The Banshee screams No More  The Good Doctor is gone. Requiescat in pace.
His ESPN articles show he still had the sports mojo going. Yet something obviously wasn't right.

Who knows why anyone puts a pistol in their mouths and pulls the trigger? It's overwhelmingly sad, anytime it happens.

Is Blogging Bloated?  Salon.com hits the nail on the head.

On to other things  After having been made redundant this week, I'm working on getting another gig. Yes, I'd love to have my thing work, but realistically Richmond's a sucky town to do user experience in. So I'm casting a wider net, as it were.

Searching for...  Despite the elimination of their dedicated R&D group back in the late '90s, Apple continues to come up with smart stuff. Consider their forthcoming search tool Spotlight (here's a PDF overview).

Mac Rules  More reason to own Apple products. Thanks, Heiko!

So Will Rush Rush to Judgement?  do ya think the Dittoheads will call for resignations after Bremer can't account for $9 billion? Perhaps the Rushies will want Bremer to share the same cell as Kofi Annan, since the Blottodeads have trumped up charges against Annan....stay tuned.

From the "Sad-but-True" School  My friend Don W. sent this...and it's too true:

The professional life of a W-2 or 1099 contractor is rich and varied, as you know. Those of us in this category must have, or soon develop, the ability to navigate (with ease, of course) the twisting, turning road that leads through the hilly ground between assignments.



Staffing firms and other erstwhile potential employers of a tech writer's services post opportunities on bulletin boards such as Monster or Dice. These job descriptions (when really present) often list those attributes most keenly desired of a candidate. The trouble--especially for the newcomer--lies in translating these words or phrases into their underlying English meanings. Fortunately, I have recently acquired a Universal Translator device. Here goes:



When you read: "Extensive experience and superior skills in technical writing"

It means: "You are a programmer skilled in all languages, from Fortran/COBOL to Java; and you understand all the pesky terms we're encountering today."
Note: Some of those pesky phrases include--Sarbanes-Oxley, SDLC, Use Cases, CHM, HTM, PDF, CDR, PSD, JPG, SWF, TXT.



When you read: "Excellent written and oral communication skills"

It means: "You know the alphabet and can form sentences."


When you read: "Excellent attention to detail"

It means: "If we forget something, you'll remember it--even when we bring you in 3 weeks before the product we've been developing for 2 years is due to ship."



When you read: "Extensive experience documenting business processes"

It means: "We don't know the Byzantine business procedures that rule projects in our company, but you will--from the minute we introduce you to your cubicle."



When you read: "Extensive experience and knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio"

It means: "We use Office 97 in a Windows 2000 environment; you'll produce 200-page documents and Help, HTML, and PDF files involving lots of graphics using them."



When you read: "Ability to work effectively in a team environment"

It means: "You anticipate and do everything the team wants using your extensible clairvoyance skills."



When you read: "Excellent time management skills"

It means: "You will meet all deadlines no matter when you get the tasks without working more than 40 paid hours a week."



When you read: "Ability to work independently"

It means: "You have and use the initiative that eludes the team."



When you read: "Administrative skills and experience"

It means: "You're really a secretary, you know."



And...



When you read: Pay Rate DOE

It means: "$12-$14 per hour"

Germany Gets Less Tolerant?  ...or simply smarter? Check it out.

The President Uses Irony  Who knew the President could be so funny?

The Nightmare Continues...  God Bless America...: "Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?"

And now the Breva 750

And now the Breva 750
Originally uploaded by mojohand.

I really do like this bike. We went to the DC bike show (we being Bob, Matt, Warren, and I) on Sunday. Despite the lack of a Breva 1100, I enjoyed sitting on the Breva 750.

Hurry Up and Wait Was Never So True...  So instead of going to 4-week training, I'm now in limbo, and waiting to go to Ft. Bragg for a new physical. Grrr....

Code for the Right Browser  Eric's Archived Thoughts: Don't Care About Market Share: "If data exhibitionism is your thing, who am I to judge? Just don?t pretend that the bits of data you?re exposing to the world are representative of everyone else?s, because I guarantee you that they are not. "

Why Live Music Matters  Many years ago I spent time on the road with different bands. I've also been a music fan for the past 30 or more years. The time spent in clubs and small theters is invaluable to tempering an artist's craft. Apparenty, it's something Ashlee Simpson would do well to learn: from Kaufman's Sports Daily

"I've been to karaoke Tuesday at Big Jim's Trucketeria, friends, and I've never seen anything like this. Sweetheart, pick a key. Learn a move or two. Try lip-syncing. Oh, wait, never mind that last one. It was a staggering display of incompetence matched only by the Oklahoma secondary. I can't remember ever seeing a performer so devoid of singing ability, stage presence, looks or anything else anyone not related would want to see twice.
When Simpson's song mercifully ended, the crowd united in booing. Sooners and Trojans, fat cats and cheap seaters, locals and tourists, 77,912 strong, they found one thing all night they could agree on: Boo!
It was great. Then the football players came back, the butt-kicking resumed, and it got kinda boring. Ashlee Simpson, superstar, is a tough act to follow. She won't be around much longer. I'm going to miss her. "

Ah, yes, hysteria  No doubt you've encountered the killer laser crisis...but apparently it's all waaay out of proportion. Here's a snippet:
"Michael, an Airbus A320 pilot for a major U.S. airline (who asks to be kept otherwise anonymous): 'Here we have cleaners and caterers able to board and roam through aircraft with no security screening whatsoever, yet people are worried about laser beams? Our priorities are insane.' "

Slow blogs  It seems everyone's taking a break from blogging. Some of my favorite blogs have been, it seems, on hiatus: write on/write off: rachel m. murray's blog, Christina's gleanings, Beth Mazur, and even Heiko seem uncharacteristically non-bloggy these days.

The Waiting's the Hardest Part  Waiting to hear about a dream job for me. Though I finally got my résumé and clips to the firm only on Tuesday, I'm chafing at the bit to know whether they'll interview me, much less hire me. It's one of those positions where you know you're the right person...but you have to be patient to let them do their HR voodoo.

Beautiful Sunset

Sunset near Westeraccum
Originally uploaded by Wattwurm.

I don't even know where Westeraccum is, but I think it's part of the Frisian Islands&emdash;that is, the northwest of Germany. Still, it's a beautiful photo.

Us

Us
Originally uploaded by mojohand.

The happy family...Karen, Sunny, and me.

A long day ends  Heiko can now get some rest. I know how tough this is, just as a manager...but in Heiko's case, he was also involved in L10N as well as I18N.

Sad but True  Job Hunting. Thanks to Heiko for the tip to this guy. Depressing but funny in a black comic way.

Flawed but Funny  Rules for Being a Republican.

I Told Ya So  National Guard Reports Serious Drop in Enlistment. No shit, Sherlock.

It Always Comes Down to Usability  More Is Sometimes Less touts the cheaper music players rivaling the iPod Mini. Yet with comments like

You can run your finger around the iPod's famous click wheel fast to jet down to the W's and then slowly to pinpoint "What a Wonderful World."
But the Rio's thumb wheel has no such variable speed; it's four songs per turn, period. Working through any list longer than about 12 songs is an excruciating exercise.

you see the problem. Another extract takes the Creative Zen Micro to task:

[T]he iPod's wheel has been replaced by a touch-sensitive vertical strip. In theory it ought to offer variable speed scrolling, but in practice it's a sticky, balky nightmare. You'll find a similar lack of polish when you want to use the Zen Micro's hard drive to transport computer files (a terrific feature of the iPod and all of its rivals) and discover that you must tell the software in advance how much space you'll need for them. How could you know that ahead of time?

Who thinks this dreck up? Oh...that's right...engineers and marketeers.

Coding Again  So for the past few days, I've been writing HTML & CSS. I've been creating a menu page for a tutorial I've yet to write as well. The thing is, though I'd tried to use Captivate's MenuBuilder, it looked & felt decidedly, well, PowerPointish. So I created a brushed metal background with Canvas, then I created a few minimal interface decorators as well.
I've been struggling with a four-column layout. Three columns, yeah, I can do that...but I need four columns. Any thoughts?

Bad and Getting Worse  The soldier speaks his mind. At least he got some notoriety, but I'm not surprised that he didn't get a straight answer. Reminds me of something that happened in Germany in '80. My best buddy there Mark L'Heureux was at a battalion assembly in the post theater in Baumholder. A group of soldiers was on stage, as they were taking the oath of reenlistment. Right when the LTC paused before reading it, L'Heureux yelled out, "Don't do it! Don't...do it!"
Everyone broke up laughing. And L'Heureux was protected because he was so short...I think he had about two weeks left in the Army.

End of an Era?  IBM isn't compatible anymore, apparently. I remember when the phrase "IBM-compatible" was the sine qua non of business phrases in the '80s. My how times change.

D'ya Think They'd Vote for Shrub Now?  My Way Finance: "A surprisingly soft 112,000 new U.S. jobs were created in November, the Labor Department said on Friday, casting a shadow across an already downbeat holiday sales season with consumers apparently worried by scarce work and high oil prices."
It's just amazing how he gets away with it.

When Jargon Becomes Mainstream  Perhaps it's interesting that David Pogue notices the use of the term wireframe in a kid's 3-D movie in New York. Perhaps it's interesting that the term is used both in animation and in UX work. But I suspect it's interesting because of the crossover.

Why France is the Best Place in the World  Because you don't get fat, you don't have to diet, you don't have to work out, and you eat whatever you want. Anyone need any user experience designers there?

Selah A pause for the cause

Working in Wiesbaden  Attending the tekom conference, the German technical communication conference. I was invited to speak at the pre-conference called the European Information Development Conference. I spoke about personas and how they can help develop products. Of course, Bogo (whose site is still being developed) was there, as were Scott DeLoach and Rob Houser and Seth Maislin and so on and so forth.

Blue, So Blue  Not sure why. Could be the change of weather, as the days get noticeably shorter, the nights cooler, and the motorcycling less frequent. Could be the almost $2500 spent on taxes, and knowing that I'll have to pay penalties, too. Could be that Karen's going away while I go to drill...and not wanting to go to drill.

Is This Any Way to Run a Railroad?  Heiko rides the blinds...and it doesn't turn out so well. Reminds me of a 20-hour trip I took from Berlin to Warsaw in 1990. What was supposed to be a first-class cabin turned out not to be, and in fact there were no first-class car on the train.

It's Still ABB  Sean Aday has it right, when he argues that the duping of CBS shouldn't hide the fact that Bush lied, that Bush betrayed his fellow Air Guardsmen, that Bush showed how base his character really is.

Rockin' down the boulevard  If you haven't picked up Eliza Gilkyson's newest CD Land of Milk and Honey, do yourself a favor & get it now. My fav right now off the CD:

Hiway 9

Well, the white god said to the little man

we're gonna fulfill scripture in the holy land

between the Tigris and Euphrates, it's a lot like hell

go on and liberate my people and the o-i-l.



Got your big trucks rollin' down hiway 9

put on the armor, it's party time

gonna dance with the devil of our own design

get your big trucks rollin' down hiway 9.



So the little man gathered all his chicken-hawks in

and the neo-cons and his daddy's kin

With their own clear channel and a helluva spin

and a white man hidden in a black man's skin.



Big trucks rollin' down hiway 9

pulverize the public, it's payback time

who's tax dollar is it? your's and mine

keeps the big trucks rollin' down hiway 9.



Well we got caught sleepin at the sentry post

now we're standing toe to toe with what we feared the most

that old father and his son and the unheavenly host

We gotta do what we can and don't give up the ghost



Big trucks rollin' down hiway 9

food and water and an Internet line

run to the polls when it comes a time

cause the big trucks rollin' down hiway 9.

Another one bites the dust...  Well, another job possibility slips by. The hiring manager told the recruiter, "He was great, his work is outstanding, he's really overqualified, but we just decided to go with another candidate."

Hmmm...funny how that works. I wonder if it's because she simply didn't like me, or perhaps it's because I was honest and told her that I'm in the Army Reserve (more on that later). I think it's quite plausible that she didn't want to run the risk that I might be called up, but she didn't want to go on record as being so unpatriotic. The recruiter suggested it might be sticker shock as well—I was presented at $35 an hour instead of the $30 an hour they'd requested.

Sheesh. Sorry, but even at $35 an hour, I'm selling myself short...and giving a potential employer a bargain.

Here We Go Again  Ballot woes redux...and once again, it's the user losing out to technology.

Ansolabehere of the Voting Technology Project said studies have shown that while arrows create more confusion among voters, scanners can better process those that have been filled out correctly than ballots that have been bubbled in.
"Those two things cancel each other out," said Ansolabehere, a political science professor at MIT.

In other words, we made the ballot easier for the computer and harder for the user. Sound familiar?

The Only Two Things That Mean Anything at All...  ...are loving you and leaving Tennessee. Now more than ever.

Why I Love Christina  Choose to be right instead of being consistent. I wish John Kerry were here so I could say it to him as well.

Design Matters... ...but shouldn't take itself too seriously. "If you put a fork in your mouth and you are conscious of it rather than the food it carries, it is a bad design."

Lost  My job is the type of job people hate, not just professionally, but also because they know they HAVE to do it...at least people who have a sense of duty & obligation. Today's a date I wish I could jump on the bike & just ride...but then again, of course, I didn't ride today. This stupid, unpredictable weather sure doesn't help.

I'm doing mind-numbing formatting trivial work. My worth, skill, and value will be measured not by how well people can use the documents, not by how appropriate the docs are to their tasks, but whether the version numbers are the same on all docs...whether they're lined up perfectly...

On the Road for Big Bikes  Getting ready to go to the mountains for the annual Virginia Moto Guzzi rally. I went last year at this time, and it was my first long trip on the Jackal. I loved it. I rode up by myself...taking Route 60 west from Richmond, through Amherst, then down the Blue Ridge Parkway to 501 north.

This year, I'm meeting Matt and a friend at the Ashland Coffee and Tea right by the railroad tracks in, of course, Ashland. We're going to E&E to Route 522 south, then 6 west through Scottsville, and then either 29 south to 60 west or take 6 all the way up Afton Mountain (great road!) and down the Parkway. It depends, of course, on the weather—if t-storms are coming in, we'll hoof it down 29.

Hard to Write  Lately I've been working on many things...maybe a new job, maybe a painting, maybe music. So not much these days gets blogged.

When Things Fly  Glad I didn't own a car in Hamburg.

So True  Sometimes help isn't helpful. Mike has a reat comment. Thanks to Jenny.

You say theory, I say practice  Christina points out that two-thirds of the companies cited in "In Search of Excellence" have folded. Tom Peters' retort is "My principles have survived intact, it's just that the companies haven't."
Uh. Yeah. Like the golf pro's quote who said, "I did everything right, but the putt didn't drop." Good attitude for consultants to bring to their clients...not.

Ebb and Flow  While negotiating for the past several months for a possible consulting job in UXD, I've just today been confronted with two other possibilities—both involving user experience work, not tech writing. So perhaps I'll have an interview next week, perhaps I'll have several offers...or perhaps they'll all come to naught.
The thing is, it's maddening. Feast or famine.

IDEO (mostly) Gets It  In a Business Week article. The Power Of Design (thanks to Beth for the link), IDEO touts its processless process. Though it's survived the dot-com bust of the beginning of this century, IDEO has shifted away from digital to physical interaction product design. Too, they're interested in changing processes, not just products.

Good on 'em. Still, they seem to fall into the trap of designing products for the people on the project team, not necessarily for the person who actually uses the product. "Often, IDEO will have top executives play the roles of their own customers. Execs from food and clothing companies shop for their own stuff in different retail stores and on the Web. Health-care managers get care in different hospitals. Wireless providers use their own -- and competing -- services." The problem with this approach is the same problem with living history reenacting: the persons doing the role-playing might not have the skills to abstract their experience. I've seen this sort of approach devolve into the "I wouldn't do it this way!" Too little learning can be a destructive thing.


Still, it's good to see user-centered design get mainstream press.

Back to the Mine  After a good week in Baltimore at the STC Conference, and after some motorcycling with Bogo, I'm now back at the office. Ugh.

Back from NOLA  Well, we made it back last night from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. A lot of fun, even though we missed two days because of rain. But the music was fabulous. You can now even buy some shows thanks to the modern miracle of digitized music. I highly recommend Anders Osborne's set. What a smokin', funky slide guitarist. Who knew a Swede could rock like that?

Second Lining  Hanging out at JazzFest in New Orleans. Actually, I haven't been to JazzFest yet—we arrived Saturday afternoon, it poured rain on Sunday, and of course the Fest doesn't open again till Thursday. But though it threatens rain today & tomorrow, we're psyched about going to the Fairgrounds in a few minutes. Alons, dancez!

Personal Ads of the Starlets  Heiko sent this: Supermodel personal ads. What a hoot[er]!

Poof!  So Enetation just disappeared. Poof. Like that. No word, no warning, no note, just gone...and with it all the comments that people wrote to my posts (granted, not a huuuuuge amount, but still...). I'd probably get Movable Type going, if I had better access to & understanding of my ISP. At any rate, I'm going to try another hosting service. Bother.

Tool for Collecting Links  Maggy writes ravingly about Onfolio. Basically, it's a PC-only IE add-on that allows you to collect links and documents you might relate to a specific subject. I'm not sure how this approach differs from using Favorites wisely, but they seem to be honked into the UX world: See their scenarios. Interesting to see this sort of usually design work exposed to everyone.

A Fun Timewaster  As Caterina suggests:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

Great Trip  Christina's trip to Languedoc features some great photos. It's a great place to be, if you can get there. And the Corbieres and Minervois and other wines beat a Bordeaux any day in my book.

The buck stops where?  What was it Harry Truman used to say?

Nothing really to say these days  That's why I haven't written in so long. Oh, there's a new job, a loooong-ass commute, and Christmas, but, hey, I've been tired. Maybe later.....

Do they still play the blues in Chicago...?  Oh. My. Gawd. How in the world the Cubbies could drop this one is beyond me...or maybe not. Still, though it's happened before ('79 Pirates did it over the Orioles in that year's series), it sure is rare. And with the Cubs, geez, what a heartbreaker!
After they lost, I rooted for the Bosox..and another case of heartburn! Definitely exciting baseball, but, I mean, why!? Why can't these two teams win at least once? Oh well, wait'll next year, right?

Bring on Da Power!  As of Thursday afternoon, we actually have electricity! O frabjous day! Calooh! Callay!

Poignant Music  Listening to Janet Martin sing and play "Cloud Cover" reminds me of the time in the late 80s when I used to hang out at the Moondance Saloon and watch her play solo acoustic guitar (for free) Wednesday nights. Man, that was a fabulous time! Her sultry voice and spot-on dreadnought guitar playing always touched both my head and heart.
I'd love to hear a CD of just her on guitar. Too, after I returned to Richmond and hadn't seen her for seven years, I was amazed at her slide guitar thing. She'd learned slide as well as a Delta bluesman selling his soul at the crossroads.

Surviving Isabel...Barely  Well, afer a harrowing night of wind and rain and falling limbs, Isabel passed by last Friday morning (September 19). Neighbors came together, and still come together: last night Gregg & Sonya hosted a "Queer Eye" evening, thanks to their generator.
Though thankful we all (our neighbors and friends and families) came through safe, being without power since September 18 is getting old...real old...real fast. I'm not saying Virginia Dominion Power is intentionally ignoring heavily populated urban areas in favor of white-dominated suburbs and rural areas, but it does appear as if they're doing the easy stuff first.

Here Comes the Rain Again...  As Isabel bears down on the coast, the forecast calls for heavy weather in Central Virginia. The biggest problem for me is that I plan to drive to Western Maryland Friday on my Moto Guzzi for a Guzzi rally. Even if the rain stops, the winds'll be heavy...not a lot of fun driving a bike in that kind of weather.
But, best to wait till Friday.

Chicago in the (Late) Summer  What a town! Always great to be in Chicago, especially when the weather's as balmy as this past weekend. Too, the chance to see Dave Specter play blues & jazz is impeccably great. Thanks for Albatross, Dave!
Enjoyed the German-American Fest in Lincoln Square. Although it was small and the only German beer was Beck's, the festival did capture the German fests we experienced in Hamburg. In fact, nostgalgia reigned supreme this weekend...almost like visiting two former homes at once!

Under the Richmond Sky  Having spent the last several months working on the back yard (mostly waiting to work on it, because of the rain), I am glad we finally finished...or at least this phase. Owning a home is great in terms of equity and security (that there will be a place to come home to), but it sucks in terms of the crap that you have to do. Ah, the lies that the DIY industry foist on us!

Not-so-full Circle  Having had a good exchange with the legendary Alison J. Head about her great article on personas, I've been seriously wondering just where and how people are able to actually practice this craft (this craft being user-centered design, experience design, information architecture, whatever).
Certainly not in Central Virginia. Having decided to leave IconMedialab at the end of 2001, I thought somehow that my years of experience would stand me in good stead and propel me to bring the gospel to Richmond.
Alas, it was not meant to be. Instead of bringing the fledgling Sokohl & Associates to renown, I've retreated in my career to my humble beginnings—I've returned to technical writing.
It's a bit sad, really. I moved away from tech writing in the late '90s during my stint with mpct Software. Writing HTML-based help for a NeXT-based banking software system, I began applying stuff like Don Norman's affordances and Ginny Redish's user and task analysis. It was a great inspiration for me. Because of my move toward human-computer interaction, I got the job with IML.
More than two years later and with a bunch of experience such as SOS Children's Village, Siemens Medical, and other projects...plus pitches and usability tests and heuristic reviews and such.

It was a great time, an inspiring time, and a fun time. When I returned, I thought my experience plus willingness to live out of a suitcase would raise my star in the contractors' heavens.
Doesn't seem to be working out that way, though. I grow old, I grow old....

A Cold Day in Hell  A great shout-out to Jenny Berger: You gave me a great laugh, today, girl!
My question, though, is this: on what basis do souls have mass?

another man done gone  As you probably already know, Eric E. "Rick" Stanley died yesterday morning. Here're a couple of notices about it:

The Richmond Times-Dispatch article

50-Plus had a great bio on Rick last year

A memorial service is tentatively planned for Monday, August 18 occurred Wednesday, August 19, at the Arthur Ashe Center on North Boulevard next to the Diamond. When I know more, I'll certainly let you know.
It was a great service, opening with a New Orleans-style band composed of members of the Richmond Jazz Society. Opening with "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" and closing with "When the Saints Go Marching In," the service was a celebration of Rick's life and impact. Nicely done.
Also, you might like Andy Garrigue's tribute.

My Head Is Gonna Explode  The great Molly has once again said what I think. Seems that the great Bruce Tognazzini has written a polemic creating a new UXness: interaction architects.

Indeed. Just what this field needs—more fragmentation of our job description.

Useless but OK  Well, although I know my role is still considerably diminished, I'm much more resigned and less angry. Thanks to the anonymous poster who reminded me not to whine so much. So I've toned it down. Depression is quieter, anyway.

Don't Mess with Me  I'm pissed off today.
Not your fault, but I'm still totally torqued. I spend hours researching something as detailed as whether a menu list should be alphabetical, geographic, or ordinal. I conclude that alphabetical is best, based on such sources as Stuart Card, Ben Schneiderman, and Karen Schriver, among others. I specify it so. My PM receives the info, though he doesn't concur (he feels it should be geographic, based on current practice and politics...organizing interaction around organizational charts, not usage models). He goes into our bosses office, He discusses with him. They agree on a result. They never ask me, they never inform me. They just do it.
Then, in a meeting today with the developers (a different internal org), I discover their decision. "Joe, you won't like this, but...."
So, bottom line, I'm pissed. Guess my irrelevance should work to my advantage—perhaps a policy of coming in late, leaving early, and taking long lunches will at least improve my quality of life.

Helpful Help  Often written help carries the reputation of being unhelpful. Here's a technique to creating more helpful error messages in your online, Web-based presence. If you can get the appropriate rights, you can edit the type of 404 and 401 messages users receive--the dreaded File Not Found and the unauthorized access messages. Thanks, Heiko!

Who Can Attend Conferences Anymore?  A note I sent to Molly:

Hi Molly,

we've never met but have mutual friends/acquaintances in Peter Merholz, Christina Wodtke, and some other IA/UX folks. I've been reading your blog with delight most days.


One question, though: how are you able to do all the travel that you do? That is, in this economy vis-a-vis our profession, how are you able to attend so many conferences and also do so much flying around? My curiosity is primarily professional. Having left Germany in December 01 and returned to the States, I've seen a marked downturn in corporate support of conference attending. In addition, despite what airlines would like us to believe, travel (especially internationally) continues to be expensive.


I miss it, actually. I miss the flying from Hamburg to Chicago to San Francisco to Seattle to Newark in order to test an information architecture. I miss the frequent travel from Hamburg to Munich and Innsbruck for projects. I miss the travel to Gotheburg and Stockholm....and I miss the international give and take with folks at the IA summits, STC (yes, even STC), CSCW, and other conferences.


So what's yer secret?

Anyone else have the same question?

Ain't No Such Thing As Job Security  So today 51 positions were eliminated, 25 currently filled. That puts in jeopardy 25 mortgages. 25 credit ratings. 25 families. Maybe more than 25 children who won't go to college...or whose choice of college is severely limited.
Meet the new boss...

Does Usability Matter?  Some random thoughts...

• Usability is a quality of something, not a thing in and of itself
• Despite ROI claims to the contrary, businesses still don't get the need to worry about what users think
• Customers and users are two different (though often intersecting) groups

Goin' to the Show  We went to the opera last night—the first time I'd ever been! My wife's first time, too. It was extraordinary. I especially loved the sets and the acting. A lot of my impression about opera is built on popular myth—divas posing on stage and hardly moving, much less really acting. Yet Errol and I agreed on the connection between silent movies and opera—the ability for actors to act without talking is a skill rarely seen in an age replete with the technobabble and gratuitious eye-snapping action of matrices.

Let the People Decide  Peter Merholz has a great photographic discussion of paths people take.

Feats Still Don't Fail Me  On the 7th of May I went to see Little Feat in concert at the pasture they call Innsbrook Pavilion in Short Pump/Glen Allen, Virginia (a suburb of Richmond). Man o man o man did the Feat rock!
They started with a killer version of "Cadillac Hotel," with Shaun Murphy belting out the vocal gymnastics the song requires. They then proceeded to play for 90 minutes straight. Tunes such as "Time Loves a Hero" and "Day or Night" sounded timeless and clear and poignant. Pulling out the Band's "Rag Mama Rag" (which the Feat covered on Chinese Work Songs) delighted the audience of largely 40+ listeners. And the acoustic trio of songs included one they'd just written and recorded for their next album.
If you wanna hear the music again, go see the Feat on their current tour!

Valves are Better.... Well, thanks to some folks on the Enfield Bullet listserv, I was able to get some good advice. I've since learned how to fixt the dang things...or at least how to adjust them. The bike's running fine now, even taking me on a wonderful circle last Saturday--Richmond to Hanover Court House to Montpelier and back to Richmond.
Man, it don't get no better than that!

Setting Valves I hate the fact that I have so little skills at mechanical things. I was trying to set the valves on my Royal Enfield this morning. I screwed up. I mean I really, really screwed up. So I couldn't ride to work this a.m., I couldn't enjoy this beautiful 82-degree/23-degree day. I feel so frustrated in being such a klutz at wrench-turning, board-sawing, and wire-connecting. Meanwhile, my skills in organizing information architecturally or visualizing interactions or writing words doesn't amaze me...or anyone else, for that matter. What the hell am I worth?

He Who Has Ears... Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. A wonderful, must-read letter of resignation from a State Department diplomat....

Bored and Depressed So now I'm bored with my job, bored with user experience evangelism, bored with trying to make a difference. It seems others are, too—Peter has dropped out of blogging, Christina's not well, and others seem to say it just doesn't matter. From my perspective, user experience attention does matter&e#151;it's just that we are Cassandra on the walls of Troy....

Mailer Nails It Although I'm sooo not a Pat Buchanan fan, this article in his magazine is a nice interview with octegenarian Norman Mailer. Love him or hate him, Mailer's always fun to read.

When It All Slips Away So it seems that "the powers that be" are looking for someone to be the user experience architect. Trouble is, I think I'm very qualified for it—I'm the only one in the team with any experience in this area. Yet no one bothered to talk to me. Maybe I've got it wrong—maybe it's just one guy's opinion that they should appoint/hire/anoint someone as the UEA....but if it's true what I think is true, then there'll be hell to pay....

Doing What I Ought Too bad that I rarely get to do what I should be doing here. Instead, I find myself formatting Microsoft Word docs and Excel spreadsheets (people, Excel is a spreadsheet program, not a word processing program!). Instead of writing them or editing them, I'm just...well...formatting them. Not exactly the best idea for my skillset, I'd say. Rather than being a technical writer or, even better, a user-experience architect, I'm a glorified admin.

Comments...grrr I'm having trouble editing my enetations comment behavior: I want respondents' web pages to open in a new window, not the comment window...which has no resize capabilities. Thoughts?

Usability Matters Redux I'm starting a column for an in-house magazine. The audience consists primarily ofapplication developers, especially Web app devs. As the only in-house editor/writer type, I get to edit, design, solicit for articles, and write for the the magazine.
So I thought, "Hey--a captive audience! I can wax philosophic about usability, user-centered design, and human-computer interaction." Gee...nice to have the forum.
Initially I'm planning on dealing with these topics:

• Definition of terms such as HCI, usability, information architecture
• How to differentiate between user and customer
• Why functionality testing and usability testing differ

Whadya think?

Whither OZ How stupid can people be? Apparently, pretty stupid. Implications: perhaps we should arrest China because their Internet laws are a violation of the First Amendment.

Anne Galloway corrected my example that I used...but I still maintain that my analogy is appropriate. That is, I remember in the 80s when a county in Texas sued Adam and Eve, Inc., for violating the community standards in Texas. A couple had ordered some soft-core porn from Adam & Eve, received the merchandise, and were then arrested....I'm troubled by this.

Always Apologizing Seems like I'm always saying "I'm sorry" in listservs, blogs, and in person. I'm reminded of John Wayne in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon saying, "Never apologize, Lieutenant, it's a sign of weakness." Perhaps so...but in the exchange on Peter's blog, I just wanted to highlight the post hoc fallacy that seems so rampant these days. Didn't mean to be politically incorrect...then again, wait a minute--perhaps I did...
:)

Tomorrow Never Comes
I'm mad at Amazon.com for not letting me know they couldn't deliver a present. I sent a housewarming present to Peter more than a week ago. But because he'd moved he hadn't updated his Amazon shipping address. So nothing's gotten from SF across the Bay to Oakland.
What galls me is that the systems should talk to each other somehow. You put a USPS change-of-address form into action, other folks should digitally pick up on it...at least in the area of those who ship stuff.
Grrrr.....

It's Right Because I Say It's Right!
Sometimes I get so freakin' tired of justifying my professionalism, my job, my abilities. And I am so godawful tired of hearing, "Oh, well, that's just your opinion."
No, it's not "just my opinion. I say things professionally that I base on education, experience (experientia docet. and the thinking of so many others (rhetoric, information architecture, human-computer interaction, interaction design, and so on).
Now, don't get me started on deadlines....

New Books Out
I've just ordered Christina's book and Jesse's book from Fountain Bookstore in Richmond. Nice to support folks whom you know.

Social Networks
I've been reading a lot of stuff about social networks. Part of the issue seems to be incredibly common-sensical: we communicate with subsets of people, each of whom also communicates with sets of people. Two questions:

1. How do we find out definitively who talks to whom?
2. How do we value instances of communication?

September 11
Still too sad...I almost can't work today.

busy....
Well, like all bloggers, I find I sometimes hit a brick wall. So that's why I haven't written. Plus, Germar was here...and there. We went to New Orleans for Southern Decadence. Whew! Take a lot outta ya....
More later. I'm tired.

So, Once Again, What is IA?
Christina has done it again: She leads me to great sources, such as this one from Jeff Lash. He's done a great job of tying in the history of the Web, the backgrounds of people who used to work on it, and how information architecture not only appeared but was [and is] so needed.
Nicely done, Jeff!

Language Changes
Don Norman rules!
Many thanks to Christina for pointing this out.

The Evils of Visio
I wonder if I have enough time to write this...because Visio has soooo many problems.
I just finished a two-page diagram/drawing (I'm not sure what it is I produce in Visio). Cluttered, silly, ugly, and difficult—that's how I see it. The lack of transparency, blurs, layers, make it a difficult tool to use in illustrating a concept. It's pretty good, I'll grant you, at depicting network diagrams...and it's not too shabby for showing some relationships. But try to get at all abstract and it falls apart.

Sad Movies
Some people like scary movies, watching them late at night while alone. Not me. I don't like to be scared in that terror-filled way of, say, Blair Witch Project (the last 20 minutes of that movie terrified me, despite the three loud assholes behind us who were drinking beer and smoking cigars in the theater). That rush of adrenaline gives me a headache in a different way than a roller-coaster ride would.
Instead, I tend to watch sad movies alone at night. Don't know why...maybe it's the personal nature of sadness, something that's not easily shared like joy or anger or righteous indignation.
Last night I'm watching Waking the Dead. Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly create a realistic love and heartache that's too palpable, too realistic: I found myself almost not able to breathe from the sadness of the movie. The sense of loss, the spin into madness, and the fact that the movie leaves you wondering what's real...and realizing that it doesn't really matter.
whew...gotta go back to editing tech docs now for relief.