16 Apr 2009
In the past, students enrolled in courses by filling out a form. I suppose the fax machine was the next step. But now students are filling up an online shopping cart, on websites, of their classes for next semester. Naturally, this is a highly stressful time, so the system should have a user centered design.
I have experienced two of these registration systems. I found the first system quite pleasant and intuitive; the second, not so much. Babson College has a superior course catalog/registration system to SUNY Purchase.
Accessing and navigating the course catalog is similar at both schools. Drop-down menus versus scrolling through a list is the only difference in how to refine the search. The drop down menus on Babson’s system were also present on the catalog pages themselves, not just the index. Having to go back to the index is an unnecessary step.
The course catalog should be connected to the registration system, at least that is what I’m used to from Babson’s system. It makes sense. The methapors are all there as they have it set up as a shopping cart system. It is intuitive to ‘add courses to your cart’, ‘view your schedule’, and ‘check out’. With Purchase, on the other hand, writing down course numbers is necessary.
At Purchase the students have to carry the course information from the catalog to the registration system, the systems are completely separate. This directly results in a giant drop of usability. Another thing the students should not have to do is get an AAC. This is the access code from a student’s advisor that is required for registration. Students should be able to log in and register as long as they do not have any flags blocking registration. The IAC program works, but AAC is flawed. Too many students retell horror stories of not having a code and watching their desired classes fill up while they are helpless to do anything but cry and wait for the advisor to return the hundred messages left that morning while freaking out.
Babson did not have any advisory pre-registration requirement. It was highly recommended that students meet with their advisors to go over schedules and whatnot, but never forced. Now, I will mention one flaw with Babson’s system that caught me off-guard.
The system couldn’t handle it! By it, I mean the stress of an entire class registering at 7am. The server buckled and the site slowed to a crawl. Funny as it may sound, it was nerve wracking. I avoided this issue in subsequent registrations by filling my shopping cart up before the event, and checking out as soon as the gates were opened.
Have you survived these frightful mornings? Let’s hear some stories!
14 Apr 2009
Conversations on the Internet have a certain flavor to them that exceeds limitations of the normal world. The participants do not have to be in the same room, let alone the same country. It is because of this phenomenon that we have a fusing of cultures with the capability of pooling knowledge together. This seemingly infinite array of knowledge is indexed and searchable.
These participants can keep track of one another through social networking enabled websites, which informs one another of interests, relationships, microblogs, and blogs. Conversations here closely resemble informal social interactions, similar to a party atmosphere. This is a pleasant contrast to the focused, educated, and moderated conversations that are ever so quickly building the infinite data pool.
Education is free on the internet. Anyone can use Google. There is no limit to the amount of data that can be sent or stored. The only limiting factor here is bandwidth. Internet access is freely available at the worlds libraries and third world countries are beginning to integrate computers into the household. Soon, wireless broadband will be available for free and every electronic device will be connected to it as well as a smart power supply with diagnostics like Google PowerMeter.
Google has replicated and improved on three of the most important desktop applications, and offered these robust products for free, accessible with your preferences and stored files anywhere. Gmail is the king of all email clients and Google Calendar is a robust calendar. Google Docs is replacing Microsoft Office, and Google Reader takes the stand as the hands-down best RSS feed aggregator, organizer, and viewer.
Third-party hardware is embraced by Google as it is simply provides their clientele. In an effort to maintain this connection with mobile computer users, Google provides a plethora of support for various clients. The most popular, the iPhone, gets the best tools. The Google Mobile app allows you to search with your voice, but only after you unlock this special feature in a secret menu. The capabilities of this app are limited to search. And rightly so, that is what Google specializes in.
That’s not all Google’s done for the iPhone. Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar and Reader are all optimized for the iPhone’s browser. They load when there is no internet because Google is taking advantage of a new technology in browser caching available with HTML5. They even released a Google Sync app to allow push synchronization of contacts and calendars. This allows me to bypass mobileme, which I believe has failed.
Other mobile devices with ties to Google are the BlackBerry and, of course, G1 and Android OS phones. Many seem these as competitors to the iPhone, but Google sees them as users. The masses are all participants in Google’s great information experiment. How effectively can we index information and provide easy access based off of previous human interaction. So effectively it is scary.
So scary that it almost seems like Artificial Intelligence, but don’t worry, it definitely is not. Google would not be anything if everyone in the world were not asking it questions all day. That’s the thing. Google relies on its users. Google is only the bread, the foundation. The users are the butter, the deliciousness, Google is obsessed with them. This infatuation leads to an incredible amount of usability on thick, interconnected system that Google is developing.
This usability and the freedom that Google offers is popular and catching on like a wildfire. Google has become a catalyst for freedom of information. They are collecting everything and providing easy access. There is essentially no limit to how many emails you can keep in Gmail. I can search all my documents and conversations I’ve emailed the past 5 years, that is 2398 MB (32%) of the current allotment of 7315 MB. That’s just a drop in the bucket.
Update 8-29-2013 – For reference, I am up to 26.39 of 36GB (73%)…
With Google - Web History I can access all 9161 searches I made since I registered with Google. That is, a complete histogram of all my hobbies, projects, interests, and research since May 2005. A true blast from the past. In addition, I can see trends on my Google searching. Popular hours, days, months, terms, websites, clicks, you get the idea..
It is fascinating, in my opinion, but to others this mining of data is an invasion of privacy. I’m not going to list their reasoning for this way of thinking, they are obvious. I am going to simply say to these people that Google is a service, not a requirement. If you don’t like it, don’t use it. They might hit me back with the concept of Google taking over the internet, that being inevitably forced to use Google. That idea could make a good plot for a studio film.
05 Apr 2009
Regarding the new the facebook layout, what do you not like about it? Is it too cluttered? How so? Do you really need to see everyone’s new facebook pic of the day? I feel that facebook deserves this update. Many complain about how disorganized the new layout is, that they can’t find anything.. well what are you trying to find? Is there a special group of friends that you want to track everything about? What are you looking for that you can’t find? Let me explain how facebook has changed and how to use friend lists.
The new facebook layout does something bold. It could not have pulled this off without the current size of circles of friends. The creators are saying that there is enough information being posted to display everything in real time. That’s what the home page is now, a real time feed of everyone’s updates. It’s like looking at your Google Reader’s ‘all items’ category, it’s just simply a plethora of incoming information.
The right-hand side column attempts to display important information, and does a fairly good job. It has everything I used to visit the home page for: birthdays, pokes, pictures, events, and notifications for my invites and messages (although this information is now available on every page through the bottom bar). I have noticed that the right-hand side column appears to be favoring some friends over others, namely family members and people of recent contact, including new friends.
I suppose the dunbar number applies to facebook; the most friends you should have for maximum usability is 150. But I have way more than 150 ‘friends’ on facebook, so I have to revert to grouping methods in order to maintain some structure.
To enhance the usability of facebook, you should be utilizing friend lists. Friend lists are managed and toggled through their widget on the left-hand side of the home page.
Simply click on the + sign on the bottom to create a new friend list. Click on your friends and search, or use previously created friend lists to narrow your results. Once created, a friend list can be renamed, edited, and managed by clicking the pencil icon to the right of its name.
Click on your new friend lists to show their updates.
I have found my home page to be much more enjoyable with the application of these lists. When I want to check out what my family is up to I just click their button. Same with my friends (at home and away), and geographic networks. Good luck getting organized!
04 Apr 2009
Most articles I come across are lost in a sea of advertisements and bad formatting. While advertising surely has its place, I feel that it is unfair to distract the user when they have committed 5 minutes out of their day to read what you have to say. Perhaps I am a glutton for simplicity, but I prefer being able to finish an article in one go, rather than having my eyes darting all over a page.
Luckily for people easily distracted like myself, some javascript genius has figured out how to automatically pull the article content out of a page and display it in a customizable, easy to read overlay, toggled by a bookmarklet.
A bookmarklet is a bookmark that instead of loading a new page, runs a small application on the current page. Readable, the bookmarklet in the spotlight, is easy to install. Either drag it to your bookmarks bar, or right-click and save as a bookmark. The author’s website further explains.
The way it transforms a page is entirely based on your preferences.
I prefer reading light text on a dark background, so I chose the ‘dark grey’ color. The layout size, or width, that I prefer is 50mm. The rest I left the defaults.
Now when I’m reading any article, the first thing I’ll do is hit my Readable bookmarklet. What this accomplishes for me is increased readability, efficiency, and usability of the internet.
Further Reading:
Readable - The Bookmarklet
Readability - Wikipedia
Bookmarklet - Wikipedia
23 Mar 2009
Currently, our power grid is operated by people. Mechanical switches. Telephones. Blackouts are unknown until someone calls it in. The sources of our power are centrally located, single locations providing power to vast territories. Having such serious power centrally located is extremely dangerous.
The recent major blackouts on the East Coast and Silicon Valley in the West Coast of the United States are examples of how this system is reaching its maximum capacity and is failing on us.
President Obama has called for an overhaul of our grid and a transition to an automated, widely distributed energy delivery system. In this system the electricity will flow both ways. Allow me to explain why this is important and how it works.
Normally our power system operates fine, but there are days with peak demand. Recall those sweltering summer days when everyone and their dog is cranking up the A/C. The way electricity in our grid works is that it has to be spent after it is produced. Stored energy does not work with our grid. (this will not always be the case!) On these days with peak demand, extra power plants have to be activated, workers paid overtime, and there is no reliable way to predict when these days will pop up.
Now imagine that your neighbor has solar panels on his roof and has a hydro-electric operation running off the river bordering your properties. Surely he will be using at least all of the power from his solar panels, but what about the water based power plant? Your neighbor is auctioning off the extra power that is generated to current buyers. The people receiving this power do not need to be physically located close to the power source, the electricity can be great distances at minimal cost.
On a larger level, there will likely be massive solar plants constructed as soon as the technology becomes sufficiently efficient. These, along with wind, and hopefully nuclear plants will provide the foundation for our energy. These will be supplemented by the independent operations on a local level. If any source needs additional electricity it will be automatically routed.
So everyone can get electricity from one another. What’s so great about this? Well, these de-centralized power together make up a new power grid. This new grid could provide the opportunity for nationwide use of plug-in vehicles by seamlessly integrating renewable energy resources.
With this smart-grid there will never be overloads or shortages, thanks to borrowed power. This scalable system is incredibly efficient and will never fail to meet consumer demand.
What is the smart grid? Digitizing, organizing, analyzing, and streamlinging the relay of electricity from producers to consumers. There are many opponents of this, claiming that the new grid will open us up to a new array of terrorists on the digital front; they claim that the newer, more reliable power will be more expensive.
What are your feelings on the smart grid? Are you afraid of the massive inter-connectedness that is eminent, or are you ecstatic like myself?
Further Reading:
The Smart Grid: An Introduction - US Department of Energy
Smart grid - Wikipedia