Monday, August 28, 2006

We have moved!

This blog will be maintained on the WordPress platform in the future @ knowledgelearning.wordpress.com. See you there!

posted by juneH @ 8/28/2006 10:28:00 am 0 comments

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Web Usability Book List

NIELSEN, DR. JAKOB, 2006. Books About Usability. FreePint Newsletter, 211. Books are useful for learning about usability, because it is:

  • Related to humans thus changes slowly
  • Only possible to reveal deeper insights through in-depth text

Recommended books:

  1. “Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction” by Ben Shneiderman and Catherine Plaisant (Addison Wesley, 2004) ~ 672 pages text book that summarises knowledge on how people use computers ~
  2. “Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works” by Janice Redish (Morgan Kaufmann, 2006)
  3. “Designing Visual Interfaces: Communication Oriented Techniques” by Kevin Mullet and Darrell Sano (Prentice Hall, 1994) ~ explains the principles required to understand visual design within an interactive context ~
  4. “Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for Everyone” by John m. Slatin and Sharron Rush (Addison-Wesley, 2002) ~ written from the angle of customers who actually have disabilities, with real browsing-using-screen-reader case studies ~

The original newsletter can be accessed through the title link.

posted by juneH @ 8/22/2006 06:58:00 pm 0 comments

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Is Networking on your schedule?

It is on mine. I share with you some practical strategies I found:

  • Form strategic topics to discuss with everyone you meet at an event
  • Introduce yourself i.e. name (e.g. hello, I am so-and-so, you are?)
  • Ask why they attend i.e. their purpose of coming to the event
  • What do they think of the event?
  • Discuss anything else that crops up after these first three questions
  • If they are interested, ask them what is their main project at work currently
  • Ask if they have any personal project going on and what is it
  • Give them your details and request them to update you with their projects (even if you aren’t particularly interested)
  • Thank them and tell them it is nice to meet and talk to them and hope to see them again
  • Always answer your own questions after the other party has told their story as it is a normal practice to share in conversation
  • Set targets such as ‘I will give my email address to one participant at the event’.

posted by juneH @ 8/17/2006 08:52:00 pm 0 comments

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Bad English?!

If a library visitor was racist and accused you of bad English, try this: "Since you think my English is bad, I am sorry you will have to ask my colleague to help you because I do not want to mislead you". Or if you are flying solo: "I am sorry my English is bad for you, I am afraid I cannot help you because I do not wish to mislead you by any chance".

posted by juneH @ 8/05/2006 02:44:00 pm 0 comments