Hey Web Developers! Do You Think About Online Safety In Your Work?

Are you in the business of developing websites? Do you think about online safety when developing your site? You should. If you don't care about the safety and happiness of your entire audience then law or government might step in... If I was a web entrepreneur, a developer, or any type of investor with a stake in any web business, then online safety (a great user experience) would be my #1 priority.

What do I mean about online safety? Its more than identity theft, phishing, or cyber bullying. I'm talking about the entire world of the internet and all of your particpation in that world, and how this affects everybody else. Online safety includes things like; ease of use, clear simple communication, effective customer support, and avoiding over commercialization. (If Jonathan Adelstein is complainging about "relentless and excessive commercialization" on the web then you know it's already a problem which is getting addressed)

This past month I had the privilege to design an online report for the NCTA. There is a good amount of free user research to be found here in the PointSmart.ClickSafe. Task Force Recommendations for best practices for child online safety. Both in these 2008 task force summit videos, and in the Best Practice Reccomendations report itself.


Here's what it's about:
Google, Verizon, Others in New Child Safety Push
By Kenneth Corbin - Internetnews.com

WASHINGTON -- A far-ranging coalition of IT and telecom firms, advocacy organizations and other stakeholders this morning unveiled a broad set of recommendations for how to protect children online. The new report from the Point Safe, Click Smart task force calls for a lax regulatory approach, emphasizing the importance of educating children and their parents about online safety. The task force, which was spearheaded by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), drew on a diverse group of participants, including Yahoo, Symantec and the National Parent Teacher Association.
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My complaint about the internet industry - Too many times I've worked in too many offices which were more like a frat house than an office. In the male dominated workplaces of the web, I've sat around idly while managers & clients alike have made assumptions about their audiences, assumptions that all their users are most likely be a bunch of guys guys like themselves. I have seen some hilariously wrong thinking get pushed into mainstream websites all erroneously in the name of "more pageviews". Worst of all, a lot of web developers harbor a lazy attitude that creating products that work for everyone is just not a priority. Please, guys, no more lazy, narrow assumptions.

The Smartphone Trend is Dumb

Do you have an iPhone yet? According to this New York Times article there has been a lot of growth in the smartphone market as job seekers try to look competitive to potential employers. This seems like backwards logic to me, just having a smartphone does not deem you a good job candidate. This article I feel is such a misrepresentation of the smartphone experience that I feel I need to blog about it. I also deeply question the New York time's bias here since they are clearly advertising lots of smartphones in their paper. Is this news? Or is this a big ole ad?

If somebody genuinely wants a Blackberry, Palm, or iPhone then of course they should have one, but they are all quite expensive and each of them require a $30 monthly commitment just for the data plan alone. That's $360 a year in addition to the expense of the phone, and on top of your regular monthly calling plan. Who remembers the good old days when the phone was cheap? This looks like a "bubble" to me, if I were a business analyst I would watch out.

Of course the iPhone is fun to use, but being able to send and receive emails at any time, is not so fun. Are we going to wake up in a few years to a world where everybody expects you to reply to them RIGHT AWAY!? If you're job hunting this might make a good first impression, but then you get known as the person who's really good at replying to messages quickly, you're passively committing to being on call all of the time. This doesn't prove anything about your ability to problem solve or make decisions.

I would never hire somebody simply because they have a smartphone. I view these devices to be an encroachment into the workplace and I can picture a coworkers texting their friends, or posting remarks online, activities that have nothing to do with work. Cognitive research has taught me that one little "alert" message, a 1 second distraction of your attention, can cause a fifteen minute loss of productive workflow. I am careful as an interaction designer not to allow such distractions to creep in to my designs.

Finally, there's the show-off factor. Yes the iPhone is sexy (I do own an ipod touch). Yes Apple knows how to design products. But I would judge a colleague on the body of their work as opposed to the possessions they own. I hope the world doesn't judge me because of what I do, or do not own.

Working on Vacation (and it's alright)

I just got back from a week long trip to Asheville and the Great Smokey Mountains. It was fantastic. North Carolina has it all; beauty, culture, and natural wonder. I drove from Washington DC, my goal simply to explore and relax over a long Memorial weekend. On the drive I heard a few radio shows talking about the work vacation. Because of the economy, it sounds like people are afraid to step away from the office for fear that it will make them look bad, and then (maybe) they'll be targeted for layoffs. Some folks must be really stressed out about their jobs! So the work around, of course, is more technology and connectivity. The radio shows spoke to all the usual stuff like checking email all the time from your mobile phone.

I'm pleased to report that MY personal experience with the work vacation was good! I brought my laptop which was already set-up with the files I needed. I made sure that I got as much work done as I could before I left. I communicated to everyone that I was going away, and how I could be contacted... there's plenty of connectivity in North Carolina. During my trip, I needed about six hours to make sure that my client was happy. Some design details on the project got refined and I was able to spend most of my trip relaxing without a single worry.

Now that I've got my vacation workflow in place I'm ready for summer. I can't wait to check out the beaches later this summer. Now, I'm contemplating sending my resume to Carolina companies. Let's see what happens.

Great Online Video Research on Obesity

The internet and video go really well together. The internet and research goes really well together. Put it all together and you get... an easy way to distribute great content to a broad audience.

Here IDEO has shared their research video about Obesity. It does a very good job at illustrating the complexities of making healthy food choices. Helping people make well informed choices is a design problem.

A Lens on Obesity, a Short Documentary from IDEO on Vimeo.

Margaret Wertheim's Crazy Sexy Geometry

This TED presentation reveals some ideas about design patterns that I always knew, but aren't taken seriously by "academia" (or other, similar establishments). Note to UI designers, forget 2D, imagine the internet as spherical space!

Margaret Wertheim: The beautiful math that links coral, crochet and hyperbolic geometry

Why Drupal and Toolkits Like Drupal Suck

This software time-sucubus needs to STOP. I had a Drupal project last summer and it was a complete, miserable failure in so many retarded ways. The client was convinced that all I need to do was customize this already available code. They felt like the work was pretty simple (and hence cheap). There are glaring, obvious limitations to many of the pre-packaged UI elements, the "modules" in Drupal. You can't just customize the look of some module, if the UI is inappropriate, and it's not usable for your website. What's the point of changing the type and other visual styles in a template if people look at it but don't find it usable?

The worst thing about Drupal is that if gives non tech people this attitude that it's OK to cut corners and not think about User Experience or any of the practical realities of developing and managing a website. It lets people think that they can have some workable website in a day. At best you end up with a prototype of what you want, just a half rate design that doesn't connect with people. At worst, you can go down some tedious road of endless, costly iterations, just trying to make the software fit your need.

The other thing I hate about Drupal (and all freeware in general) is the fact that it undermines the entire design profession. Design IS A PROCESS. It's about thinking through your idea really thoroughly, testing assumptions, making sure something really works for the end user. I don't think that any product developer, or any entrepreneur for that matter, should inflict the world with their invention until they've really thought it out first. Drupal really just confuses and limits a lot of people who are new to the web. It enables tightwadishness. It allows people to think they can get away with being lazy. In reality all software, every single website, needs a fairly high degree of planning, budgeting, & ongoing maintenance. Always.

Strictly as a user, a consumer of websites and media, I freaking hate visiting a Drupal site. They are sooooo ghetto. They look bad. They read bad. They are usually not interesting. The cheap Drupal approach to web development just screams AMERATEUR! It's very insulting to ask the world to use half baked software products. I don't WANT to try out the next cool website. I have better things to do with my time.

I don't mean to sound bitchy, I can code very well. But I am a much better designer than a coder. Seriously, it would be better if folks just design something, and then go on rent-a-coder and get somebody overseas to implement a finished spec.