviews with some forward-thinking suspects. Interviews on the site currently include one with a Florida man who installed a Mac mini in his Lexus IS300, and another with an MIS guru who built a similar system for a Land Rover Discovery. No one's come up with a viable emulator for KITT yet, but we're keeping our David Hasselhoff records cued up to celebrate when they do. "

Lenovo announce Series 60 P930 with pen input

"Lenovo P930 is a dual-band GSM900/GSM1800 smartphone for entertainment and business use. The P930 features an appealing clamshell design, an easy to use pen-input interface in addition to normal keypad input. The phone supports a series of applications, such as GPS navigation, Net-TV, and several others. GPS navigation enables P930 users to access maps of over 100 cities across China. It also provides the Net-TV application, which allows owners to choose and watch several CCTV (China Central Television) channels while on the move. What's more, the P930 supports the IGRS standard (Intelligent Grouping and Resource Sharing), that makes devices discover and connect to each other automatically. "

And a clam shell design ...

X Files.

" X-Keys. Easier data input via an add-on macro keypad for your PC. £79.95. Fingerlicious, but a tad expensive?

Reduce the number of key strokes you would normally use through the programmable 16 key keypad:- e.g. assign common strings of keystrokes, commonly used addresses or footers and launch applications. The programmable 16 key keypad can hold strings of button presses of up to 900 characters long. Mouse and game pad functions may also be assigned to the pad. The 16 keys give you one button access to 30 pre-programmed shortcuts, functions, and codes"

The Programmable 16 key keypad (or X-Keys stick) enhances productivity through its user definable buttons by allowing commonly used strings of keystrokes to be assigned to a single hot key.

The buttons may be set to perform a variety of functions. For example commands such as Copy (Ctrl+C), Paste (Ctrl+V) or Shutdown (Ctrl + Alt + Del).

FedEx Freight enhances online shipping capabilities

"FedEx Freight, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., has unveiled enhanced online capabilities designed to make it easier for customers to access shipping information.
'We've responded to FedEx Freight customer requests to streamline our online shipping processes by enhancing the efficiency and capabilities of our suite of tools,' Sherry Aaholm, senior vice president of information technology at FedEx Services, said in a statement. 'These enhancements will help shippers save time and ... [make] it easier to conduct transactions and receive documentation via the Web.' "

Brave New Wardrobe

"When it comes to fashion, I'm stuck between the preppie eighties and the grungy nineties. It's not a pretty sight, as my wife will attest. But my wardrobe may soon become a whole lot hipper, thanks to some nifty gadgets that double as clothing accessories.

For example, Oakley's $500 Thump combines a flash MP3 player with a set of lightweight and stylish sunglasses--a very cool gadget. Ingenio's $599 Eyetop DVD fixes a tiny display to a pair of wraparound shades, which is wired to a portable DVD player on your hip (very clunky)."

NYX Clothing is marketing $2000 jackets with LEDs sewn into the fabric that can display text messages from your PDA or your cell phone--handy for emergency roadside workers or all-night ravers. VectraSense Technologies sells a $500-plus sneaker that physically adapts to your foot, records how far and fast you run, and can wirelessly zap your contact information to your compatibly clad fellows. And of course there's Microsoft, which wants you to fork over $10 per month to get news and weather reports from MSN Direct delivered to a special $199 wristwatch.

But before ware-wear becomes a standard part of our wardrobes, we will have to solve two niggling little problems: input and output.

Top 10 design pitfalls: No.1 - Lack of Focus

"You need to have an order of importance in your communication. Many designs around us try to say too many things all at the same time. When all the elements have the same weight the reader has nothing to focus on. He gets lost. He gets frustrated and you lose your audience."

Establish what's the most important thing you want to say and make it the most important. Everything else should come later. Besides identifying the most important element, you should create levels of importance for the rest of the elements as well.

Lack of focus: CNET vs. Good visual hierarchy: Apple

101 things you can do in Mozilla

"The following lists 101 things that one can do with the Mozilla browser component (version 1.2) that one cannot do with IE (version 6.0). I used the Windows version of IE 6.0; the list will vary slightly for the Mac version. "

- Tabbed browsing
- Popup blocking
- Prevent scripts from doing various things
- Site Navigation toolbar
- Sidebar
- etc. etc.

What is Usability in One Word?

"John S. Rhodes asks 'If we blasted 'usability' into oblivion so that it could never be used again, what word or short phrase would replace it?'"

In What is Usability in One Word?, John decides to dig into the sandbox.

He writes, "But the more I think about it, and the more I talk about it, I think usability is best summed up with this word:

..............EMPATHY

No word better describes the intent of usability."

Googlisation cometh!

"Googlisation can be described as the conditioning of your expectations and most popular search engine, offering access to more than 8 billion URLs. Reasons for Google's success have been well documented recently, but it's simplicity and resistance to advertising and clutter on the homepage are two key reasons for its dominance, not forgetting that it consistently delivers satisfactory results with clear headings, a summary of the search result and the originating URL.

Googlisation can be described as the conditioning of your expectations and behaviour by the format, popularity and prevalence of the search engine Google. Naturally, this has an impact on design of Web sites and intranets. In usability tests I have noticed that a growing number of users will have quick resort to the search functionality if the path to the required information is not patently clear from the homepage via the main content area or navigation.

So, what does this mean? It would seem that the general user population are starting to look more and more towards the search functionality rather than formal navigation structures in order to find information. Therefore, the search functionality is fast becoming one of the most important aspects of your Web site or intranet.

Future Mobile Services to Be User-Centric

"MOBILE telecommunications in the second half of the decade will belong to users, where they can choose to use any device, and rely on any connectivity.

Also, they only have to worry about managing a single subscription and authentication for a variety of services, and enjoy consistent personalisation, and synchronisation.

This, said Alcatel, marks the third wave of the industry growth, which predominantly supports user-centric broadband services."

Cool wine bottle bag

"When I first saw this product I thought about my wine loving cousins back in NY. I am sure they would love it - and I am quite sure they probably already know about it. I am talking about Built NY's Byobag.

The Byobag has been designed especially to carry wine bottles; it's good looking, comfortable and protects and insulates the bottles. The bag is made from neoprene and its clever design allows you to serve the wine directly from the bag, by just pulling down the sides."

A byo lunchbag is also available and it’s rather cool looking.

Nice clean design ...

Mirror trick leads electronic-paper chase

"A TECHNIQUE originally used to cut headlight glare in cars' rear-view mirrors has been adapted to create a new 'electronic paper' display for MP3 players and mobile phones. Called a NanoChromic display, or NCD, it was shown operating on a converted iPod by Dublin-based company Ntera at the DEMO@15 technology show in Scottsdale, Arizona, last week.

Unlike LCDs, electronic paper displays can be viewed from almost any angle and in a wide range of lighting conditions, much like paper itself. Another key characteristic is that they require very little, if any, power to maintain an unchanging image."

New Cell Phones Will Reach Out and Slap Someone

"Samsung will release a mobile phone next month that tickle the person you talk to or basically slap them across the face. The touchy-feely technology, reported by New Scientist magazine, is rooted in games that vibrate. In the phones, 'vibrotactile' motors will literally reach out and touch that special someone. 'Physical involvement creates a real attachment and is lacking in online interactions,' said at Northwestern University mechanical engineer Ed Colgate, who works on this technology, called haptics."

Also see Immersion

Web Accessibility and Design: A Failure of the Imagination

"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is. - Yogi Berra

Web Accessibility and Web Design are two disciplines with a common theory and divergent practices. Both endeavors rely on a standard set of techniques to ensure a consistent experience of data and content across a diverse set of end users. Both rely on creative individuals to build and deliver great sites and great experiences that have an impact on the user. Both seek to extend the reach of the end user and link individuals together to form a stronger collective whole. However, despite the common theory that links them, web accessibility and web design do not share a common set of practices. Sites hailed for their accessibility are rarely noted for their design. Sites hailed for their design are rarely noteworthy as models of accessibility. Few sites are ever held up as models of both great accessibility and great design"

Milko repackages yoghurt products in curved cartons

"Swedish dairy Milko is set to re-launch its low-fat fruit yoghurt drinks using new standard Diamond Pure-Pak Curve cartons from Elopak.

In doing so, the firm will be the first company to trial this latest development in carton packaging design. Elopak claims that the new package combines the technical and ergonomic design features of the award winning Mini Diamond and Pure-Pak Curve carton to create a totally original shaped carton.

The pouring spout diameter has been increased by 38 per cent to give improved pouring properties. Milko says that it chose this product in order to give the dairy a new edge and stronger premium profile for its yoghurt products. "

Wired Headsets Dangerous - Thanks Bluetooth!

"My car is one of the few places I feel like I can get quiet time so I generally try not to talk on the phone while driving. In the past when I needed to talk in the car I used to use a headset or earbud but became so frustrated with every headset, earbud, and earpice I tried.

After several scares in which the wire from my headset got tangled around my gear shift or around my jacket or arm as I turned a corner I gave up on earbuds and headsets all together. Until recnetly I've just been using the internal speakerphone in my Nokia if I really had to use the phone while driving.

My conclusion- Cell phone headsets are just plain dangerous and I didn't need the Univesity of Chicago Hands-Free Cellphone Study to tell me. "

Movie Showtime Search from Google

"Google Inc. said on Wednesday movie showtimes are now available on its leading Web search engine and can be accessed via personal computers or mobile phones and other wireless devices that use short-message service.

The new feature also provides information such as theater locations and reviews, and enables users to search for movies by title, plot or genre.

Competitor Yahoo Inc., which is making a big move into entertainment, offers such data as movie showtimes, theater locations, reviews and ticketing purchasing through its Yahoo Movies section.

Users of Web-enabled mobile phones also can use Yahoo Movies to search by movie name or to find out what's playing at nearby theaters. "

The All-in-One, Widescreen Security Cam

"Even the best security guards can watch only eight monitors at once - and after about 20 minutes, everything starts to blur. So Atlanta startup VistaScape is replacing the old black-and-white screens with color PCs that afford watchdogs a comprehensive 3-D view, from bird's-eye to ground. Now focus, people."

Master map: VistaScape's system combines the views from dozens of cameras with GPS data to build one giant, clickable map.

Moving targets: Anything that moves at this major Texas port - like boats - gets an icon. Click on it for a live image from the nearest cam

Digital borders: Guards set up rules for each area under surveillance. Cross a fence you're not supposed to and the rent-a-cops get paged.

Final details: Info from other sensors (infrared, chemical sniffers, RFID) appears on the map, supplying details humans can't otherwise see.

Virtual Reality Goes Round

"The 'real' booth of the Fraunhofer Institute at the upcoming CeBIT 2005 will feature a brand new and unusual 'virtual' reality system. Instead of being surrounded by images, you'll play with the VR Object Display, a two meters tall cylindrical column with a diameter of 1.6 meters, which has been specifically designed for advertising, trade shows and presentations. The system includes eight off-the-shelf projectors and four mirrors in the lower portion of the column, and is controlled by 5 PCs using a special calibration software. The semitransparent viewing surface for the pictures is wrapped around the upper section of the column. You'll be able to interact with cars or buildings that don't exist yet like if they were holograms. It really looks as an impressive step in virtual reality technology. "

Siemens Presents the New A-Series

"Siemens introduces the latest handset in the A-Series, the A75, designed purely to keep consumers connected. The A75 delivers features such as a large 4K color screen and an easy-to-use 4-way navigation key"

You mean its only a phone? Simplicity counts.

ErgoClick Mouse: A hands-on review

Usernomics has been able to conduct a hands-on review of the ErgoClick mouse. If you have an RSI-type of problem, this is the mouse for you.

The ErgoClick is a very simple mouse that is well-designed and contoured to comfortably rest your left hand on without the need to grip. You can adjust the pressure of the clicking force with a wheel located on the side of the mouse. We selected the lightest touch and found that it was very easy to learn and use. All mouse functions are configurable but we found the default configuration quite usable.

The idea is to use your left hand for clicking while using your existing mouse in your right hand for moving the cursor. In addition, there is a button that you can hold down with your left thumb for scrolling. Equally important, the ErgoClick mouse can be rotated and oriented to accommodate individual comfort levels. Note that your existing mouse retains full functionality at all times. So you completely eliminate the need to use your right hand except for moving the cursor around the page.

From a pain management viewpoint, I can’t think of a better solution than removing the need to use your right hand for any type of pressure actions. While an hour or so is recommended for getting used to the left hand operation, we found it very easy to use right out of the box.

If you have any kind of problem with your right hand, this is the solution for you. In fact, even the left hand operation of the ErgoClick mouse is so unobtrusive that it would be beneficial for people who also have problems to their left hand.

On the lighter side

Web Analytics - The Voice of Users in Information Architecture Projects

"An information architecture project will uncover the very heart of internal politics in any organisation. In most cases, content owners, department heads and product managers all fight for prime "real estate" and prominence within the website structure � resulting in a site design that looks like a "truce" rather than an effective solution.

Too often misrepresented (or under represented) are the users who the website is in fact built for! Web analytics is essentially the voice of the user, the balance of power.

If you have been given the responsibility of with redesigning your company's website, and you want to avoid an internal political minefield, I urge you to read on -
Web analytics will help you understand the needs, preferences and behaviors of your website users. "

Escape From the Grammar Trap

"Too many editors focus on the details and don't pay enough attention to the bigger picture. Editors can--and should--add even more value through substantive, technical, and usability editing.

Copyediting is important, but the details are only part of what an editor can and should be reviewing. After all, a document can be correctly spelled and punctuated, grammatically correct, use only approved terminology, and follow the style guide perfectly--and still not serve the audience's needs.

This article covers some reasons why editors focus on details and not the bigger picture; describes how much attention technical communicators should pay to formal rules of grammar, punctuation, and usage; and describes how we can distinguish between essential and nonessential rules of grammar, punctuation, and usage. "

Toyota Motorsport Improves F1 Driver Conditions

"Cockpit Ergonomics of the Panasonic Toyota Racing Formula 1 Car to be Optimized with CATIA V5 Human Modeling Tools
COLOGNE, Germany and PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 23, 2005-- Dassault Systemes (Nasdaq:DASTY - News; EURONEXT:DSY) today announced that Toyota Motorsport GmbH will develop racecar cockpits that optimize driver comfort, safety, and ergonomics with its CATIA V5 Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solution for virtual product development. "

The CATIA V5 Human Modeling Solutions will enable Toyota Motorsport GmbH designers to minimize the physiological demands placed on its drivers from heat, noise, vibration and the car's safety restraints. Using cutting-edge CATIA V5 Human Modeling ergonomics tools, Toyota Motorsport GmbH engineers will simulate driver behavior and measure key criteria such as reach, visibility, comfort, posture, biomechanics, strength and anthropometrics. This analysis will enable the team to make driver-oriented decisions about cockpit design, while respecting the overall aerodynamics of the racecar body.

To optimize cockpit ergonomics, engineers will first create a digital model of each driver using a combination of laser scanning and manual anthropometrical techniques. The resulting virtual models will be used to analyze and improve specific accommodation issues such as driver comfort and security, and accessibility and serviceability of components inside the cockpit during pit stops--without the need to involve the actual drivers.