Barnes and Noble Nook review - tablets still seem to be in beta

Wow, it has been a while since I've commented on this blog. As you may or may not know I had a stint up at Microsoft for several months and then landed a full-time position as the senior user experience researcher at Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield here in lovely Portland Oregon.

After adapting to full-time work again, I intend to add some blog entries since I've had some interesting experiences with technology recently.

Most recently, I got a Barnes & Noble Nook tablet as a Hanukkah gift. Actually, I was sent some money that I put towards the new tablet. I spent a lot of time looking, mostly at the Kindle fire and the Nook trying to decide which one to purchase. (Also note, if you are looking at these devices, there is a Nook color and the Nook tablet. Be sure you get the one you're looking for.)

My first decision was, what do I want to do and how much do I want to spend? I already have two laptops plus a work laptop, so productivity is low on the importance scale.

My ideal device looks like this:

• really portable: six or 7 inches like the e-readers
• under $300 (trying to be realistic)
• easy to read and download books and magazines including library loans
• easy to check e-mail and use the Internet (Wi-Fi only is just fine)
• great access to apps-ideally working with my iPhone, but that means paying Apple premiums
• access to TV/movies

I am generally underwhelmed by the tablet market and particularly this crossover reader/tablet. They seem to do a little bit of everything but not a lot of anything. I have to say I really like the reading experience on the Nook. The UI is really nice for looking up words or highlighting-this is where I found the Kindle failed miserably putting me in unending loops. I also really liked the contrast on the screen over the Kindle.

However, downloading library books was a crazy experience, more unending loops and syncing with absolutely no feedback, although I guess that's more about the library website and less about the Nook itself. I also realize that at this premium price of $250 I will have to take out a lot of library books to make it worthwhile. I am still trying to figure out if a paper magazines that I subscribe to will allow me to download digital versions for free. I certainly hope so…

I compromised on apps and other functionality to retain a small footprint, a lightweight device and something in a "reasonable" price range.

I downloaded A copy of Real Simple magazine which looks beautiful. The only thing I realized is that I very often tear pages out of magazines with recipes or book recommendations or other interesting tidbits, and with the e-reader I can no longer do that and I'm not sure I can even print from it. I also have not figured out if there's any way to read the books that I have downloaded on my Nook on my iPhone. I don't imagine always having the device with me and would love to read when I have the chance. Although, the reason I got the tablet is that reading on the iPhone is a pretty painful experience. And I love to read.

The touchscreen is somewhat touch and go. Some pages are optimized which is nice, but the targets are still really small, somehow even worse than the iPhone, and it seems to take one or two touches to actually get it to register. or, it may just be that the Wi-Fi is relatively slow and it's loading but I don't realize it. I spend a lot of time watching the green bar go across the top as it downloads pages.

What I miss most is the ability to have many different apps. The store is extremely limited, which I only learned after my purchase. I have started bookmarking sites, but once you've gone apps you don't want to go back.

The final thing that comes to mind is the e-mail program. The iPhone very kindly lets you read e-mail and then mark it as "unread" so that when you view it on another device you realize you still need to answer that e-mail. Unfortunately, the Nook does not have that option. It's an option I make frequent use of, and definitely miss.

And, if you are purchasing this or any other tablet, I highly recommend a case that you can use either in vertical or horizontal position. I love that I can prop up a book and read it sitting all by itself on the table (especially given ongoing back problems). But you will also want to be able to watch a movie or video propped horizontally. The only case I have found for this device is the Tasume Case. I returned the one I purchased my purchased the device and will be ordering this one.

So, there are a lot of things I would like it to do, and many things I'm not sure that it can. my plan is to use it and adapt to it as best as I can. Heck, if in six months I don't like it, there's always eBay.

The Patient Experience

My book group just finished reading A General Theory of Love. We seem to be a bunch of psychology nerds and fascinated by the human condition. The general theory is about how important human connection is and how intrinsic it is to our core being. The author's compose lengthy prose on the limbic system which allows mammals (unlike reptiles) to have complex interactions with their offspring. Oversimplified, we seek attachment and based on what we experienced as children, we may have healthy or unhealthy love attachments as we age. We seek connection.

Towards the end of the book, the author's discuss the loss of connection in healthcare from a 1990 New York Times article:

I wouldn't demand a lot of my doctor's time, I just wish he would brood on my situation for perhaps five minutes, that he would give me his whole mind just once. I would like to think of him as going through my character, as he goes through my flesh, to get at my illness, for each man is ill in his own way...I'd like my doctor to scan me, to grope for my spirit as well as my prostate. Without such recognition, I am nothing but my illness.

I have personally done multitudes of interviews with patients and this is one of the best quotes I've run across. What patients want, in addition to and perhaps beyond healing, is to be seen. It is important that they feel cared for and connected, not just like another in a long list of issues for the day. The book goes on to quote a 1994 article in the Lancet which advocates that even if doctors don't care, they should "act" as though they do. Many patients who desire compassion are now turning to alternative therapies.

So, why bring this up on this blog about user experience? It hearkens back to the user experience, but a piece that we often neglect. We talk about technology and how well it works for people, we talk about product design and whether or not it is intuitive and we test web sites to be sure people can easily navigate their way through. But, we often forget to "design" or review the human component, the most variable, least understood component of any system. Whether you are a physician, customer service rep, retail clerk or barista, remember that at the end of the day it is you who makes or breaks the customer experience. Be patient, think about how you might feel in the other person's shoes. Take a deep breath and grope for their spirit, I can guarantee you will both be happier in the end.

Say YES to user experience

In case you were wondering where the marketplace is going, user experience is trending up!

user experience research Job Trends

User Experience Research jobs

Experience Art

One of my favorite pics from the Maui trip, copyright Janna Kimel, not Peter Lik!

(see more of Janna's pics)

On a recent trip to Maui, I had a fantastic user experience. Yes, sun, sand and palm trees in March are the real experience for this Portlander, but there were a number of beautiful galleries on the island as well.

Peter Lik is a photographer with stunning work. You are transformed by the landscapes and photographs in his space upon entering. We all have lovely photos of trees and beaches, flowers and trees, even aunt Ethel. Peter has taken photography to a whole new level photographing many extreme weather conditions and flowers and landscapes like you have never seen them before. He uses a medium format camera and a special crystallized paper for printing.

The experience

Although his images are super pricey, collected by Frank Gehry, Bill Clinton and even Paris Hilton, I inquired with one of the salesmen to find out more about his extraordinary work. He carefully explained how the images are matted, between heavy plexiglass, and then took me into a side room and dimmed the lights. (I think it was at this point that he also closed the door but I was so mesmerized I didn't notice). The room looked a bit like a living room with a row of halogen lights above and a couch towards the back and beautiful, natural wood accents.

The salesman propped up a photo of some red maple leaves in fall with the halogen lights hitting just right. As he dimmed the lights, the image took on a whole new dimension, not just going flat or grey like a normal photo, but the light simply began to reflect differently. The image changed with every dim of the light. It was fantastic. In this instance, not only was the art exceptional, but the fact that I got to experience it to the fullest extent of its beauty in a setting somewhat similar to the one where I would own it was a great lesson learned.

How can your company help buyers have the full experience of your product simulated as it would be in the environment of use? What creative ways can you use to display and promote your extraordinary user experience?

What message do we send when we pay kids to study?

There has been a lot of research lately on paying children to study. As a person interested in motivation and behavior, I find this whole path rather curious.

In an article and presentation Gretchen Anderson and I co-authored last year, we talked about designing for motivation. One of the tenets is to "Play Against Loss." The thought of losing something you think you have is more motivating than a potential reward that you don't yet have. People generally don't like to lose.

At Ultrinsic, we see this instantiated by their model where students bet they will get good grades. One option allows students are asked to choose the minimum grade they will achieve in a given class in a given semester. "Ultrinsic lets students set target grades and choose cash incentives based on their individual educational goals. The incentive is created by the student and Ultrinsic each contributing money to the final reward that the student can earn by achieving the target grade."

Yesterday, NPR reported on a different study, one where young children (2nd-9th grade) get paid to learn. With younger kids, the opposite approach seems to be true. In this study by Roland Fryer, he found that rewarding young children for accomplishing mini-tasks, e. g., sitting still, doing homework, is a successful motivator at this young age. It also helps in setting these behaviors early.

From the viewpoint of motivation and behavior, this is fascinating. Early rewards are successful. Later in life, allow students to set their own goals and include a risk factor to enhance motivation.

Simply thinking about education, it pains me to think that we need to get money involved to encourage kids to read, do their homework and study. Instead of rewarding them for doing unappealing tasks, what can we do to motivate and encourage them to learn? Perhaps what is broken is not our reward system, but our education system.

CES best of...

Photos of some of the great new technology.

third brain studio on the big screen!

Baby monitor that connects to your iPhone

Sony's new version of the Walkman. iPod shuffles attached to your ears??

Using HeartMath's EmWave to de-stress during the conference.

The BEST iPhone case - Etch-A-Sketch!

Have a screen.....

A Green Light at the End of the Tunnel

This was, by far, my favorite booth design at CES. It's a tough show to think about sustainability. People give away stuffed animals, plastic bags, reusable tote bags (even reusable is just more "stuff") and other swag. We go through endless amounts of carry out containers and who knows what an insane carbon footprint is created getting people and exhibits all in one place.

And then, I came across this wonderful booth by MINIWIZ built of cardboard and water bottles. Their designs are sustainable and use solar energy. It is beautiful in its simplicity.

The video on their home page beautifully captures their mission with nary a word. Their site shows off innovative personal products, service design (green burial anyone?) and even amazing sustainable architecture.

Thank you, MINIWIZ, for reminding us that not all technology has to be battery powered and end in a landfill.

On the big screen

The majority of this blog is dedicated to sharing insights on user experience and new technology. This short post is a combination. The image above was an impulsive moment at CES. The Sony booth was showing off GoogleTV where you can bring up the internet on your TV, no matter how big or small. I decided to see how the third brain studio website would look at 42" wide! The "Jimmy" on the bottom is from the picture in picture. What do you want to see from the web on your big screen TV?

Object Recognition - Untagged

I love this video! What you are looking at is a proof of concept for a gesture and object recognition context-aware user interface by Beverly Harrison and her team at Intel. It is a simple plywood surface and some Legos. None of the items are tagged, they are ordinary, household items. What Beverly and her team have done is create a smart system that tracks objects on a surface. At the beginning, you see her trace her finger on the table and train track fills in. When she moves the train around the track to the station, if you look closely at the surface, you can see little people exit the train.

By using these robust algorithms the team can author any behavior for any object and dynamically re-assign its role. For example, the people could run, walk or move in any pre-coded direction. The dragon that is part of the scenario can be designed to blow fire, bubbles or smoke.

The surface can be large or small. Larger surfaces may require the camera to be further away which in turn degrades the accuracy. The distance is determined by the needed level of accuracy.

What would you do with this technology? Some of their suggestions were tracking items on a workbench or machines in a manufacturing shop. Personally, I love the opportunity for open play with Legos!

Eye-Fi - Best of CES Photo and Video

This product excites me both personally and professionally. The Eye-Fi won the Best of CES Photo and Video category. Walking through the show, many of the products seem to blend together and everyone seems to be working on the same few problems.

While walking through the show, I preferred to use my digital camera rather than my phone since it's still a better camera. But, the drawback is the lack of connection. If I wanted to send an immediate Tweet or Facebook update, I had to switch over and use my iPhone camera and its wireless capability.

The Eye-Fi solves all of that! Using your existing camera, users simply swap out their existing SD card for a the Eye-Fi which allows any digital camera to become wireless. Their website helps you quickly and easily discover whether their cards will work in your camera. Alas, my point and shoot Olympus has a proprietary XD card and is not compatible.

With the Eye-Fi card, you can wirelessly upload to your computer and any number of web sites including Facebook, Flickr, Picasa or YouTube. Because your camera is NOT a computer, you will need to choose one application for uploading and won't be able to pick and choose for each photo.

Other cool features: The Eye-Fi also offers Geotagging (a must have for some, but personally, I don't want every photo I upload to instantly be able to show my location). The premium cards also offer hotspot access where you can use Starbucks, airport and some hotel wifi for upload access.

I do have one other camera, a nicer one I take out on occasion. I may have to invest in this and give it a whirl!

CES - Overview

As always, CES is an incredible and overwhelming experience. As I begin to sort through the huge amount of information, I'll start with this insight: connectivity. The connected home is here. Your appliances, healthcare and/or home entertainment are getting intraconnected. Yes, "intra" as in "intrastate" or within a certain space. Devices which serve a particular purpose can now talk with one another. Some devices cross the borders and "talk" to dissimilar devices, but many do not. The iPhone and other smart phones already cross these the boundaries, allowing you to manage your home energy, your entertainment and your health all with the swipe of a finger. Your TV and your stove still need an intermediary.

GE shows that you can create an interface (thanks Dave Bingham!) and give consumers insights into how their home is using energy. With these insights, consumers can make smart decisions on when and how to run their appliances. This saves money on the consumer side and doesn't overtax the infrastructure on the power company side (a growing issue)

Sample of GE's Home Energy Dashboard

Ideal Life and HealthTunes.com both offer connectivity for health care devices, primarily for the chronically ill. In addition to gathering data on weight, blood pressure, temperature and pulse oximetry, these devices upload your information to a secure site where your doctor can access the information and see longitudinal data. Having a more complete picture of your daily life and not just from the 5 minutes you sat in his/her office creates a richer picture of a patient's health.

As a final example, though there are no doubt many more, entertainment is more connected. Apple leads the pack with Airplay, allowing movies and music to stream to your iPhone or iPad. Movies can be quickly pushed to the television set and manipulated with either your phone or tablet.

More CES photos here.

Food as Experience

Portland is becoming famous for its food carts. If you live here and haven't tried them, TONIGHT you have a great chance to celebrate at the Art Department a new book and try some food cart yumminess!

third brain studio is particularly fond of this book since we are contributors, having conducted interviews at several cart pods to find out just what this trend is all about. We talked to restaurant owners, surgeons and college students, all who enjoy the price, quality, variety and intriguing community when they come to the food carts. We talked with a guy who said there was a vendor in Pioneer Square who practically helped feed him through college, offering him sandwiches even when he barely had enough money. They've become close friends - which he proved by showing us his number in his phone.

All in all, the food carts exemplify Portland. They get you outside no matter what the weather, democratize food and bring people together at long picnic tables where you just can 't help but talk to your neighbor and say, "Hey what's that your eating? I'll have to try that next time!"

World Usability Day

A sample entry in the "good fun" category for the usability scavenger hunt.

As you may or may not know, Thursday, November 11, 2010 is World Usability Day. Imagine that! Aren't you glad you are in on that little secret? I bet you didn't even get the day off. To celebrate this awesome event, our local computer human interaction group, lovingly known as CHI FOO, is hosting a usability scavenger hunt.

All of the entries from our team, the uxceptionals, can be seen here. and yes, true to form, many of the medical entries are from yours truly. Having spent Wednesday at the hospital volunteering and experiencing my own physical therapy appointment on Thursday gave me lots of great insights into the usability of even more medical products.

Have fun following all the feeds from the CHIFOO link above.

Know your use case

This is the second in a series of two posts about employing new technologies that took significantly longer than I hoped or expected. The second new thing I needed to accomplish in the last few weeks, was to install and start using Dragon NaturallySpeaking by Nuance. All these presentations blog posts reports and bookkeeping have played havoc on my shoulders and I'm looking for any solution to reduce my time at the keyboard.

I prefer to go to stores and talk to people in person, I know I must be old, but that's still what works for me. I took myself to the nearest Office Depot hoping to ask some questions about the software and perhaps see some new keyboard trays. Nobody in the store ever came up to ask if I needed any help, and when I sought help I was directed to a large screen monitor what I was told to Google my questions. Awesome. I am in your store looking for dictation software, hoping not to use keyboard, and you send me straight to a computer. I left purchasing nothing, more confused than I was before.

As a side note, I will give kudos to one employee at a different store who spent probably 20 min. on the phone with me sharing what he had done for his injuries including trying to convince me to learn an entirely new keyboard that was more ergonomic. Despite that, he had some good advice and good information.

After a good bit of searching, I finally found a grid that answered some of my questions, and confirmed which version of the software would be best for me. It also confirmed that I would be able to use the product with PowerPoint.

I picked up a copy of the software excited to get started. It took me a number of days to get the microphone to work. In fact I never got the microphone to work. Again, a number of conversations with underpaid workers overseas I was told that the microphone that came with the product would not work with my laptop because the internal array mic would override any other signal. I had to go out and purchase a USB headset. Great. I just spent$200 on some software,arguably for use by a population becoming more and more laptop dependent. I'm still not sure that tech really knew what he was talking about but back to the store I went and purchased a USB headset so that I could get moving on this project.

The headset, sadly, took more time to set up than the very complex cloud share Pogoplug that I had set up just hours before.after some convoluted web searches I gather that my problem was just that that device had not been selected as my default device. However, every time I went through the setup process where did software is learning my voice the quality check failed every time. I decided to bypass this and see what would happen. Ta da! what you have just read was all created, while mostly, by using the headset and the new software. I tried to set up 10 years ago when I had my first repetitive stress injury and it was a painful and frustrating process. I am shocked and amazed at the quality of the voice recognition this early in the process. I've had to do very few corrections, and the cheat sheets that come with the software now are superbly helpful.

There is a bit of a learning curve for complex actions, but to just sit in dictate and watch the words pop up on the screen while I rest my weary arms and shoulders is a great relief. It would be best, however, if the engineers and designers did due diligence and realize that likely at least 50% of their users will be working from laptops.

Products who do their research --- FTW

In the last few weeks, I've had some extraordinary experiences with new technology. One was purely awesome the rest have sucked the time and energy out of my life.

As most of you know I run a small business. Most days I carry my laptop to and from work with much that is wonderful and important in the world in the trunk of my car praying that nobody crashes into me or steals that laptop out of my trunk.

My goal, was to find a way that I could access all of my information from a single point and whether I am at the office or at my home access to the same files. I tried simply carrying an external hard drive for a while but found that Windows 7 and Windows Vista could not be used with the same hard drive. I've talked to technicians, I've talked to people at big box stores, and other good bit of online research only to come up somewhat empty-handed, at least for a reasonable price.

My first solution was to try the NASDuo. The salesman at Fry's talked me into this device which was supposed to be all-in-one remote access to my laptops and iPhone. I literally spent two weeks on the phone with the Philippines trying to set up both my local and remote access. I was upgraded to level II support, unfortunately this wasn't much help. After being told it would take 2 to 3 days to figure out what was going on I gave up and took the device back to Fry's.

I will now sing the praises of the Pogo plug. This nifty little device creates your own personal cloud-a way to access your information remotely from anywhere. Hallelujah! my two weeks of struggle were rewarded with 2 min. of setup. Yes, you read that correctly, minutes. I am shocked and amazed and filled with glee. Oh yes, and eternally grateful to the friend who suggested that I use this product in the first place.

The out of box experience was also quite extraordinary. It has a sleek and clean box with one tiny instruction manual approximately 4 x 4 inches. This manual directs you to a website where they walk you through the quick and easy setup complete with troubleshooting ideas and in no time you have access to your files. circumventing lengthy confusing printed materials and offering clean, interactive graphics was a great choice by the manufacturer.

It is difficult to believe that whoever created the NASDuo thought that anyone but a very technical person would be using their product. The interface and screens were clunky and ugly and asked for information that no average consumer would have any clue of how to find. Even their customer service guys had trouble locating information. In contrast, again, the Pogoplug is a very consumer friendly product with a clean and simple interface which obviously went through user testing prior to entering the marketplace.

Finally, the industrial design of the Pogoplug is strongly preferred, at least by me. It is consumer friendly white though admittedly the pink accents may not be as welcome for a manly man. But the NASDuo was an ugly black box designed for engineers.

At last, I can see my PowerPoint presentations from my iPhone I can share photos with family I can share documents with clients all from this personal cloud. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Pogoplug.