Chris Khalil’s Musings

To see some pics of the trip, check out my photos page.

Had a brilliant weekend down at Wilsons prom, here in Victoria. We gathered together after work, and the girls went off ahead of us, and the lads followed a bit later. I drove the Beast – my 1987 Ford Laser – and faithful companion! It was a filthy evening, the rain hammered down all around us, and the journey was pretty hazardous. Visibility was really poor as we slowly made our way towards Sandy Point, our gateway to the Prom. Three hours later we cruised in, and the girls were ready and waiting, wine in their hands!

We had a few drinks, and put the BBQ on, eating some really delicious food (as we did all weekend) that Lisa made. I was knackered and hit the sack around 130am, but the others kept going until well into the night.

We awoke to grey skies, the rain still pouring heavily. With little else to do, we cracked open the beers. We had a fine day, drinking and chatting on the veranda waiting for the rain to stop. Eventually, the skies tired of the rain, and the sun emerged.

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Mark, Anna and myself headed down to Sandy Point Beach (not for the last time that day, more of that to follow…) Sandy Point has this incredible surf beach, rugged and wild, it reminded me of my home in North Wales, where our house overlooks the wild Irish sea. It was a stirring moment, after we’d taken it all in, we headed home.

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The BBQ was turned on again, and a delicious meal was concoted by Lisa, we had lamb shanks, prawns, sardines and chicken wings all marinaded in wonderful sauces. As the night drew on, Mark, Anna and myself decided to head to the beach. This turned into a bit of an adventure!

To reach Sandy Point beach you have to make your way through scrubland, bush and miles of sand. In the dark of night, it took some doing to get there. We didn’t even make it to the beach! The closest we got was a lookout point. We gazed ahead of us and up, at the glorious night sky in concert with the roar of the ocean. After some time, we were getting a bit cold and decided to head back. This was much, MUCH easier said than done! Needless to say we got horribly lost as we snaked our way through branches, marshland and the wilderness.

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It really was dark, Mark burnt his fingers trying to keep the sole supply of light, a single lighter alive. It melted on his fingers and we were left wandering in the dark.

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After HOURS we eventually found a road. The relief was incredible! We had a cheeky glass of wine to celebrate, but still had to decide which way to go. We saw a faint glow in the distance to our left and followed this, until we eventually found our way home (more by luck than design). It was now after 5am! If we weren’t so tipsy I’m sure we would have freaked out.

The next day, we packed up and headed to Wilsons Prom in glorious warm weather. It’s an incredible place, possibly the most beautiful place I’ve seen in Australia. It’s flanked by high mountains and is incredibly green and lush, a real haven from the general brown land that is currently Victoria (in the throws of a drought). We parked up, and hiked our way to Squeaky Beach, walking past dark Tea Tree lagoons, and lush green bush.

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It’s a truly stupendous place, the sand is pure, brilliant white. It’s so called because the sand does actually squeak under your feet. It’s a multi-sensory experience. The sand is composed of white quartz and was once known as the singing sands due to noise it creates. We strolled down the beach, took in the clean air and vowed to return another day.

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We then headed home, after a just fantastic weekend. Victoria really can be everything to everybody.

Generally, most UI’s tend to embody specific characteristics which make the chosen design solution better suited to some users and contexts than others. However, it is often the case that during the design process a range of different designs will have been considered to match the diversity of user populations and contexts-of-use.

The real problem, however, is that users can often vary so greatly in terms of their knowledge, experience, social and cultural background (this is particularly the case in sovereign posture type apps). They often exhibit a wide variety of cognitive characteristics and affective traits. These characteristics are interrelated and shaped by context. Even when such variety is constrained by the nature of the work, and systems can be carefully designed and constructed to meet a well-defined need, the users will continue to learn and develop both through organisational changes and through individual users changing over time. So how can we design a system that is everything to everybody? Well we can’t, all we can do is design a system that works well for the majority of users in the majority of contexts. However, by designing in a degree of customisability and/or personalisation into the system we can offer a decent halfway house solution to some of these problems.

Customisable systems have a built in flexibility that can accommodate many of the different characteristics user may have; they are designed to accommodate a wider range of interactions than systems with a single fixed design. For example, successful interaction between a human and car is facilitated by the ability of the car to be tailored to our needs. We can adjust the height of the seat or the position of the steering wheel. The wealth of options on our computer systems allows us to adapt the systems to better suit our needs, habits, preferences and purposes. I can remove various parts of the functionality of a UI, for example by having ‘short menus’, in order to make it more appropriate to my purpose. I can alter short cuts, command keys to make often used functions easier and quicker to accomplish. By allowing the user to make the UI their own, and customise it to suit their particular needs we can increase their efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction with the system. The alternative is to place some “intelligence” within the UI. This intelligence, can lead to the interface altering its form or presentation to suit the context of the task and the characteristics of the user. Adaptive UI’s haven’t really taken off, as users are not always comfortable sacrificing the locus of control to the machine, and may often be frustrated that the UI has altered it’s form without their consent.

So, for now customisable interfaces seem to offer an improved solution, although really well designed interfaces shouldn’t really alienate any type of user in the first place, regardless of their differences.

Golden Beach

A few pics can be found on my Golden Beach pics page (more to follow).

Just got back from a truly wonderful weekend away (it was a long weekend here in Victoria due to Labour day). Five friends and I set off for Ninety Mile beach, to a sleepy little hamlet called Golden Beach. A few hours out of Melbourne, it’s is a real find. It has dramatic surf and long golden sands. Upon arrival we cracked open the beer and headed down for the beach, where we paddled and played a great game of cricket! We then headed back for the apartment and sat on the veranda drinking and chatting. As the night wore on we decided to take a moonlight stroll down the beach. The night sky was like nothing else I’ve ever seen. The firmament above was aglow with countless stars, it was a humbling feeling just to look up. I can honestly say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite so many stars (the closest I’ve got was high up a mountain in the Pyrenees). We drank a few glasses of wine and watched a blood moon rise over the roaring ocean.

The next day, was one of complete relaxation. We watched a couple of movies and then decided a spot of exercise was in order, so went for a game of golf. It would be fair to say that my team took a bit of a hammering which I must admit to not taking too well. I think the others picked up the subtle vibes I was giving off by the way I was throwing the golf clubs around! Still, it was only the second time that I’d played and I was more frustrated with myself than anything else. Come the evening we had a BBQ, a few more beers and chatted well into the night. A bit tipsy, we decided to have a game of Cranium. This was incredibly good fun but yet again we lost (it was very close).

On our last day, we had a fry up, enjoyed the sunshine and had one last game of golf, where I have to say I improved immeasurably As long as I feel that I’m improving at something I enjoy it, so this was quite a different game for me than the day before. My team mates, Erica and Wayne were a great help, they were very patient and taught me a lot.

So, now I’m home and I’m already thinking about the possibility of the next weekend away, and reflecting on the great weekend past. But mostly I’ve been thinking about the those stars. They really were something else….