tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-225162632008-07-02T09:54:14.484-04:00Yu Centrikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16062119641780253086noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-20582811877616098402008-06-08T22:14:00.002-04:002008-06-08T22:20:13.554-04:00

Last night the second ChitChat Yu Centrik was held, and we can say without hesitation that the evening was a success! Over sixty people from all sides of the Information Technology community of Montreal gathered in the warm vibes of O Patro Vys to witness five unique presentations. The topics were well received with clear crowd reactions of surprise and laughter. Five eloquent

Chrystel Black - Yu Centrikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10002911509974571078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-91703792598691245102008-06-02T14:51:00.000-04:002008-06-04T17:49:59.766-04:00

For those who couldn’t make it out to our ChitChat event or would like more than 6 minutes and 40 seconds to explore some profound insights, here are the presentations from last week’s soirée. (Unfortunately, Yan Bodain’s presentation on HTML5 cannot be posted online due to copyright restrictions).

Marcio Leibovitchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-40633853699004291372008-04-28T15:52:00.002-04:002008-04-28T15:57:51.129-04:00

Continuing in the series of “design mistakes”, here is a screen shot of a very simple interface where there is a only one button. However, despite its simplicity we can find a major mistake. The most important actions on an e-commerce web site are: Add items to the shopping cart Confirm the purchase The label used for these actions must be clear and must reduce the chances of possible errors

Marcio Leibovitchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-77665436033457168392008-04-25T23:36:00.000-04:002008-06-04T17:45:25.794-04:00

One of the most sensitive subjects in a product revision project is the management of reactions to change, the transition between old and new.  How do we ensure that users, accustomed to using a product a certain way, will accept a new mode of interaction and forget the old?  The challenge is even more important when the product is used by the general public and we must change something that is

Marcio Leibovitchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-17350092945166852032008-04-15T22:46:00.000-04:002008-06-04T17:38:47.327-04:00

It's 1 in the morning and here I am back in Montreal after the last day of the conference: quite the positive experience. Some of the IA Summit's strongest attributes are the excellent ambiance, where knowledge sharing and constant encouragement from the event organizers enlightens this unique opportunity to spend four days in the company of world-renowned information architects (it's not every

Marcio Leibovitchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-74550565669892032112008-04-14T14:05:00.007-04:002008-06-03T17:55:26.093-04:00

Five speakers linked to the field of video games and coming from various specialties presented their vision of the video games of today and tomorrow at a conference called "New Frontiers in Gaming". We heard the standard updates in terms of numbers and jobs, but also fringe opinions in terms of industry, design and interactions. Jonathan Morin, working on Far Cry 2 for Ubisoft, delivered a

Yannick Royhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01990354233295444721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-36908387721993290662008-04-14T09:28:00.001-04:002008-04-14T09:30:03.777-04:00

Self-proclaimed as the new "Youtube Killer", Hulu, the project of both NBC and News Corp, just came out as a public beta. The launching was a great success; unfortunately, we can't access all the great content outside the U.S. The site is visually appealing and very interesting (even if it's similar to Apple's graphic style). The graphic grid is clear, the content is easy to read, everything

Benoît Decomblehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02971210644482227517noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-55114048880012750442008-04-13T21:17:00.002-04:002008-06-04T17:35:29.483-04:00

On this third day of the IA Summit, a specific presentation in particular inspired me: "Extending the gaming experience to conventional UIs" by John Ferrara.  It showed us how concepts based in video games can be applied to more traditional products like desktop applications, websites and traditional intranets. Other interesting moments were Peter Morville's "search patterns", a collection of

Marcio Leibovitchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-47507139133114699802008-04-12T21:05:00.000-04:002008-06-04T17:32:10.646-04:00

As expected, the day started off with Jared Spool's keynote.  Always funny and provocative, his presentation was based on an expression the left everyone perplexed: "User-centered Design has never worked".  After digesting everything he said, my understanding was that he questioned using UCD systematically in every situation, in every case, and on every project, without first asking whether all

Marcio Leibovitchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-88883617345919734722008-04-11T20:30:00.000-04:002008-06-04T17:28:25.478-04:00

So here I am, at the most important event for information architects, the IA Summit being held in Miami this year.  It's the moment that the community reunites to share domain-specific knowledge and advance the discipline. The real conference starts tomorrow, Saturday.  Today is a pre-conference day.  I assisted in Peter Morville's training session (one of the two fathers of IA - the other is

Marcio Leibovitchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-89135031943710777332008-03-25T16:26:00.006-04:002008-04-04T11:54:57.204-04:00

For the last six months, the Yu Centrik team has striven to perfect our heuristic evaluation practices and results. With this kind of endeavour, we are interested in evaluating the quality of “user experience” beyond the usability and utility provided by a device or an interactive system. The objective of a heuristic evaluation is, to identify aspects of an interface that challenge the user

Walter Cybishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03752405105916083516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-76767252436207603802008-03-18T17:02:00.006-04:002008-03-19T09:51:19.586-04:00

Our usability test lab has a software environment allowing for capture, recording, analysis and full interpretation of observable events during a usability test. Moreover, since we are very interested in user behaviour, verbal comments, facial expressions and eye movements, as well as keeping a record of keystrokes and mouse movement, we also use other software. In an ideal world, we would like

Miriam Berrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12009459711088015837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-70838069408228685532008-01-29T03:42:00.000-05:002008-02-04T16:42:46.214-05:00

For some time now I have wanted to add my two cents to the debate surrounding the use of cell phones while driving. The opportunity presented itself a few days ago when an article appeared on cyberpresse.ca, the on line edition of Montréal’s francophone daily, “La Presse.” I could not resist, I simply had to share with you my thoughts and observations. The article in question was about the Mayor

Joelle Stemphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13021660391043654731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-13028633548090496472008-01-16T09:52:00.000-05:002008-02-06T10:41:28.884-05:00

During the holidays it is good to get together with friends and family around a video game console and have a hearty laugh. I had the opportunity to play a bit during the break and, force of habit, found myself evaluating the quality of the different games I tried with an eye on their usability. And once again I was surprised to see seemly small details having a strong effect of wearyness on the

Pierre-Alexandre Lapointehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02258147657938777417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-24053184394810215862007-12-28T14:25:00.000-05:002008-02-04T16:23:02.734-05:00

Well, 2007 is quickly coming to an end with its wheels spinning…but we could not finish it off without passing on our best wishes for continued good health, prosperity and happiness for all the small as well as important things in life, to you, our friends, our clients and our colleagues. In order to draw a sympathetic outline to the year that draws to a close, here is a small assessment.

Chrystel Black - Yu Centrikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10002911509974571078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-34806333750571550092007-12-02T14:20:00.000-05:002008-02-04T16:31:04.200-05:00

Not that I want to promote “Nuance,” or that I have anything against this excellent company; and one must admit that they have been quite adept of late at having themselves talked about. But was the following a good idea or will it backfire on their marketing department? Please judge for yourself after viewing Amazing Race: Distracted Driving, posted on YouTube. The clip presents two

Chrystel Black - Yu Centrikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10002911509974571078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-31734751210876720132007-10-30T14:14:00.000-04:002008-02-04T16:32:32.379-05:00

Greetings one and all! World Usability Day will take place next November 8 and we would like to organize something for our business community. Nothing pretentious, but inviting enough to allow us to exchange ideas or projects outside of a work context. In this day and age of the Web 2.0, it is quite normal to sound the call and solicit ideas for content regarding the event we are planning. It

Chrystel Black - Yu Centrikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10002911509974571078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-1949102793992725012007-10-17T20:56:00.000-04:002007-10-17T20:57:16.589-04:00

Our blog has been recently published in "Top 100 User-Centered Blogs" list. Yeh!

Joelle Stemphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13021660391043654731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-4306371897531270442007-08-29T15:34:00.000-04:002008-02-04T16:33:54.200-05:00

Whereas once the thumb was a symbol of manipulation and domination in the Rolling Stones song, it is now the cell phone and video game consoles’ turn to be “Under My Thumb.” The work of Sadie Plant (Warwick University, United Kingdom) has shown that certain parts of the body change themselves to adapt to new technologies, notably the hand and particularly the thumb, which develops great

Karine Grandéhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04047611900772955761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-83026141419132918562007-08-15T16:47:00.000-04:002008-02-06T11:00:20.332-05:00

Back in the day, there was a car, a couple, a destination and a map that was often out of date and not always accurate. At the same time you're fighting traffic and waiting around in the those glorious hot, humid days. Feeling stressed at the wheel? A little ? A lot ? Sometimes to the point of cracking because you’re going the wrong way ? Maybe you’ve lost sight of road signs or you just don’t

Karine Grandéhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04047611900772955761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-84913721307356752982007-07-12T19:19:00.000-04:002008-02-06T10:46:29.195-05:00

How is usability testing different when done on-site instead of remote? Here is a list to help you weigh the pros and cons of each method. ON-SITE USABILITY TESTING Pros Better performance for testing different interactive systems (web, software, mobility, interactive TV, vocal interfaces, etc.) and eye tracking techniquesAll participants are accomplishing the same tasks in the same environment

Joelle Stemphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13021660391043654731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-87141991020115829382007-07-12T19:17:00.000-04:002008-02-06T10:51:57.468-05:00

A usability testing protocol is a document that describes how to conduct usability testing. It’s also the spring board for discussions between Yu Centrik and client’s product teams. The main goal of testing products with users is to identify usability issues encountered by users when using a product. Through usability testing, Uability experts can observe how the user interacts with the product

Joelle Stemphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13021660391043654731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-33773683547457400792007-07-12T14:36:00.000-04:002008-02-06T10:55:17.179-05:00

When I bought my first cell phone in 1992, I already felt I was becoming part of a mini-revolution. The freedom of being able to communicate at any time of the day or night and from anywhere changed my life, as well as the life of many others. Because cell phones now offer increased capabilities, all sorts of new functions are being integrated into them: camera, web browser, email client, games,

Marcio Leibovitchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-51384235942800793402007-06-20T17:10:00.000-04:002008-02-06T10:56:58.282-05:00

A lot of companies who wish to create or improve their web sites leave out the process of development of information architecture. Is this because of a lack of understanding of its principles and of the way it’s represented? Or is this because of the “middle of the road” aspect between the abstract ideas and concepts of a strategy and the more concrete wireframes which are closer to the final

Marcio Leibovitchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22516263.post-32219659670760777412007-06-04T17:32:00.000-04:002008-02-06T10:58:04.143-05:00

Recent research has shown that people can pass judgement on a stimulus after having been exposed to it for only 50 milliseconds (Lindgaard, Dudek, Fernandes & Brown, 2006). In other words, users may make a judgement as to the quality of a website almost immediately. Feelings and first impressions have a big role to play in determining our behaviour. Take a typical user’s decision-making

Rémi Dollernoreply@blogger.com