I am greatly enjoying playing Zynga's Mafia Wars on the Cadbury's iPhone. There are two fairly interesting UI flaws which I'd like to point out... The first is the screen which allows you to alter your stats - this is what it looks like. However, this is what most people will see. Can you spot the subtle but important distinction? Proximity implies relation. The word "Energy" is nearer to the number "102" than health. Therefore, one would assume that they are related. In this case they …
Continue reading →
I've largely stayed out of the Apple sphere of influence. I'm stuck on Windows XP at work and use Ubuntu at home. The first - and last - Apple product I owned was a blueberry iMac. I think it may have had an early version of OS X on it. It was fun enough, but I eventually replaced the OS with YellowDog. Now I find myself in possession of a 16GB iPhone 3G. Nice! Or so I thought. For various dull reasons, the iPhone is an unlocked Portuguese model. It was simplicity itself to set it to UK…
Continue reading →
In 2002, I wrote this dissertation as part of my B.Sc. at UEA. I've kept this edition as close to the original as possible. I've added in links (where they still survive) and inserted a few comments where I was ludicrously wrong or unexpectedly right. This paper is not especially well-written and, if memory serves, received only a adequate mark. Terence Eden - 2016 Executive Summary This project report draws on many disparate sources to investigate: The future of the computer. How…
Continue reading →
This is a necropost - resurrected from one of my ancient USENET posts. One of the problems I've encountered is that most people (users and, to an extend, designers) are socially conditioned to believe that tasks should be difficult. They expect a learning curve that isn't always logical. It stems from childhood when we don't understand something and are told "that's just the way it is". Users have become conditioned into accepting a hundred page manual for toaster ovens because, often,…
Continue reading →
