Here’s the first of many OpenWorld-related posts, this one cross-posted from our colleagues and friends at VoX, the Voice of Experience for Oracle Cloud Applications. Enjoy. Are you all set for Oracle OpenWorld 2015 (@oracleopenworld)? Even if you think you’re already booked for the event, you’ll want to squeeze in a chance to experience the future of… Read More
Category: general
A couple months a go IFTTT added a much needed feature: A custom channel for generic urls. They called it the Maker Channel. If you noticed my previous post, I used it to power an IoT Staples Easy Button. At a closer look this is a very powerful feature. Now you can basically make and receive web requests… Read More
The Amazon Dash button, it’s all the buzz lately. Regardless whether you think it is the greatest invention or just a passing fad, it is a nice little IoT device. There is already work underway to try and make it work with custom code. There are a couple crowdfunding projects (flic and btn) that are… Read More
What Kids Tell Us about Touch and Voice
Recently, my four year-old daughter and her little bestie were fiddling with someone’s iPhone. I’m not sure which parent had sacrificed the device for our collective sanity. Anyway, they were talking to Siri. Her bestie was putting Siri through its paces, and my daughter asked for a joke, because that’s her main question for Alexa,… Read More
Biohacking, Here Come the Cyborgs
For me, 2015 has been the year of the quantified self. I’ve been tracking my activity using various wearables: Nike+ Fuelband, Basis Peak, Jawbone UP24, Fitbit Surge, and currently, Garmin Vivosmart. I just set up Automatic to track my driving; check out Ben’s review for details. I couldn’t attend QS15, but luckily, Thao (@thaobnguyen) and Ben went… Read More
Jeremy and Noel Talk IoT at Kscope15
By now, you know all about the Scavenger Hunt we ran a Kscope15 in partnership with our good friends at ODTUG and YCC. Noel (@noelportugal) talked about the technical bits in a post last week, and today, ODTUG posted an interview featuring our fearless leader, Jeremy Ashley (@jrwashley), and Noel from the conference wherein they talk about Internet… Read More
Guerrilla Testing at OHUG
The Apple Watch came out, and we had a lot of questions: What do people want to do on it? What do they expect to be able to do on it? What are they worried about? And more importantly, what are they excited about? But we had a problem—we wanted to ask a lot of… Read More
This year we organized a scavenger hunt for Kscope15 in collaboration with the ODTUG board and YCC. As we found out, scavenger hunts are a great way to get people to see your content, create buzz and have fun along the way. We also used the scavenger hunt as a platform to try some of the… Read More
Royal High School Students Visit Oracle
Last week a group of high school students from Royal High School visited Oracle Headquarters in Redwood Shores, California. Royal High School, a public school in Simi Valley, California, is launching an International Business Pathway program. This program is part of California’s Career Pathways Trust (CCPT), which was established in 2013 by the California State Legislature… Read More
Usability of Text Analytics
User experience design as a career fell largely on the era of GUI. Thus most people in my profession are visual thinkers if not by birth than by experience. When it comes to presenting information, we think visualization. Times are changing, and with that we are challenged to present information verbally. This is where text… Read More
In my previous post I argued that the hunt is on for a better way to code, a way more suited for a designer’s need to test new interactions. I said I wanted a process less like solving a Rubik’s cube and more like throwing a pot. What does this actually mean? “I want to… Read More
Fact 1: Dazzling animated displays (sprites, shaders, parallax, 3D) are more plentiful and easier to make than ever before. Fact 2: More natural and expressive forms of input (swiping, pinching, gesturing, talking) are being implemented and enhanced every day. Fact 3: Put these two together and the possible new forms of human computer interaction are… Read More
Four Weeks with Nothing on My Wrist
After wearing the Fitbit Surge for seven weeks, I developed an ugly skin rash. So, I took a break and let my skin breathe for a while. I’m all better now, thanks for asking. For most of the year, I’ve been test-driving various fitness bands and super watches and journaling my impressions here as one man’s research. After… Read More
That Time I Killed My Phone
I don’t particularly like protective cases for phones because they ruin the industrial design aesthetics of the device. Here at the ‘Lab, we’ve had spirited debates about cases or not, dating back the original team and continuing to our current team. I am not careful with phones, and the death of my Nexus 5, which I’ve… Read More
The Pen is Mightier with the User’s Experience
If you’re involved in enterprise user experience (UX) it will come as no surprise that the humble pen and paper remains in widespread use for everyday business. Sales reps, for example, are forever quickly scribbling down opportunity info. HR pros use them widely. Accountants? Check. At most meetings you will find both pen and paper… Read More
On Oracle Corporate Citizenship
Yesterday, our entire organization, Oracle Applications User Experience (@usableapps) got a treat. We learned about Oracle’s corporate citizenship from Colleen Cassity, Executive Director of the Oracle Education Foundation (OEF). I’m familiar with Oracle’s philanthropic endeavors, but only vaguely so. I’ve used the corporate giving match, but beyond that, this was all new information. During her presentation,… Read More
More Kscope15 Impressions
Kscope15 (#kscope15) was hosted at Diplomat resort along beautiful Hollywood Beach, and the Scavenger Hunt from OAUX AppsLab infused a hint of fun and excitement between the packed, busy, and serious sessions. The Scavenger Hunt was quite a comprehensive system for people to win points in various ways, and keep track of events, points and a leaderboard. And… Read More
Lots of OAUX Updates
While I spent June wrapping up conference season at OHUG and Kscope, Ultan (@ultan), Misha (@mishavaughan) and company (@usableapps) have been busily publishing content. This here is a wrap-up of that content, but let’s be honest. If you like OAUX content, you really should follow the official blogs of OAUX: Usable Apps in the Cloud, VoX, user experience assistance:… Read More
Kscope15 Impressions
As per Jake’s post, we got to spend a few days in Florida to support the Scavenger Hunt that we created for the Kscope15 conference. Since it ran pretty smoothly, we were able to attend a few sessions and mingle with the attendees and speakers, here are my impressions of the event. This was my… Read More
Seven Weeks with the Fitbit Surge
As my wearables odyssey continues, it’s time to document my time with the Fitbit Surge. I ended up wearing the Surge a lot longer than I’d worn the Nike+ Fuelband, the Basis Peak and the Jawbone UP24 because June was a busy month, and I didn’t have time to switch. For comparison’s sake, I suggest you read… Read More