Eye-Tracking studies- Usability holy grail?

By Frank Spillers

on December 10, 2004 - 5:15pm

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Eye-Tracking- following user eye patterns

Eye-tracking studies are a type of usability test where user gaze concentrations are recorded in thermal-like "heat zone maps". The heat zone maps track user eye movements. Eye tracking tests make usability testing look really interesting, sophisticated, high-tech and scientific. Eye tracking usability data appears to be more valuable or empirical since it is recorded using technology and gaze capture instruments.

The reality is that eye-tracking, while valuable, doesn't make usability testing any more powerful. It's what you do with the observations and the usability test data that counts.

Bottom line: If you are using eye-tracking, to make it meaningful, you must:

Design and Emotion

By Frank Spillers

on August 4, 2004 - 9:01pm

emotion-design

This is a late post relating to my paper presentation at Design and Emotion 2004 (conference in Ankara, Turkey). The entry contains some new writing cut from the paper due to size constraints.

Related paper: "Emotion as a Cognitive Artifact and the Implications for Products that are Perceived as Pleasurable" by Frank Spillers in the Published Works section on the Experience Dynamics website.

So, what does emotion have to do with design?

Telematics Usability-Coming to a Car Near You

By Frank Spillers

on June 9, 2004 - 2:50pm

telematics-usability

I recently returned from Detroit 2004 where I moderated several keynote expert panels on consumer needs, usability and the future of vehicle telematics. The conference is an annual event held in Detroit and attracts automotive companies, suppliers and analysts who are all focused on the bleeding edge of the "wired car" a la integrated communications, vehicle diagnostics, entertainment, real-time information and high-speed internet or satellite driven data "piped" to the vehicle.

Graphic Design vs. Usability

By Frank Spillers

on April 27, 2004 - 6:53pm

gui-olympics

The GUI Olympics (Graphical User Interface, pronounced "goo-ey") is an annual event where top graphic designers converge to design the latest and greatest "skins" for the Winamp media player, Windows themes and Icons.

The event is in its final week, and while it's wrapping up it might be useful to reflect on a couple of note-worthy items that relate to popular misconceptions of usability and graphic design...

The Logic of a "Skin"

How Usable is Jakob Nielsen?

By Frank Spillers

on April 7, 2004 - 9:23am

In an earlier posting, I said: "Jakob Nielsen has an unhealthy monopoly on Usability Consciousness. He promotes best practices, he preaches obedience to his guidelines and when he postulates opinions they are interpreted as instructions".

So what's the big deal? Jakob is an internationally recognized usability "celebrity". His books sell many copies and his website gets lots and lots of traffic.

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Who is Jakob Nielsen?

Methodology or Mythology?

By Frank Spillers

on February 26, 2004 - 2:09pm

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Methodology Madness: or "caveat emptor" (buyer beware)

What you buy or "buy into" influences how you think about something and how you represent that information in your mind is what cognitive scientists refer to as an "internal representation". Whether you buy usability services or not, at some point along the way I am sure you will or have encountered "methodology madness", and maybe you don't even know it.

Patenting usability improvements- going over the top?

By Frank Spillers

on January 25, 2004 - 11:11pm

Summary: Questioning Jakob Nielsen’s recent advice about competitor data and his advice to patent usability best practices.

Slashdotters react to Jakob Nielsen’s recent column. And they raise some good points:

• "The reason this logic doesn't follow for many software engineers and software patents, is that the stuff that gets patented is sometimes simple, and a horrible waste of cycles and time happens globally as people work around the patents".

• "Usability is required on *all* sites, not just the ones that have the resources to patent everything".

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