Utilize Available Screen Space

Websites and mobile apps both frequently cram options into
too-small parts of the screen, making items harder to understand.
			
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for May 9:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen-space-use.html
	
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Usability Week 2011 conference

  * Minneapolis: this week
  * San Francisco: June 13-18
  * Toronto: July 11-15
  * New York City: August 1-6

Full program:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events

DEADLINE to save 10% on advance registration for San Francisco:
  * THIS Friday, May 13

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INTRANET DESIGN ANNUAL: call for entries

The competition for next year's intranet design award is now open, with a
deadline for entries of June 22:

  > http://www.nngroup.com/reports/intranet/2012

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USER PERFORMANCE DECLINES WITH AGE (but strategic skills don't)

A new study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research analyzed
the ability of the general population to research health information
online:

  > http://www.jmir.org/2011/2/e35/

The new findings are very similar to several of our usability studies. In
particular, the paper concludes many people have poor information skills
and especially strategic Internet skills. Just what I said in the previous
Alertbox on users' research skills:

  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/search-skills.html

The study found that "younger generations also are in need of improved
information and strategic Internet skills," echoing our findings from
testing such users:

  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/teenagers.html

Finally, the researchers analyzed the impact of age on the speed with
which users performed medical tasks on the Web. They found that people
were 0.75% slower for each year of age. Uncannily close to our finding of
a 0.8% slowdown per year:

  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/middle-aged-users.html

It's always nice when new research confirms our old findings. Of course, I
believe in our research, but it's still comforting when different people
using different methods say that we were right.

Second, seeing the same results year after year in different studies
strengthens my conclusion that usability findings tend to be highly
stable, because they depend on human nature and not technology fads:

  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/guidelines-change.html

Third, each new study does provide some new insight into the old issues,
because each researcher approaches the problem from a different angle. In
this new study, the scientists found that the age-dependent slowdown in
Web performance didn't happen for what they call "strategic" Internet
skills. This is things like "developing an orientation toward a particular
goal" and "making the right decision to reach this goal." Here,
middle-aged and older users benefited sufficiently from their enhanced
experience to overcome their decline in raw brainpower.

Happy news, especially for those of us who are not 20 anymore.
	
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UTEST INTERVIEW

Utest.com ran an interview with me that included some issues that I rarely
comment on:

  > http://bit.ly/lcMat5

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MOVIE RECOMMENDATION: Cave of Forgotten Dreams

I don't usually do film reviews in this newsletter, and I believe the last
movie I recommended was Startup.com in 2001. Maybe you'll indulge me in
one recommendation per decade.

This weekend I saw "Cave of Forgotten Dreams" which is a documentary by
Werner Herzog:

  > http://www.caveofforgottendreams.com

This is the first film I have appreciated in 3D since "Avatar". Mostly, 3D
is like flashy websites: a distraction from the story. Not here.

This film is about a cave with 32,000 old paintings, and the 3D
visualization really makes you feel like being in the cave. These are not
paintings in the style of flat canvasses on a museum wall. The cave
paintings were designed as an integral part of the undulating walls in the
cave itself. The environment *is* the story, so seeing it in 3D is
essential. You must go see this film in the movie theater; it's not enough
to wait for it to be broadcast on TV.

If you want the user experience spin on this film, there are two:
  (a) How early humans designed the experience of the cave
  (b) How Herzog designed the experience of watching a filmed
representation of the cave, interspersing it with visits to the open air,
and even some shots of experimental archaeologists demonstrating stone age
weapons and musical instruments.

Mainly, though, it's simply a cool film about a stunning visit to a
spectacular destination where we can't go as regular tourists.
(Anything beyond a handful of people would destroy the cave.)