Creative Energies: Doing User Interaction Design

July 5, 2005 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

As you will have noticed, my newsletters are getting fewer and further between. Nowadays, most of my creative energies go into my work for TVBLOB. “What work is that?” you may ask. Good question. As in many startups, roles aren’t well-defined, but, basically, everything that touches our future end-user customers will somehow, someday, be my responsibility.

For the moment, my main job is designing software features, behaviors, and interfaces. This would be relatively straightforward if we were making software for the familiar Windows environment – I’ve been closely involved in the development and support of some very popular Windows software packages, and I have very clear ideas on what works and what doesn’t.

But TVBLOB’s software and services will be displayed on a television set, with a far smaller viewing area (in terms of pixels) than any modern computer monitor. Try setting your computer display to its smallest possible resolution and you’ll get the idea – except that, at least on my current computer, the smallest possible setting is 800×600 pixels, while a standard PAL (European) television set can display roughly 700×550.

Limited screen real estate is not the only design problem I’m up against. The hardware I’m designing for is not a computer with a keyboard; we expect that people will mostly use a TV-style remote control to interact with our software. And I don’t mean a huge, clunky remote with 300 buttons that are so tiny you can’t press them, let alone remember what they’re all for. Our remote will have only a few more buttons than you’d find on your average DVD player controller. So I have to use them wisely.

Not that I’m complaining. It’s a fascinating set of design challenges, and I’m having lots of fun. But the work does tend to wring all the creative juices right out of me…

bio

MBA: Collecting My Dues from the Open University

July 5, 2005 Deirdre Straughan 2 Comments

top: The very medieval scholar’s robe. I suppose the bag-like sleeves were originally intended for carrying around one’s scholarly scrolls.

2:57 min – video shot June 10, 2005

I went to London to collect my MBA from the Open University. Attending the ceremony was not obligatory, but I’d missed my BA graduation, and thought it would be fun to do the cap and gown thing.

The ceremony was held at the Royal Festival Hall, where we were supposed to arrive early to collect our (rented) gowns and have official photos taken. The Open University holds around 20 such ceremonies every year, giving graduates a broad choice of places and times to attend. Several hundred people were present that day to collect degrees from BAs to PhDs in every conceivable subject, accompanied by their beaming families.

We were a representative slice of what is probably the world’s most diverse student body. The Open University was founded (in 1967) to open up education to people who otherwise had not had and might never have the opportunity to pursue a university degree. The institution has succeeded wonderfully at this. Few of the graduates were the usual college age; the oldest I saw looked to be well into her 70s, and she wasn’t the only grandma in the group. Many were non-white, with a large contingent from Africa (Somalia and/or Ethiopia, I think), where the OU has been operating for years.

Most of us graduates didn’t know each other, but each had a small cheering section of family, in my case my dad and his wife Ruth, but it was more common for graduates to be attended by their spouses, children, and even grandchildren!

At first we clapped and cheered everybody, but that got tiring. Ruth told me later that she settled on a strategy of applauding the oldest, the least-advantaged, and the handicapped. Judging by the volume, much of the audience made the same choice. An elderly black lady with gray hair got a huge ovation, startling the Dean of Students who was performing handshake-and-congratulations duties. He asked her something, then turned to the audience with a huge grin and shouted: “Five grandchildren!”

About That Gown

Like everyone else, I rented the gown and hood, and was carefully allocated the items pertaining to my newly-attained qualification. The pale blue robes are for Masters (Bachelors wear dark blue, Doctors shiny electric blue).

Note the carefully-arranged hood, proving to anyone who understands the arcane codes of these things (it depends on the colors and even the width of the trim) that I have an MBA from the Open University. I now have the right to wear this get-up at any future academic “congregation” I attend, until and unless I earn a still higher degree. Of course, I would have to actually buy the thing for any such occasion…

If you’d like to learn more about the Open University, there’s a new site (2014) for students outside the UK and Ireland.

My very proud Dad.

Licensed to…

Dec 10, 2004

er, do business? I learned this week that I’ve passed the exam for the last course in my MBA from the UK’s Open University. So I can now put “MBA” after my name on my visiting cards, as is the custom in some parts of Europe. (I’m not sure it will do me much good in Italy, where few people know what an MBA is.)

I started this degree in 1999, when I realized that, if I had had to apply for the job I was actually doing at Adaptec, the description would have said “MBA strongly preferred.” My original intent was to show my bosses that I was serious about my career, in spite of the strangeness of my situation (working long-distance from Italy for an American company).

living in Italy

International Marching Show Bands in Lecco

July 4, 2005 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

We spent the weekend watching marching bands – appropriate for the 4th of July, though that’s not a holiday in Italy. The association of Italia Marching Show Bands had its championship in Lecco, with special guests the Concord Blue Devils, one of America’s premier drum and bugle corps. The presence of the Blue Devils in Lecco was the crashing together of two very different parts of my life. I know something about this drum and bugle stuff because my college boyfriend, Keith, had been a member of the Blue Devils. He took me to the DCI Championships back in 1982, which I never forgot. A good drum corps exhibition is a combination of the biggest marching band you’ve ever seen (over 100 musicians), plus 40 dancers and flag twirlers, all of them choreographed to make Busby Berkeley proud.

I often miss events because I’m not paying attention, but I heard about this one months ago from our friend Ravil, an opera singer now living in Milan, who also used to be a member of the Blue Devils (and vaguely remembers Keith – small world!). So I was prepared for this event, and very excited about it. Saturday evening the bands paraded through Lecco; the footage above is from the Blue Devils’ warmup before the parade. When I have time to wade through the remaining hours of video I shot, I will post some more clips.

My family were a bit taken aback by my enthusiasm before the event, but they understood once they actually saw it. The Blue Devils gave the final exhibition performances at the end of Sunday’s morning and evening competitions. I knew there would be an encore after the prize-giving, but we were out with a friend and her small, tired kids, so decided to go home rather than sit through the speechifying. As it turned out, we could hear the music perfectly well from the stadium, about a kilometer below our house.

later – The Blue Devils’ European tour generated some controversy among their fans back home; here’s my thought on the matter.

July 3, 2005

Sunday was the actual competition of theÂ Italia Marching Show Bands. I had a front-row, center seat for the morning’s events and was able to get good footage; in the evening the center seats were sold out and I had a lousy point of view, to my great frustration.

July 3, 2005, 6 min

Lake Como

Transport Surprises

June 25, 2005 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

My dad and Paul were visiting, so we took a boat ride up the lake to Bellagio. Along the way we ran into a brief storm, and a vehicle of a type we don’t normally see in Lake Como. Then, in Bellagio, I was very surprised to see this vehicle coming off the car ferry. It turned out to be the annual mail coach tour from Lindau (Bavaria) to Como.