.oO Tailwind

Oh my, if only I could get my hand on one of these.

Remember the movie Back to the Future promising us flying cars and hover boards? Oh how I wanted a hover board, but check out this flying car that should have aworking prototype by 2008 and be in production by 2009!

Shoooz

Originally uploaded by Snow_badger.
I went to an exhibition come party in London last night with my buddy Fosta and his mate Charlie (cheers for the invite).

It was to celebrate 100 years of New Balance, my favourite and British sneaker manufacturer. Visit the New Balance Website to see how stylie they are.

I’m a fan of New Balance, have been for ages and I own a fair few pairs, mostly 864s, 574s, 576s, but also some 1200s too, so I was well pleased to go. I was particularly pleased to see my sneaks on a pillow likethe crown jewells.
So NB are 100 years old - wow that’s an age for sneaker firms - closely followed by Converse who are 2 years behind - So Charlie tells me. And, btw New Balance have never sponsored an athelete like Nike have. True, they’re not a global superpower in the world of sports apparell, but they have a ‘proper’ reputation in the running fraternity. I run so I should know.

During the Easter holidays 2005, I went to the factory up in Flimby, Cumbria whilst on a family holiday on the Solway coast. It stood out like a beacon as I was driving through what is a pretty weird part of the country, quite remote from the commercial world I’m used to.
So in I went and bought 6 pairs at £15 each - if anyone in Flimby ever reads this hook up with me and send me some shoes - Please!!!!

So there you go, treat your self to some NBs, they rock the disco.

Google Image Labeller

Google has just launched an ‘Image Labeller‘ in an attempt to try and append user tags to the images found via Google Image search, (thanks Nicholas).

Well, it reminds me of that game called ESP (can’t remember my source on this sorry).

ESP is an online image game where are paired up with a partner somewhere else in the world. Then you are both simultaneously shown an image and the game is to keep typing in words to describe the image until the two of you strike a match. When you do so you score a point and move on to another one. I’m not sure what happens if you are paired up with someone who speaks a different language to you.

Simple, but actually quite fun. Try it. Give it a whirl.

What’s interesting here is that behind the scenes, they are collecting tags on images found on the internet which via the process of the game are quality assured. you have two people who don’t know each other, remotely agreeing on how to describe an image. I say ‘behind the scenes’ but it is actually on the homepage, but hey, you get my point eh?

So have a look at the Google thing, and maybe it sounds like the thing I’ve already described….

Anyone know why?

Stage 3 of the 7 that we’ll cover in this series actually sees the user start to interact with the search tool.

Hooray.

By the time they have reached this stage some quick fire assumptions have been made subconsciously about what is on offer and how it all works and some implicit and possibly explicit preferences have kicked in. These soft preferences are driven by the default state of search options or user profile (Safe Search on/off, 50 results displayed, etc).

But we now arrive at the moment where users start to create a search query using the form elements presented to them on the page, but as we do so, please bare in mind the mental models I told you about in the Introduction to this series.
This is where we see just how ‘intuitive’ the design really is.

Some search devices are good at helping their users to structure a search query because they break
up the search string into specific requests for information. These are generally known as ‘fielded
searches’ or ’structured searches’ and they control the user input to such an extent, that in theory at least, chances of a successful search result set are improved. You may also see these searches called ‘parametric searches’ where there are a distinct set of parameters from which to choose and you’ll find these more convoluted offerings on car sites and the like. Here is a couple for you to play with:

• Autotrader UK
• Edmunds/Autotrader US

Yell.com (the UK Yellow Pages business directory company (who own Yellowbook USA btw and is the largest YP in the world)) has a structured search which requests any combination of up to three pieces of information; business type (i.e. plumbers), business name (i.e. Acme Plumbing) and Location (i.e. postcode or any place name).

Of course, this approach works well if your data is structured, but of course, not all of it is and this is why the user experience varies from search to search.

More common among traditional search engines is a single search entry field that spans the central area of the page, more commonly nowadays (following Google’s lead) you’ll see these fields along with a variety of indicies across the top from which to choose; Web, Images, News, Blogs, Groups, Whatever.

This is an age old approach that pretty much acts as the blueprint for search engine design patterns but I can’t help thinking that people still feel like they’re shooting in the dark a bit.

Users often make claims that they have to ‘learn how it works’ - which as a search strategy and a user experience isn’t particularly wonderful. This may also be why people tend to be fairly loyal to any given search tool – they’ve ‘learnt it’.

A9 has a search entry field that spans right across the page, but in trying to be different, probably offers up more complications and cognitive effort than ease of use as it displays some search indicies that simply aren’t clear.

Where I’m getting to is this, when users interact with a search tool, they can either enter a lot of information upfront and have targetted results, or they can enter a small amount of information and then ‘be in the ball park’.

Google operates in the second way, and if you have read the introduction to this series you will realise that this can be a poor user experience and is why I don’t think Google is a great experience.

Oooo. Did I just say that? Yes, and I’ll fill you in on the detail as to why later.

But essentially, if you have a number of inter-related search queries, a la mental model 2 or 3, say searching for a good recipe for thai green curry or planning a holiday to Malaysia, then Google isn’t very good at tying these things together. Instead each query is singular and the adjustments are made by the user. It just so happens that most adjustments can be made by the user within the first search results page (SERP) as they are so well designed.

Have a look at Yahooo! and Google when searching fo rthe term ‘Malaysia’.

See how Yahoo! offers up, above the first result, an entry marked with ‘Y!’? That’s a Yahoo shortcut that rather helpfully second guesses what it is the user is after. Google, is rather hapless and unhelpful with the same query as they don’t have the content to display in the way Yahoo! does.

Other stages yet to cover:

1. Error Prevention and Correction
2. Browsing Results
3. Refining Results
4. Discovering More

Of course after my post on geotagging hacks for Flickr they’ve gone and actually added the functionality on a new ‘Maps’ tab in the Flickr Organiser. This was of course inevitable seeing as Yahoo own Flickr and a brand new shiny mapping service and it’s been somewhat successful if this article on Flickr Blog claiming 1 million geotags in 24 hours is true.

!!!!!!!!Blimey o’reilly!!!!!!!!

I remember showing someone how to link from a Flickr picture and ‘fly down’ to the location it was taken using Google Earth, they thought I was a hyper geek (which I have a tendency to be at times) and we had a long discussion about the technology adoption curve and that this stuff won’t bite the mainstream for a .

Now, don’t get me wrong, as far as I know Flickr isn’t a photo site for the masses, it’s user base are more tech savvy than your average Joe (this is all speculation and rumour filled btw - does anyone know WHO is using Flickr or where I can find out?). So 1 million geotags in 24 hours isn’t a sign that photo sharing has moved into a new era just yet, but hey, exciting stuff?
I’ve been working on a couple of projects recently covering both mapping and photo -blogging, and am even working on a geotagging offering for a.n. other photosite. More later.

But this is an exciting area for user experience professionals as I think it taps into a core human trait - collecting. And going further, it’s changing, fundamentally, how we share our memories. It used to be that we’d spend hours writing witty captions in photo albums, which while like a book these are nice to thumb through, they’re hard to share to geographically spread out family members.

Now it’s all about EXIF and metadata, GPS and tags.

I mean I can already stream my photos into a wireless picture frame in my parents house, if I were generous enough to buy them one of these wireless Flickr enabled photo frames
Bring it on.

I’ll have a good play with the Flickr Geotagging option and let you know what I think.

Since the atrocities of 7/7 here in London just over a year ago, there seem to be more and more cyclists on the road going into work. Further, the amount of folding bikes that you see crusing around London’s busy streets has gone through the roof.

BTW - this is my Dahon Speed Pro.

I’ve been riding from the mainline station to the office, which is just about 2 miles since I started, but I’m really pleased to see that some of the cycling initiatives that have been put in place have taken off, particularly the Boost offering which they ran at my office.

Even some of my less-than-fit friends/colleagues have gotten themselves a bike and are now riding into work, getting fitter and easing the strain on the trains/tube/buses.

Personally, I live too far outside London to ride all the way in, but just by riding a few miles each day, I feel like I’m doing my bit to ease the congestion on London’s terrible transportation system, the only problem is that I get made to feel like a lepper for taking a bike onto the train into London at rush hour.

Frankly the new Siemens Desiro trains weren’t designed with transporting cycles in mind. To this end, as there is only standing room only, unless you get on mega early, people get upset about a bike being there.

Why wasn’t this thought about, why don’t the new trains have space for transporting cycles at peak times? Why isn’t the transportation system integrated?

When Tony Blair and Mayor of London Ken Livingstone want people to ride to work, why didn’t they think about how to make it easy for people to bring cycles in or store them safely somewhere near the station?

This is dumb design.

And with an increasing amount of people making the switch - someone needs to be thinking about a solution.

So - if you get onto a crowded commuter and there is someone with a folding bike, don’t huff, puff and tut. Just think of that extra space on the tube, and while you are at it, think about buying one yourself.