Challis Hodge’s UXblog

PocketThis!
Another great example of the kind of user-driven product and approach that will succeed in a wireless future. Check it out!

Kodak Vending Machines Take Inventory Snapshot
Eastman Kodak is beginning to roll out its wireless Internet-linked vending machines after 15 months of testing. The machines are originally slated to dispense disposable, erhhh, one-time-use cameras and film! The company plans to launch 10,000 of these machines over the next four years. Some inside sources here at HannaHodge tell us that we may be seeing some innovative products show up in these machines over the coming months and years. Manufactured by Maytag Corp’s Dixie-Narco division, these vending machines are very good examples of how the wireless Internet will be used in the future. Not the glamorous consumer application the media so often writes about but instead the maximization of vending machine inventory to increase incremental revenues and provide consumers with product when and where they need it. Read the story here.

OmniSky Releases Preliminary Results of Wireless Usability Study
The results of a the first major usability study conducted by Telephia for OmniSky. The results seem to be that handheld PDAs are superior to handheld phones in terms of time-on-task and click count. Hmmmm, not a big surprise! Read the release here.

Nielsen/NetRatings reports that in January 2001, over 168 million people in the US had internet access either at home or work — a 60% internet penetration rate in the US. Nielsen/NetRatings also finds that the 168 million who had access were not necessarily online and even though the time spent online per month increased by 1.3% between December and January, the number of page views per month decreased by 5.5%. These numbers certainly suggest more quality and less quantity as web users may be moving toward a trend of more focused and intentional use of the Internet. See the numbers here.

New Authoring Tool, New Kind of Document: Night Kitchen’s tk3
Remember Voyager? Remember all those gorgeous CD-ROM titles? Whatever happened to those people? Well, here’s what happened to some of them. For the last few years, Bob Stein has been gathering a team (at a company called Night Kitchen) and working on a tool (called tk3) that’s aimed at giving us all the power to create and share beautiful, usable hypermedia documents. We’ve been tinkering with the beta, watching it improve from early, awkward stages. Release 1 just came out, and you can get in on a free 3-month trial of the authoring tool. Check out www.nightkitchen.com. We haven’t used it enough to have a good feel for how significant this will turn out to be. Some may be skeptical about the success of something that feels so… well, so much like itself and so unlike other things. But we offer big applause for the effort. It’s one of the few attempts we’re aware of at helping authors create pleasurable reading experiences. Much luck and a tip o’ the hat to the folks at Night Kitchen.

The Right Time for Research: The Beginning
A good common sense story about the appropriate use of research in a Web project. The author quotes an industry professional who proclaims that research must begin when a project starts and not even usability testing in the early stages of a project are enough.

Folks are forever trying to simplify the building of online businesses into a handful of tasks and activities. The media is no exception. To be sure it’s understandable given the complexities and intricacies at the intersection of people’s lives, technology and business strategy. Unfortunately there is no easy answer and the process does require up front market, secondary and contextual research. Research must be translated into appropriate solutions by experienced designers. Usability testing must happen early and often. The business model must be solid and validated as adoptable by the target users. And the technology and implementation must be robust, scalable and invisible. It’s not simple!

For anyone looking to build a team or hire a professional services firm. You need an interdisciplinary team that understands the value all disciplines bring to the table. The relationship with the end user is not a design thing, it’s not a marketing thing and it’s not a research thing. Meeting the end users’ wants and needs is a business thing. It’s a company thing and it’s a team thing. If the right process, team and thinking isn’t in place your success is in jeopardy! Read the article here.

Toys Looking to Tech for Boost
Although toy sales were down slightly in 2000, “smart toys” almost doubled in sales. Texas Instruments, Intel and Lego Systems will show off computer-assisted toys at the American International Toy Fair. Toy sales dropped 1.4 percent last year, compared to an average 6 percent growth rate for the four prior years, according to the Toy Manufacturers of America. Sales of so-called “smart toys, increased by 98 percent last year and are fast approaching the $1 billion mark. According to Competitive Media Reporting, kids ages 2 to 12 increased their online usage from 24 percent in 1999 to 32 percent in 2000. That�s a 33 percent increase in one year and represents the largest increase of any other age group. Read more here.

Wireless Developer Design Guidelines
Nokia: Forum Nokia
Motorola: MAGNET - Motorola Applications Global Network
Ericsson: Ericsson Developers’ Zone
Palm: Palm OS Programmer’s Companion
Research in Motion (RIM): Developer Zone - Wireless Handhelds
Symbian: Symbian Developer Network