Out of an Oddity of Timing and Photo Community Building

(self promotion warning!) Out of an oddity of timing, specifically I hit upload on the way out to dinner, one of my photos was the 1000th Houstonist group photo on flickr.

Here is the post on Houstonist and here is the Houstonist flickr group. And of course here is the photo.

Hats off the Houstonist to leverage something as simple as acknowledging photos to build community. In fact the first time I saw a link to the Houstonist blog it was through flickr. Giving first is good karma.

And of course thanks for the honor of being photo of the day on Aug 31!

Now, how can folks like the Houston Zoo (another disclaimer: the Houston Zoo is a consulting client) engage the Houston zoo community on flickr. The Houston Zoo Elephant blog is exciting but not yet as participatory as flickr communities.

TUAW – Bryce 5 Free for a Bit

Speaking of visualization, via the tuaw blog:

Bryce 5 free until September 6th

DAZ Productions is the latest software company to have been struck by the ‘let’s give it away for free!’ bug, as they have placed a $0 price tag on Bryce 5 for both Mac and PC – but only until Sept. 6th.

I wonder if you can import the Bryce models into Sketchup? Hmmm.

On the visualization theme we also *finally* finished painting what used to be our training room to be a small green room. Chroma Key paint to drop in backgrounds from Star Wars. Or more subdued maps like the weather man.

Now the catch here is none of us are exactly videographers. So, if you have this need for a chroma key green backdrop and are in the Houston area, drop me a line. Free access to a mini studio – not a bad deal.

Social Softare Blog Posts Worth Saving

A round up of related and interesting blog posts. Mostly to save the links for myself.

1. Google Earth and Emergency Aid – now this is *real*
2. Research on Social Network Sites – your brain will hurt reading all of this amazing research
3. Traffic Congestion Tax Experiment in Stockholm – Collective Action Predictable, why must we be surprised that taxation dramatically affects behavior?

And last but not least, I’d like to see a mashup between

Flickr Adds Geo Tagging and Microsoft Live Phototouism?

This Runway Small Aircraft Only

Signage matters. Usability matters. Visuals matter. Particularly for aircraft.

Design could have prevented this tragedy. Maybe a sign in big letters that reads "This Runway Small Aircraft Only" with a picture of a small aircraft.

Having flown a lot I can say that I don’t understand the signs at most airports. When reading them out the airplane window they are cryptic. One of the lessons from the 9-11 commission was to use normal speak. Airports communicate in a way such that you have to be trained to understand. Why?

At the beginning of the shorter runway put a sign with a picture of the maximum size plane that can possibly take off from that runway. Maybe it is stacked like a traffic light showing 5 size aircraft. Everything too large to take off from a given runway has a big red X through it. I would understand that even if I was tired. Design with strong visuals can and does save lives.

When One Technical Team Insists on Talking to Another Technical Team

From recent events at work…. When a prospects technical team insists on only talking to your technical team to solve the users problems; you have a problem. This point coagulated in my mind even more because as the whole things was happening I was reading The Inmates are Running the Asylum on software usability and design.

I called the bid process off. And probably hurt our reputation in the process. It was still the right thing to do – mainly for the potential client but for us also. Why?

It wasn’t just the geeks-only-talk-to-geeks aspect. There isn’t anything wrong with technical folks comparing specs. I can be somewhat of a geek myself at times. The challenge is the people who write the checks assume we the technical-team are off to the side solving actual user needs. And they haven’t actually specified any specific user needs, just overall demographics of theoretical audiences.

And we shall call the creation the <trumpet sound>USERS</trumpet sound>.

Ah… that word… the "user". Well just who the heck is that?

For too many of us the user is an amalgamation of audiences lumped together into this chimera of a beast. And truth be told that beast will never be happy. And YES this is even if the chimera signs off on the specification documents.

My point? I agree that the creation of personas is completely required for software development and web design. And I agree with the extension of that paradigm to marketing in books like Cat. On the other hand I don’t believe you can write functional specs for software without a big time budget. And your technical team can’t design for the people, they can only design for one person. And they should specify that. Just sayin’

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