http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu A notebook for Carnegie Mellon's Masters of Human Computer Interaction program Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:08:58 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The most interesting CHI session I went to today discussed the experiences of User Centered Design (UCD) professionals trying to work within an Agile/Scrum project schedule. I've been thinking about how to incorporate Interface Design into an Agile environment, so I was a little surprised that the panelists had ... http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu/2008/04/agile-or-awkward/ On my first day of CHI perhaps it is appropriate that the session I remember the most is the session that was most focused on CHI itself.  "Usability Evaluations Considered Harmful" discussed the problem of usability evaluations being misused and doing more harm than good.  However, rather than being an ... http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu/2008/04/usability-evaluation-andor-academic-pressures-considered-harmful/ When I first visited Korea, I found it somewhat difficult to eat.  Not because of the food itself, I had eaten at (and enjoyed) Korean restaurants many times before.  Rather it was because of the way that a Korean meal works.  Its typically not based on any one dish but ... http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu/2008/01/korean-food-is-a-state-of-mind/ I just spent my first Jewish Christmas in Korea and I have to report that they don't really celebrate Jewish Christmas in Korea.  Now this may seem obvious as there aren't that many (any besides me??) Jews in Korea.  But it doesn't really take many Jews to have a Jewish ... http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu/2007/12/jewish-christmas-in-korea/ We went on a Human Factors field trip on Thursday to a Sony factory an hour outside of Pittsburgh. It was the most interesting part of the class so far. However, it was ironically interesting more as a lesson in global economics and the manufacturing business than in ... http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu/2007/11/sony-factory/ I admit that I've never been very good at reading analog clocks. I've always used digital ones myself. But when I moved to Pittsburgh and no longer had a cable box with a digital clock on it to tell the time in the living room, I discovered that ... http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu/2007/11/the-affect-of-analog-clocks/ Its a fancy sounding term. But when it comes down to it, Heuristic Evaluations are basically going through an interface and writing down all things that match a list of abstract good or bad features. Its a bit more formal and structured than that and it helps if ... http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu/2007/10/heuristic-evaluations/ For 5 years I worked with a group of mostly Java developers who had to drive about an over an hour each way once a week to the client's office. In this time I managed to avoid ever getting behind the wheel of a car (I'm phobic of driving ... http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu/2007/09/java/ Yesterday, just when I was starting to feel more stabled and settled into Pittsburgh and the HCI program, a little bit more chaos entered into my day.  I went to the first class for my highly anticipated "Evaluation of Computational Cognitive Architectures"class (what an impressive sounding name!).  Right after I ... http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu/2007/08/elective-confusion/ I've just finished my first day of classes at CMU and so far so good.  During the orientation the previous HCI graduate students said that on the first day of the HCI Methods class last year the professor told everyone that they were already a week behind in their reading.  ... http://www.inputpattern.com/cmu/2007/08/first-day/