Tag Archive for technology

The (In)Visible Women of Technology

October 7, 2011 Thoughts, Web & Technology No comments

24720422_1453032576_mThis past week I’ve been confronted by the idea of the visibility of women in technology – or rather, the realization of a certain level of invisibility. Today is Ada Lovelace Day – she is attributed for conceptualizing the first computer program…in the mid-1800s.  Fast forward to this past week, while watching the live streaming of AdobeMAX, I noted the following on Twitter:

I think this might be the first time I’ve seen a woman (Emmy Huang) as a featured presenter at a major tech event. #AdobeMax – intellichick 10/4/2011

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The Appeal of #FlightVSBike / #FlightVSMetro

July 16, 2011 Public Transit, Thoughts, Travels, Web & Technology 2 comments

Flight vs BikeAs I sit here engrossed in the twitter feed of #FlightVSBike, following the LAStreetsBlog tracker, and completely ignoring most of what I planned to do this morning, I write this trying to understand for myself what the appeal of this adventure is centered in and on.  I think it is partly because there’s something about it that is inherently new – that we’ve come to a time in our technological advancements that we have such a variety of transportation options across different terrains.  So then, comparing them is something we can do.  This is especially true in an odd moment, the transportation shift of “Carmageddon”, that creates the frame for a jet to only travel such a short distance (and JetBlue’s marketing prowess).

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Efficient: Facebook – Events and Lightboxes

April 9, 2009 Efficient, Web & Technology No comments

I kind of hesitated writing “efficient” and “facebook” next to each other, but there are a few changes to facebook I have liked (and I’m kind tired of being a ‘negative nancy’ – where does that phrase come from? all the nancy’s i know aren’t negative – ’cause I’m generally pretty chipper).  The thing that striked me recently  that I liked was when I created an event listing.

Well…

When I finished creating an event.  The process of creating the event itself is quite annoying.  As I do work for an event-related website, I’m a big fan of “add event/create your event” buttons and links.  But wait this was supposed to be positive…

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Inefficient: Facebook – Rearranging the Home Page Side Bar

April 7, 2009 Inefficient, Web & Technology 4 comments
Screenshot: Facebook Sidebar (4/07/09)

Screenshot: Facebook Sidebar (4/07/09)

Now added to my “Inefficient” Web Commentary* series is Facebook.  Facebook recently underwent a design change that caused quite the uproar with its users (not that it stops them from using the service, but like the current theme, we do somehow seem okay with living life with a marginal amount of dysfunction and a healthy dose of hope – or ability to complain).   In any case, this series will just be about things I think would make Facebook work more efficiently.  We will start with something I noted today about the Home Page.

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Inefficient: User Interfaces Part 1 – E-mail

April 6, 2009 Inefficient, Web & Technology One comment

Lately I’ve been bothered by inefficient user interfaces (perhaps it’s just a theme lately given my “dysfunction function” post previously).  My job is web-based and I understand – to a degree – that some things are hard to change and takes some time to program.  But format and text are perhaps some of the easiest things we can offer to the user.

My first example in this series of posts will be business e-letters.  Letters that have important information, but don’t easily convey to the user exactly what s/he wants to know are inefficient and confusing.  An electronic billing statement is a great example for variability in bad and good design.

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