Archived news and events
- Interview: Erik Stolterman on "Bits as Material and Thoughtful Interaction Design" (November 2006)
- Event: Erik Stolterman on "Bits as Material and Thoughtful Interaction Design" (19 October 2006)
- Event: Master Class: User-Centered Design (UCD) (26/27 September 2006)
- News: Namahn designers present post-academic course in collaboration with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (14 February 2006)
- Event: "Information Architecture of Enterprise Web Space" by Paul Kahn (19 January 2006)
- Event: "International Standards for HCI and Usability" by Nigel Bevan (22 September 2005)
- Event: "The Cognitively Congenial Interface" by Patricia Wright (17 May 2005)
- Event: Luc Steels talks about "User-Driven Semiotic Dynamics for Peer-to-Peer Information Exchange" (22 February 2005)
- Event: Peter Van Dijck about "Information Architecture and Intranet Development: real-life stories from the trenches" (16 November 2004)
- News: Namahn designs multi-media cyclist application for the Limburg Tourist Office (10 November 2004)
- Event: Jan-Christoph Zoels on "Mobile User Experience Trends" (21 September 2004)
- News: Namahn leads user interface design 'studio' organised by the Vlaams Software Platform (30 June 2004)
- Banksys presents terminal designed with Namahn's assistance (22 June 2004)
- Event: "user-centered Design of Digital Products - 3 Belgian companies share their experiences" (8 June 2004)
- Event: "What you don't know about the human factors of usability can cost you money or even kill somebody (maybe you)!" (5 May 2004)
- Event: Louise Ferguson presents a workshop on "Ethnography and Design" to Namahn clients (17 February 2004)
- News: Namahn in project on intelligent luggage with Hogeschool Antwerpen and KULeuven (4 February 2004)
- Namahn takes up active involvement in the Vlaams Software Platform (VSP) (2 December 2003)
- Jean-luc Doumont presents a workshop on "Understanding visual communication" to Namahn clients (20 November 2003)
- VSP event on Usability Engineering (11 September 2003)
- Belgian e-government implementation of social security declarations (10 July 2003)
- Namahn supplies documentation for a new money transfer service (4 July 2003)
- William Hudson talks to Namahn clients on "User-centred design with use case methods" (4 June 2003)
- KBC Bank releases an XML-based version of its Knowledge Base for employees (4 July 2002)
- Namahn designs new concept for LMS Test.Lab Revision 3 interface (14 May 2002)
- Press: Namahn included in book about new working environments (4 April 2002)
- Speech - 'About Cyborgs and Thermostats: visionary and silent technologies' (22 January 2002)
Back to latest news and events...
Event: Stephen Payne on "Models of Tasks, Devices and Activities" (28 November 2006)
Should we intentionally design user interfaces that are difficult to use? Believe it or not, sometimes we should, at least according to Stephen Payne.
Payne found that sometimes users form better mental models when it's actually harder for them to interact with a system. Through a series of experiments, he and his associates discovered that thinking steps through is more efficient than pure trial and error. Payne terms this the "Theory of Learning by NOT Doing".
In one experiment, research subjects were divided into two groups and asked to manipulate a slide number puzzle. The first group was given a 'low-cost' user interface: to move a puzzle tile, they simply entered the number of the tile. The second group was given a 'high cost' user interface: they could only move a puzzle tile after providing several pieces of information and following multiple steps. Engaging in trial and error was much harder for this second group. Yet amazingly, they actually learned faster and became more proficient at solving the puzzle in fewer moves.
Perhaps it is precisely when users are forced to construct their own mental models that the greatest learning takes place. In an experiment using video recorder instructions, Payne discovered that users who read a complete sequence of steps before executing tasks performed better than users who read the manual line-by-line and executed tasks one at a time. His explanation: when forced to digest a series of instructions, users find ways to remember the instructions by attaching meaning to them and building stories about them. In essence, they begin to develop a mental model.
So, should we intentionally design user interfaces that are difficult to use? Payne believes that—at least during a learning phase—presenting users with a difficult user interface can enhance learning. Either way, far from eliminating the need for user-centered design, Payne's research shows that we need even better design—and conceptual models—to support learning.
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An audio interview with Stephen Payne on "Models of Tasks, Devices and Activities" is available in the Namahn Interviews podcast section. |
Interview: Erik Stolterman (November 2006)
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In the first of our series of Namahn Interviews podcasts, Joannes Vandermeulen talks with Erik Stolterman of the Indiana University School of Informatics on "Bits as Material and Thoughtful Interaction Design". |
Event: Erik Stolterman on "Bits as Material and Thoughtful Interaction Design" (19 October 2006)
Most of us have never thought of bits as material. Instead we focus on what Erik Stolterman calls "the manifestation" of bits (in a design). Yet just as wood defines a carpenter, so do bits define an interaction designer. The similarities end there, however, because bits are different from any other "material" seen before: they can be "kept alive" forever, copied without losing anything and their value increases with greater connectivity. In fact, Stolterman advanced the idea of a "bit pool"—all the bits in the world.
How do the unique qualities of bits as material influence thoughtful interaction design? Given the malleable nature of bits, and the ever growing bit pool, Stolterman believes that the "possible design space" (possible new manifestations of bits in a design) is continually growing. It's impossible, therefore, for a designer to say a priori how he will design a particular product. At the same time, Stolterman has found that good designers know precisely why they do things a certain way; they can justify their judgments, for example, in a design rationale. Yet because good design is done "in the moment", scientific approaches (methodologies, frameworks, etc.) can only support—not define—good design.
That then begs the question: what is "good design"? According to Stolterman, judging design is like judging the quality of wine; it can only be answered for the particular wine.
While Stolterman raised as many questions as he answered, he was emphatic on one point: interaction design needs to be taken more seriously. As with architecture, industrial design and other older design disciplines, designing products in what Stolterman calls a "designerly" way requires investment.
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An audio interview with Erik Stolterman on "Bits as Material and Thoughtful Interaction Design" is available in the Namahn interviews podcast section. |
News: Namahn designers present post-academic course in collaboration with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (14 February 2006)
Collaborating with Namahn, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven has developed a post-graduate, six-evening course on the design of man-machine interfaces. Namahn designers Lien Goedemé, Johan Van Maldeghem and Bart Vermeersch will be presenting recent insights, based on three cases. Other presenters are from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven itself, The Human Interface Group and Innovation Centre West-Flanders. Courses are in Dutch and participants can attend on either of both KULeuven campuses, Leuven and Kortrijk, which are linked with videoconferencing.
Courses run Tuesday evenings in March, April and May. For details, see the course overview (select 'Ontwerpen van mens-machine-interactie' in the 'Opleiding' list) or download the brochure.
Event: "Information architecture of Enterprise Web Space" by Paul Kahn (19 January 2006)
One tends to think of information design as a new profession. Yet Paul Kahn gets his inspiration from visual designs as old as the Romans. According to Kahn, the Peutinger Table, a 12th century reproduction of an ancient Roman roadmap, was not drawn to scale and the north-south axis was flattened. Nonetheless, this odd-looking "squashed" map folded away neatly and communicated vital information to travellers including the location of towns, the distance between towns and the best route to take. Kahn suggests that good design focuses on the essential information and may simplify or distort it if doing so improves communication or convenience.
A more recent example comes from the London Underground. Realising that the actual curves were not important in a transport system, Harry Beck regularised the shapes in the London Underground map, making it much easier to understand and use. He also increased the space between stops in central London and reduced the space between stops outside of central London. This made it possible to get more on paper and make a pocket-sized map.
Kahn's interest in maps extends to the enterprise web space. He and his colleagues use 'glyphs' to capture and communicate information architecture. 'Glyph' is derived from 'hieroglyph' and is a compact visual representation, full of symbolic meaning. Using isometric information maps, such as the Turgot city maps devised during the 18th century, Kahn and his associates have been able to map the voluminous digital information available to clients such as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
Visualising information the Kahn way is demanding, but it is a good way to make information transparent and reach consensus on the most appropriate information architecture. And in Kahn's work with clients, the benefits from thinking in terms of an "enterprise web space"—all the digital assets that your company has or that exist in your field—have become clear: easier access to information, improved usability and greater interoperability.
Paul Kahn is a leading international consultant, speaker and author on web site architecture and visualisation. His activities in the United States included director of the Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship (IRIS) at Brown University, co-founder and president of Dynamic Diagrams and adjunct professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.
After moving to France in 2001, he became managing director of Kahn+Associates, an information architecture consulting group based in Paris. He currently teaches in the Master Multimédia Interactif, Université de Paris 1 (France) and as a guest lecturer at MediaLab, University of Art and Design, Helsinki (Finland).
He is the co-author of Mapping Web Sites (with Krzysztof Lenk), which has been translated into French, German, Spanish and Korean. He is also the editor of NEW Magazine, an annual publication devoted to international verbal and visual communication.
Event: Nigel Bevan on "International Standards for HCI and Usability" (22 September 2005)
Who would ever have thought that standards for usability would be an interesting topic? Nigel Bevan, a UK-based standards expert, made it so. At the ninth library event, he patiently walked the audience through an alphabet soup of ISO and other standards, and explained the different approaches.
In the area of usability, standards can be broadly categorised as shown in the table.
| Standard Category | Examples of Relevant Standards |
|---|---|
| The use of the product (effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a particular context of use) |
ISO 9241-11: Guidance on Usability ISO/IEC 9126-1: Software Quality Characteristics |
| The user interface and interaction | ISO 9241: Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals, parts 10-17 |
| The process used to develop the product | ISO 13407: Human-centered design processes for interactive systems |
| The capability of an organisation to apply user centered design | ISO TR 18529: Human-centered lifecycle process descriptions |
Product use standards describe recommended usability measures such as task time and ergonomics. It is a ‘black box’ approach in that only the resulting usability is measured. In contrast, standards related to the user interface and interaction get into the nitty gritty of icon symbols and functions.
Process quality usability standards apply an approach similar to the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) of software engineering. ISO 15504 (SPICE), for example, defines design capability levels. “In many organisations, first you design the product then you layer on the UI,” says Bevan, “the user-centered approach integrates design for usability into the overall design process and treats it as an integrated whole rather than an afterthought.”
A promising new initiative is the “Common Industry Format (CIF)” developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US. Suppliers such as IBM, Microsoft, HP and Oracle are providing standard usability test reports to IT purchasers. CIF encourages suppliers to work more closely with purchasers to understand user needs.
Not everyone is happy with usability standardisation, however. According to Bevan, a major consumer electronics company has opposed attempts at usability standardisation for consumer products (ISO DIS 20282: Ease of operation of everyday products), claiming that “the results could be misinterpreted.”
Bevan and the audience agreed that standardisation of consumer products is woefully inadequate; the consumer only really discovers how usable a product is after it has been purchased and by then it’s often too late. So, although much progress has been made, it’s still ‘early days’ for usability standardisation.
Event: "The Cognitively Congenial Interface" by Patricia Wright (17 May 2005)
In a talk that was as intriguing as its title, Patricia Wright presented her vision for user interfaces that go beyond mere usability.
According to Wright, a user interface can not only be readable and usable, it can also be congenial. But what is congeniality? To Wright, it means providing a user interface in the desired context, via the preferred medium and in a way that the user wishes. In short, it means that the user interface is "in-tune with the way I like to do things."
As an academic at the University of Cardiff, Wright has conducted several rigorous studies to test her ideas. In a study of 189 women, for example, researchers asked whether they preferred print, video or audio for receiving information on medical topics. The answers varied widely depending upon the actual topic. For information about childhood vaccinations, 88 percent of respondents preferred print whereas for information about speech impairments only 32 percent did.
Another experiment explored how user interfaces can support decision-making. Realising that complex decision-making involves juggling multiple variables and making trade-offs, Wright and her colleagues sought to design user interfaces that could aid the process of making these trade-offs to arrive at a 'best fit'. The result was IDEX, the Interactive Decision Explorer. Wright discovered significant variations in user preferences: older people preferred using 'boring' tables to optimise their health by adjusting amongst level of exercise, cholesterol, diet and other factors whilst young men preferred sexy computer game-like user interfaces.
With so much diversity, what's an interaction designer to do? Wright notes that it's difficult to categorise heterogeneous user populations and guidelines are prone to error. Nonetheless, Wright has a simple solution: let the user decide by offering several options.
Event: Luc Steels talks about "User-Driven Semiotic Dynamics for Peer-to-Peer Information Exchange" (22 February 2005)
What does 'wogglesplat' mean?
Maybe nothing to you and me, but quite a bit to a robot.
In an esoteric—yet fascinating—presentation, Luc Steels described a new paradigm for communication between disparate entities.
According to Steels, the world is moving rapidly towards a peer-to-peer information model. Music files, scientific research papers, travel information and bookmarks are just a few examples of the information that's now being shared. However, P2P creates a mess. Everyone has their own metadata and their own way of presenting information.
Steels analysed three approaches to communication in a P2P world and then explained why user-driven semiotic dynamics may be the best.
The first approach is to index information—what Google does. But the problem with Google and the other search engines is that they know nothing of semantics. Moreover, search engines have a creeping bias—some websites rise in ranking at the expense of others—partly because of the search engine's commercial focus.
The second approach is to use ontologies—conventions for describing and categorising information. But who is going to create the ontology? And who will enforce its use? Is it even possible to foresee and formalise everything that interests humans? Steels concludes that this 'semantic web' only works for restricted domains.
A third approach is 'social software'. No, it's not about dating or mating. The idea is that a community share annotations (tags) that are used to index objects. Steels likes this approach better because there is no central control and it is user-driven. Unfortunately, however, the de-centralised nature of social software leads to a proliferation of tags. "In such a chaotic world, schema-mapping is inherently unsolvable," says Steels.
Enter 'emergent semiotics'. Despite its fancy name and arcane terminology, the idea is quite simple. Entities simply learn to understand each other through repeated interactions. Steels calls this process of coordination 'grounded communication'. The power of this type of communication is that it is grounded in perception of the real world and based on negotiation between actual 'users'. In contrast, other approaches are often based on artificial constructs or the lopsided views of a central authority—be it a particular individual, group or organisation. In the 'Talking Heads Experiment' back in 1999, two robots invented an own language that enabled one robot to describe coloured, geometric shapes (a blue circle, etc.) and the other robot to properly identify them. Moreover, these two robots were like newborn babies, they could perceive sensory dimensions but had no innate ability to distinguish between colours.
Emergent semiotics is most effective, Steels believes, because perception will always be different across cultures, and even from individual to individual. A study comparing two island tribes—the English and the Berinmo of Papua New Guinea—found that their colour categorisation was vastly different. Steels claims that emergent semiotics will allow us to finally accept differences and instead simply coordinate. It doesn't matter if your 'red' looks like 'pink' to me, as long as I eventually understand that "Oh, that's what you mean by red."
This communication process may sound like a lot of work, and it is. But fortunately, software agents do the work for us. By using genetic algorithms, for example, the best solution literally 'evolves'. An explicit 'man-made mapping' between information sources is no longer necessary.
In this brave new world, no human intervention is required. "We will have to accept that information systems are like living organisms. We don't fully control them and they simply survive," says Steels.
Still, humans can't always leave things alone. In one of the experiments, hackers taught the robots dirty words. Researchers were embarrassed by these profane robots when groups of school children visited the exhibition.
Event: Peter Van Dijck talks about "Information Architecture and Intranet Development: real-life stories from the trenches" (16 November 2004)
What do deformed frogs in Minnesota have to do with information architecture?
A lot, according to Peter Van Dijck. He cited a website that is devoted solely to this specialised topic. Actually, it is a website within a website, or as Peter calls it a "topic page" or "mini-portal". A topic page groups and situates the available information and is typically maintained by a subject matter expert. According to Van Dijck, it is an example of information architecture (IA) that is relatively easy to implement.
Another example of easy-to-implement IA is "best bets". Van Dijck noted that search query distributions follow the power law. Queries are clustered around a relatively small number of topics and terms, and the frequency of search terms and topics rapidly drops off. So by manually optimising say the top 20 percent of all queries a company might improve search efficiency for 80 percent of all searches. Such simple, yet highly-effective strategies are already being used by Microsoft and others, Van Dijck noted.
In a wide-ranging, interactive discussion, Van Dijck also talked about portal IA (tip: structure your portal to reflect the user's information needs and not the company's organisational structure) and enterprise search (tip: cluster results). One of his most startling statements, however, was the simple observation that many people lack basic information management skills. Creators of information need skills in versioning, naming and classifying whilst users need library and search skills. Presenting in a casual style complemented by his perfect New York accent, this Belgian information architect's main point was that a company can embark on simple solutions rather than spending millions on major IA projects or complex technologies. Indeed, he began his talk by stating: "All companies have an information problem, not a technical problem."
Peter Van Dijck is a Belgian information architect specialising in metadata and in cultural and language issues on the web. He is the author of Information Architecture For Designers, developed the XFML specification, and founded the AIFIA translations group to make information architecture better known outside of the English speaking world.
News: Namahn designs multi-media cyclist application for the Limburg Tourist Office (10 November 2004)
Namahn has designed an application for cyclists in Limburg Province together with Telindus, main contractor on the project. The application is a PDA that provides navigation information such as the recommended route and the distance between intersections. Unlike systems in use by sport cyclists, however, the PDA also provides information on local points of interest. Moreover, it is a true multi-media, entertainment appliance. Cyclists can listen as actors describe the local history and activities in a playful manner. The actors also alert cyclists to the "must-see" places en route. The cyclist can even play video clips to enrich their experience.
Developing the PDA was a major challenge. It had to appeal to a wide range of user types from older couples to families with young children. And the application had to be so easy to use that it wouldn't distract cyclists from the road ahead or traffic.
The Namahn staff developing the application put in a lot of kilometres to get it right. In order to truly understand the user, they literally took to the road, cycling through much of Limburg Province. An initial design was tested on a range of users, both casual and hard-core. The PDA has been in testing since 24 October and will be released in March 2005, in time for the beginning of the cycling season.
Event: Jan-Christoph Zoels speaks about mobile user experience trends (21 September 2004)
Do you have an appetite for "digital delicacies"?
Jan-Christoph Zoels presented tantalising examples of how mobile technologies will change our world, and in many cases already have.
Abbreviated SMS texts, for example, are changing literacy (trend #2). The new language sounds like secret code to anyone over 22 years of age but is becoming the lingua franca of teenagers.
Teenagers will no doubt be major consumers of "digital delicacies" (trend #1: beyond speech). A "telekatessen" lets you send a personalised SMS message to your beloved, while a link with the physical world arranges chocolate bonbons, inscribed with your original "sweet nothing", for pick-up.
Video karaoke goes many steps beyond mere ring tones to offer consumers the chance to be silly, but also communicate with their friends and loved ones. "We even got a patent for it," says Jan-Christoph.
Not all the applications are for entertainment, however. Mobile technology also helps improve time planning (trend #5). An application developed by Fluid Time Data Services, for example, helps people better manage travel time, auctions, meetings or even the utilisation of appliances. It can coordinate usage of a communal washing machine; the system sends an SMS to your mobile phone to tell you how much time is left on your spin cycle and when the machine is available.
The Vocera system is an intelligent communications assistant that enables fluid communications across teams or entire organisations. Using natural speech, users speak into a badge ("Beam me up, Scottie!") to page people, schedule meetings and much more. It is already in use in hospitals in the US and is being deployed by the US military in Iraq.
In the new un-tethered world, designing with users in mind has become even more important. Zoels ended his talk by presenting ten tools for user-centered design, such as studying "extreme" characters.
Jan-Christoph Zoels is senior Associate professor at the Interaction design Institute Ivrea, Italy.
Find out more about the speaker by having a look at Zoels' biography (40Kb, PDF) or Zoels' personal web page on the Ivrea web site.
The Ten Mobile Phone Trends:
- Beyond speech
- Changing literacy
- Beyond Text
- Desiring personalisation
- Changes planning
- Location matters
- Enabling collective actions
- Supporting social solidarity
- Adding control
- Rethinking access
Event: Namahn leads user interface design 'studio' organised by the Vlaams Software Platform (30 June 2004)
This one-day workshop took place at the Computer Sciences department of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
The objective of the workshop was to understand the user-centered design process by re-designing the Pixagogo online photo-management application. The twenty participants were divided into teams of four people each, with each team being led by a Namahn consultant.
The teams started by examining the current application and developing a vision for the new, improved application. Next, they described personas, analysed user tasks, wrote scenarios of use, designed a conceptual model, and created a conceptual design. Finally, they developed a plan for usability testing. The findings of each team were evaluated in plenary session.
It was an intensive workshop. The participants completed their analysis within a condensed period of time, yet provided detailed findings that could undoubtedly improve Pixagogo.
Participating VSP member organisations were Agfa-Gevaert, Alcatel, Barco, IWT, KaHo St Lieven, LMS International, Niko, Siemens, and WTCM.
News: Banksys presents terminal designed with Namahn's assistance (22 June 2004)
Namahn assisted in the design of the new C-ZAM/XENTA terminal that Banksys is presenting to the press today. From the start of the project, Banksys committed itself to a user-centred design process by putting ease of use, installation and maintenance high on the project agenda. They took Namahn on board in the project to make sure these goals could be met.
Our activities were:
- Collaborating closely with the Banksys design team from the start, making sure the design process was user-centred and remained so throughout the project. We supervised the ergonomic and accessibility side of the design process, both for hardware and software
- Performing acceptance tests on a prototype of the new terminal, by taking it into the field and letting both cardholders and merchants score and test the hardware and software of the terminal
- Performing usability tests on a mock-up of the terminal software
- Producing interface design guidelines for the development of software for the new terminal, so that developers other than those from Banksys could achieve the same standards in accessibility and usability
- Producing an installation and service manual for the new terminal
Event: "user-centered Design of Digital Products - 3 Belgian companies share their experiences" (8 June 2004)
On Tuesday, 8 June, Agfa-Gevaert, ICOS Vision Systems and Banksys, presented how they have applied user-centered design to develop better user interfaces for their flagship products. Forty participants endured the sweltering heat to listen to the actual experiences of these past and present Namahn clients.
Joannes Vandermeulen, Business Manager of Namahn, opened the evening with a wide-ranging presentation on the state-of-the art in the user-centered design of digital products. He pondered why user-centered design is difficult, noting that organisational "silos" and fear of irrational users are two major impediments. He also gave a detailed overview of a typical design process, and showed examples from each step. Vandermeulen has also developed a model of design patterned after the hierarchy of needs developed by psychologist Abraham Maslow.
Although models and methodologies are important, careful observation and insight are still the cornerstones of good design. In one of his very first jobs Vandermeulen made simple yet startling observations (it took users 10 seconds to fill in a paper form, the same time it took for the computer screen to refresh) that ultimately resulted in the cancellation of a project.
The other presentations, while not as provocative, were no less illuminating. John Gibbs, Application Manager at Agfa-Gevaert gave a thorough overview of Agfa's design process, showing some of the document types that they use. Koen De Wel, R&D Manager at ICOS Vision Systems described how a re-design of their "Man-Machine Interface" (MMI) improved their competitive position and became an important sales argument. The evening ended with a sneak preview of Banksys' vastly improved user-friendly payment terminal given by product manager Inge De Cock. The terminal will be officially released on 22 June.
Event: "What you don't know about the human factors of usability can cost you money or even kill somebody (maybe you)!" (5 May 2004)
On Wednesday, 5 May, Tom Hewett of Drexel University (Philadelphia) presented in the Namahn library reasons why it is important to take into account human performance characteristics in designing complex systems for human use.
Hewett captured the audience's attention with his description of how limitations in human cognition resulted in several spectacular and tragic airplane crashes. The crashes were not attributable to mechanical failure, weather conditions or even any clearly identifiable pilot error. Rather they were the result of a common failure to accurately gauge distance when confronted with a featureless landscape. They were, namely, a problem of human cognition.
Hewett is a professor of Psychology and Computer Science and a world-class expert on the cognitive aspects of human-computer interaction. He asserts that many usability problems are actually the result of cognitive issues and, therefore, require "cognitive engineering."
Hewett also showed how motion makes it easier to visualise 3-D objects and how the 'magical number seven' is a rule that is often applied inappropriately.
Event: Louise Ferguson presents a workshop on "Ethnography and Design" to Namahn clients. (17 February 2004)
Did you think that ethnography was only useful for studying aboriginal tribes? Not according to UK-based interaction design consultant Louise Ferguson. At a by-invitation-only event attended by fifty Namahn clients and vendors, she showed that ethnography is not only for anthropologists; it is also an extremely useful approach to design.
Ferguson presented several case studies to illustrate how ethnographic techniques can be applied to real-world design problems. By conducting individual interviews and observing people in their typical work environment, for example, she uncovered the reasons why a wireless tablet computer was not accepted by staff in a UK hospital. The system lacked key demographic information and did not easily fit on the trolleys used by nurses. In a study of "hot-desking" in a government agency, Ferguson discovered that despite the new environment, staff members were finding ways of personalising their workspace and demarcating their territory. In an investigation into the IT "productivity paradox" Ferguson observed that users clung to analogue systems such as card files and post-it notes because they offered benefits such as immediacy, portability and sharing.
Ferguson readily admits that ethnography does not produce statistically valid results. Through a process of "triangulation", however, patterns emerge and she is able to arrive at accurate conclusions. Her study of bikers was more revealing than the reams of quantitative market research conducted by the industry. Evidently, there is no substitute for getting "down in the mud" with actual users.
News: Namahn in project on intelligent luggage with Hogeschool Antwerpen and KULeuven. (4 February 2004)
During the second semester of the current academic year, Namahn is working with staff and students of the Hogeschool Antwerpen (Product Design) and the University of Leuven (Computer Science) to conceive 'intelligent' luggage, that is, luggage equipped with digital functions. The project's main goal is educational: to broaden the student's views on the various disciplines involved in the design of digital products. Students will be evaluated on the quality of their individual or group assignments.
Namahn's current contribution consists of ethnographic research (a set of methods related to contextual enquiry) regarding the day-to-day use of purses and schoolbags. We mixed observation, participation and creative workshops to supply students with insights on users and usage.
News: Namahn takes up active involvement in the Vlaams Software Platform (VSP). (2 December 2003)
Namahn has not only recently become a member of the Vlaams Software Platform, but has co-initiated a new working group dedicated to the improvement of user interfaces.
The working group that will be facilitated by Namahn founder Joannes Vandermeulen and Erik Duval of the University of Leuven aims to support participating members by such means as practical advice on risk avoidance, where to seek assistance in Belgium and the exchange of best practices. Participants must be members of the VSP and membership of the group will appeal to all those who are involved in the production, development and marketing of usable software products.
Event: Jean-luc Doumont presents a workshop on "Understanding visual communication" to Namahn clients. (20 November 2003)
Visual communication is regarded as an extremely effective means of conveying a message. Indeed a picture is said to be worth a thousand words, but, as the specially invited clients learned, their real worth must be carefully evaluated. Pictures express concrete, emotional and geometric concepts better than words. On the other hand they can be ambiguous, restrictive and poor at conveying abstract concepts.Jean-luc Doumont, who is an experienced and respected speaker and consultant on structuring thoughts and constructing communication, illustrated to his audience that it is the analysis of verbal and non-verbal coding that leads to the optimum solution. The non-verbal coding of pictures need to be crafted as carefully as verbal coding of text. To be sure of getting the message across, it may be necessary to use one thousand and one words.
Event: VSP event on Usability Engineering. (11 September 2003)
Namahn founder Joannes Vandermeulen and consultant Tom Stevens will address the participants of the Usability Engineering event, organized by the Vlaams Software Platform (VSP). This event is aimed at software development teams and will be held on the premises of VSP member Expertisecentrum Digitale Media (EDM) of the Limburgs Universitair Centrum (LUC) in Diepenbeek.
News: Belgian e-government implementation of social security declarations. (10 July 2003)
Namahn has been active throughout the development of the first obligatory administrative declaration that must now be made electronically. This is the Dmfa application that will enable employers or their intermediaries to declare quarterly social security information online.
In the realisation of this complex web application, Namahn was involved in the initial conceptual design to define the complex hierarchy of forms that must be created.
In a second phase they created mock ups to show what the forms should look like to enable the user to navigate his way though this hierarchy.
When initial prototypes were available, Namahn carried out usability tests that allowed some minor improvements to be made. In a final phase, Namahn wrote the user manual for the web application.
News: Namahn supplies documentation for a new money transfer service. (4 July 2003)
A major credit-card company has just launched a new low-cost, cross-border money-transfer service. Two Belgian companies that were involved in this used Namahn for their documentation needs.
The Brussels-based financial software vendor Clear2Pay were instrumental in the development of the service and asked Namahn to assist with the documentation. Besides doing the initial design of the online help Namahn was successful in delivering a single source of the complete online help in Word. This presented some novel and interesting challenges; both to compile all the help pages into a single document and to convert all the hyperlinks so that they functioned properly within it.
The Leuven-based Norkom Technologies provided a back-office fraud-detection system, for which Namahn wrote the user documentation which included general concepts on fraud and risk analysis. Namahn also carried out an expert review of the system, following which, recommendations in terminology, navigation and the use of colour were implemented.
It goes without saying that Namahn employees are experts on usability not fraud!
Event: William Hudson talks to Namahn clients on "User-centred design with use case methods" (4 June 2003)
Some forty clients gathered in the library in the Namahn offices to listen to William Hudson describe his approach to user-centred design with use cases. Hudson, a software engineer, who runs his own design consultancy based in the UK, has extensive experience in designing interactive systems as well as being a writer and lecturer on the subject.
Methodologies employed in the software development process, such as the Rational Unified Process, as well as agile processes like eXtreme Programming are fundamentally system centred. Hudson introduced his listeners, many of whom were drawn from the software development field, to the principles of user-centred design and showed how it was possible to integrate this into all stages of the software development process.
He stressed the importance of the early creation of a conceptual model focused on the user rather than implementation issues. He then demonstrated how use cases can be employed to translate this abstract model into functional specifications to ensure that user requirements are included in the final product and the interface is an integral part of it. The increased understanding and integration between software developers and usability specialists afforded by this approach provides a significant benefit.
News: KBC Bank releases an XML-based version of its Knowledge Base for employees. (4 July 2002)
The KBC Bank Knowledge Base offers personnel at headquarters and in branches comprehensive commercial and product information, online training and information regarding the organisation and internal workings of the bank.
Namahn helped designed the user interface by specifying the navigation and the interaction within the knowledge base.
As there can be no knowledge base without codified knowledge, Namahn also designed the authoring environment. The challenge was to produce well-formed and valid XML documents without exposing the hundreds of authors to XML.
As content, component and link management were vital to the success of this ambitious project, Namahn helped in specifying the complete functional requirements for the content management system.
The system itself has been implemented by a leading systems integrator using a heavily customised version of SoftQuad XMetaL and Documentum 4i.
News: Namahn designs new concept for LMS Test.Lab Revision 3 interface (14 May 2002)
LMS International announced the introduction of Revision 3 of LMS Test.Lab at the Testing Expo 2002 in Stuttgart, Germany on May 14 to 16. LMS Test.Lab is an integrated software suite for Noise & Vibration Testing and Engineering.
Namahn worked with LMS to create a new user interface concept based on a workbook in which engineers can easily assemble organization-specific test procedures which guide operators step by step, reducing training costs and guaranteeing proper handling of testing by any user profile. Headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, LMS International provides solutions for functional performance engineering in mechanical product development. More information can be found on the LMS International site.
Press: Namahn included in book about new working environments (4 April 2002)
Namahn has always paid much attention to the working environment of its employees. An office should be a place in which an employee feels at home. It comes as no surprise that Namahn is included in a recently published, richly illustrated book as an example of a new working environment: "Wonen en Werken", Wim Pauwels - publisher, BETA-PLUS, March 2002, ISBN: 90-806114-3-3. More information can be found on the BETA-PLUS site.
News: speech - 'About Cyborgs and Thermostats: visionary and silent technologies' (22 January 2002)
Invited by Belgacom and Mediaxis, Joannes Vandermeulen of Namahn spoke about how consumers experience new technologies and put it in a broader cultural perspective. You can download the illustrated transcript (PDF, 669K) of the lecture. In typical Belgian fashion, the speech was delivered using a mix of Dutch and French.
