I survived ICSE 2009

Better late than never, right?

Last Sunday I returned from Vancouver where I was attending the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE). I met a lot of great and interesting people. A few that stand out are

• Sherlock Licorish – the soft-spoken researcher from Guyana who told me I was an academic
• Justin Erenkrantz – the President of the Apache Software Foundation who was really down to Earth and cool
• Andy Ko – a professor finishing up his first year at University of Washington. Andy was an all-around great person: articulate, helpful, funny

I also had the honor of hanging out with a couple esteemed colleagues, Drew Stovall and Hyrum Wright, and my wonderful wife.

And a big thanks to the person that made this all possible, Dr. Christine Julien.

Vancouver was an amazing city! I feel extremely glad to be able to see the Pacific Northwest in the late Spring/early Summer. We experienced temperatures  in the 40s to 70 with ample sunshine and a light breeze. By most definitions, near perfect weather. In the eight days we were there it only rained once! Of course, that was the day we were on an open-top zodiac chasing whales, but the experience was too cool to let a little rain get in the way (my retrospective opinion, not the opinion I held while freezing on the chilly waters of the Pacific Ocean). We had awesome Japanese food, terrific Chinese food, a tasty bubble tea, and other ethnic fare that was totally worthwhile.

Before ICSE, we were in Madison, WI to see my sister graduate with her PhD. Her research was about DBMSs on flash disks. Congratulations to her on this momentous ocassion. We’re all very proud!

Designing Based on Data

After my last Usability course this semester a designer/peer, Andrea Richeson, were chatting. She asked me if the course had changed the way I think about designers. I did not have a good answer at the time because I fancy myself a bit of a designer: I’ve created several websites (MPC, SE, SSE, SethHolloway.com) and I constantly build/tinker in both virtual and physical spaces. Beyond considering myself a programmer and designer, I found usability testing to be an amazingly practical part of creating something for people. The methods are similar to my favorite software development methodology: agile development–get the requirements, do a small piece, fix what is broken and ensure people like the effort so far, repeat. After some reflection I can say the course did not really change my view on design, it gave me a framework for evaluating and altering design based on user data.

Fresh out of the class with a solid understanding of the art of usability testing, I was taken aback while reading a New York Times article about a designer who left Google and went to Twitter. He left Google because of their rigid adherence to trusting data. I am confused how a designer could disagree with trusting data. If you do not like this approach, you don’t believe in (1) the way they collect data or (2) trusting the users. The article does not explain how Google collects their data nor does it explain the designer’s disdain, but from what I read I think Google’s approach is perfect.

Google receives millions of unique visitors per day and they are known for changing elements on the page (think of the whimsical, dynamic elements like logo changes and the “Feeling Lucky” button), so it is not hard to believe that Google would put up different designs of the same page. Now, a fraction of the millions of users sees one design and another fraction sees the other design. From the web server’s standpoint, data collection is fairly easy–especially with AJAX-enabled dynamic pages: just stream events to the server for logging. Later, a human can analyze the data and make decisions. With sample sizes in the thousands, statistical validity is almost guaranteed!

The approach is wonderful: people’s behavior determines the best design for the job and the data is collected without the user’s knowledge. What’s better than getting people’s feedback without their knowledge? Hidden camera shows have always exposed wonderful insights, but we can only get at the truth when people let their guard down.

That is how I imagine the data is collected and the approach seems infalible, thus I must conclude that the designer does not believe in trusting users despite the flawless data collection methods. Even outlandish designs can yield positive results. I’m sure I’m missing nuances, but I side with Google. I believe in designing based on data because it keeps us moving towards usable, pleasing designs.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers in the world! You achieved your biological imperative and kept humanity as a whole alive. Thanks for that!

A special thanks to my amazing mother who deserves sainthood for dealing with three, ahem, precocious kids. And to my mother-in-law who was in a similar situation, except my mother-in-law had three perfect children–especially her daughter

I hope everyone has a great day and properly appreciates the one who gave them life!

What do Obama and pigs have in common?

Years ago, people said there’d be a black president when pigs flew. Well, 100 days into a black presidency, swine flu.

Complements of my very clever wife, Andrea Mire Holloway.