Free!, originally uploaded by miserychick.

Can I make that round trip, please?

After spending much time thinking and talking about the necessity in getting user feedback before making UI re-design decisions, and giving users choices in implementing what you eventually come up with, there is one site that needed a redesign so badly that it almost didn’t matter what was they did. Del.icio.us has long been one my favorite sites. It provides the ultimate balance between providing a utility that no one else does in quite the same way and giving me access to network information that is usually very interesting, if not incredibly relevant or really funny. There are VERY few sites that do that, where you get a needed function that is build into network communication. Of course, del.icio.us is interesting on so many different levels beyond this. I have often found it astounding that a user’s tags on the site can mimic their interests so exactly that you get an accurate sense of their personality. This shouldn’t be surprising given the utility of the tags, but it is one of the only sites I know of that compiles data that can be extrapolated to this personal of a level without directly asking users “so…tell us about yourself”. Perhaps any site that so deeply integrates tagging accomplishes something similar. So many incredibly interesting things have been done with Flickr tags as an example. But there is something about tagging information that is not inherently yours (i.e. your photos) that produces something a little different, perhaps even more accidentally personal. There is nothing I like more than happy accidents.

In any case, since del.icio.us was bought by Yahoo, everyone had been waiting for the time when the site would get a UI upgrade. I have to admit that my first awareness that it had actually happened was from Tikva Morowati on Twitter followed by Megan MacMurray a couple of hours later on gchat, unfortunately my RSS feeds took a back seat to lots of work and getting sick. When I finally got a chance to see it for myself, I was pleasantly surprised by its simplicity. It even looks a little Flickr-esque, which I guess shouldn’t be a big surprise, when you have a good thing that wins lots of awards it would be smart to copy it.

The first big change you see of course is that the site has a new sexy style, not over done, but enough to look a little less like the start-up it was three plus years ago. The navigation menus, which split the site into three main sections, bookmarks, people and tags, provide a nice organization of the top things that users would probably be looking for on their home page. The new search is also nicely designed, with the ability to search bookmarks in numerous different ways. The bookmarks are also organized in a much nicer way so that they are easier to read at a glance and easier to sort through. The best feature, however, is the new tag search bar, which allows you to quickly navigate bookmarks by using tags and tag combinations. It also auto-completes, a nice little touch. The only thing I could do without is the tag arrangement on the right hand side. As an obsessive lover of tag clouds, I always preferred to view my tags as a cloud, perhaps not the most efficient way to find something, but it was MY WAY. This function is still available, just not on the right, which is now organized by “Top 10”, “All Tags” and “Tag Bundles”. This is kind of annoying. Top 10 is not so useful for me and I have never really gotten into the habit of consistently using bundles, although I probably should. But, its only one extra step to get to my beloved cloud, which I suppose I can deal with.

All in all, it looks great, works better and seems to integrate a lot of features that users have been wanting for a really long time. Too bad it took half a century to get it done. Oh, and one more thing, I should no longer be calling it del.icio.us. The beloved play on the site name has now been replaced by delicious.com. That too I could do without, but it definitely makes more sense.

China’s Industrial Ambition Soars to High-Tech - NYTimes.com

I am feeling more that there is a big world out there which I am completely unaware of, now more than ever. I don’t have much clue of things which are happening even in India for instance. Time to find a Chinese friend and travel and see myself how things are. Which i should probably need to do in India also!!

China’s Industrial Ambition Soars to High-Tech - NYTimes.com

I am feeling more that there is a big world out there which I am completely unaware of, now more than ever. I don’t have much clue of things which are happening even in India for instance. Time to find a Chinese friend and travel and see myself how things are. Which i should probably need to do in India also!!

China’s Industrial Ambition Soars to High-Tech - NYTimes.com

I am feeling more that there is a big world out there which I am completely unaware of, now more than ever. I don’t have much clue of things which are happening even in India for instance. Time to find a Chinese friend and travel and see myself how things are. Which i should probably need to do in India also!!

This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (b45877ff-9549-43c3-9d1d-083549f0a1e2 - 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)

China’s Industrial Ambition Soars to High-Tech - NYTimes.com

I am feeling more that there is a big world out there which I am completely unaware of, now more than ever. I don’t have much clue of things which are happening even in India for instance. Time to find a Chinese friend and travel and see myself how things are. Which i should probably need to do in India also!!

China’s Industrial Ambition Soars to High-Tech - NYTimes.com

I am feeling more that there is a big world out there which I am completely unaware of, now more than ever. I don’t have much clue of things which are happening even in India for instance. Time to find a Chinese friend and travel and see myself how things are. Which i should probably need to do in India also!!

Norton: Top 10 Norton/Symantec Secrets You Shouldn't Know

Wow *Norton* sucks but for those who use it, you may find this useful. I stopped using Norton or anything from Symantec for past 2 years, I tried Norton 360, it was good when it launched than with crappy updates it also become bloated like a famed pig.

Norton: Top 10 Norton/Symantec Secrets You Shouldn’t Know

Wow *Norton* sucks but for those who use it, you may find this useful. I stopped using Norton or anything from Symantec for past 2 years, I tried Norton 360, it was good when it launched than with crappy updates it also become bloated like a famed pig.

Bohol’s Chocolate Hills
I’ve been asked a number of times how my vacation to the Philippines was, and while I categorize it as good, vacationing in a third-world country can be exhausting.
For instance, my family and I visited Jagna, my mother’s hometown, which lacks the typical amenities one simply expects in the States. It’d been 11 [...]

https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/business?sn=cba/o

It is interesting that amazon is entering a part of Internet which is boring. Google came with Google Checkout and added some spice but nothing spectacular. Amazon.com is not doing anything either. I am on market for a payment service and I find PayPal still better than amazon on many fronts. I am looking at PayPal Payflow Pro and I feel that is much better than what amazon has announced. the one click shopping is spicier but only works with the skinned version of a amazon page and not with their API version, which is a let down. But my biggest concern is if I am selling something on web, Amazon is a competitor to me, I don’t feel comfortable using a competitor product on mine. eBay is only a provider of sales and PayPal is a payment service provider and they don’t compete with me, sure they host my competitors, but they don’t sell. Again looking at various down time with Amazon Web Services, I wonder how reliable this will be, something which will get me money. But the boring of the lot is Authorize.net but they work pretty robustly, and banks which use them give obnoxious rates and I don’t like that too many people (Banks, Authorize.net, Credit Card Companies) are involved where I get my money from. But I am keeping Amazon as a possible solution, and watch them closely till they get matured. Right now PayPal is my choice.

Also on nytimes.com http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/technology/30amazon.html?ex=1375156800&en=258bf6feacdd5d2a&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Amazon Offers Other Sites Use of Its Payment Service

By BRAD STONE

Published: July 30, 2008

The Seattle-based online retailer unveiled a new payment service that it will offer other online retailers to use on their Web sites.

I had the pleasure of joining the ITP student-run 5-in-5 for as a guest for a day. Day 3’s fun and innovative projects included an adult Lite Brite, a dynamic map of the everchanging ITP floorplan, and a fabulous Processing-based rendition of the Brady bunch intro that included a blonde wig made of gaffer’s tape.
For [...]

One of the advantages of being sick, and thus forcing yourself to take a break from the millions of projects you are currently working on, is you finally get to write an entry in your blog without feeling enormously guilty!

Changing the UI of any site with a significant user base is always a big gamble, regardless of how much statistical analysis and user-centered data you have. However, larger social networking sites that many users have integrated into their daily online activities have unique and very specific challenges to overcome. Unlike a site that users visit on an intermittent basis or for a very defined and specific purpose, these platforms facilitate communication between many different kinds of people exchanging extreme levels of personal data. The usual gamble is multiplied by being forced to examine an increasingly diverse user base that is interacting with the site in different ways, for different purposes and with different goals in participation. This is true of any popular site with lots of content, but for a social networking platform there are often multiple points of entry, numerous types of tasks that users engage in many times a day and tons of information ranked at different levels of significance depending on numerous factors, from the specific patterns exhibited by a user’s core ‘friend group’ within the site to their own personal time commitment in being a user.

A change in UI for any popular site is not going to ever satisfy every user all of the time. However, an interesting trend appears to have begun in the way these kinds of sites have attempted to deal with the obvious need to release changes to their UI without confusing and angering loyal users. This approach focuses more on a healthy combination between usability and the interesting implementation of new technologies and functionality. The most important aspect of this switch in thinking about UI design is the desire to give users time to adjust to the switch by providing them with a choice. As an example, one of the largest sites to change its UI by this method in recent months was MySpace. Long regarded as the pinnacle of how not to design for the web, from information architecture mistakes to pure ugliness, it was an absolute necessity to make changes in their UI to accommodate new features sets due to launch to compete with the increasingly successful implementation of new features on Facebook. The big surprise in the UI was not that it actually made the site any more usable, I am not entirely sure how that is possible, but that MySpace wisely allowed its user base to decide whether to implement it or not. Although it is probably quite widely used now, for months after its launch many users refused to switch. Perhaps driven by force of habit or the lack of desire to figure out the placement of needed features, many users simply found no need to change their behavior and no time to learn the new configuration. It was only when the site launched the ability to customize a home page design that users begin to switch over in greater numbers, most likely fueled by friends who were early adopters. Given the nature of the site and what its users do there, this makes a lot of sense. But what is more interesting then the patterns of feature adoption of the MySpace user, is the fact that their new approach to a UI launch worked. Rather than discouraging users to switch over in great numbers, something that one might expect in giving users a choice between old and familiar and new and scary, it seemed to provide the ultimate buffer between habit and the necessity of change.

Given the amount of cross platform copycat behavior that has become common place between many of these social software competitors, it shouldn’t have been surprising that Facebook would copy this approach when they decided to launch their new UI recently. The only reason why it raised my eyebrow was that Facebook has become rather well known for launching numerous new feature sets with little notification to or consultation with their user base. It is true that the recent tremendous success of the site has actually been largely dependent on their elaborate risk tasking, but we all remember the “mini feed, news feed” situation where users revolted at functionality change quite severely. The problem was not simply that users felt their privacy had been violated by the publication of their activities to their friends, but more importantly that they had not been properly consulted or informed regarding the new functionality and what affect it would have on their information. The fact that the developers ended up being right, and that this functionality became an incredibly important feature for the new direction of the platform, did not take away from the significance of the user back lash. This was direct evidence that people do not inherently like change, particularly when that change involves user trust. Perhaps it was thanks to this revolt that Facebook decided to play it safe this time around. More likely, they simply noticed a really good idea.

The new UI is, as promised, much more about functionality then actual new design choices. Ironically, it puts incredible emphasis on the once hated mini feed in a user’s profile, integrating it within the user’s wall and copying the recently popular “friend feed” by allowing users to comment on updates. In fact, the entire “first tab” of the new profile reads like a “lifestream”. Facebook says it implemented this strategy because it noticed that users were actually the most interested in recent updates. While this may be true for many users, the big issue is that this very specific view into one’s “life” on Facebook cannot be changed, a fact that seems to be in direct conflict with the old Facebook where configuration of one’s profile through drag and drop was incredibly intuitive.
In continuing with this new configuration strategy, the left hand sidebar has remained active for applications, albeit ones that seem to have been chosen at random, and additional tabs have been added for info, photos and boxes, with the additional ability to add other tabs as needed. The tabs definitely clean up the profile page, in danger of becoming as messy as a user-designed MySpace profile, and the ability to add as many as you want to accentuate applications you care about is quite nice. However, when attempting to add additional tabs I noticed that some applications were missing from the list of possible tabs I could add. Why can’t I add a tab for the groups I am in for example? Or pages? Perhaps these are simply bugs that will be addressed, but it was quite annoying because it hid many things from view completely and seemed to put emphasis on one’s I didn’t particularly care about.

Not having the time to investigate much further, I have actually switched back to the old Facebook temporarily. I am not sure that I will leave it that way in the long run, but my decision in doing so makes me realize how important their decision to keep both possibilities active was, and how important this decision should be for many sites to take note of before implementing a new UI. It is not necessarily the way to go in every case; it is true that users do not always know what they want until you give it to them. But I still believe that form should follow function (a little something I learned in photo school) and that the only way to learn about what form the function of something social should take is to ask those who use it.

So this is kinda working out with MapMyRuns (operative word being “kinda”) however, I still feel like its not entirely accurate for some reason. Also, I still dont know why it sometimes writes New York, NY and others, Brooklyn, NY.
The good news is that I think I figured out a way to change the battery [...]

I’m pleased to announce that my new programming with Processing book will be released this August (by the end of the month). You can pre-order the book from Amazon, download a sample chapter from the web site, and, yes, even become a fan of the book on facebook (since that’s what all the [...]

I recently participated in 7 in 7, a scheme cooked up by the ITP resident researchers to do seven creative projects in seven days. The project inspired the currently running and oh so more manageable 5 in 5. The rules are:
Projects must be completed in a day.
Each project needs a name and documentation [...]

I’ve decided to try to get this blog going again. I’ve been very busy with my most fun interactive project of all time, but with a month to go before the ITP semester begins, I’m getting back to several projects.
So here come a string of posts. . . hopefully it won’t be another four [...]

heather.d: shark sighting at jones beach - they are getting closer!
dens: they’ll be on the 6 train in no time!
heather.d: the sharks want what is ours!

More here (and so super lame that Tumblr won’t let me add links / HTML to quotes): http://tinyurl.com/57uxa6

Day 2 of 5 in 5 brought to life a periodic tote, tickets to a sunset, a year in pictures, balls of light. In an impromptu celebration of old-time computing we got earrings compatible with your PC, AsteriskFTP, and thank goodness there’s finally BASIC for Twitter. Clink your glasses for a laser photo trigger, trip [...]

Working on a prototype for a future version of the Botanicalls Kit, we’ve started toying with a leafy motif….

By Josh Goldberg and Glen Duncan

Cuil, the latest search engine to hit the market, is made up of former Google employees and it supposedly is the largest search engine with an index of 120 billion web pages. 120 billion web pages would arguably make them the most comprehensive search engine on the planet. Google hasn’t disclosed the size [...]

I just signed up for the Socialmedian Beta launch and my fingers are crossed that it helps counter the deluge of information overwhelming me on a daily basis. The foundation of Socialmedian is its user created ‘news networks.’ The service currently boasts over 1000 different networks and the user communities can continue to add [...]

Esquire E-Paper: For their 75th anniversary, Esquire magazine’s October issue is going high tech. Incorporating Amazon Kindle’s e-paper technology, it will feature an electronic ink display cover powered by a special battery said to last for approximately 90 days. The cover, which will flash the words “The [...]

On of the on-going social debates in Thailand for the past few years has been around the issue of having a separate public toilet for the 3rd sex, the transgender communities.  Specifically, in this case, they’re talking about males who turned females.  More than any other country, Thailand has a very open attitude towards transexuals and you [...]

I did not know that Stockholm consists of a series of islands (it’s actually part of an archipelago system). I think the main island is Sodermalm, or the Southern island. Gamalstan is the heart of the old city, where the royal palace is. The indispensable T-Centralen subway stop is on Kungsholmen, which is also where my hostel was, although it was technically on a separate island near the Freidhemsplan stop. At any rate, we took a boat ride around the islands on Tuesday night. I hung out with my colleagues Jarice and Sattrupaya on the top deck while the rest of the herd manned the buffet down below.

The sun set around 10:30pm in Stockholm (and rose at 4:00am), so this is probably around 10:30 or so. We would stay out until after dark, thinking it was maaaaaybeeeee 9pm, only to arrive home after midnight!

On Friday I skipped out of the conference and did some sightseeing with Jarice and Sattrupaya. We went to the Vasa Museum on the island of Djurgården. The Vasa was built as a warship for the King of Sweden during the 30 Years War. It sank in Stockholm harbor after sailing less than a nautical mile on its maiden voyage in 1628. Most of the 400 people on board survived, and the accident was said to be a result of poor ship design and too much weight. The engineers had calculated how to balance the ship based on the weight of the passengers, but neglected to add in the weight of the many cannons (canni?) also on board. The weight of brightly-painted decorative carvings on the ship’s hull also added to the catastrophe. (You can see a detail above.) The Vasa was salvaged, largely intact, in the 1960s, and the Vasa Museum opened in the late 1980s.

A Harbor Area in Sodermalm
I think it’s Sodermalm. The drunken tour narrator’s dialogue was not broadcast on deck.

Bright Lights, Dark Foreground
There was no way to make this picture turn out better.

The Good Ship Vasa
Half of the hull is below the floor

That What Sunk the Good Ship Vasa
The ship crew took into consideration the weight of the 400 plus passengers, but not the many canon.

The Aft(?) of the Good Ship Vasa
I assume that aft is the opposite of prow?

Another View of the Aft

The Deck of the Good Ship Vasa
The ship is huge, but it still looked tight for more than 400 people.

The, uh, Latticework of the Mainsail of the Good Ship Vasa?
My nautical terms are rusty.

I received this encouraging e-mail from my soon-to-be landlord in London…

What you should be aware of is that EVERYTHING is expensive here. Nothing costs less than it does in the States (except maybe bread in the grocery stores) and most things are 10-30% higher. Be glad you won’t have a car. Gas is $10 a gallon. A bus and subway pass is still relatively cheap - about £95 a month - but the dollar is so weak against the pound, that’s still $190 a month. It’s about the same amount as I spend on gas in California, without having to buy a car, insure it and maintain it, so it’s a good deal if you spend a lot of time on public transport (which I do). It’s hard to do, but it’s best if you don’t convert every price you see to dollars. For one thing, it’s too depressing. Having said that, here are some prices from the grocery store: small green peppers $1.70 each; orange juice $2.20 per litre; 6 330ml cans of Coke $5.50; bottle of middle of the road wine $20.00; litre of Bombay Sapphire gin $48.00. The only good restaurant deal in town is The Stockpot in Panton Street, across from the Comedy Theatre. You can still get a three course meal there for less than £10. The food is basic but good and the portions are plentiful. It’s my favorite place to eat out. Otherwise, plan on restaurant food being 50-75% more than in the States, cafeteria food 20-30%. Makes the kitchen in the Paddington Pad very attractive. I read in the paper today that the dollar should be 28% stronger (so why isn’t it?) which would make the exchange rate about $1.45, not $2.00. If only it were…

Patty Chang, Touch Would29 July – 29 September 2008 The Arrow Factory is pleased to present Touch Would, a new work by New York based artist Patty Chang. Touch Would is a multilayered video project that centers on the concept of translation—mistranslation, cultural translation, interpretation and performance. It takes as its departure point two concrete events, the first being a

• Zachary Mason
  Saw this guy's art out at Duck Duck (bar) in Wburg - really kind of awesome (the colors on the website look all washed out tho)

I’m a “guest star” for the “5 in 5” event happening all week at ITP here in NYC. Tomorrow is my day in the event where the idea is to “do a creative project every day for five straight days, starting Monday, July 28th 2008. Projects must be completed in a day, so they need [...]

In April of 2006, right before i left the urban jungle of Fort Greene (brooklyn) for this strange foggy city by the bay, i found a cell phone in a taxi cab. it was late on a friday night, and i picked up an odd looking candybar styled caller from the floor right before i [...]

I just used my local Bank of America ATM and was so delighted by this screen that I felt compelled to take a photo and toss up a post.
The concept of “Fast Cash” is nothing new. That being said, there’s something subtly clever about putting this supercharged Enter button at the first stage in [...]

It’s the first day of 5 in 5 and there’s a parade of projects. See the gang free themselves from Positioning Systems, choose their food decisively, sash a speaker, stick socks to a tee, mate software circles, print Mega Man, enliven their claw prizes, greet with robots, calm a TV, root for poops, Eco-nomize a [...]

The Philadelphia Area New Media Association (PANMA) is hosting a free seminar: “Designing for the Web 2.0 World,” on Thursday evening at the University City Science Center. Free Pizza will be served! Details below….

Designing for the Web 2.0 World Web 2.0: What does it mean to me?
Join us for a fresh look at what is Web 2.0 and how it is evolving with great design. What can we learn from the buzz and new tools appearing in the consumer and corporate environments and how can we take advantage of them to help our user’s learn.

Designing Interfaces 2.0
The most important aspect for the user is how will they interact with the content. What’s important in designing user interfaces, what questions to ask at the start of a project, how to make sure the user understands the interface and how it doesn’t become more important than the content. We’ll also take a look at before and afters, including designing for mobile devices and grade some examples.

Design & Working with Clients
How many times has a client asked you for 2 to 3 designs for tomorrow? We’ll discuss how to manage your client, set expectations and help make the design process smoother. We’ll also share several ideas for making your designs more flexible and how the can help you and the client with the project development and future updates.

Location: University City Science Center, 3701 Market Street, 3rd Floor
Date: Thursday, July 31
Time: 7:00 - 8:30pm, doors open at 6:30pm.

FREE Pizza & Light refreshments will be provided. The event is free, but please pre-register here:

http://www.panma.org/reg.php

This event is sponsored by the Philadelphia Area New Media Association (PANMA).