Well, here’s how my conversation with Prof Gilzot went:
12:29:42 PM hreonsrey: Hello
12:29:42 PM profgilzot: Welcome hreonsrey, I am Prof Gilzot and will help you with your SATs. I am a great reason for your parents to allow you to IM even longer than you already do! You can start testing right away by typing menu or learn more about me and my colorful past by typing more.
12:29:52 PM hreonsrey: menu
12:29:52 PM profgilzot: Here is a list of things Prof Gilzot can do. Type in a selection and enjoy!
1. Challenge yourself to a question.
2. How am I doing Prof?
3. Top 10 Results
4. New Questions Alert
5. Email Test Results
6. Refer a friend.
12:29:58 PM hreonsrey: 1
12:29:59 PM profgilzot: Here are the tests you can take.
1. Math Test
2. Sentence Completion Test
3. Vocabulary Test

12:30:01 PM hreonsrey: 1
12:30:01 PM profgilzot: Are you ready to take the Math Test?
12:30:03 PM hreonsrey: yes
12:30:04 PM profgilzot: Here we go and good luck hreonsrey!!!

If x + 3 is an even integer, then x could be which of the following?

(A) -6
(B) -2
(C) 1
(D) 2
(E) 0

12:30:23 PM hreonsrey: c
12:30:24 PM profgilzot: You are correct!

Are you ready for another question?
12:30:28 PM hreonsrey: not really
12:30:28 PM profgilzot: Hm? Type menu or help.
12:30:31 PM hreonsrey: help
12:30:31 PM profgilzot: Here is a list of things Prof Gilzot can do. Type in a selection and enjoy!
1. Challenge yourself to a question.
2. How am I doing Prof?
3. Top 10 Results
4. New Questions Alert
5. Email Test Results
6. Refer a friend.
12:30:37 PM hreonsrey: 2
12:30:38 PM profgilzot: Math Test: 100.0% (1/1 correct)

I can send you the full tests you have taken if you want. Just type 5 to proceed. To go back to the main menu type menu or help.

It looks like AIM is trying to stay relevant by providing some content. Interesting … I also had a fun conversation with Spleak (http://www.spleak.com/) She advised me not to sleep with Lindsay Lohan … thanks Spleak.

It wasn’t long ago that people were concerned about whether google was indexing dynamic pages created with server-side php/asp/etc. They do. I’m sure they’re working on getting the Javascript content indexed too, but this serves as a good reminder of why as developers we must keep our content accessible.

For the last month I’ve been working on a game designed to teach teens some consumer skills. It’s bankrolled by the National Consumer’s League and is … almost … really cool.

Anyway it’s bee a lot of php which has been good experience. Also some XML and Flash, another two things that are good to work on.

One thing I’ve really enjoyed about the project is having some say in experience decisions (mostly because I build it up ). But working on something that’s designed for kids is an interesting problem space that I haven’t thought about a whole lot before.

A big part of the project has been reworking some exsisting php to allow for the rapid rebranding and re-deployment of the game. For example,  we used to just offer the game to high school students in the fall, but now we’ve got rebranded versions for a spring semester competition, as well as for middle school students.  Re-purposing the existing code has taught me a great deal about architecture for this site of web application.

Ok… now to fix the last  round of bugs, yeah right.

More after the cut, including my dream for a cool use of the web for large scale usability testing.

This paper outlines the design, testing and implementation of a Voice Mail system for contestants and they’re families at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

They used a pretty strictly scenario based design which served them well as a design tool. However what I found most interesting was their remark that the scenarios they used and the personas they created were useful tools for showing their progress to the client. In my work at a small design firm in Seattle we work a lot with non-profits. These clients are often not at all technically savvy and frequently do not understand the importance of good information architecture and interaction design for their organizations websites. We do not generally expressed personas and scenarios when designing our client sites but I wonder if doing so would provide valuable deliverables for the clients to show them what it is that we’re doing in the design stages of a project. That is, beyond making pretty pictures in Photoshop.

Another point I found interesting in the Gould piece was how crucial training and real-time user help were for the system. This team created two documents at the very begining of the design process that were invaluable later on. These were simple user guides for the contestants themselves and for they’re families back home. By starting with the help the designers were able to better assess the usability of they’re system and design it’s functionality around the user experience rather than the technical capabilities of they’re computers.

In the world of modern web apps it’s often impossible to provide training to users before they start using a system. (The obvious exception to this rule is an Enterprise or Organizational app such as an Intranet.) Users for systems like mail clients, social networks and media sharing services come to the site hoping to immediately start using the system. , thus there is very little time for training. There is however great opportunity to offer real-time help to users. Particularly with recent advances in the use of Javascript designers are able to provide unobtrusive help. An example of making such help unobtrusive would be to have a “help me” link simply display a hidden Div, rather than opening another page and thus disrupting the workflow of the app.

The final applicable point that I found in this paper was their use of a kiosk mockup in the hallway at their lab. By having a rapidly revised mock-up placed in a semi-public place these designer were able to leverage the experience and expertise of anyone who might walk by. In this instance those people were not only other designers, but craftsman and construction workers as well. This exposed the designers not only to the end users of they’re system but to the stakeholders that would be physically constructing portions of the system.

This idea of prototypes in a hallway gave me an idea: Wouldn’t it be cool if there were an online sharing place for designers? Think how Flickr exposes your photography to thousands of other photographers. If they were then encouraged to give you tips on your work you’d have an amazing forum for the discussion of photographic techniques. And if you were somehow able to share your prototypes with a group of designers online you’d be able to not only gain valuable input on your designs, but provide an extremely valuable source of real world case studies to less experienced designers.

At this shop they’ve elected to use a paper towel dispenser that incorporates a motion detector to release the towels, presumably to promote a sanitary environment.  I’ve seen these systems several times and generally think it’s a good idea. A simple icon can inform a user that they just need to wave at the machine and it will give them what they want (towels).

However, this particular design dispenses only about a half inch of paper for each pass of your hand in front of the sensor. I assume this decision was to reduce the total amount paper used by the system, a noble cause.  But, in order to dispense even enough paper so that the end of the paper sticks far enough out of the machine for the user to grab it requires 5-6 waves of the hand. And in order to get a sufficiently large piece of paper requires almost twice as many waves.

Could they not have designed the system such that the first wave released 3 inches of paper, and subsequent waves realeased only 1/2 inch?  That would eliminate the frantic hand waving that’s currently required to get a piece of the towel, but also discourage over use of the towels by requiring great effort to get more than the initial 3 inches.

Just a thought.

You might be familiar with MIT’s OpenCourseWare project. Basically they offer the syllabus and lecture notes for free online. Most of th readings are available for free online (Checkout Google Scholar). Of course you can’t get credit for these courses, but you can certainly get an education. And that’s pretty damn cool.

Google Transit Route from Home to Parents’