As planned the home design arrived in my inbox. But before opening the design I stopped for a minute to ask myself a couple of important questions relating to the page's objectives - the how and why - with little understanding of the subject matter.

I drafted a hypothesis listing three key functions I thought the home sought carry out.

1. Help users quickly understand what the website is about and how it works (Understanding),
2. Give users a reason to provide their contact (email address) to receive alerts when new matching listings were published (Action) and
3. Encourage users to explore the website further. (Engagement)

I finally opened the design and to my surprise it seemed to fail at all the functions I'd hypothesised about. Instead it was blatantly clear the website was confused about its aims and objectives and was in need of some work to make it more effective.

With little time and effort I turned to a couple of techniques to provide some help before the design is implemented.

1. I did a quick and dirty guerrilla expert review,
2. I generated a 'where do you go to...' click test, exploring the 'Action' function and
3. I drafted some notes and sent my comments and suggestions via annotated report.

I focused on three main problems:

1. Usability of the key search control,
2. Call to action usability and design and
3. Overuse and repetition of content that may confuse users and add unnecessary clutter to the page.

Is there a moral to this post? No, not really, other than to say that it still amazes me how many people use lack of time and money as an excuse for basic design and usability shortcomings.

An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate to human frailties.
Jef Raskin, The Humane Interface, 2000 

I've only just turned to chapter four but the first three chapters provided salient reminders of interaction design. Mostly relating to human pyschology human cognetics and consciousness - up to this point - key learnings stand towering over the text.

Even though Jef spends more-than-the-required time to hammer his points he leaves me (the reader) feeling more than satisfied with his 'validating' stories and ancedotes.

FocusLocus of attention

Unlike focussing attention locus of attention deals with the small issue of semantics and object over action. The word 'focus' can be confused with the verb - the act of focussing - whereas interaction designers should be cognizant of maintaining user attention and reducing cognitive load.

Raskin writes that the word locus to mean place, or site. However, to better understand how a user's attention is utilised, concentrating on design that supports short term memory and reduced effort will result in better allocation of the user's cognitive resources.

Before I reached the end of chapter three, positive monotomy, affordances, modes and common level of ability are areas Raskin touches on, which I found really interesting and certainly worth exploring and re-exploring further.

Right, Quantification (chapter four) beckons. Bye.

Sound familiar? If you're in the UX design field you will at some point hear those all familiar requests - demands even. It's happening a lot at the moment as my project gathers real momentum. The weeks of wireframing and sketching become a reality and exposed as a 'real' web page.

All through my career I've been exposed to demand requests in some form or another. So, I'm fairly comfortable dealing with it. And I think I have a good solution - well it works for me. I will always give my stakeholders/colleagues the chance to convey their views. Stay quiet and listen. Listen carefully. Be prepare to ask them to explain it in another way. Or better paraphrase their views, and then ask questions that articulates their view.

It's important to show you care and are genuinely interested to hear them out. In addition show that you are paying attention, by making notes that the stakeholder/colleague can see. Trust me, even if the requests are somewhat silly or unrealistic giving them the attention goes a long way in forging an understanding.

Just because you're paying attention does not mean you'll respond or act in a way they might expect. When you feel the request is inappropriate write sticky notes on the wall. Obviously where it's relevant add it to the existing backlog or list of To-Dos. Ensure you communicate what you plan to do with their request. Place your notes where people can see them and include their name against the request, on the note. You can then prioritise the requests in relation to all the others and against the agreed scope of development.

In summary:
1. Show interest
2. Listen whilst being spoken to
3. Ask for the issue to be asked in another if you can
4. Recite the issue from the requestors view and paraphrase if needed
5. Write it down (sketch too)
6. Post it so it's visible
7. Assign a name to the problem
8. Manage expectation - when and how it'll be dealt with
9. Discuss it with the rest of the team to agree a priority
10. Close it when it had been dealt with.

Call out for participation
This week I was grounded at home - it was virtually impossible to get to the office. So when I tweeted to my followers in the village, asking locals if they had time for me I was not only surprised people were 'listening' but they'd invite me to their homes. I had a handful of people offering their time so that I could conduct usability tests at their home.

Scenarios and tasks - beta baby beta
I was particularly interested in the prototype's UI and how people - with fresh eyes - would notice available choices, their perceptions, and ease of use during a set of fairly rudimentary pre-defined tasks.

After I had recruited my participants I packed my Macbook Pro laptop (with Silverback app, power lead, address and note book/pens). When I arrived at their house I was welcomed in to the home and guided to a comfortable place - usually the lounge or sitting room. Once we got comfortable (break the ice) I explained what my aims of the test were and what we were going to do. With a relaxed environment it felt distinctly real... my participants did not seem to feel intimidated or pressurised. 

Reporting
It was great fun, I learnt a lot about our newly designed UI but I also found it interesting stepping inside people's homes and observing people's personal spaces.

During a recent piece of research I did - looking at tools used by team members in Agile development - I reached out to friends in the  know, who are or had been involved in Agile methods of software  development. I was given plenty suggestions, like Rally, FogBugz, Pivotal Tracker, Jira, Mingle, to name but a few. What struck me was no single tool did a great job. Most tools required some form of hack, whether within the code or manipulation of its functions.

However, what *really* struck me was a friends' (a developer in a financial services company) response to the Agile process, that I was not expecting.

I am somewhat sceptical about Agile for the following reasons:

The business see it as a way to change requirements at short notice. Developers see it as a way to avoid planning and documentation. Project managers see it as a way to put off decisions/problems until a future iteration. 

During my masters (MSc Interaction Design) I will complete a module in Agile Development. It'll be interesting to see it (Agile and its operators) for myself.

I've only just downloaded the Logitech Touch Mouse app and I'm writing about it. Huh? That's nuts. Seriously though, this app would sit right at the top of the 'cool wall' if there was one. The only problem I see is you need to be able to show it off to really get that full-on personal satisfaction it offers. For coolness, it ranks among Keynote iPhone app - super slick. If you've ever presented using your iPhone to control your deck you'll know what I mean. They say 50% of your presentation revolves around confidence. The Keynote app gives you just that (as you slide the slides from your iPhone).

Logitech's Touch Mouse app allows you to use your iPhone to control your Mac. You can use it as a pointer, clicker, and a fully functional keyboard. Plus you can do all the two-finger scrolling and tap for click too.

Once you download the app and the local server software, which is a breeze, you'll soon be on your way to control your computer while tapping on your iPhone... and show-off to your friends as well :)

On Wednesday I managed to finally access the Google Buzz on my iPhone. Whilst playing around with the app I noticed some really cool geo- features with real time tracking (as I sat on the train).

Whilst this is hot stuff (to me anyway), I've started thinking a little harder about its secondary implications.

For now though I need to get back to my phone so please excuse me.

Twitter's been improving interactions on the new user signup process. If you're remotely interested in interaction design you'll enjoy Twitter's new (actually not sure it's so new anymore?) status indicator. It's begins at 'suggestions' - suggesting popular Twitter users; then 'friends' - the now common feature allowing Twitter to rummage through your address books in search of your friends; and finally 'anyone' - sending you to the search page.