many robots

In my last post I promised a report on the stuff I got. So here goes:

• Royal Robbins Nox Jeans - I actually like these as jeans. They have an interesting wash, they fit me all right and I like the feel of the fabric. What seems to have happened though when they made the fabric is that adding the coolmax or whatever they used to make them more breathable made them warmer than any pair of jeans I've owned. Since it was pretty warm when I wore them in Tokyo I was hotter in them than the more travel-oriented pants I took. I'm going to keep wearing them but for how much bulkier they are than my other pants I don't think they've earned a permanent place in my bag.
  


• Platypus 1L water bottle - Since I went to a place where there's either a vending machine or convenience store within 30 feet of any location I didn't use it much in town but I did enjoy it in the airport on both ends. The 1L size was hard to get any more than halfway full using a drinking fountain or bathroom sink so I might trade down to the 500mL version.
  
  
• Joby Gorillapod - This one was kind of a wash. I didn't use it much. The pictures I took with it [examples coming soon] are good enough but there's a few issues with it. First of all it's tough to get the camera straight. Second, the act of pushing the shutter release usually does oe or both of the following things:
  
  
  1. Moves the camera, either skewing or tilting it a little bit.
  
  
  2. Makes the camera vibrate, thereby eliminating the advantage of using the tripod functionality.
  
  
  I wanted to like this thing, I really did. I just found it difficult to frame shots and difficult to take them. I think I'm going to give it another shot though, it seems like with some adjustment it could work quite well.



• Sleep gear for the plane - A total bust. I'll admit I was slightly more comfortable than other times I've flown but I got maybe 3 hours of sleep total in 19 hours of flying and for the bulk [especially of the pillow which is fairly big even when deflated] it's just not worth it for me.

The best new thing I used on that trip was actually something I bought there which is a AC-to-USB charging device I bought at Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara. With the addition of a couple handy cables I'll be able to charge my iPod, DS and phone anywhere in the world using only one charger and a couple cheap plug adaptors. They had one with 2 ports also, I kind of wish I'd bought it instead. Maybe I'll look for it on eBay.

Labels: gear, Tokyo, travel

One of my favorite things about traveling is that it's an excuse to go shopping and buy some new stuff. This time I'm off to Tokyo, Japan and I got a few new goodies to try out.

• Royal Robbins Nox Jeans - Jeans have always been considered terrible travel clothing but there's a part of me that just can't do the whole zip-off nylon travel thing, especially somewhere like Tokyo. These are high-tech wicking techno-jeans and they don't look like old-person jeans. Slightly spendy but that's what REI coupons are for.


• Platypus 1L water bottle - I'll be damned if I'm going to pay three dollars for a bottle of water once you get past the security checkpoint. This way I can refill whenever and wherever but it won't take up space when it's empty. I don't know much about Tokyo tap water though so we'll see. I'm a little interested in how easy it is to drink from too.


• Joby Gorillapod - I picked this thing up due to some very sub-par low-light photography I took in Paris. I've seen mixed reviews about it online but I have a light camera and I really want to get some of those cool night pictures of the city.


• Sleep gear for the plane - I've been cursed with what appears to be a total inability to sleep on airplanes. I've tried staying up all night the night before, Tylenol PM, alcohol, eating, not eating, whatever. For the first time though I'm going to check out the whole neck pillow, eye mask and earplugs deal.

I also got a few miscellaneous things like CoolMax socks and one of those memory cards with a built-in USB adaptor. I'll report back when I'm done.

Labels: gear, Tokyo, travel

I'm finally done interviewing for new jobs and signed an offer to start at an exciting new place. It's going to be nice working on a real design team again, at my last couple positions I've been the sole usability resource and that's a bad place to be in. I recently read this post by Mark Hurst and it brought back some memories.

I was actually the UI designer for Evite when that version of the invite launched way back in fall of 2000. It was my first UI-related job title. Yes, its basic structure is six years old save for about 2/3 of the ad units. Of course back then it also seemed like a good idea to employ 70 people to make it happen and that's what led to the company being sold to Ticketmaster and basically put in maintenance mode from a product development perspective.

I'm not ashamed of it, it was a great challenge to try to deliver good design weighed against the need for customization by the user and a need for more advertising and our whole design and PM team worked very hard to make it happen. It just fails to incorporate the last half-decade of good user experience thinking. Sadly we had an entire new structure for creating the invitations based on a lot of customer feedback and user research but we never got to launch it.

Evite was the first place I ever worked that gathered feedback directly from users instead of through surveys, third-party focus groups, overpriced usability consultants and the other traditional market research. We made imagemaps out of screen comps as prototypes. We used to monitor usability tests with a VGA splitter and a Speakerphone so we could watch the users screen actions on a projector in the next room. We tested multiple versions of new screens to portions of our users. We used to invite expert users over and feed them pizza in exchange for the ability to pick their brains. These were the days before "Don't Make Me Think!" and most people still thought you needed an expensive, monolithic testing cycle to get valuable feedback. As unsuccessful as it was as an independent business it was a great place to work and we did some very interesting work. And a lot of the people I worked with there have gone on to do some very interesting things.

Labels: design, work