BLOG by zaiss

If you tend to consume Pepsi products, then you’ve probably been playing this Every Ten Minutes promotion that Mountain Dew has been pushing with Microsoft to give away a new XBox 360 every ten minutes (appropriately).

I entered my last two codes tonight. Even if I buy a mountain dew sometime tomorrow, I will probably just throw away the caps. Why? Well, we are rapidly approaching the point that throwing one entry into the pool is pretty much meaningless, except to skew the numbers. Until the promotion ends tonight at midnight, there are about 3,000 entries per 10 minute block, and 11,000 entries at 11:50pm. That last bit boggles my mind. Why would you put entries in that spot, unless you happen to have 1,000 of them. Even that would be a pain, though - entering 1,000 codes by hand?! Another issue that constantly trips me up is understanding whether or not my code was valid. When you enter a valid code, the end of the message (which is visible since its (a) near where you clicked and (b) on its own line) says “try again.” That usually tends to mean that you did something wrong, even though this is the success message.

I also found it interesting that, while the promotion ends tonight at 11:50, you can still enter codes for November 1st and 2nd. Admittedly, there’s a big warning on the home page saying “The last sweepstakes for Every10minutes.com will be on October 31st, at 11:50pm EST;” but I still want to enter a code for 12:00 AM on November 1st to see if I will win anything by default. Yeah, the chances are slim, but won’t you feel silly if I win something and you don’t? If the option is there, isn’t it there for a reason? The ultimate paradox of bad usability - was it done on purpose, or simply overlooked? I guess we’ll see!

PS - I didn’t really dump my last two codes on November 1st. That would just be silly.
PPS - Does anyone want my “Collect to Get” points? I have enough to “Get” a beanie cap or a keychain. Both look not exciting. But if, like my buddy Ben K who will never accept a blue drink from me again, you need a beanie cap to keep your hair in check, let me know. It’ll be a Thanksgiving gift.

Carol threw together a lovely account of our Six Pound Burger Quest on her website. Check it out!

Back when I was deciding when to do my undergraduate work, UNO was barely listed in any of the college reference books. Well, they are starting to make a name for themselves, but I don’t think this is what they had in mind. Apparently, in a recent study, UNO ranked as the 11th fattest university.

Whether or not the stat is true, what’s annoying is having UNL’s student paper point it out, whereas UNO’s Gateway has nothing to say. It’s like someone else pointing and laughing at the fat kid – er – university while they just sit there and take it. I’d like to see the Gateway come out with a piece showcasing people staying fit at UNO; even if the stat has merit, this piece might show people how to balance physical health with the pursuit of intellectual greatness.

I heard the funniest usability story in my Software Engineering class today. One of the professors was talking about an old system that supported one level of undo. Apparently, if you pulled up a document and typed “edit,” you would delete the entire document forever. How?

E = Select entire document
D = Delete selection
I = Insert mode
T = {Types the letter T}

Since there’s only one level of undo supported, you’re left with a document with the letter t, and undo will get rid of that one letter for you. Awesome.

I’m currently in my fourth class that requires The Design of Everyday Things as a required book. (Don’t believe me? Human-Computer Interaction, UNO … Human Factors, UNO … Interface Design & Development, CMU … Methods: Deciding What to Design, CMU. Ha.) Don’t get me wrong, I like the book. When I was first feeling out the field of HCI, I was talking to this guy about my Psych / Computer Science double major, and he recommended this book, and it was a good fit for me.

The issue I have is whether or not this book is actually teaching what the professors want it to teach. In IID and Human Factors, the applicability was immediate since the topic of the courses was the usability / interaction style / etc. of tangible, everyday objects. My HCI course took those lessons and applied them to software, which is also very reasonable.

My concern lies in a Software Engineering class giving its students the Design of Everyday Things, making them do a homework assignment on it, and expecting them to understand (or at least appreciate) usability and everything that goes into evaluating it as a result. We are devoting one day to summative methods of usability in this class. One day. Will Norman’s book really be enough to give the students an appreciation of usability? Or is there a better book out there for this circumstance?

Apple has a lot of images to tell us how to look cool with an iPod, but one of these images is not like the other. Can you guess which one? If so, you get a prize…

If you guessed the blue one, you’re exactly right. And your prize - more stuff to read! I know you’re thrilled.

The blue image is actually me with my iPod and new headphones. Why new headphones? Well, an oral fixation doesn’t go well with dangling wires near your mouth, and I tend to chew through the wires during high pressure deadlines. So I go through a lot of headphones.

Anyway, on to the topic of my new headphones: Apple’s In-Ear Headphones. I needed headphones in a hurry, so I swung by the Apple store. I was looking for the standard headphones that come with the iPod, but they weren’t there, so I went with this alternative.

While they advertise three different sizes of ear buds, they generally seem to do little to actually guarantee that they will fit in your ear. The issue isn’t so much the size of the ear buds; rather, it’s the rubber that they use to make them. The rubber is flexible, but not malleable – so it tries to regain its shape once its in your ear, and pops out as a result. Hence the blue image.

Now you can imagine how uncool it is to be walking to school with your fingers in your ears because your headphones keep popping out. And don’t get even get me started about how impossible it is to do homework while you are busy holding your headphones in your ear. But on the bright side, I’ve learned that I might have a future in marketing for Apple.

While three posts in one day is probably a record for me, I just couldn’t let this one slide. My Pier 1 credit card payment was due today, and as I’m sure is typical for a grad student, it slipped my mind until the last minute.

My Pier 1 credit card is the one bill that I can’t pay online. When it was one of three or four, it wasn’t so inconvenient; now, however, I think that Pier 1 needs to get with the program. But that’s not the extent of my rant. No, my rant hasn’t even started.

On the bill, it says, “You can pay at any Pier 1 Imports company store or by telephone (EZ Pay 1-800-767-3662).” So, one would assume that, by calling said phone number, you could pay off your credit card immediately, right?

Wrong. First of all, they charge you a $5.00 fee for paying by the phone. Well, it’s kind of harsh, but I needed to pay it, so that didn’t bother me. However, they also don’t have any way to take debit card information; you have to send them a check. “Do I at least get marked down as having paid today so I don’t get a late fee?” I asked. “No, we mark down your date of payment when we get your check.”

So let me get this straight. I can use the envelope you send me to send in a check, OR I can call you, and tell you I’m sending you a check for $5.00 more and no value add to me? Sign me up. What brilliant scholar thought that this constitutes “EZ Pay”?! Adding a step and an extra charge to a standard process is generally not easy, no matter how cute you try to be in alternative spellings.

Anyway, off I go to the closest Pier 1 establishment: 20 miles away in Pittsburgh traffic. Now, while I probably should have had my check book based on the phone incident, it didn’t occur to me until I arrived at Pier 1 and the lady said, “We don’t take credit cards, only checks.” But then, I’m not sure why it should occur to me - it’s not stated anywhere on my bill.

So I smiled politely, and said, “This isn’t a credit card. It’s a check card.” It even said Check Card at the top. But even that much logic could not sway her. Thankfully, I had just enough cash on hand to cover the bill.

Here’s today’s lesson from the breakdown: If you are thinking about a Pier 1 card, don’t. No cool perks, and it’s way more hassle than it’s worth. As for Pier 1, they should look into the 3rd party vendors that enable bill pay for their customers if they are unwilling to set up the system themselves. As for me, well, I almost let the Pier 1 associate keep my credit card when she forgot to give it back. I’m not sure I’ll be using it again, when I can get better rewards on a generic card.

On Saturday, five HCIers and myself took a 2 1/2 hour drive to Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub, home of some friggin huge hamburgers. It’s discussed in detail on this urban legends site, but the short story is that Denny’s serves 2lb, 3lb, 6lb, and 15lb burgers (though the 15lber is the weight of the entire end product, whereas the others weigh the beef itself), each with various eating challenges associated with it.

It may be mind-boggling to think of what a 6-pound burger might look like, so here it is sized up against yours truly:

Actually, if you know me well, you won’t be surprised to learn that I got a simple less-than-one-pound buffalo chicken wrap… I prefer to steer clear of steers. The burger that I was holding was actually one of Dave’s:

No no, seriously, each 6 lber was shared by two people, and even then, I’d say that each pair ate about 1/3 of their burger, if that. Can you imagine that someone has actually completed the 6lb challenge of eating one of those alone in 3 hours?! A 100lb woman no less. Rock on.

But unless you are a real glutton (for punishment, I mean), burgers like this make for great family meals. There was a family of about 15 sitting near us that ordered one (15lb) burger for the whole family. Yes, it is larger than the child…

In seriousness, though, it was a really fun time, and the food was pretty good. Plus, I think Jenn, who has been dying to go for quite some time, got her fill of 6lb burger for a while. But don’t worry - if any of you want to come visit me, I’m happy to make the trip up there with you. As for eating the 6lb burger, though, you’re on your own.

Jakob Nielsen sent out an AlertBox today about blog usability. Specifically, he outlines 10 usability atrocities commited by blogs. Alas, even I, the aspiring HCI professional, did not make it through the article without a couple issues applying to me. In this entry, I’m going to try to correct my usability errors; I hope my blog feels more usable as a result.

While I think that most of what Nielsen says has merit, I think it’s based on three assumptions: (1) what we are doing now is correct for usability, (2) there is no better way to achieve usability, and (3) usability is all that we care about.

It’s the third assumption that I find to be the most compelling, and it’s one that I’ve struggled with for a few years now. As I completed my undergrad studies, a lot of my work with Dr. Jerry Wagner at One Innovation Place was built around the idea that the experience matters; and at times, the experience was promoted in front of usability. I’d go home with a feeling of pride to show my business-oriented family, who would say, “That’s cool, but I would never use something like that in a business setting. There’s no time to play around at work.”

I find myself continuing to strike the right usability chord this semester as I TA the Writing for Multimedia course here at CMU. One student mentioned today that he was going for a piece that conveyed chaos, and the ideas being tossed around had to do with alphabet soup (words form from the chaos of letters? I thought it was interesting). I suggested turning off the hand icon for clickable items in the soup - but that apparently went too far. Chaos is one thing, but chaotic usability is apparently unacceptable in any context.

Nevertheless, I don’t think that the line is absolute. I think the mystery behind the Donnie Darko website lends to the mystery behind the true interpretation of the movie. J. K. Rowling’s website turns off the hand icon for all clickable objects; instead, highlighting the ones she wants you to know you can click on, and letting you explore the rest freely. If we are trying to portray the idea of chaos, why should usability be spared from experiencing it?

When it comes to usability, I think it’s important to know the rules, because only then do you start to get a feel for when to break them. The results aren’t always pretty, and sometimes they just fall apart. But other times it’s about conveying a different message. Returning to the blog example: Yes, it is a fact that short, direct titles convey the meaning of the post better. But referring to the reason I created this blog, it wasn’t to show off my massive skills in usability creation (and believe me, I gots da skillz). It’s for me to have some fun… and titles like “Blog Usability” don’t cut it as much as “Rendezvous With Super Glue.” Plus, it’s like my friend Jennifer D. Ng said: If your audience is really interested in reading, they’ll look past the title, even if it’s completely absent.

(Oh, and for those of you new to the blog… do you feel like you know Jenn better because I used her full name instead of just her first name? I think Nielsen’s point there might be a stretch; by linking to Jenn’s blog, I think I give enough information about her without having to use her full name to avoid “being in high school.”)

Well, the laptop situation has been resolved. You may recall that the pin to my power adaptor broke off inside my computer, and at the last update, I was attempting to fish it out using what remained of the power adaptor pin and some super glue.

Sadly, it didn’t work. I know you are all shocked. However, I did become slightly more assured that Apple would consider it accidental damage, seeing as how I had dried super glue on what remained of my power adaptor pin. Sweet.

There’s a computer repair spot on campus, so I dropped it off there yesterday so that they could look at it. One last chance to try and get the pin out. The repair guy said that the pin wasn’t the issue… the computer part was broken and needed to be replaced.

So do I send it in to Apple? Well, if my Math major is good for anything, it should be figuring out expected value. I’d say there’s a 90% chance they decide my problem was the result of accidental damage… if so, the cost to repair is $1000. If not, the cost to repair is $350. Expected value? 1000 * .90 + 350 * .10 = $935. A new iBook is $994, which is slightly more. However, the computer will be faster, it won’t have the battle scars that my current laptop has, and I can have it tomorrow. I’ll pay $60 for that.

Oh, and back on the superglue topic. Chaia had posted a comment asking if I had “superglued myself to… uh… myself.” In fact, that did not happen. However, no sooner had I opened the super glue container that a bunch of it got on my pinky finger. If it ever happens… soap and warm water, and grit your teeth while you peel it off. They don’t call it super cuz it’s fabulous, folks.