Author Archives: Jonathan

About Jonathan

Following an undergraduate degree in computer science, some worldly adventures, and years in the software industry, I find myself back at school getting a masters degree in Human Computer Interaction. And I love it.

Requirements Engineering Exercise

Posted on September 24, 2010 by Jonathan

I’m currently teaching two 2-hour labs each week for an undergraduate software engineering course.  The first few weeks of the course have been about design methodology and requirements engineering.  In this post I’ll describe last week’s lab on requirements gathering … Continue reading →

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MySpace: Bad Usability Cost Them The Crown

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Jonathan

It’s becoming more and more clear that the relatively short-lived reign of MySpace as the king of social networking sites, is over.  Facebook is the new Emperor of social networking.  We need not look much further than the horrible user … Continue reading →

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Heuristic Evaluation

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Jonathan

There is already a myriad of information available on the web about Heuristic Evaluation (HE). The purpose of this post is not to simply re-iterate that information.  As a usability practitioner I have performed many heuristic evaluations on websites and … Continue reading →

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Feeling Overwhelmed

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Jonathan

I couldn’t help but to keep thinking about my post “What is Usability?” long after I pressed the “Publish” button.  As much as I like Krug’s definition of usability, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that it is missing something: … Continue reading →

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The Usability Approach

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Jonathan

Yes!  The creative juices are flowing.  You feel the rush; the euphoria that comes along with new insight!  A new thought, a creative, inspired moment – a Eureka! moment – in which you’ve come up with a new idea.  A … Continue reading →

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What is Usability?

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Jonathan

Somebody called me a usability expert the other day.  Usability expert, I repeated to myself, smiling  – ohhh, I liked the sound of that.  Yes, I’m completing a masters in human computer interaction, this is true.  Yes, I love to … Continue reading →

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Building a Website with WordPress on Your Own Domain

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Jonathan

If you are interested in owning your own domain (like www.jonathanbeer.ca) and creating your own website at a very low cost, read on.  Creating your own website is now easier than ever before using user-friendly publishing software like WordPress.

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