Developing Usable Experiences

It’s about the fall

October 14th, 2008 10:35 pm —  15 views

There are no classes next week so I’m not worrying about having to do much homework over the next 10 days or so. Sure, final projects lurk, and I meet with a couple peeps this Sunday, but otherwise I’m taking a fall break.

My DRAT class this morning was so much like work it was eerie. Besides the fact that I hardly know the people I was creating work for, it was very similar to what I’ve been doing for the last few years. But overall we kicked out a pretty cool project in just over two hours. Not bad for a bunch of relative strangers collaborating on Perl scripts, database population, and sexy cosine similarity calculations.

I’m already half way through the semester, if you can believe it. Seems like it just started. But then again…I remember feeling that way when golf league just started and that was in the spring. I guess I can’t trust those memory receptors. This is all we got. What to do with these memories then?

My information architecture course has really got me thinking. In a world where web applications and interactive interfaces are fast becoming the norm, information architecture is positioning itself as the profession which seeks to understand and help translate the complex interplay of things amongst programmers, graphic designers, and users. It is more than system engineering, more than software engineering, more than usability studies and research…it is about understanding, charting, and creatively directing the dynamics between user, content, and the context in which interaction happens. It is a discipline still trying to define itself. Much like myself actually. And likely you.

But I digress. I sit here this evening thinking about dinosaurs and the history of the earth. Watching a show this evening about how the oceans impact our planet, I’m reminded…yet again…that humans haven’t been around that long. Dinosaurs were around so much longer than thinking, writing, data gathering humans that it’s silly to think we’re significant. But it sure seems we are.

The rest of the week is going to be a blur as I engage the Waltzing Bear at work, see David Sedaris on Thursday, and work on a new side project that has stepped into focus. It’s what I got.

Image: Took this while sitting against a tree on central campus today during my break between classes. I popped in some earplugs and tried to read a chapter on information architecture from the O’Reilly book. I ended up just skimming it then heading back to the DIAD to tune people out listening to Johnny Lang and polishing the DRAT app from the morning.

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One Response to “It’s about the fall”

  1. Dawn on October 15th, 2008 7:13 pm

    aaawww…I’m getting “schoolsick” …the picture makes me want to be back there! Have a good break!

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