steve kwan user experience designer

More photos

(April 29th, 2006 - 1:42AM)

This time, it's all about Boz.

Looks like we're in the clear

(April 28th, 2006 - 3:20PM)

As many of you may have noticed, access to this site has been spotty at best over the past few days. This is due to a glitch with my ISP. It looks like they've resolved the problem, so access should be back to normal.

Stupid crappy Internet

(April 27th, 2006 - 12:01AM)

My apologies for the unreliable access to this site. I suspect some components of my LAN are in dire need of replacement, so I will be attempting an upgrade tonight. Hopefully that should resolve any issues.

My new digital camera

(April 26th, 2006 - 11:37PM)

I've been testing out new digital cameras. I've put photos in my gallery that were taken with an Olympus Stylus 600. This particular one seems to have a problem with dead pixels. I didn't know you could get that with digital cameras.

View my test photos in my photo gallery.

Spammers have the funniest names

(April 24th, 2006 - 11:11PM)

Ever read the fake names in the From line of your spam? Well, I have. It's a little something that Richard once did to entertain us on his blog. I guess it's one of the many things he's learned in Berkeley pursuing higher education. He's going to be a great man someday.

Anyway, the following names are from "people" who've sent me spam recently. Their mothers must have hated them.

• Mabel Q. Splinter
• Mislays H. Idiomatically
• Solidify B. Consignment
• Inflexibility D. Ugly
• Maws K. Infringed
• Distraught I. Smarmiest
• Delimit C. Debilitation
• Undocumented S. Letter
• Accented V. Sass
• Rhythmical K. Strides
• Shuckses B. Hackle
• Humerus A. Protracting
• Spears R. Syphilitics
• Toilet B. Interbred
• Maximiliano Talmadge

Sorry for the downtime

(April 24th, 2006 - 12:25PM)

My more astute readers will have noticed that there was about an hour of downtime this morning. Sorry. My router sucks.

Steve Kwan dot com's third anniversary

(April 24th, 2006 - 12:40AM)

I just celebrated my five hundredth post, and now I'm celebrating this site's third anniversary! I was planning to synchronize the two events so I could cover them both in a single post, but I couldn't wait that long.

Three years. Wow. I've been more devoted to this site than I've been to any woman. Scary.

Here's what I looked like three years ago. I look pretty much the same now, but less blurry.

This is my 500th post!

(April 22nd, 2006 - 11:48PM)

Well I would write five hundred posts
And I would write five hundred more
To be the man who wrote a thousand posts
To fall down at your door

I'm struggling to think of something insightful to say on my five hundredth post...but it's not coming. So maybe I should put this off until I've got ideas. But I'm so excited! So bear with me while I write my crappy five hundredth post.

What have I learned from Steve Kwan dot com? Well, I like to think it's taught me to write more engaging material. Looking back at some of my earlier posts, I don't think they're as interesting as what I write now.

I've also gotten into the habit of proof-reading my posts more. Hopefully they don't contain as much redundant or useless information as they used to; my apologies if they do.

What has Steve Kwan dot com done for me? When I first started this site I vainly hoped it would result in some sort of cyber-fame. Of course, I knew that would never happen. But what did happen - and I didn't expect it - is that I received interest from Microsoft, Amazon.com, Google, and more. So there is a reason to blog.

This site has also helped me hone my user experience and Web development skills. My career's taken a sharp turn towards the user-oriented arts over the past year, and Steve Kwan dot com has had a lot of influence in that decision.

I've had a great time writing the past 500 posts, and I look forward to writing 500 more. Keep reading!

I may have to give up coffee

(April 19th, 2006 - 11:15AM)

I've noticed that beer and coffee make me feel awful these days - probably as a result of what I discussed earlier. Giving up beer isn't too big a deal, but giving up coffee is going to be hard. I had a cup this morning and it didn't go down well. Green tea doesn't seem to be as bad, so maybe I'll substitute that for a while.

Hospitalized

(April 18th, 2006 - 11:53PM)

On Monday morning, I went to the hospital with digestive problems. I've been having issues for some time now, as many of you know. Over the weekend they got worse and on Monday I decided to see the doctors.

I'm out now and feeling better. I've got my colonoscopy in May, and hopefully they'll be able to figure out the problem. The doctor at the hospital suggested it may be Crohn's Disease.

I have to admit that I'm impressed with the BC medical system. They took good care of me and it didn't cost me a dime. Canada's a great place.

We'll just explain it in the help.

(April 16th, 2006 - 2:45PM)

"Rule of thumb: when instructions have to be pasted on something (push here, insert this way, turn off before doing this), it is badly designed."
-Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things

So true...and surprisingly insightful. Whenever I encounter something in our software that's counterintuitive, all too often I'm told that "we'll just explain it in the help."

For anyone who's ever uttered those words, I've got news for you: NO ONE READS THE HELP. That's right, I said it. Help text and manuals are supplements to your interface, not substitutes. If your interface is so haphazard that the only way to make sense of it is by wading through oodles of online help, then you're pawning your usability problems off onto your users. I assure you they won't be happy about it.

Failing to provide a usable interface is no different than failing to implement an important module. In fact, in most projects the interface is far more important than any single function the user may want to perform. If you expect your users to read your online help before they can figure out your software, I encourage you think again.

DOET

(April 14th, 2006 - 1:41AM)

I've been re-reading The Design of Everyday Things (or as the author calls it, DOET), as it's the text for a new course I'm taking. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy this book.

Have you ever read one of those books that totally changed the way you think? For me, DOET was one of those books. If you're an engineer of any sort, or for that matter if you build things that other people are going to have to use, I highly recommend you read DOET.

Speaking as someone who makes software for a living, I know how easy it is to get detached from your users. When you spend every day developing a product hands-on, before long you don't think about anything else. And that's unfortunate, because the users are one of the first things you tend to forget. DOET helps you get your head in the right place again.

How TransLink ruined my morning

(April 12th, 2006 - 11:22PM)

I really don't want to type up what happened again, so I'll just post a snippet from an MSN conversation with Richard that explains it all.

stevekwan.com says:
I got a $200 ticket today

Richform says:
for what?

Richform says:
speeding?

stevekwan.com says:
Nope

stevekwan.com says:
Transit fare jumping

stevekwan.com says:
The irony?

Richform says:
Whoa

Richform says:
Wha' happened?

stevekwan.com says:
I wasn't actually fare jumping

stevekwan.com says:
Have you ever taken the SeaBus?

Richform says:
Then why didn't you take it up with them?

Richform says:
not in years

stevekwan.com says:
Do you remember what the terminal at Waterfront looks like?

Richform says:
Yeah

stevekwan.com says:
Well

stevekwan.com says:
You know how you get off those escalators

stevekwan.com says:
And you head down to where the SeaBus picks you up

stevekwan.com says:
And you have to walk through those turnstyles?

Richform says:
I think so

stevekwan.com says:
I get off the escalator

stevekwan.com says:
Walk down to the turnstyle

stevekwan.com says:
Before I can go through, the transit "cop" asks to see my ticket

stevekwan.com says:
I show him my one-zone pass and my BCIT OneCard

stevekwan.com says:
Do you know how the fare saver program works?

Richform says:
sort of

Richform says:
Oh yeah, so you have the one-zone thing

Richform says:
and the BCIT thing makes it a 3-zone

stevekwan.com says:
Basically you can buy these little translucent stickers and stick them on your student card

stevekwan.com says:
Right

stevekwan.com says:
And that lets you go to all three zones with a one zone pass

stevekwan.com says:
Anyway

stevekwan.com says:
So I show my shit to the guy

stevekwan.com says:
And he points out that my sticker has expired

stevekwan.com says:
Did you even know those things expire?

Richform says:
I did

stevekwan.com says:
Not my student card. The $2 STICKER on the card

Richform says:
I know

stevekwan.com says:
And he asks for my driver's license

stevekwan.com says:
I have no idea why, so I give it to him

stevekwan.com says:
And he writes me a $200 ticket for fare jumping

stevekwan.com says:
Now the thing is, I hadn't even gone through the turnstyle yet

Richform says:
Hm

Richform says:
Can you take it up with someone

stevekwan.com says:
So I'm asking buddy the fake cop what makes him think he can write me a ticket

Richform says:
?

stevekwan.com says:
And he points out that I walked past the "fare required" line about twenty feet back

stevekwan.com says:
So I am fair game

stevekwan.com says:
My transit pass was still valid, it was just a one zone

stevekwan.com says:
And my student card was still valid, it just had a sticker on it that expired in 2005

stevekwan.com says:
And the "fares only" line was only about 20 feet behind me

Richform says:
wow

stevekwan.com says:
So the dude gives me a $200 ticket and makes me buy a new transfer

Richform says:
this guy sounds like a real bad-cop type

stevekwan.com says:
I walk back to the machine and find out that it won't accept my card

stevekwan.com says:
And I have no cash

stevekwan.com says:
So I have to walk all the way back out to Waterfront Station and take out cash

stevekwan.com says:
Then come back down

stevekwan.com says:
By this point I'm half an hour late for work

stevekwan.com says:
I came dangerously close to missing a Web conference I was supposed to speak at

Further proof that I am incompetent

(April 11th, 2006 - 10:30PM)

It's bad enough that L. Ron Hubbard thinks I'm incompetent. Today I provided more evidence when I tried to tell Wes that I had "totally forgot" something, and instead wound up saying that I had "forgohtelly tot."

I need a graphic artist

(April 11th, 2006 - 3:37PM)

I designed some business cards for myself but I don't have much knowledge of professional printing. I'd like a graphic artist to confirm for me that my new business card design will translate properly onto card stock. I'm willing to pay.

Please drop me a line if you can help.

Why do musicians always have crummy websites?

(April 10th, 2006 - 3:33PM)

Not that it's really surprising that musicians tend to have lousy, overly flashy websites. Musicians often go out of their way to look unconventional and interesting, so it's not surprising that they'd break the Web conventions commonly used by professional websites. All the same, those conventions were established for a reason: usability.

I've touched on this earlier in previous posts about Kate Bush and Matthew Good. I've found another example: the Panic! At The Disco website.

Panic! At The Disco is a great band, but their website gives a different impression entirely. Here are my gripes.

• It's one big Flash animation. While this isn't an uncommon setup, it renders the Back button and bookmarking useless.
• The Flash animation takes too long to load, especially considering how unimpressive the site looks.
• The 3D furniture reminds me of my drafting projects in grade 12, which weren't that impressive.
• The "navigate by command prompt" interface is a pain in the ass. Try navigating the site. Instead of just clicking a link to find what you want, you have to type a term into a command prompt like a DOS console. This is a pain in the ass if you don't know which pages are available on the site, which I assume is almost always the case. I thought we were all in agreement that getting rid of command prompts was one of the best usability improvements in the last twenty years.
• The whole "apartment" metaphor doesn't work at all. Instead of searching by something useful ("bio," "discography," "forums," "tour dates"), you have to search by furniture or room. For example, if you want to see the band's tour dates, you have to type "globe" into the search box. The Flash animation will then "walk you into the office" where you can click on a globe to view the band's tour dates. Wouldn't it be much easier to just click a link that says "tour dates?"

I'm tired of ranting about this website. After all, it's not that uncommon for musicians to have crappy websites. But sites like Panic!'s just make me appreciate the bands with good sites a little more. Damsel Fly (there we go again with the name dropping) has an excellent, easy to navigate website, and it still looks good. Why can't more bands be like them?

Go to the Panic! At The Disco website.

View a screenshot of the Panic! At The Disco website.

L. Ron Hubbard thinks that I am an incompetent human being

(April 10th, 2006 - 11:05AM)

I just finished the Scientology personality test for fun. I won't bother dignifying it with a link, but I will post my results here.

According to this test, I am an incompetent human being.

In particular, it appears that my levels of composure, responsibility, and appreciativeness are unacceptably low. Thankfully, I am at least sufficiently aggressive (I wasn't aware that was a good thing). Apparently I have a lot of work to do before the author of Battlefield Earth gives me two thumbs up.

Of course, the test made it very clear that only a trained expert can correctly interpret these results, so I should go down to the church of Scientology for a brainwashing consultation.

Review: Don't Make Me Think!

(April 9th, 2006 - 9:26PM)

What a great title!

(5 / 5 stars)

No, seriously. Don't make me think!

This is a fantastic book. It's an absolute must-read for Web designers. I highly, highly recommend it to anybody involved in making websites that you actually intend human beings to use.

The author, Steve Krug, is the founder of a usability company called Advanced Common Sense. What a great name! His company's name, his book's name, the book's chapters/headings - they're all brilliant.

I could write on and on about how great this book is, but I'm going to follow one of Steve's principles: Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what's left. So this review is over. It's a great book. Buy Don't Make Me Think!

I haven't pimped out Damsel Fly in a while

(April 8th, 2006 - 2:47PM)

So here goes. Damsel Fly is playing a show at The Roxy on Tuesday April 25th, 2006. The doors open at 7:00PM, and the first band hits the stage at 8:00PM.

If you want to come with me, I've got tickets. Just e-mail me and let me know. Otherwise you can e-mail the band and ask them.

When faced with problems, do nothing

(April 7th, 2006 - 9:46AM)

For the last four or so years, WebGENCAT has had a known issue with handling very large indexes...or so we thought.

After weeks of extensive testing, we've discovered that the problem does not exist.

Our current working theory is that this problem surely existing at one point - it was a huge issue in a project several years ago - but our database provider, jBASE, must have fixed it without informing us. So now it seems a major barrier to indexing large databases has been removed, and we didn't have to do anything to make it happen.

This further confirms my theory that when faced with a problem, the best course of action is to do nothing. Anything that's really a big problem is bound to get sorted out by someone else.

(That's a joke.)

Review: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

(April 3rd, 2006 - 9:35PM)

The great outdoors. Picture taken from the official Oblivion website.

(5 / 5 stars)

One sentence summary: Quite possibly the best PC RPG ever made.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is ruining my life. Anyone who's played it understands why.

Oblivion is an exceptional game in every sense of the word. It's an open-ended RPG where you can be whatever you want and do whatever you like. However, it also provides enough guidance and plot that you're not likely to get lost in a sea of possibilities.

Oblivion is the fourth game in The Elder Scrolls series. The previous game, Morrowind, was widely popular but had a lot of problems. In particular, the game was bug-ridden and provided little player guidance. I personally had a hard time getting into the game, and only invested a few hours in it before I put it aside due to frustration and boredom. But that's not a problem with Oblivion.

All of the major problems in Morrowind have been addressed. The lack of guidance, the tedious walking from place to place, and the horrible crash bugs are all gone. All the barriers that prevented Morrowind from being a truly fantastic game have been removed in Oblivion.

Oblivion contains a sickening amount of content. I imagine that it would take you hundreds of hours to fully explore every aspect of the game. In addition, there's a tremendous amount of voice acting in the game, including work by Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean. Every character in the game has spoken dialogue, and considering how many characters exist, that's a lot of speech. Unfortunately you'll get used to hearing the same voices from different people, and occasionally you'll hear two different voices from the same character. But considering the massive amount of voice acting done, that's easy to overlook.

The gameplay is also a huge step forward from Morrowind, and for that matter, from other RPGs. Like Morrowind, Oblivion is a first-person game - unusual for the RPG genre - but it really works. In particular, the swordplay is great. It's simple and easy to understand, but yet fun and challenging. I haven't seen melee combat like this since The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

Oblivion is a major-time commitment. That's really the only bad thing I can say about it. It's not the sort of game you can finish in ten hours. If you start playing this game and get hooked, you might wind up wasting a lot of time.

I don't know how the developers managed to pack so much into a single game, but I'm glad they did.