The User Advocate

Computerworld published a weblog entry that posits ‘Security that requires end user attention is not security‘ – and yet that could not be farther from the truth.  The only person who knows the intention of the user is the user, and the point of the OS (or any software) is to obey the user and find the best way to make the intentions into reality.

Vista’s security sounds flawed during the current beta by being overaggressive – which will create a user nightmare if left alone – but that is how you achieve true security.  You turn it all the way on and then select what to allow.  The process of selection is the difficult one, and where Microsoft has actually acknowledged publicly that they are still working on the feature. Let’s be clear – this is a good thing.

I was quick to criticize Microsoft last week, and I continue to have the same opinion… left as it is, the security will be a problem.  They’re not leaving it alone, they’re asking for input and planning to fix it.  Good for them.  I’ll change my opinion when the fixes are in, but acknowledging an issue is the first step to good user behavior.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, vista, security, user+advocacy

I’m impressed – an entire review of the usability issues in Windows Vista.  Microsoft, please start fixing the problems…

Technorati Tags: microsoft, vista, usability

It may be hard for a non-programmer to imagine something as technical as a programming language compiler to be a simplification for users, but it definitely fits the bill.  What’s interesting is that high-level languages have been compiled into assembly code for your CPU to use with really basic instructions, and now it looks like the next wave (part of the Web 2.0 hype) will be to take high-level languages and compile them to a mid-level language, ECMAscript.  And it’s not only happening fast and strong, many companies (Morfik, Google, Microsoft) are now doing it.

Why does that matter to the average user?  In a word, simplification.  If programmers can create good interfaces as quickly (using these tools) as creating bad interfaces, there will be much greater benefit to getting the presentation right.  Look at Google Mail and you can see that it has a number of features not traditionally found in web email clients.  The easier it is to add features and fix interface issues, the faster we will see improvements.

And that’s a good thing.

Technorati Tags: ajax, javascript+compiler, morfik, google, microsoft, user+advocacy

With a bunch of companies pushing for a bad federal law that would break states’ consumer protections, it’s great to see one that handled a data loss incident right. Can we please mandate the attitiude their CEO has? That’s serving your user base correctly.

Technorati Tags: privacy, data+loss

From SaveTheInternet:

The financial industry is beginning to make noise to that end. According to a story in The Hill, the financial-services industry is weighing coordinated opposition to the telco-friendly language in the House’s bill, “fearing a financial hit if lawmakers allow phone and cable companies to charge banks more for secure Web service.”

This telco land-grab is not user friendly.  Join the effort and contact your Representative/CongressCritter now!

A great article on how to format written documents wisely, though he’s showing it as a way to make docs move from Open Office Writer to Microsoft Word and back. In fact, it is an equally valid point to preserve the prettification between Word versions, or even in the same version but across computers with different setups (like missing fonts).

So how come this is an insight? I believe it is because formatting styles in both Word and Writer are viewed as complex, and goodness knows it is not clear how to manage indentation either. Both applications are improving, trying to intuit when users really should be using styles or indenting when the same formatting changes. That’s a start, but we need to go farther.

An option – and it’s not really as user-friendly as I want, so offer comments – is to force people to use styles. Every time they change a typefont or size, apply it to all items that share the style. When styles start to be more obvious – like when the whole document font changes – then average users will care about them. Clearly there has to be a better way to manage styles, but you need to change the paradigm and the presentation. It will take a bold move to lead this charge with all the momentum built up around the old, bad, WordStar/WordPerfect markup philosophy and habits.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, formatting, user advocacy,

Last week I received my first comment – evidence that at least one other person in the world hears what I’ve been saying this year. When I investigated, wary of comment spammers who had recently hammered my logs, I found there is an entire community of people like me writing – except they appear to have figured out how to make a living at improving usability.

One log had an entry about hypersensitivity to customer experience issues as an occupational hazard, coining it the “” or “PatPS”. He told a story about a problem experience and ended up feeling bad because of context unrelated to his experience. I admire his compassion, but I believe a business needs to be cognizant of the effects employees have when they’re having a bad day. It is essential to manage the employees so that issues like his are prevented. Move the employee off the counter, or give them time off, or figure out some other way to handle it.

It is important for him to not succumb to the inverse syndrome: “Oh it’s only a pea.” Too many businesses stop noticing peas and eventually the pile is big enough they keep customers away from that counter. Train your teams to see the peas.

And be thankful you have the ability to feel the peas… it is rare and should be valued.

Technorati Tags: Princess+and+the+Pea+Syndrome, user+advocacy, user+experience, employee+enagement

A couple of articles about a CD handed out in London which users installed on their work computers and then a discussion of whether the workers or the technology were at fault for allowing the security breach ends up missing the point. Both are at fault.

Schneier asks how many employees need that access. We should ask instead why do they have that access? He starts to discuss that with an example of how he is not a heating system expert but he can still manage the temperature in his home, and reflects that “computers need to work more like that.”

Sort of.

Some computers need to work more like that. From a user’s point of view, a bank teller’s world should be very limited… there’s no legitimate need to install software. This control was once in place – it was called “mainframe access” and nobody could install software unless authorized. However, the operating systems in use today on teller machines are generic (usually Windows) and have opened up all kinds of security nightmares because of their advanced capabilities.

Have you ever tried locking down Windows? Really tightly? It’s impossible – something always breaks. Try to build a kid-proof interface and then imagine keeping reasonable adults within that as well. Making a specialized interface is possible – witness all the kiosks or ATMs that run Windows NT (and bluescreen in public view) – it is just hard and not cost-effective.

A user could be tremendously more effective and efficient if they only had access to what they needed, but you then must create that for each class of users… not only bank tellers, but bank accountants and bank loan officers and auto mechanics and on and on. Right now this isn’t cost effective, but an enterprising company could figure out a process to make this easier. After all, Tivo did.

Technorati Tags: tivo, security, windows, user+advocacy

I was reading about neat Google Calendar stuff but didn’t really see anything interesting until the last paragraphs, where Mark Hurst reflects that people need a way to receive fewer bits – fewer messages, articles, alerts, and so forth. That is what I want… a filter. A personal agent that knows I don’t want to see my kids’ appointments on my daily calendar except if I am planning a vacation or trying to get home to catch their game. I want them there, and accessible immediately, but never shown unless needed.

Finally, more people talking about the real problem and how to address the information overload so common these days…

News yesterday out of Washington about the tighter than expected vote on Network Neutrality, the essential concept of the Internet – that all sites are served equally.  This is vitally important to everyone who uses or works with the Internet in their lives.

The breadth of people talking about it is amazing – look at the Daily Kos, Gun Owners of America, American Library Association, Professor Lawrence Lessig, and even Alyssa Milano. This is getting traction in the mainstream press and now we need to fight it in the Senate.

Why is this posted on a user advocacy/usability weblog?  Because every user will get a different behavior based on their ISP’s interpretation of “important traffic”, and that is a horrible idea for those of us who try to improve daily life.

I don’t have flowery words to add – everyone linked above says it very well, or read additional detailed accounts of the danger. 

This is important.  Take action now.

Technorati Tags: network+neutrality, savetheinternet, F2C, internet, stupid+network