Jakob Nielson's Usability Site

Because one of my colleagues in Uni is working on software development efficiency, I recently got my hands on some publications of Jakob Nielson, my colleague was reading. Nielson is an computer user interface usability expert - not to say one of the authorities in this area.

I got a link to his website http://www.useit.com and browsed a bit through it. In this usability wonderland, you can discover different posts - (tada) mostly about usability. Throughout his texts, he strongly advocates the "anything is better than nothing" approach when it comes to usability(http://www.useit.com/papers/guerrilla_hci.html).

Two of the main problems "with usability" is that a lot of people think of it as being too expensive to address explicitely during software development and it being just a nice add-on to user interface. In his articles, he addresses these two issues. Some of the works on the page include:

• How to tell your boss (and some ideas for yourself) that usability is worth thinking about: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030825.html, and
• Discount Usability Engineering as the candidate to quietly slip into companies and deliver a great cost-benefit ratio: http://www.useit.com/papers/guerrilla_hci.html.

I can recommend reading these and - if interested - to browse his site for more articles. He also has some articles on website usability (as websites take the biggest damage if not created usable): http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/.

For entertainment, check out the Top 10 Bloopers when it comes to usability in the movies: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/film-ui-bloopers.html.

Microsoft's Download Page

I always enjoy looking at the Microsoft Download Page. Maybe I like it, because I visit this site so little and hence - everything is kinda new to me. But you know .... here are some of the things I found....

- solution number 12.123.123 for the synchronization problem of files on different devices. The MS approach only works for Windows Vista, though. The text suggests that it should be doing what it should.... :)
- Windows Defender is a Anti-Spyware solution from Microsoft. It's currently in it's Beta-Phase and the downloadable version Beta-2 will expire end of 2006. But - interesting to see this thing evolving... will it be fused into the operating system...?
- uuups, almost overslept it - there is a new version of the Media Player (11)... available here
- ActiveSanc 4.2 is out and available here

Good night
Alex

Bio-Label in Germany

Beginning with September 2001, the "Bio"-label was introduced in Germany. On the one hand, it stands for food which is produced in a more environmenal friendly way than traditional food (e.g., no synthetic fertilizers, animal welfare). And on the other hand, it has more strict regulations about the load of the food with harmful substances (e.g., pesticides).

Since 2001, a lot of things changed. Starting with a very small amount of customers that were shopping for "Bio"-products in special stores, the demand for them raised significantly and Bio-food currently holds a market share of 3,2%. To live on Bio-food does seem to have positive aspects on one's health - and on the environment. It also gives the consumer back some trust into the food, especially after the various scandals about spoilt meat, and the producers responsible handling of the environment.

A bit lenghty, but interesting is the text (in German!) of the WDR on Bio-food 'Biolebensmittel: Märkte, Preise, Gütesiegel', dating to the 16th of Oktober 2006. It gives some information about the situation in Germany and tries to give an explanation for the current trend to Bio-food. Enriches this with some information and shopping tips (did you know that the big discounters like Aldi, Lidl, Plus, etc. have Bio-food in their assortment, as well). And gives some tips, what to think about when thinking Bio-food. The text is a nice lecture for people that want to be persuaded to buy Bio-food.

Here it is

Hello everybody,

after quite a while of thinking how I'm going to post my blog, I finally chose the pragmatic approach. Use a ready one....

I hope to publish here every now and then, let's see, how it works out.

Schönen Abend
Alex