Designing A Computer Screen?

One of my former consultants, Susan Weinschenk, writes a good blog "What Makes Them Click". Useful for anyone designing anything for a computer screen...

Cognitive loads are expensiveYou are paying bills at your online banking website. You have to think about what bills need to be paid when, look up your balance, decide how much to pay on your credit cards, and push the right buttons to get the payments processed. As you do this task, you are thinking and remembering (cognitive), looking at the screen (visual), and pressing buttons, typing, and moving the mouse (motor).
In human factors terminology these are called “loads”. The theory is that there are basically three different kinds of demands or loads that you can make on a person: Cognitive (thinking and remembering), Visual, and Motor.
Not all the loads are equal — Each of the loads uses up different amounts of mental resources. You use up more resources when you ask people to look at something or find something on a screen (visual) than when you ask them to press a button or move a mouse (motor). You use up more resources by asking people to think or remember or do a mental calculation (Cognitive), than when you ask them to look at something on a screen (Visual). So from a human factors point of view, the order of the loads from most “expensive” to least is:
Cognitive (most “expensive”)
Visual
Motor (least “expensive”)
It’s all about trade-offs — From a human factors point of view, when you are designing a product, application, or website, you are always making trade-offs. If you have to add a few clicks, but by doing so the person doesn’t have to think or remember as much, that is worth it. Clicking is less of a load than thinking. I once did some research on this topic. People had to go through more than 10 clicks to get the task done, and at the end they would look up and smile and say, “That was easy!” because each step was logical and gave them what they expected. They didn’t have to think. Clicking is less of a load than thinking.
Reduce loads to make it easier — Most of the time when considering loads in design we are looking to reduce the loads (especially cognitive and visual) to make the product easier to use.
Increase loads to grab attention — But sometimes you want to increase the load. For example, to grab someone’s attention you might put more visual information (pictures, animation, a video) and thereby increase the visual load of the product.
Increase loads = gaming — The best example of purposely increasing loads is gaming. A game is an interface where one or two or three of the loads has been intentionally increased in order to provide challenge. Some games have high cognitive loads, some have high visual loads, some have high motor loads, and some have purposely increased more than one load.
Have you evaluated a website or product from this point of view? Have you designed a product or website from this point of view?

100 Things You Should Know About People: #60 — Cognitive “Loads” Are The Most “Expensive”
Posted: 17 Feb 2011 09:32 PM PST

PALM COAST RUSSIANS: Planning a vacation? Check out this report on which countries do the most drinking

http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/publications/global_alcohol_report/

What bars do my Russian neighbors favor in Palm Coast?  Most of those I know go to the liquor store and drink at home.  If there are some popular bars where Russian speakers gather, please post them here as a comment.Talk to Ted!

PALM COAST RUSSIANS-HEAR WHAT ALJAZZEERA SAYS ABOUT EGYPT

My Russian neighbor gets the Brighthouse Russian TV channel and doesn't watch much regular TV.  She does use her computer to talk with friends and relatives.  I thought our large Russian community might be helped if I edit the Aljazzeera website for its point of view on world happenings. 

Here is what they say about Egypt.  Please drop me a comment if you find this useful in helping you determine your own position.  Use the link to go directly to the article.  I think you will be able to search and find the Russian language version of their website.  Please post it here as a comment if you find it.

The Egyptian revolution has resurrected pan-Arabism but this is not the pan-Arabism of previous generations


The Egyptian revolution, itself influenced by the Tunisian uprising, has resurrected a new sense of pan-Arabism based on the struggle for social justice and freedom. The overwhelming support for the Egyptian revolutionaries across the Arab world reflects a sense of unity in the rejection of tyrannical, or at least authoritarian, leaders, corruption and the rule of a small financial and political elite.

Arab protests in solidarity with the Egyptian people also suggest that there is a strong yearning for the revival of Egypt as a pan-Arab unifier and leader. Photographs of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the former Egyptian president, have been raised in Cairo and across Arab capitals by people who were not even alive when Nasser died in 1970. The scenes are reminiscent of those that swept Arab streets in the 1950s and 1960s.

But this is not an exact replica of the pan-Arab nationalism of those days. Then, pan-Arabism was a direct response to Western domination and the 1948 establishment of the state of Israel. Today, it is a reaction to the absence of democratic freedoms and the inequitable distribution of wealth across the Arab world.

We are now witnessing the emergence of a movement for democracy that transcends narrow nationalism or even pan-Arab nationalism and which embraces universal human values that echo from north to south and east to west.

This is not to say that there is no anti-imperialist element within the current movement. But the protests in Egypt and elsewhere promote a deeper understanding of human emancipation, which forms the real basis for freedom from both repression and foreign domination.

Unlike the pan-Arabism of the past, the new movement represents an intrinsic belief that it is freedom from fear and human dignity that enables people to build better societies and to create a future of hope and prosperity. The old "wisdom" of past revolutionaries that liberation from foreign domination precedes the struggle for democracy has fallen.

The revolutionaries of Egypt, and before them Tunisia, have exposed through deeds - not merely words - the leaders who are tyrants towards their own people, while humiliatingly subservient to foreign powers. They have shown the impotence of empty slogans that manipulate animosity towards Israel to justify a fake Arab unity, which in turn serves only to mask sustained oppression and the betrayal of Arab societies and the aspirations of the Palestinian

people.http://english.aljazeera.net/video/africa/2011/02/201121745529374196.html

Islam is Doomed

I need to understand Islam. Their philosophy is very compelling.

God makes the rules, not man
God's church should govern man's actions
Humans are not equal; God's Chosen are superior

The West's unwavering commitment to democracy, translates into an unwavering commitment to theocracy, including an anxious impulse to resurrect the caliphate;

http://www.meforum.org/2831/can-american-values-radicalize-muslims

Of course all of these pillars of Islam are made of loose sand.  They, themselves, cannot agree just which man has the direction connection to God and should be in charge of telling the rest of us what his rules are.  Consequently, they cannot agree on who should run God's church.

Or who are God's Choosen.  Which of the Islamic spin-offs is 'The True Church'

So I think we should let them squabble among  themselves as they have been doing for thousands of years.  We should stop interfering.  We are just giving them a unifying cause; "stop westernization" to rally around. 

I am convinced their women will shed their bourkas and refuse to remain uneducated and be dominated by males while the men will continue to kill each other over who should be boss. 

As they continue with their internal struggles, their Sharia culture will be doomed by the Information Age.  The governed will see real world alternatives.  The Media Is The Message. 

Multiculturalism? Sounds Nice...

I brag about Palm Coast I describe how culturally diverse it is.  What a sweet mix of ethnic groups from all over the world.

However, that is a two edge sword.  We also have a touch of "multiculturalism"--the politically correct but weaker word for "balkanization"...

Balkanization, or Balkanisation, is a pejorative geopolitical term originally used to describe the process of fragmentation or division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or non-cooperative with each other (Wikipedia)

My next-door neighbors, Russians, would not teach their children English until they were five years old.  The kids had to speak in the mother tongue.

Pandering to Hispanics we have dual language signs all over our new Lowes. 

Miami has been annexed by Cuba.

It's time we became outspoken on the dangers of Balkanization here in the US.  I love our ethnic mix.  It's healthy.  It's American.  But we must integrate, not segregate and we must all speak English..

Defend yourself against Foreclosure

Under Water?  Looking into how to defend yourself when talking to friends or your  bank?  Here is a very well done presentation of the homeowner's argument and the banks argument.  It's a business agreement now; a contract.  Not a moral obligation.  The bankers are being thrown out of the temple. 

On Friday we expect our government will pull out from backing mortgages. 

And after the next wave of foreclosures, expect the credit card bust to happen.  Why should folks not paying their mortgages bother to pay their credit card debt?  Another video like this should be in the works!

http://bit.ly/ggG1sk