Conceptual Design, Contributor, Interaction Design, Personality, Users

Understanding the Anxious Mind.

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Article: Marantz, H. R. (2009). “Understanding the Anxious Mind.” New York Times. Retrieved on 4 October, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/magazine/04anxiety-t.html?_r=1&em=&pagewanted=print Summary of article: This article discusses the reaerch conducted by psychologists into persons are constantly anxious and worry a lot. The ide is that certain people are “predisposed” to be anxious. Research conducted on infants as young as 6 months old showed to the psychologists (atleast to some extent) that babies who tended to be highly reactive, that is who react immediately to new soights and sounds, mostly in a negative way, tend to grow up to be anxious and shy teenagers and adults. The article also points out that these anxious babies tend to be become melancholy and introverted as they grow older with few friends and social life. The article also discusses that those teenagers and adults who recognized this “trait” within themselves seemed to do better at controlling/overcoming their anxious nature. The benefits of a reactive, anxious temparament are also mentioned. Artists, writers and scientists tend to be introspective. Worrying can become a help rather than a hindrance when it helps you prepare better for tests, plan ahead for meetings and talks, and never to miss a flight because…

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Background Knowledge, Contributor, Users

On “97 percent of American youth play video games”

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Article | A.P. (2008). “97 percent of American youth play video games.” CNN. Retrieved 16 September, 2008. http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/ptech/09/16/videogames.survey.ap/index.html Summary | The article, focused on the findings from a survey of over a thousand responses posits that about ninety-seven (97) percent of youths – including girls – play videogames. Additionally, the study found that these people are not simply playing alone, but with others (in person and online) in order to socialize. Additionally, the survey highlights their findings that playing video games isn’t a rare or once off happening. Also, it highlights the diversity of tastes across the population. In discussing these findings, the author of the article talks about the apparent correlation (or lack thereof) between video games and commitment to civil participation and civil engagement. Moreover, the researchers who conducted the study (and author) encourage parents to avoid the stereotypes traditionally associated with video games. User Groups | If 97% of the youth population is playing video games on a regular basis, this would imply some level of familiarity and comfort not only with technology in general, but also with the specific trope and conceits commonly part of video game design. Additionally, the social nature of gaming for this…

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Conceptual Design, Contributor, Cultural Differences, Interaction Design, Interface Design, Users

Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global

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Article: Tabuchi, H. (2009). “Why Japan’s Cellphones Haven’t Gone Global” The New York Times Company. Retrieved 20 July, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/20/technology/20cell.html?_r=1&hp As the title suggests the article talks about how the Japanese-made cell phones have not made themselves into a global market. The article refers this to as Galapagos Syndrome, where the Japanese develop a product that evolves isolated from world markets. Despite the fact that Japan has been introducing new innovations almost every year since 1999, with new features such as email capabilities, camera phone, and digital TV, many of these innovations however turned out to be too advanced for most markets overseas. The second generation network standard introduced in the 90s was rejected everywhere else in the world and has contributed to the isolation from the global markets. In addition, many analyze that the issue is in the Japanese phone makers focusing more on hardware design rather than on software, and as a result, the development of handset models becomes time-consuming and expensive. The emphasis on hardware also makes the design to be more bulky and not something that is appealing to the overseas market. The introduction of the iPhone to the Japanese market has not yet proven to…

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Conceptual Design, Contributor, Cultural Differences, Interaction Design, Interface Design, Users

On “Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens”

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Article | Miller, C. (2009). “Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens.” The New York Times. Retrieved 22 Octover, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/26/technology/internet/26twitter.html Summary | Traditional early-adopter models assume that the youth – teens, tweens, and children – are core to the success of new technologies. However, recent products (e.g., iPhone, GPS devices, Kindle) have proven this to be largely myth. The notable example chosen by Claire Cain Miller is the exponential growth of Twitter over the last couple years. While many factors have contributed to the success of twitter among adults, core among them are the nature of the different groups’ social structures/interactions, existing application ecosystem, and (not discussed) Twitter’s design. Whereas a child’s (and even young adults’) main interactions occur within their core social group, an adult’s interactions often include a much wider and more loosely defined sphere of individuals. Twitter, with its “one-to many network”, is much more suited to this collective experience. Additionally, the nature of their online social interactions is not dictated by “the music [they] listen to and the quizzes [they] take”, but participation in an ongoing social dialogue. Twitter’s ability to facilitate diverse conversation on many topics with an audience far beyond one’s social circle differentiates…

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Attention, Conceptual Design, Contributor, Interaction Design, Interface Design

Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye

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Article: Hopkin, M. (2006). “Web users judge sites in the blink of an eye.” Nature Publishing Group. Retrieved 13 January, 2006. http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060109/full/news060109-13.html Researchers in Canada discovered that most of the web users are able to make decisions about the websites within the first twenty seconds of their visit, and the impression they receive during this twenty seconds has a lasting effect on their opinions. This effect is known to psychologists as the ‘halo effect’ and if the users find the site to be attractive, they are more likely to ignore its minor flaws and speak favorably of it and its content. According to the article, this is due to ‘cognitive bias’ as people like to be right about their opinions so they continue to re-visit the site to prove that they had made the right initial decision. In order to come up with a website that gives a good long lasting impression, the researcher suggests using not more than one image and one that is eye-catching, and the information to be accessible to the visitors in the quickest way possible. This is especially important as the article mentions 60% of traffic is directed from search engines such as Google, where…

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Attention, Conceptual Design, Contributor, Interaction Design, Interface Design, Perception, Users

Web Site Design: Are We Doing It Right?

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Article: Cliff, A. (2000). “Web Site Design: Are We Doing It Right?” Retrieved 23 May, 2000. http://www.clickz.com/cgi-bin/gt/en/pm/pm.html?article=1757 In order to understand how people see and obtain information from websites, the Poynter Institute conducted an eye-tracking study that measured in which order people see the elements on a page, how long the eyes stayed focused on each element and how text and graphics links were used to navigate through the site. The study was conducted using news websites and the results were surprising. The findings showed that the readers were more attracted to text than graphics, images and photos. This is contrary to the findings from the study conducted before on newspapers where the readers were first attracted to the photos on a page, then headlines, then text. Web designers have taken the approach to create sites that would look similar to print materials for brand consistency, however, this tells us that the process of obtaining information from the web is different than that of reading print materials, and applying the same techniques as creating print materials in creating websites should be reconsidered. The results also showed that since the graphics were not getting much attention, the banner ads would also…

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