[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 13 of Screen Space ldquo;An interview with Lars Souml;derlund on ldquo;Gradual Growth Web Design: Guides, Regularity, and Productrdquo; (or ldquo;Guns Ruin Picnicsrdquo;).rdquo;

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I teach and conduct research in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design. For those listeners in the United States, Happy Fourth of July! I will be running in the Peachtree road race todaymdash;the biggest 10k in the US. A big warm welcome to my new listeners from Kentucky, Texas, and California. And equally warm welcome to my new listeners from outside the US in St-Lambert, Canada; Chu-Tung, Taiwan; and Singapore.

In this episode, I present my interview with Lars Souml;derlund on ldquo;Gradual Growth Web Design: Guides, Regularity, and Productrdquo; or what he calls ldquo;Guns Ruin Picnicsrdquo;. This interview occurred at Computers and Writing 2010.

So, without further ado, letrsquo;s dive into the interview.

Summary of the interview:

Please note: the transcript for this podcast is limited as I do not have time right now to transcribe the interview. If any of you want to, I welcome your help. I did provide a brief summary of the interview for my audience that has difficulty with sound.

His presentation was about a semester long project where he gives students the resources and regular work to create the best website. He suggested to begin with necessary guides, to be held to a regularity, and to make sure there is a product. ldquo;Guns Ruin Picnicsrdquo; is the acronym he used for this: Guides, Regularity, and Product.

For nbsp;you, our everyday designers, he suggests consistency. Work on your web, blog, and digital media with consistencymdash;every week or month. He has found that repetition persuades people and impacts people. Persistence ends up becoming the highest virtue. Also:

Make a habit of the work

Understand what we are attracted to of the things we make habits of

Tirelessly seek out resources we will find most effective and use these to experiment.

He found that collaborating with peers is the most helpful to the students. This may work for you too.

He suggests it is important to recognize the requirements and why you are doing what you are doing. This is what should bring you back, and you can use this to make awards and punishment around regularity. A vague sense of ldquo;whyrdquo; is not enough. Give yourself reasons for focus, immediacy, and investment. Make it real.

His tips for everyday web, blog, and digital media designers:

Apply ldquo;Guns Ruin Picnicsrdquo; is the acronym he used for guides, regularity, and product, but in order of importance:

Regularity: creating something on a regular basis is the most key. Repetition is helpful. A time slot can be very helpful to getting the project done.

Resources: Find the resourcersquo;s you need. A website with great tutorials. Consider including sites that refine your aesthetic. Identify what you're attracted to. Identify what you like and why you like it. What does it mean about you?

Product: Being able to post work. Satisfy your requirements and do not be too precious with your work. Post it even if it is not ldquo;donerdquo; or ldquo;perfectrdquo;. Post, learn from mistakes, then move on.

The resources Lars suggested:

How to search for resources: nbsp;Google search first. Use a mix of video and written and other tutorials.

W3schools: Help for programming. Great if first time web designer or veteran. http://www.w3schools.com/

The CSS Anthology by Rachel Andrew nbsp;http://www.sitepoint.com/books/cssant3/?historicredirect=cssant1#38;historicredirect=cssant2

And that concludes that fascinating interview with Lars. When preparing this episode, I gave Lars a chance to l...

[Podcast Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is episode 12 of Screen Space ldquo;Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 Part 2mdash;Selecting Users.rdquo;

In this episode, I discuss the first part of usability testingmdash;user analysis and selection. I will talk about determining who your users are going to be for your testing and deciding how many users to test. There will be about four more parts to this series, walking you through the steps to conducting and analyzing usability testing of your web, blog, or digital media. Go back to Screen Space 11: Usability #38; Usability Testing 101 for my discussion on what usability is, a definition of usability testing, and an outline of the steps to conducting usability test. You may also find Screen Space 10 on User-Centered Design helpful too.

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. I teach and conduct research in areas related to digital media, web, and blog design. To start with, welcome new listeners from Melbourne, Australia; Abuja, Nigeria; and Ottawa, Canada! Enjoy, design well, and let me know if there is anything you would like me to cover.

In this episode, I will cover determining your users, creating user profiles, choosing user profiles to test, and deciding how many users to test. I will continue working in this episode with the same example I introduced in episode 11 to illustrate how to apply the steps of usability testingmdash;imagine you have a photography blog with a decent sized audience. You want to get more users and see how usable the blog is for your current users.nbsp; So, letrsquo;s get going into Part 2mdash;Selecting Users.

Determine the users

First, you need to determine who the users of your web, blog, or digital media are. Ask yourself who your actual users are. If you can, actually find this out through surveys, analytics, and other methods. If not, think about who you are writing to. Conduct a basic user analysis. It is possible you have more than one groups of users. If so, determine your various user types. You may find it helpful to consider a variety of typical user categories to determine your users such as:

Demographics: Consider age, sex, race, educational level, cultural background, socioeconomic status, and other demographic information. From this create demographic profiles of your users or user groups. This will allow you to visualize your audience.

Experience level: Analyze user experience levels with the product, with products of the same genre, and with required technology. This will allow you to test users who have a similar experience backgrounds as your user groups.

Use types and needs: Determine what types of use and needs bring your users to your site, blog, or other media. Users who are coming for general information may be quite different than users who are interested in making purchase or leaving a review. What do they need from the site? Why are they there? Determining the use types and needs will allow you to further differentiate users and help with later steps of testing.

Other areas: Consider also a variety of other user differences and possibilities such as:

Motivation: Are they motivated? Do they want to be there? Do they want to be doing what they are? Buying concert tickets leads to much different motivation levels than paying taxes, at least for most people.

Learning style: What are their learning styles? For example, are they visual learners? Auditory learners?

Subject matter knowledge: How much do they know about the subject matter of your site?

Location of use: Where do they use your site, blog, media? Home? Work? On a laptop? Tablet? Desktop? Phone? On the go?

Physical characteristics: Do the users have any physical characteristics that may impact use? This may be a more valid determination for a physical product, but still ...

[Transcript]

Welcome to Screen Space, your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and digital media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie. Today Irsquo;m going to talk about some exciting changes to Screen Spacemdash;both the blog and podcastmdash;along with what is coming up next.

You may be surprised to see a Screen Space podcast in your iTunes, podcatcher, feedreader, or other method of subscribing or accessing Screen Space. It has been a while, but, never fear, Screen Space has not podfaded. My focus has been elsewhere as I worked to prepare for tenure, create my tenure dossiers, and submit them. Now I can turn back to Screen Space, and I have some exciting plans for the future.

First, letrsquo;s discuss what is coming up with the podcast. My plans for this summer are an episode a week, posted Monday mornings at 12:01 am. My next episode will be the second part of my series on usability testingmdash;Selecting Users. I will talk about determining who your users are going to be for your testing and deciding how many users to test. The rest of the series on usability testing will include:

Deciding what to test: After selecting your users, you need to figure out what to test. I will discuss how to determine your purpose, select objectives, choose the type of tasks to test, and select both tasks and performance objectives. This episode is great for planning effective testing.

Preparing for the testing: In this episode, I will cover everything from the order of your task, to finding users, to setting up the testing environment.

Conducting the test: After all this preparation, it is time to test. In this episode, Irsquo;ll cover everything you need to know to run effective usability testing.

Analyzing and reporting the data: Once the testing is done, you will have a lot of data and in this episode Irsquo;ll provide some techniques for data analysis and talk about what you can do with the data, from improving your website, blog, or other digital media to preparing reports on the data.

But, this summer will not just be about usability testing. I also have 4 exciting interviews. These interviews are with some of my academic colleagues who presented at Computers and Writing conference in 2010 on topics related to Screen Space. These interviews include:

Sarah Brown: Personal Branding and Online Identity Construction

Lars Souml;derlund: Gradual Growth Web Design: Guides, Regularity, and Product (or ldquo;Guns Ruin Picnicsrdquo;)

Shaun Slattery: Information Management Techniques for Writers

Justin Lewis: nbsp;Copyleft, Digital Pirates, and Content Creation with Remixing

I am really excited about posting these episodes. The interviews are interesting and the experts did a wonderful job of talking about their work and how you, my listeners, can apply it to your own websites, blogs, and other digital media.

Beyond these interviews and the usability testing series, I will cover many other topics this summer, including:

Selecting typefaces for your media

Considering Copyright and Copyleft 101

Designing for mobile devices and smaller screens

Applying ethos, logos, and pathos in web, blog, and digital media

Podcasting 101

Finding the right voice and personality for your media

Citing sources effectively and properly in your media

Writing engaging headlines, headings, and subheadings

Selecting the perfect color scheme for your media

As you can see (or hear rather), there is some exciting and helpful material in the works. Irsquo;m also open to your suggestions on material you would like me to cover. Please send me an email or comment on this post with suggestions.

There are also exciting changes for the blog. While I have kept up with the blog more than the podcast, it too has not been a focus while I was undergoing the tenure process. That also is about to change. Here are a few things ...

[Podcast Transcript]

In Episode 11 of Screen Space: Usability Usability Testing 101

Welcome to Screen Space your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and new media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer. This is Episode 11 of Screen Space: Usability Usability Testing 101. This episode is a short introduction to Usability Testing. I explain what usability testing is, where it came from, and why you may want to consider integrating it into your design process for good web, blog, and new media design. This will be the first of three or four episodes on usability testing. While writing the script for the usability testing podcast I realized, eight pages in, that this would not nicely fit into a single podcastmdash;unless I wanted to go very long. So, instead I am breaking it into parts. In this first part I discuss what usability is, provide a definition of usability testing, and an outline of the steps to conducting usability test. In the following episodes, I will discuss the five steps to conducting usability testing in greater detail: from defining your users to analyzing the results and making changes in your design. I will also discuss the number of users you should test.

I am your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie, a professor at Georgia State University. I teach and conduct research in areas related to new media, web, and blog design. To start with, welcome new listeners from China and Arizona! Enjoy and let me know if there is anything you want me to cover.

This is a special ldquo;World Usability Dayrdquo; episode. November 12th is World Usability Day and the day I am releasing this episode. The theme for 2009 is ldquo;Designing for a Sustainable Worldrdquo;. World Usability Day is put on by The Usability Professionals Association, who know all about usability and usability testingmdash;the subject of this episode. All around the world people will be celebrating Usability with online and local events. So, celebrate with me by listening to this (which you are) and checking out the World Usability Day website at http://www.worldusabilityday.org/.

In episode 10 I introduced the concept of user-centered design, where real users become a central part of the design process. User-centered design results in a far more effective, efficient, and usable design than the more problematic user-friendly design, which tends to focus on stereotypes, and system-centered, which tends to focus more on functional specifications and bells and whistles. There are several techniques, methods, and processes we can employ to work towards the user-centered design process. Usability testing is one such method. It is frequently used in the United States and is an easier method for a single person or small group to try than some of the other options.

Usability is a term I use often in this podcast series. Since I shall be specifically discussing a method to test for it in this episode, and because it is a fairly general term, I will begin by defining usability. One of my favorite definitions is from Dumas and Redish, who wrote one of the first books on usability testing. They state ldquo;usability means that people who use the product can do so quickly and easily to accomplish their own tasksrdquo; on page four of their book. The International Organization for Standardization presents this definition ldquo;The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals in a specified context of use with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfactionrdquo; (ISO 9241-11). Whitney Quesenbery, on page 82, points out two issues with this definition. Her first issue is that the focus on tasks and tools may lead those who design products that do not have strongly definite tasks and tools (such as new media) to think usability does not apply. The second issue she sees is that this does not acknowledge ldquo;funrdquo; as a user or designer goal. So, Quesenbery provides 5 dimen...

[transcript]

In this Announcement podcast of Screen Space I invite you to join me for Scholarly Writing Month (or your alternative).

[music]

This is a special edition announcement episode of Screen Space your podcast about creating usable, accessible, effective, and efficient web, blog, and new media design for the everyday (and non-expert) designer.

As many of you know, I, your host, Dr. Jennifer L. Bowie, am a professor at Georgia State University. As such I have to publish or perish and scholarly publications are a major focus of my pre-tenure life.

I invite those of you in academia to join me for something I am trying in November: Scholarly Writing Month (or SchoWriMo). For those of you who are not academics, sick around and consider joining this adventure in your own way.

This short podcast is an abridged version of my longer invitation and discussion of this idea I posted on Screen Space. Go to Screen Space Click on the SchoWriMo category link to find the longer post or look around the blog.

November is "National Novel Writing Month" where participants try to write a novel (defined as 175-pages/50,000-words) during the month. As an academic, this concept always intrigued me, but didn't work for me (see the blog post for why not).

So, I have previously not joined the crazy fun of Nanowrimo. However, this November I propose a scholarly version: Scholarly Writing Month (or SchoWriMo)

What is SchoWriMo, you may ask?

The goal is to spend serious time in November writing. As many writers of scholarly texts, novels, or other forms will state, the most important thing one can do as a writer is write regularly. So, SchoWriMo is based on this general concept: writing regularly. There are thirty days in November, so I propose an hour a day or at least thirty hours of writing for November. Since the idea is to write regularly, one should not just sit down in 3-4 days and pound out 30 hours. Ideally this will be an hour a day, 7 days a week, for November. Thanksgiving and other days may come up when writing is particularly hard, so, how about being able to make up one day/hour of writing on any other day, but no more than one? This means if someone needs to make up for the Thanksgiving hour, they can spend two hours the day before, but can't spend three that day to also cover the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Types of writing: What counts?

Actual writing: obviously

Data analysis

Formatting the document

Putting together and formatting the references pages

Anything that contributes to a scholarly publication: As the goal is to get work done on a scholarly publication I will not count blogging, writing for classes I am teaching, or anything else that doesn't lead to further development of my scholarly contributions to the field (as counted by my tenure guidelines).

For students, I would not recommend including writing for class unless it is a paper or project that you plan to publish or present at a conference. Your writing too should be something that works towards a scholarly publication--a line on the CV.

Medium/media are not important: If you are writing for a print publication, a hypertext, a video, or a podcast, this still counts as "writing", as I have loosely defined it here, as long as it moves your scholarship forward. For instance, I am working on an article I plan to publish in a peer reviewed journal and this article happens to be in podcast form. Writing the script for this, recording it, and editing it will all count as "writing" as it will move my scholarship forward.

Am I missing anything?

So, this is what I will be doing in November. For those of you who are academics, care to join me? For those of you are not, is there something else you could do instead? Perhaps there is a project you are working on--say a quilt--and you could do QuiSewMo. Or perhaps you play an instrument and should practice an hour a day? Or maybe you have a blog you need to blog more on, and want to try blogging a hour each