Way back when, I'd written a brief post about Google's laser-guided missiles. In short, I'd argued that, as Google's services become more pervasive, the more of our behavior they could monitor and mine for more targeted advertising. The more they watch, the more accurately they can target us. This all isn't necessarily a bad thing...except that hardly anyone knows how or where Google is watching them.

Enter Facebook. Of late, Facebook has been taking some slack for the Facebook Beacon. It effectively allows third parties to pass along to Facebook something about your activity on their sites. After, say a Fandango purchase, Fandango pings Facebook back with what you've just done. If you subsequently visit Facebook, you'll find your action for all to see ("all" being anyone that can see your feed).

So now, not only are all our actions being monitored (thanks Google for kicking that one off) our activity is being shared among third parties without our knowledge (thanks Facebook).

All of this isn't inherently bad on its face. The problem lies in how all this stuff is happening behind our backs. We need to draft some sort of Bill of Rights for web users that services like Google or Facebook can opt into. Something like:

1. [Service] shall, clearly and in plain English, explain to users precisely which of the user's activity they will be monitoring.
2. [Service] shall, clearly and in plain English, notify users if anything about their activity is shared with other services.
3. [Service] shall provide all users with a simple and clearly visible way to opt out of having any facet of our activity monitored or shared with third parties.
4. [Service] shall provide all users with a simple and clearly accessible way to purge all data about their activity. If a user's activity data is purged, [service] shall guarantee that all purged data is destroyed and unrecoverable.
5. Should any terms of use change subsequent to joining [service], all users should be notified in a clear manner imediately.

The above is by no means exhaustive but it at least starts the conversation around what we're unwittingly giving up for all this power and convenience.

In many ways, the Internet is viewed as an extension of existing media ("New Media"). Such a framing fails to recognize how much of a departure the Web really is. Radio and television are passive. I'm not even sure my cable company knows what I record on my DVR box. The Web is a whole other animal. We need some sort of checking mechanism so various services can speak to, market, differentiate and recognize that we understand that there is a cost for all this cool free stuff.

Just as we feel slightly more comfortable when we see a Better Business Bureau seal or a Verisign logo, I'd like to see these services displaying (or paying the price for not displaying) a similar insignia: "We Adhere To..."

Today, these conversations around privacy bubble up and you'll hear the usual "hmmm...that's creepy" comments. I don't think that's really going to address much. It's good business for the likes of Google and Facebook to let the chatter die down and just get on with life as usual. What's needed is a framework and a standard for them to adhere to.

Hilarious. I'm totally guilty of skipping weekends on basement.org.

Finally found a way to make Dashboard widgets useful in OSX -- by keeping them visible at all times. So long Yahoo Widgets/Konfabulator!

There is a lot written about usability testing both online and off. However, except for “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug they all seem to make it sound very complicated and expensive. So here is the boagworld guide to bargain basement usability testing.

The boss refuses to pay for usability testing, you have no budget of your own and yet you are determined that the site will be as easy to use as possible. What do you do?

There is a perception that usability testing has to be time consuming and expensive but it really doesn't need to be that way. The key is to do a little and often therefore catching problems before they become too complex to change.

Start off by doing some testing on initial design concepts or even rough sketches. Test again when you have a more detailed information architecture or a basic wireframe. Test yet again once the majority of content is in place and finally do one round before you go live.

That sounds like a lot of testing doesn't it? Well it would be if the testing involved large numbers of participants who exactly matched the target audience and if they all were tested in expensive usability suites with cameras and observation areas.

However with bargain basement usability testing you make up for quality with quantity. By doing a lot of rounds you will probably pick up on more problems than just a single round done with all the expensive techniques.

For bargain basement usability testing all you need is 5 or 6 friends (or random strangers), a desk, a chair, a computer and a notepad.

Picking your users

Lets start by looking at the users who you will test with. First of all they don’t need to meet the exact demographics of your user group. It can be very time consuming to find people that match your audience. Instead just grab anybody. It doesn't matter who. Friends, family, random strangers. The reality is that the majority of usability problems are going to be generic across all audiences. Sure if you have a friend that meets the criteria all the better but don’t get hung up on it. Better to test somebody than nobody at all!

Also don't bother getting anymore than 5 or 6 people. More than that and you really don't catch that many more problems. It just isn't worth the additional time testing. You are better off just testing with a few, fixing the problems and testing again. That will reveal new problems which users never reached in the first round.

Your testing environment

Next lets look at the environment. There is no need to test in a usability lab. In fact I would argue the best place to test is in the location people normally surf the net. If possible go to their home or office and test on their own PC. That way they feel relaxed and are more likely to behave normally. If you cant do that then just sit them down in front of your PC and test them there.

Finally you don’t need a camera or observation area. Simply sit with them and jot things down as you go along. If you can get a colleague to join you and take the notes all the better but that is optional.

How to test

So what do you do in a test session? Well that doesn’t need to be rocket science either.

What you can do is largely dictated by what you have to show. When all you have is a couple of design concepts the best you can do is ask the user what they would click on to complete a specific task. You can also ask them if they can quickly spot certain screen elements using the same flash testing we have spoken about before.

As you have more to show you can ask users to complete more complex tasks. You can ask them to find a specific page within your wireframe or ask them what they would expect to find within a section on the information architecture.

Your job is to watch how they interact with your site and note where they struggle. The key to this process is to encourage them to articulate their thinking as they go along. Users will often sit staring blankly at the screen if they are stuck. You need to ask them what options they are considering and why they are struggling.

Before they click on anything ask them why they made the choice they did and what other options they rejected. The idea is to get them to talk as much as possible about what they are doing.

Fundamentally that is it. Obviously I could write a lot more on the subject but that should be enough to get you started. Get 5 or 6 random people to sit in front of a computer, look at your site and ask them to complete a series of tasks while talking about them. Not difficult is it. Why then are usability experts paid so much? ;)

Looking for web design services? Then contact Paul directly or visit Headscape

Director Aaron Duffy has combined his love of crochet with stop-motion to create The Special Guest. His new studio, SpecialGuest, is dedicated to the use of stop-motion, CG and cell-animation, and has created some quite charming story-driven animations. See them at his crafty website. Link

A hidden gem in my opinion, Illustrator’s “Reshape” tool can come in very handy in a variety of situations. In a nutshell, the Reshape tool allows you to drag a single point on a path and it tries to retain the overall shape of the entire path, while you only move the one anchor point. What? I’ll explain below.

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Awesome panorama of the entire city of Portland around the Willamette River

Big Six
Originally uploaded by Telstar Logistics.


Mister Six
Originally uploaded by blackbeltjones.

Today is six years of All This ChittahChattah! Woo hoo!

From what I've read in the last two weeks I've learned this much: design is like water, it comes in a variety of quality and clarity, in abundance or scarcity, both under valued and under appreciated at the same time.

Design is everywhere, it's talked about everywhere, it's for sale everywhere, it's practiced everywhere. It is ingrained in global culture from street signs to home interiors, newspapers to product packaging.

Design as a verb is overused everywhere, even in places where a proper vocabulary would mandate the use of a different descriptor.

I, myself, design websites while She Who Is to Be Adored and Cherished designs distillation facilities for jet fuel. My mother-in-law designs interiors of hotels, while my father-in-law has designed an environmentally sound process for extracting oil out of the ground. The word is ubiquitous and while correctly applicable to each of these trades does nothing but water-down its meaning.

It's an overexposed word in an instant message, Target-ad-campaign world. And as long as that word continues to be beat into the ground we'll get statements like: "You're a designer? Oh, so am I! Got Canonical?"

Of course much of this has to do with problems in the education of design. We used to let universities and colleges certify the educated and expert but now that's left to "design things" like Photoshop and IKEA and Apple and blog software.