4 posts tagged “san francisco”

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Back from Macworld 08

MacBook Air
MacBook Air

I'm back from a day at Macworld and my feet hurt. This Macworld wasn't as exciting as last year, but there were a handful of applications that I came across that are pretty impressive. See my "other" blog for details as I write some of my thoughts of the event.


Post a comment Tags: san francisco, california, macworld 2008

First AIDS/Lifecycle Training Ride

AIDS/Lifecycle Training Ride - San Francisco
AIDS/Lifecycle Training Ride - San Francisco

I did my first AIDS/Lifecycle training ride last Sunday.  It was a blast.  I was a bit nervous about riding in an area that's far more busy than my neighborhood.  Also, it was the first time I was going to be doing a group ride in a relatively urban setting with clipless pedals.  To be safe, I signed up for the shorter 9 mile ride while I get used to the new pedals and the shoes.

I had invested in getting the multi-release cleats prior to the ride.  It made getting used to a clipless system far easier to adapt to than the single release.

I'm looking forward to doing more of these.  Also, I found out that training in San Jose will begin in January.

Post a comment Tags: san francisco, california, training ride, aids/lifecycle 2008

AIDS/LifeCycle - I'm Registered

There are a few things in my life where I've been sure of myself, but extremely nervous at the same time.  Signing the papers for the first car I've ever bought and signing papers for our house.  I can add something new to that -- it was registering and committing to the AIDS/LifeCycle ride from San Francisco to LA, plus raising $2500 before June 2008.


I've always wanted to do this, and my wife mentioned that her co-workers were going to do it... needless to say, I've got a lot of work in both training and fundraising...

I'm excited and frightened all at the same time... it's all for a good cause as well as a big personal challenge to myself.

Watch this space for further details...

1 comment Tags: san francisco, cycling, biking, aids, los angeles, lifecycle

San Francisco Usability Week

Usability Week 062007 - Our Paper Prototype
Usability Week 062007 - Our Paper Prototype

I guess this blog should be categorized as "better late than never".


A few weeks ago, I went to NNGroup's Usability Week in San Francisco to see Tog talk on interaction design courtesy of the company I work for.  Although I can't say that any of it was groundbreaking, there were a handful of tidbits that were useful.

I've attended quite of few usability conferences over the last 5 years or so.  There's a certain point where critical mass is obtained and there isn't much more to teach or learn other than to have affirmation that the masters are doing pretty much the same thing.  There's also a certain point where I learned that regardless of which organization is hosting the conference, they're pretty much teaching similar things -- the difference seems to be nomenclature.
I went to learn from the master himself (I had already seen the other masters, Jakob Neilsen and Jared Spool on a handful of other occasions), Tog, hoping to have him impart a pearl or two of wisdom.  While most of the presentation rested in tried and true techniques, what really caught my attention was a section dealing with the psychological differences between people creating applications or web pages (regardless of being a coder or designer), the personality types are strong on understanding abstract concepts and associating those concepts to coding or design. The problem is that assembling abstract concepts into user interfaces and usability web pages and applications can be a daunting task of there's a lack of understanding that people using the interfaces may not have the same internal ability to convert abstract concepts and unfamiliar taxonomies to action by finding and using stuff.

That talk reminded me of a handful of sections in O'Reilly's Mind Hacks... a great, umm, read (if you can call it that... it's pretty dense) but much more concise.

Although the course was called Interaction Design, it should have really be called Fundamentals of Interaction Design.  Tog was a great presenter, a lot of his stories were great, but I had expected more for the 3 days...

The event was held at the Mark Hopkins, a great hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco.  I didn't stay there, but for those that did, it seemed the cost of everything was starting to wear everyone down.  Everything on Nob Hill was incredibly expensive.  For the folks that I ended spending time with, the cheapest meal (a relief to all) was when we went down to Lefty O'Doul's -- at $10 with a $5 Smithick's, it was cheaper than lunch.

Post a comment Tags: san francisco, usability week, bruce tognazzini, tog