How cool is this? Answer: I don't know until I actually try it.  But it sounds incredibly.  Wonder if I can take video on my non-3GS phone?

Ethnography app debuts on iTunes store | News | Research

UK— Research agency Everyday Lives has launched its iPhone-based ethnographic research app on Apple’s iTunes store – and revealed that a Blackberry version is in the works.

Great little video about HL7 - helps all of us that want to learn more!

How does HL7 work? - iNTERFACEWARE

This is a fantastic movie showing the universe starting with the Himalayas, moving to the outer bounds of the universe, then back to Earth.  All of it is astronomically accurate!

http://fwd4.me/9HP

For us design geeks, check out the seamless transition between frames of reference. How do you adequately show the Earth's features, the solar system, the zodiac, the Milky Way, the mapped galaxies, and the known universe in the same movies (and make it look like "one take")? And it's not just zoom.

This is a quick read about following celebrities on Facebook vs. Twitter.  Which is better?

Far more interesting to me, though, is this comment:

"Facebook for the win, personally I was delighted to see the Neilson [sic] numbers this morning and the lack of retention that Twiitter [sic] has!"

Check this out ... very cool presentation about how to entice people to find and use your application.  I think that, more and more, we need to understand the emotional, psychological, cognitive, and physical aspects of people to break through to them.

I just ran across a great (and cheap) prototyping and wireframing tool. It's great because it's easy, and it creates very approachable prototypes (folks that see them aren't intimidated and will give comments!)

Balsamiq Mockups Home | Balsamiq

I just posted this to http://ixda.org.  Thought it would be worth saving.

In response to the question: what is a Landing Page?

This game is just plain cool. It uses an entirely different interaction mechanism.  You are invited to draw (pen-based computer setups probably make the most sense) in tools to help solve the problem on a given level.  Check it out!

Crayon Physics Deluxe

OK, finally someone said this well.  Except they called it a Usability Experience Specialist.  So, Mom, Dad, friends (shucks, potential clients ... this is what we do for a living!

And it seems to be a "best" career ... I'm not sure yet what that means.

Best Careers 2009: Usability Experience Specialist - US News and World Report

This is an interesting spin through Design Anthropology, an important (and my favorite!) branch of design research.  It's as a response to a critique, which you have to get through before you get to the good stuff.

I don't say everything the same way as Dori Tunstall, the author, but her approach mimics mine quite well: we need to find and describe the humanness in the people we are building our solution for. This is true understanding.