steve kwan user experience designer

What a weird day.

(March 31st, 2005 - 10:41PM)

Three things of interest happened today.

1. I received a bonus due to the results Eloquent Systems Inc. has been experiencing.
   
   
2. Someone from Microsoft randomly emailed me asking if I'm interested in a job. It looked like a mass email. And yes, I did a reverse lookup to verify this email's authenticity.
   
   
3. Another random person contacted me via email asking to help set up a network and website. That's the second time today that someone randomly contacted me.

Now that's a specific demographic

(March 30th, 2005 - 10:04PM)

LEZBRIAN - Lesbian and Bisexual Women Library Workers

Work

(March 30th, 2005 - 9:48PM)

So some of our prospects are moving towards what we perceive as a sale. It would be great to get some more cash into the company; I'd love to see my work pay off in dollars.

Easter

(March 29th, 2005 - 11:12PM)

I spent the Easter long weekend at my parents' cabin. Chopped some wood, drank some beer. Was fun. And yes, I'm aware that chopping wood goes against the typical software engineer stereotype. To answer your most pressing question, I am amazingly manly.

I got started on my psychology course. The book begins by attempting to discredit competing ideologies such as astrology. Not that I believe in astrology, but there's something sad about psychologists beginning a description of their discipline by immediately attempting to discredit "competing" ideas.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to visit some guys at MINISIS, but I could really use a trip to the gym. On top of that, I don't want to take off work early. Especially not to hang out with the competitors.

Finished my Interface course

(March 29th, 2005 - 10:50PM)

Wow, people are actually coming to my site - it's not just robots. After my last post, my traffic went down for the weekend.

I just wrote my final exam for COMP 7021, my Human Interface course. Now I've got Psychology and Ethics courses coming up. At least these two are online, so I won't have to transit down to the Burnaby campus.

Cabin Fever

(March 25th, 2005 - 1:51AM)

I'm heading to my parents' cabin for the Easter weekend. Sarah is coming. There won't be any updates to the site until Monday at the earliest.

I'm trying to print off a copy of my BCIT course notes so I can study for the final exam (this Tuesday) while I'm at the cabin. You'd think this would be a relatively simple task, but the notes are in PowerPoint presentations and I don't have PowerPoint at my parents' house, where I am now. I've converted the presentations into Word documents, but they're quite large and are taking some time to copy over to the computer at my parents'.

I'm currently sitting at a desk and drinking a glass of Merlot. It's not bad. I'm not sure what Paul Giamatti was talking about when he said, "I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!" See Sideways if that line is new to you.

At work, we've made tremendous progress in terms of interface, but perhaps I'm the only Eloquentee who thinks so. My co-workers are generally not big graphic design or interface enthusiasts, so I'm more or less on my own when it comes to pitching new interfaces.

One of our online public search mechanisms is what we call the Public Keyword Search. Compare the old Public Keyword Search to the new Public Keyword Search and see what I mean. The colors and so forth are controlled by stylesheets, so it's quite easy to customize the look and feel per application. Luckily, my predecessors seemed to have anticipated the need for stylesheets and customizability, so the work I needed to do to make this new interface happen wasn't that much.

Note that all I really changed on the Public Keyword Search was the coloring and imagery; however, I hope that this will give a more positive impression of the software. Our products are very powerful, but up until now, the look on the outside didn't adequately represent the power inside.

I'm planning to do more work on our interfaces and perhaps customize a few layouts designs for certain clients.

I'm currently on my second glass of Merlot, which I believe classifies me as a lush; this is the fifth alcoholic drink I've had since I woke up.

By the way, I'm going to see Damsel Fly on April the 8th. Anybody interested in coming?

Gouda Sorrow

(March 21st, 2005 - 10:51PM)

The cheese I'm eating tastes like rubber.

Cougarboating

(March 20th, 2005 - 4:31PM)

Tory has requested that I post the following advertisement for her dragonboating team on my website.

X-CALIBRE
DRAGON BOAT TEAM

is looking for paddlers

we are a fun and somewhat competitive team, and welcome novice and experienced paddlers to come and give us a try.

no previous dragon boat experience necessary, just a reasonable level of fitness and the ability to commit to two evening practices per week (Monday and Thursday from Granville Island).

For more information, contact:
Tory Ross at tory.ross@telus.net or 604.722.7296.

Ethics

(March 19th, 2005 - 5:14PM)

I signed up for an ethics course (LIBS 7002) for my degree. It's online, so hopefully that wil make it a little less cumbersome for me. I might sign up for another online course at the same time, except the cost of education is making it difficult to save money.

We had a lunch meeting at work where we discussed the future of the company. We've made a lot of progress over the past few months, but we still have a long way to go before we can achieve financial security. Our software is doing extremely well as far as attaining interest goes, but most of the people interested in our software haven't actually made purchasing decisions yet.

Of course, it goes without saying that if the company starts pulling in lots of cash, I'll expect a raise.

End Breast Cancer

(March 16th, 2005 - 11:33PM)

The Weekend to End Breast Cancer

Vigilante healthcare

(March 16th, 2005 - 10:35PM)

I mentioned in an earlier post that I've got a new doctor who practices in the building where Eloquent Systems Inc. is located.

Today he walked into our office and informed me that I needed a flu shot. I went with him, got the shot and went back to work.

I've heard of house calls, but I've never heard of office calls. It's a little unnerving that a doctor showed up to my place of work uninvited, took me back to his office and needled me. But I suppose it makes for a good story.

That 24 article was a satire.

(March 15th, 2005 - 11:19PM)

Someone thought that previous post about 24 was real. Let me clarify that it's not.

You're going to have to trust me

(March 15th, 2005 - 9:13AM)

You 24 fans out there might appreciate this.

Thanks to Fark for the link.

Low-fidelity prototypes

(March 13th, 2005 - 10:12AM)

COMP 7021 - the course I'm taking at BCIT - recommends the use of low-fidelity prototypes when attempting to gain user approval for a website.

For those unsure, here are some terminology definitions:

• A prototype is a mock-up of a website or software product where the look and feel is being demonstrated, but the actual functionality has not yet been added. The purpose of such a prototype is to demo your interface to your boss or client and gain approval before you begin developing the underlying structure of the website/product.
• A high-fidelity prototype is a prototype that is developed in "soft" format on your computer. For example, developing an interface in Visual Studio .NET, but not developing any underlying code, gives you a high-fidelity prototype.
• A low-fidelity prototype is a prototype that is developed in "hard" format using pencil and paper. Computers have not been used to develop these protototypes.

The textbook for this course recommends we use low-fidelity prototypes. That's something that I just don't see myself doing.

Perhaps low-fidelity prototypes were a good idea back in the days when creating high-fidelity prototypes required a decent amount of work. But with tools like Dreamweaver and Visual Studio .NET, creating high-fidelity prototypes is easy. In fact, it's not much more work than creating low-fidelity prototypes.

Plus, if you're demonstrating a potential interface to a client, using a low-fidelity prototype will make you look stupid. If you're a software engineer, people expect you to be an expert in your domain. If you're resorting to pencil and paper for your demos, you're not going to look like much of an expert.

The textbook suggests you assign a person to play the role of the "computer" when showing low-fidelity prototypes to a user. Instead of using the mouse to navigate the prototype as the user would do in a high-fidelity prototype, the user simply looks at a paper prototype and instructs the "computer" to click a certain menu item, etc. This seems a bit awkward to me. I envision a low-fidelity prototype demonstration going something like this:

Engineer: "Okay, we're going to show you a series of paper prototypes which represent your interface. You'll navigate these pages as if they were part of a software product."

User: "Hold on...aren't you guys software developers? Why didn't you make your prototype on a computer?"

Engineer: "We read in a textbook that doing it on paper was a good idea. Anyway, Bob here will be playing the role of the computer. You will interact with Bob like you would interact with a computer. If you want to select an item from the paper-based prototype, tell Bob and he will display the results of your action for you."

User: "Sure..."

Bob: "Oof!"

Engineer: "Please don't double-click Bob's nose."

I really don't think low-fidelity prototypes are all that useful now that we have effective high-fidelity prototyping tools available. Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought one of the purposes of using computers was to move away from paper.

Things are looking good

(March 12th, 2005 - 9:17AM)

Can't complain these days.

Work is going quite well. We've been really busy lately with a whole slew of requests for demos. For the first time in a long time, Eloquent has posted a quarterly profit. I can't help but feel that this is in large part due to myself and Wesley.

My course is almost finished, so I think I'll sign up for a new one. I'm thinking of going through the Open Learning Agency this time, because the online courses they offer are cheaper and self-paced. I would like to learn about archival sciences (Eloquent develops software for archivists), but I don't know if the OLA offers courses on this.

I have several resolutions:

• Stop eating out at restaurants.
• Stop taking the taxi to work.
• Go to the gym more often.
• Eat more vegetables.

Anyway, I'm going to go play some GTA: Vice City. I rented the first two DVDs for 24 season two, so I'll probably watch that later. I predict a lazy weekend.

Waiter, there's a fly in my damsel

(March 10th, 2005 - 11:51PM)

So Mario brought me the Damsel Fly t-shirt I ordered. It looks really slick: black with the orange fly on it. I'm going to wear it to work tomorrow.

If anybody is interested in ordering one of the shirts, e-mail Damsel Fly. You could also attend one of their gigs. It wouldn't kill you to listen to their music. It's better than the garbage you listen to. That's right, I'm talking to you, you Nickelback-lover.

24 again

(March 9th, 2005 - 9:33PM)

I'm watching the first season of 24. So far, Jack Bauer's daughter has been kidnapped three times in a 24-hour period. Wow.

Mad Doctor

(March 8th, 2005 - 10:56PM)

This happened a few days ago, but I've been slacking in my updates.

I was looking for a new doctor becaused I wanted to get a prescription renewed. There's a doctor in the building I work in, so I figured that would be really convenient. I sat down with him for the first time and asked him to fill my prescription.

He informed me that he doesn't work that way. He'd rather get to know me and solve all of my life problems his own way. He also went on to inform me that I remind him of his son and I should quit my job to pursue further education. Thanks, Doc.

He then asked me to remove my shirt and went on to draw two purple dots on me. No, he did not connect them.

At least I got my prescription, so I can get that renewed. This doctor is either an eccentric genius or a nut. He's got attitude, too. Told me I should lay off my coffee. He's like an Asian John Becker.

You know it's going to be a rough day when...

(Mar. 8th, 2005 - 9:03AM)

In the process of trying to shut off an alarm clock you spill juice all over your keyboard.

More Updates

(Mar. 7th, 2005 - 9:20PM)

I'm getting really lazy with updates. Here they are.

I saw Million Dollar Baby with Tory. At first, I was skeptical about the movie because it was directed by Clint Eastwood, and I wasn't a big fan of Mystic River. But Million Dollar Baby was amazing. Great movie. Highly recommended. And I'm angry with Stephen Colbert for ruining the ending.

I've been spending a lot of money on alcohol and been getting a gut. I'm going to try laying off the alcohol and spending more time in the gym.

I'm watching 24. I didn't see the beginning of the show so I could speak to my landlord. He hasn't cashed the February rent cheque yet.

Updates

(Mar. 4th, 2005 - 9:45AM)

A lot of things to talk about.

I've been spending a lot of money on food and alcohol lately. Wesley, Stan and myself have gotten into the habit of going out for beer. I'd really like to start saving money, so maybe I'll stop going out so much. It's a shame, because going out for food and drink with your peers is a great way to bond.

Oddly enough, when I was at MINISIS I was making far less money than I'm making now, but yet I didn't have much trouble saving the same amount of money. Now that I'm making more, I still have trouble saving the same amount.

I'm on disc five of the first season of 24. This show is tense. They need more shows like this. Kiefer Sutherland is awesome. Something about his voice.

I've read a lot of books lately. Among them:

• The Design of Everyday Things
• Getting to Yes

I've just started reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Seems pretty good so far. If you haven't figured out the trend yet, I'm a bit interested in Psychology. I'm also thinking of taking Psychology courses for my B.Tech.

Regarding books, some of you might have noticed that I've put up a library section, which is basically a list of the books on my shelf. I've got boxes full of books yet to be catalogued; I'll probably do them when I get them on a shelf.

It appears that my predictions for the Academy Awards weren't 100% accurate, but at least I was right about Jamie Foxx.

I don't grow a lot of facial hair, but for some reason, some of what I do grow is red.

The Apple headphones I returned sucked. They were cone-shaped. How are cone-shaped earphones supposed to stay in your ear? It's like shoving a ballpoint pen into your ear canal. The Sony Fontopia ones I've got now are far better.

crApple iPod headphones

Sony Fontopia headphones

My landlord still hasn't cashed my February rent check.

I went to The Keg with my parents for my Dad's birthday. They now give you a raw tomato with your steak. QUALITY.

That's enough rambling for one post. Stay healthy.