In this interesting follow-up story by ARS, Viacom, owners of Comedy Central, support the fair use of video clips by bloggers. In an earlier report by Hollywood Reporter, it appeared Viacom was going to go after bloggers who posted slips of the Daily Show or Colbert Report.

But this was wrong. According to Jeremy Zweig of Viacom, “Frankly, fair use works for us. I can’t recall a time we’ve ever sued a blogger for the use of a Comedy Central clip, and there’s no reason to believe that would be more likely today.”

While is seems likely Viacom will go after larger sites that make money off their content, as they have every right to do, it is nice to see a large commercial entity stand up for (or at least not go after) fair use and individual and non-commercial) bloggers.

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I got quite the laugh from this. Thanks to Bill (of Talking Traffic) for sending this to me:

I viewed this on The Rejectionist, which cites Fuck Yeah, Puns!.

Jokes, Visual Design, Teaching Resources, Typography, Design | 3 Comments »

Here is info on the

6th Conference on Intercultural Rhetoric and Discourse
(Info copied from their site)
Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA
June 11-12, 2010
Contacts: Diane Belcher and Gayle Nelson: intrhetdisc@gmail.com
Call for papers: http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/alesl/conference/papers.html

This conference will focus on critical discourse analysis and corpus-based approaches to research on intercultural rhetoric.The plenary speakers will be SURESH CANAGARAJAH, ULLA CONNOR, ERIC FRIGINAL, and GUILLAUME GENTIL. Featured Speakers are PAUL MATSUDA and DWIGHT ATKINSON. Papers are invited on topics including (but not limited to):

* Cross Cultural Pragmatics
* Cross cultural Spoken Discourse
* Language and Culture Specific Studies
* Teaching and Classroom Practices
* Theoretical and empirical investigations
* Writing in school, college, and the professions

Do check out their site. I’m considering applying. I don’t do much intercultural work, but this is local and looks interesting.

Rhetoric, Announcements, Academia, CFPs | No Comments »

Some things never change…
….

Visual Design, Teaching Resources, texts, Writing Issues, Publishing | No Comments »

Even usability specialists can make usability mistakes, but shortened URLS? Really?

As a usability researcher and subscriber to several usability and related issues blogs, podcasts, and email newsletters, I recently received one newsletter email that used a shortened URL (like TinyURL and other services that provide a shorter URL instead of the full URL) to important additional information. I will keep the name of this newsletter private to protect those that should know better. I found this ironic in an email newsletter for a usability company/organization, as this shortened URL are less usable:

• The name of the site is not included, so they lost the opportunity to provide this information and likely company name. Loss of advertising for them and the knowledge of the site and company for the users.
• Users have no idea what site they are actually going to. It could be a scam, phising, advertising, or simply a site they would not choose to visit. This violates the rhetoric of departure (users like to look before they leap).
• Without the URL users cannot easily figure out how to reach the information if the link doesn’t work.
• Users lose the ability to figure out where they are going and other data about the link–such as file type–and the site structure and thus they are arriving blindly. This also violates the rhetoric of departure. Many users want this information and use it to judge whether they will click on a link.
• The shorter URL are just ugly (not a usability issue, but still).
• If a site or application is used to shorten the URL is is possible the shorter URL will not work if the site or application goes down, coupled with other issues (see the second bullet) users then would have a very hard time locating the information.
• Shortened URL are harder to remember. A bunch of gobbledygook is harder to remember than even a longer URL with key words (http://bit.ly/81YvKm is harder to remember than http://www.screenspace.org/Podposter.html, despite length differences.
• That what I came up with off the top of my head. Any other issues you see?

Needless to say, I did not click on the link. I may have, if it was the full URL.

Now shortened URL are handy when one has limited space and wants to share a link but are unnecessary, less usable, and frankly silly when one is writing their own newsletter and have unlimited space. A usability organization or company should know better.

Uncategorized | No Comments »

I recently discovered this handy and fun color theme website: Kuler where we can “explore, create, and share color themes.” It can be used for any color design you want from blogs, websites, digital media project, even to select paint colors for your own house, as the video by Adobe states. The themes work with the Adobe suite, but can be used in any design. Color themes are tagged so you can do searches for different colors, looks, feels, and ideas. For instance, if you wanted to do a flight blog, there are 5577 (as of 12/22/09) different “sky” choices and 57 choices if you are thinking joyful. The themes are created by users and there are many many options. The themes can be browsed by highest rated, most popular, random, and newest. I enjoy looking at the highest rated.

You can also extract colors from a picture to match your design to a key image. They also provide some interesting help with creating your own themes, including analogous, complementary, monochromatic, and triad suggestions based on color theory work. There is also an active community and many of the themes have comments and feedback.

I used the site to choose colors for my two spring class websites (Document Design & Digital Rhetoric). Do let me warn you before exploring the site, I find it time consuming–I just keep looking at the themes (”one more theme and then back to work”). It’s fun, helpful, and just a bit additive! Enjoy it and let me know if you use it!

I first read about this on the Presentation Zen blog, in a post about the site.

Visual Design, Color Design, Teaching Resources, Resources, Web design, Good Design, Design | No Comments »

Happy World Usability Day!

Today is World Usability Day with the theme “Designing for a Sustainable World”. Check out the World Usability Day website for information on local and online events. There is a lot of great stuff going on around the world! The events map nicely displays how world wide this is.

Of course, one of those great things is my Screen Space 11 podcast “Usability & Usability Testing 101″–specially released at 00:00 today to celebrate. This is a registered online event. Check out the other cool online events!

So, listen to my podcast, check out the World Usability Day site, and enjoy some usable products!

Announcements, Usability, Design | No Comments »

[Podcast Transcript]

In Episode 11 of Screen Space: Usability & Usability Testing 101

Welcome to Screen Space your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and new media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is Episode 11 of Screen Space: Usability & Usability Testing 101. This episode is a short introduction to Usability Testing. I explain what usability testing is, where it came from, and why you may want to consider integrating it into your design process for good web, blog, and new media design. This will be the first of three or four episodes on usability testing. While writing the script for the usability testing podcast I realized, eight pages in, that this would not nicely fit into a single podcast—unless I wanted to go very long. So, instead I am breaking it into parts. In this first part I discuss what usability is, provide a definition of usability testing, and an outline of the steps to conducting usability test. In the following episodes, I will discuss the five steps to conducting usability testing in greater detail: from defining your users to analyzing the results and making changes in your design. I will also discuss the number of users you should test.

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie, a professor at Georgia State University. I teach and conduct research in areas related to new media, web, and blog design. To start with, welcome new listeners from China and Arizona! Enjoy and let me know if there is anything you want me to cover.

This is a special “World Usability Day” episode. November 12th is World Usability Day and the day I am releasing this episode. The theme for 2009 is “Designing for a Sustainable World”. World Usability Day is put on by The Usability Professionals Association, who know all about usability and usability testing—the subject of this episode. All around the world people will be celebrating Usability with online and local events. So, celebrate with me by listening to this (which you are) and checking out the World Usability Day website at http://www.worldusabilityday.org/.

In episode 10 I introduced the concept of user-centered design, where real users become a central part of the design process. User-centered design results in a far more effective, efficient, and usable design than the more problematic user-friendly design, which tends to focus on stereotypes, and system-centered, which tends to focus more on functional specifications and bells and whistles. There are several techniques, methods, and processes we can employ to work towards the user-centered design process. Usability testing is one such method. It is frequently used in the United States and is an easier method for a single person or small group to try than some of the other options.

Usability is a term I use often in this podcast series. Since I shall be specifically discussing a method to test for it in this episode, and because it is a fairly general term, I will begin by defining usability. One of my favorite definitions is from Dumas and Redish, who wrote one of the first books on usability testing. They state “usability means that people who use the product can do so quickly and easily to accomplish their own tasks” on page four of their book. The International Organization for Standardization presents this definition “The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals in a specified context of use with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction” (ISO 9241-11). Whitney Quesenbery, on page 82, points out two issues with this definition. Her first issue is that the focus on tasks and tools may lead those who design products that do not have strongly definite tasks and tools (such as new media) to think usability does not apply. The second issue she sees is that this does not acknowledge “fun” as a user or designer goal. So, Quesenbery provides 5 dimensions of usability: effective, efficient, engaging, error tolerant, and easy to learn. While there are likely hundreds of other definitions I could bring up here, these three provide us with an excellent foundation. Combing these three we end up with a good working definition:

Usability is the degree to which real users can accomplish their own tasks or goals efficiently and effectively with a product that is error tolerant, engaging, and easy to learn.

I did add “the degree to which” since usability is not an absolute; it is more of a continuum. Products can be more or less usable.

So, now we know what usably is, how do we test for it? With usability testing of course. Which brings us to what exactly is usability testing? Usability testing is an empirical study of a product’s usability where actual users are observed while they complete real tasks with the product. Often the testers have specific usability goals or concerns, such as time to complete tasks. The testing is observed and recorded by the people conducting the test. After the testing is completed, the data is analyzed and used to diagnose problems and recommend changes to the product.

For those of you who have not conducted much research or who are more creative than analytical, terms like empirical and analysis may be scary. However, usability testers do not need a background in statistical analysis. If you can do averages and see trends then you can do usability testing, especially the smaller-scale testing that I would recommend for everyday and non-expert web, blog, and new media designers. However, if you really understand statistics, you can also have a lot of fun doing various statistical analyses of the data. Usability testing can be as statistically rigorous as you choose.

Before we get more into what usability testing is, it is important to understand one key concept. Although we call it testing we are not testing our users. In no way is this a test of them. It is a test of our product and our users are the ones doing the test of the product. Our users cannot fail this test, although our products often can and do. There are no right or wrong answers for our users and our users can’t make mistakes. If a mistake happens it is likely because of a usability problem with our product. So remember—we do not test the users, we test our product.

So, now that we have gone over the basics, you may be wondering how exactly usability testing works and what testing may look like. So, here is an example. Let’s say you have a photography blog and you have a decent audience size and want to get more users and see how usable the blog is for your current users. Perhaps you even have gotten emails from a few confused users. So, you may decide to do a usability test to improve the usability of your blog. I’ll discuss the steps in detail in later episodes, but here are the basics.

• First you figure out who your users are and decide which users or user profiles you want to test.
• Then you decide what you will test. What is your overall purpose of the test? What are your objectives?
• What tasks will you test? What will you measure?
• Next you prepare for the testing by creating testing materials, recruiting participants, defining team member roles, developing a test plan, practicing the testing, and preparing the test environment.
• After that, you test! Greet and brief your participants, remain unbiased, record observations, and debrief your participants.
• And finally you analyze the data from the testing and decide which changes you will make (or recommend be made).

For that photography blog, you may decide you want to test the site on middle-aged, middle class, American users with limited photography experience, and a love of art. Your major areas of concern may be if they can find the pictures they want with the search engine, if your tagging of pictures works for them, and if they can easily leave a comment. So, you may design three tasks for them to complete: one where you ask them to search for something using the search engine, one where you ask them to find something via tagging, and another where you ask them to leave a comment. Once you have developed the testing materials and are ready to go, you’ll have users come to your “lab” (which may be your office or living room—wherever you computer is) or test them in the “field”—wherever their computer is. Then, you will give them the tasks and observe them using the blog to complete the tasks. You may video record them or just take observation notes. You will likely time them. You may ask them questions about what they did after the testing. Once you have tested a few users, you can analyze your results and see if your blog can be improved.

And that is Usability and Usability Testing 101. Thank you for joining me. Next time I will talk about determining who your users are going to be for your testing and deciding how many users to test. I plan to put this up before the month is over. This will be the second part of my series on usability testing. I will later do 2-3 more episodes. But for December—the month of giving gifts—I am considering a podcast on recommended resources for all of you. Books, websites, blogs, journals, and so on. This might give you some good ideas of what to ask for for the various holidays or what to give the everyday web, blog, and new media designer in your life.

If you have questions, comments, or thoughts on what you want me to cover please send me an email at jbowie@screenspace.org or check out the Screen Space blog—www.screenspace.org.
Also, check out the blog for a transcript of this podcast complete with links and resources.

Happy World Usability Day! Have fun and design well!

Screen Space is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. So, feel to send a copy to that website that seriously needs some usability testing, but don’t change the podcast, do give me and Screen Space credit, and don’t make any money off of it.

Screen Space’s opening music today is “African Dance” by Apa Ya off of Headroom Project and the closing music is “Survival” by Beth Quist off of “Shall We Dance”. Both these selections are available from Magnatune.

References:

• Dumas, Joseph S. and Janice C. Redish A Practical Guide to Usability Testing. Ablex, 1993.
• International Organization for Standardization. ISO 9241-11:1998. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_9241#ISO_9241-11
• Quesenbery, Whitney. “Dimensions of Usability”. Content and Complexity: Information Design in Technical Communication, edited by Michael Albers and Beth Mazur. Erlbaum, 2003.

Links:

• World Usability Day “Designing for a Sustainable World”: http://www.worldusabilityday.org/
• The Usability Professionals Association: http://www.upassoc.org/
• Magnatune: http://magnatune.com/

 

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podcast, Screen Space Podcast, Digtal media, Usability, Good Design, Research, Tech Comm in Pratice, Web design, Design | 1 Comment »

What do charities do better than fortune 500 companies? They blog more and make greater use of social networking media. Perhaps this is not too surprising, but it is interesting…

According to this study by Barnes and Mattson, completed in 2008, 89% of charities (or 89% of the 200 largest charities according to Forbes.com) used at least one social media and the various media are:

• 79% are using video blogging (is this video podcasting?)
• 57% are using blogs
• 36% are podcasting
• 16% are using wikis

Of the bloggers, apparently “almost all” are using another social media also. These numbers are huge. But these charities have a really good reason–arguably more so than fortune 500 companies–to use social media. As the authors state:

Forty-five percent of those studied report social media is very important to their fundraising strategy. While these
organizations are best known for their non-profit status and their fundraising campaigns, they demonstrate an acute, and still growing, awareness of the importance of Web 2.0 strategies in meeting their objectives.

If you need to fundraise, increased awareness is never a bad thing.

Also interesting is that 75% of these charities are also listening–monitoring the internet for comments, posts, and other conversations about their charity. This is a wise social media practice for any company, organization, or even person, and it’s good to see charities are following this good practice.

What do you think of this? Do you follow any charity social media–blogs, podcasts, or whatever? Are we training our students to be the blogger for the Salvation Army or the podcaster for Planned Parenthood? Should we be? Should charities be using our donation to support bloggers, podcasters, and other social media specialists?

Digtal media, Resources, News, social media, marketing, Web 2.0, Kudos, Tech Comm in Pratice, Podcasting, Fact of the Day, Research, Students, Teaching, Blogging | No Comments »

Here is info on a new Tech Comm journal: Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization :

Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Barry Thatcher (Founder/Editor-in-Chief), New Mexico State University
Kirk St. Amant (Assistant Editor-in-Chief), East Carolina University

This Journal publishes research articles on the theory, practice, and teaching of professional communication in critical global contexts such as business, manufacturing, law, health, education, technology, environment, and others. The Journal welcomes articles with diverse rhetorical styles, types of inquiry, and contexts of research, but articles are to be submitted in English and grounded in relevant theory and appropriate empirical research methods. The Journal is peer reviewed with an editorial board consisting of experienced researchers and practitioners from over 20 countries. The Journal’s main objectives are to:

• Develop better theoretical models of global professional communication;
• Develop a variety of valid and ethical research methodologies for global professional communications;
• Improve the practice of global business and manufacturing through more effective communication;
• Improve the professional communication in critical cross-cultural and international contexts such as the environment, immigration, health, energy, economics, and human rights;
• Develop inquiries and research agendas that address the most pressing issues and challenges for communicating in the context of globalization; and
• Develop better curricula and materials for teaching global professional communication, not only in the United States and Europe, but around the world. Special attention will be given to developing nations.

The journal will be free or “open access,” using PKP open source software and housed at Eastern Carolina University. The first edition is planned for June 2010, and it will be published thereafter on a quarterly basis. We will start accepting manuscripts in late fall 2009. Watch for it online as www.rpcg.org. For more information on the journal, contact Barry Thatcher (bathatch@nmsu.edu) or Kirk St. Amant (kirk.stamant@gmail.com).

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