Dark Patterns

The slippery slope | 90 Percent Of Everything

A very good example of how web designers ( and now mobile with Apple ) are using Dark patterns ( the reverse of good HCI principles) to trick people into signing up or giving money when they don't know about it. 

Masters project proposal " Flat design - usability improvement or just stylistics hot air?"

I saw this debate and thought how wonderful it would be as a masters project

Working title: Flat design - usability improvement or just stylistics hot air?

General description 

Recently there has been a writing debate in the user interface community about a new style call flat design. Flat design has become a familiar on the web, under Windows 8 and the new IOS7. In many ways that design is a movement against previousskeumorphic designs, but more importantly claim that flat design produces more usable interfaces.

On the other hand leading user interface practitioners such as Jacob Nielsen have also criticized flat design. I have listed out some of the most useful websites and arguments below.

This masters project is to fairly evaluate both interfaces, and produce evidence to answer the question “does flat design improves the user experiance or not”?

 To do this your approach could be to produce two identical interfaces on the phone or web and then evaluate them with real users.

MSc and taught modules (Any relevant taught modules and specialist MSc title(s) if appropriate)

M864 Fundamentals of interaction design

Background reading 

Some open reading materials and the cases they introduce are.. 

http://techstream.org/Web-Development/Core-Principles-of-Flat-Design

• suggest that flat design will improve functionality. 
•  [The Flat design] "philosophy preaches that if something doesn't help usability, leave it out of the design. This suggests that minimal approach will improve usablity by removing unnecessary elements." 
• The simpler time also Speeds up down load times - important for better 
• Makes the content stand out which is an important factor on small screen phones/tablets.
• Simpler design takes less time and lets you spend more time getting it right and usablity. 
• Flat design includes more animation,sound,vibration. 

http://uxmag.com/articles/a-look-at-flat-design-and-why-its-significant

• flat design looks friendly and approachable to users. But it does this by presenting a clear and engaging interface, rather than disguising and warping that interface to mimic something familiar
• speedier pages, 
• cleaner code, 
• easy adaptability
• Better experience by embracing the medium (2d) rather than trying to poorly simulate another one ( 3d). 
• skeuomorphic introduces many unnecessary elements which consume valuable screen space. 
• Flat design is easier to read ‘at a glance’ 
• Improved conversion rates “What's more, flat design can help companies to achieve higher conversion rates on their website. Because of the uncomplicated design, the eye is drawn directly to calls to action buttons and the user is less likely to be distracted from their main reason for being at your website.”( http://www.wysi.co.uk/web-design-and-marketing-news-berkshire/the-benefits-of-flat-design)  

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/windows-8-disappointing-usability/

 Nielsen criticized flat style in Windows 8 as 

• reducing discoverability.
• low Information Density.
• For new users hidden interface features (charms on W8) which need to be summoned with a swipe are difficult for new users. 

http://blog.side-side.co.uk/flat-design-trend/

AA: Flat design is not memorable.

Research methods (An indication, but no need to be specific unless that is required by the topic)

To do this your approach could be to produce two identical interfaces on the phone or web and then evaluate them with real users.

Other specific information

• Deliverables: Two programs or websites which embody flat vs skeumorphic or traditional design.
• A series of tasks for the users to perform on both interfaces.
• A series of questions asking each user their preference.
• Timings and error rates for each user and each task

GPUImage : NSHipster

GPUImage : NSHipster:
While my central interest is human computer interaction I can't that help stop myself from getting highly excited about this kind of low level stuff. Basically in order to process sound and images in real time on an iPhone there is a separate group of tiny processes like a mini graphics card. Programming this GPU is pretty difficult compared to everyday programming. Indeed it'  so difficult we won't even mention it on the OU new algorithms course. 

However the Brad Larson has just created an IO library which hides all these GPU accelerated details behind a well-designed object. There is a mouth watering list of image processing operations which can be applied to video stream processing. Doing something like the tracking of all the fingers on a multi-touch table would be quite simple ( and fast) .  I could imagine hundreds of quite funky programs you could build using this. 

File under toolbox goodies

also here are some OPENCV info on ios programming 
http://docs.opencv.org/doc/tutorials/ios/table_of_content_ios/table_of_content_ios.html#table-of-content-ios

Virtual architecture idea of the day.

Virtual architecture idea of the day.

1. Get two cameras to view scene in a remote location - in real time.
2. Using something like a Kinect find out where people are walking past a large display. 
3. Warp the two images so that the moving person sees the virtual location change perspective as they might expect to do so when walking past a 'hole in the wall'. 
4. does this give the impression of hole or is it seen as some kind of visual break down?
5. Does this make you feel like the other place is more there than the flat case ? 

The Coq Proof Assistant

Welcome ! | The Coq Proof Assistant

I've always been a bit warey of formal mathematical proof. Most of the people who I have met who make big claims for the power of mathematical proof always seem to have very dominant/dogmatic  personalities. While it may be a small statistical sample I do keep wondering if mathematical proof just appeals to people who's personality type is they can't believe they can ever be wrong. 

Still I like the notion of constructing 'truth' like lego bricks and like someone who goes to a modern art gallery but doesn't get the art but does appreciate the elegance which this work involve, I like the notion of proof.  My biggest doubt about the power of proof was that no one ever managed to make an automated proof system ( which if it wasn't partly based on 'I can't see my error so I must be right' theory of mathematical proofs). Or rather the automated proof systems so far have always failed to do anything but the most trivial work ( as far as I know).

So you can imagine how excited I am that someone has managed to generate a formal proof assistant. Obviously as someone who is big into human computer interaction I would be strongly in favour of a machine which will augment the process of thinking about mathmatics. The big problem apparently with this cog system is it needs a different type of proof to be based on types not sets. Still very exciting work.

visualising cyber attacks

This is a quite a cool visualization of real time data of a cyber attack.

I did have a PHD student working on this (he gave up), but was quite excited about looking at the design and usability of such systems.

Lancaster university

Just visiting Lancaster university for a day. Definitely top of my list of universities with a good view. I am just finishing lunch of a very nice risotto ( some how Lancaster and quality risotto seem some how juxtaposed ) and freshly brewed coffee.

Just had the complete tour of all the screens which I hope to use in large scale study. I am quite excited by it all .

CHI 2013 BBC interview

The interview I did about the Music room at CHI2013 is now online

[here] 

Wow I talk fast... 

When is flat design not flat design ?

When is flat design not flat design ? This video form the BBC ( well from Apple) shows the new parallax effect. 
 The two things which caught my attention one was that the accelerometer is used to generate a parallax effect. this is the first time to my knowledge that true 3D has been used in a graphic user interface. 
The other slightly more subtle aspect is that colours are tweaked according to the ambient brightness. My big worry with the flat design and the very thin Helvetica font is that in many use cases the thin font would be invisible. What I find intensely interesting is that graphic designers are now using the context of the picture to keep the readability of the graphic constant. Generally graphic design has always looked at everything in a highly static pictorial manner, for me this is the first time that a mainstream graphic design product has really taken on context and animation in a powerful way. It could change graphic design for ever.


I know that android has had parallax effects before now but this is the first time it has gone truly mainstream.

Masters project of the day - Trust

There has been some anecdotal evidence about how often people will trust a website which has spelling errors upon it. 

Previous work by 

Everard, Andrea, and Dennis F. Galletta. "How presentation flaws affect perceived site quality, trust, and intention to purchase from an online store." Journal of Management Information Systems 22.3 (2006): 56-95.

Has shown that people don't trust websites which have error but the research has not explored people's personal relationship.

There are two aspects I would explore 

1. How much would you trust someone who makes spelling errors in email or facebook or dating site.
2. How much would you trust someone who make numeric erroro in an communication 
3. How much would you trust someone who made graphic errors.

should be quite simple to do - show two emails or profiles by two diffrent people one with errors and the other with non and ask people to rate 

(or work by preference - choose A or B) 

Measures check social desirability (Rotter 1967).

Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) developed by Paulhus (1991)

Measuring Trust:

Experiments and Surveys in Contrast and Combination Michael Naef Jürgen Schupp - has general trust measure. 

Google warts and all.

Google glasses - 

Here is me trying on google glasses.  Was I impressed? well its not a walk up and use interface. Its voice and picture you have to learn it. Overall I wasn't impressed, but you don't buy a computer for it's hardware you buy it for the unique apps that can run on it. Unfortunarlty the only app which I would have found useful would have been the face recognition apps ( app which reminds you of the name of the person you talking too- I'm so rubbish at it) has just been banned as an invasion of privicy.

I wasn't impressed by the screen - its a tiny command line. Generally my opinion is that people use their face as a communications medium and expect a huge pay back for anything which inteupts this bandwidth. So I won't be buying and Google shares soon but I might short them. 

Still I like big bold interface advances and I'm willing to sit on my hands thinking, until people have had time to develop some good apps.

Architecture 

More importantly was the architecture of Google HQ. The bright primary corporate colours were resued through out the building,
(bikes, chairs, plates). Unfortunately this had the effect of making the place look like a huge children's playground. 
I quite like the 'playful' nature but I was told I wasn't insured to use the bike or the unused slide behind. The provision of 
services and the general paternal nannying made me feel like they were infantilizing the work force.  

Google and neruodiversity 

Every evening I saw huge numbers of kids (I'm doing it now, young college graduates)  get on a bus to down town 
San Fransico where they live. I liked the fact they got a bus rather than adding to the huge pollution and congestion of silicon valled. 
I watched the ultra smart, ultra numerate, ultra ordered, ultra meticulus,   ultra perfectionist,  boys and girls many of whom got their clothes washed by the company, 
getting on the coaches together and thought  'there is another autism cluster in the making'. 

The Pervasive display conference 2013 

It's been a hard tip and I have a lot of budget travelling to go,  but its been worth it. I managed to make a link up with the people at Lancaster and I can finish the work on recasting space syntax for pervasive displays. 
It's also at a polar point to CHI - small, with enough overlap in language and thinking that people can really talk about stuff.  If the research works out I would like to atend next year. 

Startup Embassy Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley the high-tech start up capital of the world - but it doesn't look any different from any other US suburb. Its the people who make Silicon Valley and if you really want to 'stay in Silicon Valley' you have to meet the dreamers who drive it. 

No one understands the needs of a startup like Jordi. There are other incubators around the world but here you get more than a bunk, a desk and a fire hose of bandwidth. Here you get to meet other mostly young male entrepreneurs, you get to talk to people who have a vision and a desire to change the world. I found the young slightly geeky super intelligent , cosmopoliton crowd that live there a stimulating and welcoming. 

I love Jordi's overall vision of a place you can stay for extended periods while people get stuff built and mostly learn more about the whole startup process it self. I could only stop for two days but if I had to do a startup I would move base there for a few months. You can't study and MBA on how to be an entrepreneur, but you can live it and you can live it  at the Startup Embassy. I only had a couple of days there but immediately pick up on the friendly relaxed slightly college dormy feel. I had some fascinating conversations with the other guests on everything from Bitcoins to private space ventures. 

I can't imagine a better way to stay in Silicon valley the real Silicon valley. 

ps my bed top one on the right.