Lift06: Life, Ideas, Future. Together.

Posted on 24/02/2006 by admin

I was planning to write a post on the new MacBook Pro, but it’ll have to wait since I’ve just received an invitation to speak at the Lift06 conference in Geneve: its aim is “to connect people who are passionate about new applications of technology and propel their conversations into the broader world to improve life and work”.

I’m really proud to be in such a good company and can’t wait to be there. Take a look at the impressive program to make your own idea.

What? Are you wondering what is going to be my speech topic? Well I’m happy to say it’s my older baby: Flash Voice! A voice controlled, internet based, assistive software for elderly and disabled, with an (mostly invisible) Flash interface.

I’ll be in Geneve for the 2 conference days, should you be in town and like to chat with a beer in your hand just drop me a line.

Getting things done

Posted on 16/02/2006 by admin

Ok. Let’s say I’m plenty with things to blog, so that I’ll have to summarize a little bit.

Research: I had the Innovazione+ technical commitee meeting this wednesday and I have to say we came out with some REALLY interesting ideas to be presented to the next IST FP6 call. One of those is based on something we’ve been researching for the last couple of months to support ageing population (cannot say more, sorry); it’s going to be a tough competition but we’re really working hard to win those funds.

Interaction design institute: I’ve been invited today by Aram Armstrong to attend to the IDII thesis presentations next monday. I’m looking forward to listen to the Open Builder project by Vinay Venkatraman: a prototype of a tactile browser for sight-impaired people.
I’m also going to meet with Fabio Sergio for the second time in the same months, this is a guinness that’ll be partied with a Guinness.

I’m also managing a tough delivery for a whole site redesign. It’s going live tomorrow (let’s say: before tomorrow night). Some serious debug to be done. Damn.

Eyetracking analysis on forms usability

Posted on 24/01/2006 by admin

My newest UXmatters article is out: in this one I present findings from eyetracking tests we did to evaluate the best solutions for label placement in search forms.

Just a couple of notes befor you jump in and read the whole article (with a LOT of images):

Form labelling is more important than you usually think
The more compact the form, the better
Never use drop-down lists in search forms, if you can avoid it

We tested a bunch of interesting sistes such as Google, Amazon, eBay, Flickr and useit (Jakob Nielsen’s site). I really hope our findingds could be of any help to you guys out there.