DESIGNING *for humans

Product Prototyping with PowerPoint

Victor Riley's new blog, directly named "Thoughts on Human Factors and User Centered Design", recently featured a how-to on Product Prototyping with PowerPoint (try repeating that five times quickly).

The article discusses the utility and relative robustness of PowerPoint for basic product interface prototyping (a clothes dryer control panel in the example).  Of particular interest for researchers is the ability to record prototype use in real-time, utilizing PowerPoint's built-in Visual Basic for Applications capabilities.  An example file is referenced to download.

Incidentally, I tried it out in PowerPoint 2007 and it worked fine.

A Brief History of Usability

Joe Dumas has authored "The great leap forward: The birth of the usability profession (1988-1993)" for the Journal of Usability Studies.

Dumas discusses the early efforts in the study of human-computer interaction, and its differentiation from product usability.

Examples of Product Simulations

This year's Human Factors section "research project" is taking a look at product simulations - prototype designs created to evaluate the usability and design of potential products.

We're collecting examples of digital simulations that have been produced for product testing and demonstration purposes  - these can range from online demonstrations, interactive flash simulations to stand-alone applications.

Please submit examples through the comment feature of this blog posting, or email directly to Rob Tannen - [email protected]

Please only provide examples that can be publicly shared.

IDSA Podcast Page

The IDSA web site now has a dedicated section to for information and access to Podcasts:

http://new.idsa.org/webmodules/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=2480&z=31

The Podcasts are categorized into subcategories related:

• Innovation
• Professional Interest Sections
• Design Management

Other Human Factors Podcasts

In addition to the occasional human factors-related IDSA podcast, there are a few human factors and usability related podcasts out there if you look for them.  Here are a few that are accessible via the iTunes store (typically for free).  This list is by no means complete - please add your own recommendations via the comments feature.

• Design Critique: Products for People: Tim and Tom's conversational discussions of current product designs with designers and users.  Emphasizes consumer electronics and software products and design processes.
  http://www.designcritique.net/
• Icon-o-Cast: A podcast by Lunar Design: Not limited to human factors, covers a range of industrial design people, products and issues.
  http://www.lunardesign.com/podcast/index.html
• UXPod: User Experience Podcast: Gerry Gaffney primarily presents interviews with leaders in user experience process.  Software/usability focused, with some product design discussions.
  http://uxpod.com/
• Humech Podcast Series: "academic discussions of current work in human-machine systems".  Tends to focus on virtual reality and research-oriented content.