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	<title>ThinkFlood Blog &#187; Usability</title>
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	<description>Musings on the world of digital pictures</description>
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		<title>Barrier to Entry</title>
		<link>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/barrier-to-entry/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/barrier-to-entry/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:31:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Eagar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thinkflood.com/blog/2007/11/15/barrier-to-entry/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Earlier I wrote a few postings about why it is so hard to make things easy to use. I have been thinking about this concept recently, but from a different angle.
The world is a big place. It&#8217;s big enough that we have a hard time comprehending its size. Six billion inhabitants or so. 40 million [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Difference Between &#8220;Can&#8221; and &#8220;Should&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/the-difference-between-can-and-should/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/the-difference-between-can-and-should/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Oct 2007 03:27:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Eagar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thinkflood.com/blog/2007/10/22/the-difference-between-can-and-should/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Technology has made many amazing things possible. In fact, there are even some things that were science fiction a couple of decades ago which have become relatively commonplace now &#8212; such as realistic computer generated imagery in movies, or watching a television show on a handheld computing device. But there are a lot of things [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Bait and Switch</title>
		<link>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/bait-and-switch/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/bait-and-switch/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Oct 2007 03:07:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Eagar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thinkflood.com/blog/2007/10/17/bait-and-switch/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Although I have spent plenty of time around software developers and other IT types, I cut my teeth in sales and marketing. As a result, it always bothers me to hear people disparage the money end of the business by calling the good people out there cheats and liars. People in IT departments seem particularly [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>Why Is It Hard To Make Things Easy? (part three)</title>
		<link>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/why-is-it-hard-to-make-things-easy-part-three/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/why-is-it-hard-to-make-things-easy-part-three/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:52:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Eagar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thinkflood.com/blog/2007/10/11/why-is-it-hard-to-make-things-easy-part-three/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Steve Jobs has gone on record at least a couple of times recently quoting from Alan Kay: &#8220;People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.&#8221; I think this is especially true when it comes to usability.

The mainstream arrival of the Internet over the last dozen years or so has brought about [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Usability Principle #9: Consistency</title>
		<link>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-9-consistency/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-9-consistency/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:25:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Eagar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thinkflood.com/blog/2007/10/02/usability-principle-9-consistency/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Consistency is another one of these principles &#8212; right alongside what I&#8217;ve called &#8220;familiarity&#8221; &#8212; that seems to automatically make most people&#8217;s list of usability concepts. It&#8217;s a relatively easy case to make: consistent design can make it easier for people to navigate new applications and new functionality, while inconsistent design often confuses.

As with familiarity, [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Usability Principle #8: Responsiveness</title>
		<link>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-8-responsiveness/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-8-responsiveness/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:40:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Eagar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thinkflood.com/blog/2007/10/01/usability-principle-8-responsiveness/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Responsiveness may not seem like a usability principle on its surface &#8212; generally the solution is more about technical implementation than an elegant design or some principle of cognitive science &#8212; but who among us does not get frustrated from time to time when waiting for the hourglass cursor? More than mere annoyance, devices that [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Usability Principle #7: Familiarity</title>
		<link>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-7-familiarity/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-7-familiarity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 29 Sep 2007 03:46:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Eagar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thinkflood.com/blog/2007/09/28/usability-principle-7-familiarity/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you have been following along as I unveil my crazed delusions regarding usability, you may have been wondering when I would get around to this principle. It seems that many people place familiarity on the top of the pile. This is a natural thing to do, of course &#8212; if we are already accustomed [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Usability Principle #6: Clarity</title>
		<link>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-6-clarity/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-6-clarity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:00:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Eagar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thinkflood.com/blog/2007/09/27/usability-principle-6-clarity/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While my blog ramblings may not show it, I have a liberal arts background. Yes, I succumbed to enough traditional schooling that I have become a slavish devotee to Strunk and White&#8217;s treatise on writing. Passive voice, bad; active voice, good. Brevity, also good (although I stumble here often). So it is not surprising that [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-6-clarity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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		<title>Usability Principle #5: Proximity</title>
		<link>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-5-proximity/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-5-proximity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Sep 2007 03:48:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Eagar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thinkflood.com/blog/2007/09/26/usability-principle-5-proximity/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By the time we arrive at this principle, we should have already determined that the feature or feature set in question is 1) a necessary part of the overall design, and 2) not completely hidden by automation. What should we consider next?

Because no one seems to read user manuals anymore (did we ever?), a fundamental [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Usability Principle #4: Automation</title>
		<link>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-2-automation/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thinkflood.com/usability/usability-principle-2-automation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:29:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Matt Eagar</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Usability]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thinkflood.com/blog/2007/09/21/usability-principle-2-automation/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Following along with the arguments that favor minimalism, we can see how automation improves usability. Specifically, automation alleviates the problem of subjectivity by reducing the amount of consumer interaction. In addition, automation also improves usability by eliminating (or at least reducing) repetitive actions, and it can reduce the possibility of human error.
Some of the best [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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