By spring quarter of 2010, seven months into the study, less than 40 percent of the students were regularly doing their academic reading on the Kindle DX. Reasons included the device’s lack of support for taking notes and difficulty in looking up references. (Amazon Corp., which makes the Kindle DX, has since improved some of these features.)

Post from: Tom Satwicz

Kindle DX needs some work for educational use

A CHI 2011 paper.

We see a number of potential links between the creativecontributions prevalent in crowdsourcing and the processes,interactions, and results of generative techniques used indesign. These similarities provide promising opportunitiesfor involving the contributions of many people at amarginal cost to generate rich information about users andtheir contexts.

Lots more here.

Post from: Tom Satwicz

Crowdsourcing as a tool for HCI research

Tech support via email:

There isn’t a lot we can do since this isn’t a system-wide thing.

Yeah right.

Post from: Tom Satwicz

Quote of the day

Jay Parkinson, MD– Ran a medical practice with only his website, Google Calendar, iPhone, Paypal, & presumably his car:

My overhead was about 10%, compared to a regular doctor who spends about 65-70% of their practice revenue on overhead. I was profitable after just a few days.

via.

Post from: Tom Satwicz

Mobile medicine

Part of the problem with predicting where the tablet/mobile market will end up is that the iPad has reorganized the interaction aspect of HCI as well as the computer aspect. With two parts changed the third will as well setting the whole equation off.

Post from: Tom Satwicz

Fads

Fellow nerds, this totally replaces the built in calculator. Wonderful design.

Via.

Post from: Tom Satwicz

Soulver: App of the day

“Transform complexity into products that are understandable, as such things are judged to be simple.”

Post from: Tom Satwicz

Norman on simple designs

Amazingly porous.

Via.

Post from: Tom Satwicz

The Times Paywall

An experiment in digital media and museums and a how to guide.

Post from: Tom Satwicz

QR codes at the Mattress Factory

Christian Heath and Dirk vom Lehn argue for distinguishing between interactivity and social interaction, particularly with respect to exhibit design.

Indeed, underlying the design and deployment of many computer- based exhibits is the idea that in developing new forms of ‘interactivity’ the installations facilitate social interaction and co-participation. Unfortunately, however, while creating innovative, and in some cases engaging, activities with a particular system, it is not clear that ‘interactive’ exhibits facilitate or even encourage social interaction; that is, interaction between people.

The implications for museums and informal learning in general:

In this way, we suggest that the design and deployment of many computer-based exhibits in science museums and centres conflates ‘interactivity’ with social interaction and thereby undermines the informal educational contribution that such exhibits are thought to achieve.

There is also an embedded critique of standard audience evaluation practices or at the very least it is a recognition of their limits. They are pushing for an interaction analysis approach.

Indeed, the studies reveal how designers and members of design teams have little access or opportunity to learn from their successes and mistakes, since evaluation is severely limited and there is little opportunity to share or accumulate knowledge.

Heath, C. and vom Lehn, D. 2008. Construing interactivity: enhancing engagement with new technologies in science centres and museums. Social Studies of Science. 38:63-96.

Post from: Tom Satwicz

Conflating interactivity and social interaction