Listening to Sting - Fields of Gold. This song gets right through you - through the barbed wire of your pretence, hypocrisy, insecurity and fears - and touches the very core of your soul. On its way back it pauses at your heart and gives it s oh-so-gentle squeeze, and at once you feel pain and at once joy. Fields of gold has moved every single time I have listened to it. (I am playing it for the third time in a row now!).
This lazy-hazy saturday afternoon I am stuck between Poe and Dean koontz. I had bought 'Complete work of Edgar Allan Poe' in Bangalore and Koontz's 'From the corner of his eye' from Landmark chennai... my confusion is, I love poe (Remember Raven?) but I want to read Koontz so that I can learn writing modern fiction (he is pure genius but only after Stephen KING)
No lunch today. No dough so am living on biscuits... it is strange you know, the way I blow my money... Ok some more coffee to kill the hunger... it is really like a freaking mouse in my tummy man! well have a nice weekend bud! That's it for now.

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Last night was crazy! dinner at 11 in Indore's only south indian mess. A two hour fight with my girl friend-on phone she's in bangalore man :-( - Went to bed at two a.m after playing outlaws on my pc. At 6:45a.m. I remembered that I forgot about the usability test at 8:00 a.m. five more minutes sleep? my mind begged me so I slept only to wake up at 7:30 and multi-task beautifully (brush teeth+crap and next shave and shower) land up at work bang at 7:59:58 a.m. And two developers supposed to be observers irritate the shit out of me by telling the users how to perform tasks... not it is over :-) I have 98MB of video: everything the users did, each mouse click, and the way they shag the mouse when they are frustrated has been beautifully captured by my camsoft, I am gonna kick some ass in the next week. three cheers to usability guys! And tonite I think I shall down some beers and write till early morning, My novel is shaping up just fine! And I pray I wont have any more marathon fights with my girl, i love her man!

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I got my grand pa's magnum opus 'The Advanced History of India' (co-authored with Nilakanta sasthri)ISBN : 8170231450. It was published in 1970 by Allied publishers. After my gramps passed away, the royalty from this book helped grand ma make ends meet. It is a shame that none of my gramp's children has bothered to save a copy... I had to scour for it in all book stores and finally got it from firstandsecond.com after almost an year. Finally I have a copy now and I hope I'll save it for my kids. In this volume I see inspiration, a grand fatherly slap-on-my-back, and a senile and sarcastic laugh at my inability to make headway in my writing. I will write consistently from now on for, my grand pa is home now, to watch over.

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I found my grand pa's book (advanced history of India) from

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Usability Testing and the Developers (Part 2)

Summary

This article deals with the �How to� of presenting your usability test findings to the developers, and convincing them about the changes in design.

Presenting Your Work

The most important thing about usability test is �how well you have documented the results?� Here are some tips.

Checklists/Questionnaires

Always use a checklist for usability testing. Maybe the Top 10 heuristics that
Jakob Nielsen propounded? I used it (gave a rating scale of 0-9 for each item) and the results were great. I complemented the test results with a UI satisfaction survey on the users. I had only five users, but I knew that was enough. If you are wondering how I had developed the questions for the survey, forget it, I didn�t develop it, I just ran a search on google for �UI surveys� and studied what kind of questions are asked. And tailored them to my needs.

I checked for:

1. Visibility of system status
   
2. Match between system and the real world
   
3. User control and freedom
   
4. Consistency and standards
   
5. Error prevention
   
6. Recognition rather than recall
   
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
   
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
   
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from
   errors
   
10. Help and documentation

Packaging the collected information

Now this is tough part. You have raw data in your hand, and that alone is not enough. You have to convert this raw data into a convincing document(s). I made two documents, one for the usability test results and another for the UI survey (with graphs et al, thanks to MS-Excel).

And then I made a PowerPoint presentation using information from both the above-mentioned documents. I invited the developers, along with their managers (this is important, without support from managers you can�t do much) for a presentation. The content of the presentation was objective, informative; at least I tried my best to keep it that way. I never glorified the faults of the systems UI, I started with �what is usability?� and moved to �why usability?� and came to the findings of the usability test. I told them to speak to the developer friend who was with me during the test; he had had a first hand experience remember. The presentation went off well, I mean there were a few murmurs here and there, but over all it was cool. I mailed the two documents to all of them, clearly stating that I am merely trying to help them fine tune the wonderful work they had done, and not being a critic of their work. This is very important, be open and honest, tell them �I am not here to find faults, you have slogged your butt off for so many days and created this product, I am merely giving you a third-party perspective, trying to help you make it better.�

I thought I was successful. I was patting my back for my diplomatic excellence and amazing communication skills. And one developer shoots off a mail to all concerned, �Who is he to question? How can he redesign that screen? (I did it to show them how it could be displayed better!) � And �for every quote he has used in his documents, I have a counter, that proves him wrong.�

I had real tough time trying to keep my cool. But I had to. I mean they are right. Everybody�s right. Maybe I should have educated them about usability, drummed-in the importance of usability before I went on with the product testing like a cowboy. But remember it is never about right or wrong. It is about �does it work for the user.� Most developers say �we have tested it, why do we need another usability testing?� You can�t blame them for that. And programmers code. I don�t. So, I wouldn�t be surprised if one (or more) of them thinks �he can�t even write code how can he be a judge?� I am not. Tell them that. Tell them you are not judging anything.Tell them you are merely �Translating� the users� views about the system.

Most of what I had discussed could be irrelevant for you. I mean environments vary. So treat my words as a friend�s raving and cribbing, and try not to make the mistakes I had made.

If you have any questions/doubts or if you simply want to write a hate mail :-) feel free to
write to me. at suman1973kumar@yahoo.com

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Usability Testing and the Developers (Part1)

 

Summary:

This article deals with the �How to� of presenting your
usability test findings to the developers, and convincing them about the
changes in design.

 

Introduction

Face it. It is their baby. They have toiled and burnt their
midnight oil before finally coming up with a product that they are so proud of.
Now, picture this: A hot shot comes along tests the product with some users and
lists down a set of changes to be made to the product. It will make the developers�
blood boil. You are bound to face hostile developers who aren�t too keen to
lend an ear to your words on usability, and the worst thing that can happen to
you is, when the developer takes it out on you by arguing about the credibility
of your findings. I have faced that. And it sucks. Big time. Is there a
solution to it?

 

Involving the developer in your usability testing

 

Involve the developer. Make him or her sit there and watch
the user struggle with their product. Nothing convinces like a first hand
experience. I was conducting a simple test and I had insisted that the guy who
developed it sit with me. I had trouble in stopping my developer friend from
telling the user �Come on! Can�t you see it! It is right there! Click it!
For god�s sake!� It was agonizing for him. Later on, he confided to me that
it brought about a fresh perspective to him.

(He also delivered the classic line, �Why do you choose such
dumb users?�

My response was, �Nothing is dumb. It works or it
doesn�t!�).

 

You have to make the developer realize that the product
means everything only to him/her, not to the user. Tell them that the product
is like a doorknob. Everybody might use it, but no one cares about it. The
point is, the software product that the developer is in love with, could stand
between the user and his pre-lunch coffee. They just want to get over with it
and move on. Ask the developer, �How many colors does your free web mail
service site uses?� I am sure they don�t remember. And also ask, �So why
should the user spend time and effort figuring out how to use this software?
Don�t you think you should make it as obvious, as simple and as intuitive as
possible?�

�To be continued

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Wish you were there

(My latest verse.)
When the gray clouds trampled over summer�s last resistance,
I stood there, watching the world change, right before my eyes.
I wished you were there.

Through the wilderness of words I ran, the earth in sync with my soul,
I stumbled upon a placid lake; I stood for an eternity drowned in bliss,
Wishing, you were there.

Away from the perils of civilization, I lie down, on the cushion called solitude,
Sleep�s at arms length, and I slide into our dream,
Wishing, you were there.

I walk upside down to avoid facing the foolish world.
I want to make a run for it � out of the conformist�s isle,
Cos I know you wish, I were there.

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How to get rid of assholes

1. Ignore: The best way to stop yourself from being a murderer
2. Plug your ears with cotton
3. Say nothing. NOTHING!
4. Fall down and froth at the corner of your mouth. Shake your legs voilently
5. Burp once every 3 seconds
6. Fart loud and be proud of it
7. If you're eating chewy chocolate, with the help of your tongue apply the well chewed choc over your teeth and lips and exhibit your teeth
8. Keep slapping the wall hard
   

NoteThere is a great risk in doing one or some or all of the above. People might start thinking you are an asshole.

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yet another week comes to an end. For the first time since i started writing my book, I am so very clear about the plot and the characters. it is so good to know what you want to do! Did a lot of research too for the book. What would I have done if i hadn't Internet and 'google??

Food for thought: The best way to not hear the wake up call is sleeping in the other room. If you haven't washed dishes in a week and you see fungus colonies all over the utensils, no sweat! Just wash them under the tap (but throw the fungus away in the bin). Life-when you are all by yourself -is such a (mis)adventure!

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