I’m tempted to almost go as far as saying that Foursquare is the logical next step for Twitter. It adds another layer of detail to peoples Twitter stream; gives you context around where their tweets are coming from, tells you  the places they frequent often and what they think of these places. Tweeting your Foursquare activities also informs people who aren’t aware of Foursquare that you’re playing. Several of my friends are now happily playing Foursquare after asking “what’s with all this mayor stuff you tweet about?”

Much of Twitter’s appeal is its brief, simple updates. If another service can push relevant updates to Twitter, than surely that can only improve the experience. Of course the matter of relevance is subjective, but that’s Twitter. There are enough people manually updating Twitter with mundane content that an automatic process shouldn’t offend people so much. Not to mention all the other auto update services that don’t seem to raise so much ire like people going for a jog, favouriting a Youtube clip or listening to a song. If you don’t like people’s updates, there’s always the Unfollow button.

The negative response to Foursquare actually reminds me a bit of people’s response to Twitter when if first came out. People who weren’t part of it simply took the “I don’t understand it, therefore I won’t use it, therefore it doesn’t have a purpose” stance without investing any effort to actually see the appeal.

Just like Twitter, Foursquare is definitely not for everyone, and I wouldn’t try and talk somebody into it if they’re not interested, but I would like to see people who should know better not judging something before they’ve tried it, and also stop complaining about everyone else having fun without them.

A bit behind the masses, but I finally got an iPhone last week. To be honest, i’m totally stoked with it, and don’t know why I took so long to get one.

On top of the device itself, there seems to be an app (or five) for just about everything you could want to do. For this post I used the Wordpress app to write and publish the post, Mill Colour to make some adjustments to the image, and Mobile Fotos to upload the image to Flickr. All from the tram stop.

Update: One thing the Wordpress App can’t do is add links, so I added those later. Also, the iPhone is awesome but the virtual keyboard is slow, I can’t imagine anyone actually properly blogging from it. Fun for a one off though.

Not the original picture I had in mind for this week’s Photo Friday, but when I saw this I couldn’t resist. What the hell is Chicken Paste in a can?

My work involves putting things through rigorous testing. Asking participants to complete tasks on the site that we know will be difficult for them to do. After testing, my analysis is constantly focused on the faults and errors and how to fix them.

On top of this, the things we test often do not help in bringing joy. Products that are in such an early stage of development that they are bound to have issues that frustrate users. Websites that have received so many complaints that their owners have been forced to seek our services.

All this means I forget that in the end, a good user experience is something that is exactly that; a good experience, just like a good meal or a Sunday sleep in.

This is not to say that we don’t see good sites coming through our doors. We often test products from designers who I think are top of the field, and whose work I admire to no end. It is just that due to the way we are usually contracted, we tend to test products early in their life cycle, when there are still issues to be addressed. We often don’t get to see the final experience of users sitting in front of the launched product.

Last week I was testing up in Sydney for a client who is developing a new product. This product had been tested and revised thoroughly already, and I was asked in to test some final features and give a new opinion on the user experience. The team working on the product had been refining and reshaping the interface continually in the weeks leading up to my testing, and had developed a product that offered users a unique, simple and enjoyable experience when using it.

During testing, participants’ responses to the product where wonderful. Session after session was filled with “This is excellent, I want one”, “I never thought I would be able to do this sort of thing normally, but this makes it so easy”. At the end of session, I had participants begging me for more details of when the product would be released.

This really reminded me of what is at the heart of what we do. Whilst it is important to always be ironing out the issues, the final goal is not to create a product that simply does not frustrate users but to create a product that wows and excites users. What you are making should enhance user’s lives, even if only by a little bit. As a researcher rather than a designer, it is often easy to forget that we are aiming for designs that give joy from the experience, and that a succesful product is one that people can not only use, but want to use.

I’m glad that I was reminded of this. It is important to remember how high we should set the bar, and that we should always be aiming for perfection. It also reminded me that whilst it may seem like so many of the products I test may seem troublesome and problematic, it is often because they are so early in their lifecycle that they have not reached their full potential yet, and that testing and redevelopment can achieve a product that makes users desire it rather than accept it.

Taken from one of my favourite picnic spots along the Merri Creeek.

Haven’t been cycling much at all lately; have been battling flu and flat out at work. Not that I ride on the volodrome anyway, too chicken.

For my birthday last month Bec bought me a Hario TCA-2 vacuum syphon. Vacuum syphons have been returning to popularity lately, and I had been toying with the idea of getting one myself. I won’t go into the full details of how they work or how to use them, but CoffeeGeek has a really good rundown if you are interested. Basically it is a coffee maker that returns an excellently brewed coffee that displays the full range of flavours of the grind you are using.

I was surprised at how well made the Hario is. It is a really well finished product that feels much sturdier to use than it looks. It’s looks are definately a big part of the fun of using it; it is unquestionably the sexiest coffee maker I’ve owned. When seeing it for the first time most people assume it is a bong/meth lab/science experiment.

Using a vacuum syphon also really shows off the coffee you are using. The flavours in single origin coffees really stand out, and the difference between different varieties is much more pronounced. So far I have only used beans from St. Ali in South Melbourne, but am looking forward to getting to The Brunswick East Project and Seven Seeds soon to try some different suppliers.

If you are interested in trying a syphon coffee, St. Ali are currently serving them in the cafe, as well as selling them (this is where mine came from). They are also currently building a syphon only cafe. Last time we whent looking for it we had no luck though.

For good reading on all things coffee, check out Coffee Snobs.

Rest of my shots of it are on the Flickr set.

Really enjoying the Photo Friday challenges. Being made to take photos to a theme and actually put thought into what I’m capturing makes me pay more attention to what I am doing, rather than just taking pictures of things that catch my eye.

At the moment there is a fantastic exhibition of Australian Modernism at Heide. So any Melbourne readers should definitely head out there if you can.

This weeks theme was ‘wealth’. When I heard the theme I instantly knew I wanted a picture of Ella, my niece, who is the treasure of our family at the moment. Spending a day at the Abbotsford Convent with Ella, I was also struck by how young children view possessions. They have no problems with simply grabbing what you have in your hand, but they also take great pleasure in giving away things that they have found, and are always offering you a small gift.

And with the upcoming arrival of our second niece, my family is about to get even wealthier still.

I find their work quite amazing, it is uniquely urban without being “street art”. It actually speaks to me quite deeply in the sense of making the city a playground that we all inhabit. An odd connection, but I see their attitude as similar to that of Jane Mcgonigal.

I was also quite surprised to see how young they both are. There work has a certain “sageness” to it that seems aged and wise. This is definitely reflected in their attitudes to their work.

As an added bonus, watching the doco I realised that they have an office in the one building in all of Melbourne that I have frequently looked at up at and said “how cool would it be to have an office up there?”.

Truly, it is people like this that make living in Melbourne so very cool.

Skeleton Keys by Miso and Ghostpatrol