Out of the Dark

Dark Matter... in the Dark Sector...

An article on Wired talks about how physicists are now looking at alternatives to the prevalent assumptions regarding Dark Matter. Instead of being small objects that only interact with normal matter through gravity, and with themselves not-at-all, they might just be complex objects that do interact with themselves in complex ways- much like the objects that make up our periodic table and galaxies.

Aside from being fascinating, this means we will have to discover and learn a new periodic table... a Dark periodic table. 

I'm glad I already passed chemistry in college.

Here is the link to the article.

An interesting view into operations and resiliency on a large scale

Disaster Squad- Behind the Scenes at Xbox Live Operations Center

Aggregating data in useful ways

This really interesting image shows an aggregation of many famous starships in fiction, shown to scale for comparison.

Every Sci-Fi Starship Ever (not really, but close enough)

While fascinating, it also brings up that personal weakness of mine- taking the time to manually aggregate data.  If a report is not one-click away, then I avoid it.  However, I really shouldn't, as data good for assessing quality is usually hard to get.  Many of the tools we use are created with project management or development in mind, NOT QA.  (See Rally, JIRA)

I have to block time off in my calendar to go mining for data.  It takes discipline, but it is worth it.

Now- taking that data and presenting it in a meaningful way... that's a whole other bucket of beans.

Kudos to the person who put this Starship comparison chart together.  It took a lot of manual work, I'm sure, but it can be appreciated by many, and tells a story.

A fun fusion of gaming and career

One theme that keeps popping up in my study of user experience is that of achievement reward systems.  You look at any task you would like a user to perform, and, no matter how mundane, you reward their achievement in some way.  This can even be something as simple as a meaningless list item in a long list of meaningless list items.

Companies have flirted with using this approach in real world activities, such as teeth brushing and bike riding.

In my mind, the three most important characteristics of a successful achievement reward system are:

1. Show users what is possible to achieve (list the achievements possible, and a clear explanation of how to achieve them)
2. Show users where they've been, what they've achieved, in a way that is satisfying.
3. Make sure the achievements can be obtained at a reasonably consistent and fast pace (you don't want people getting bored while trying to achieve one thing... keep the rewards flowing)

With this in mind, I got a kick out of the following link.  It is a list of achievements toward being an expert web developer, presented like a role-playing game skill tree.  You developer yourself along this tree's branches, with the end goal of becoming the web developer you desire to become.  This page even lets you choose your character portrait and name.  Great stuff.  I hope you enjoy.

Becoming a web developer via RPG skill tree

Warren Spector's Commandments of Game Design

A wonderful list that is well worth examining.  Warren Spector is highly respected in his field, and has been involved in development of many successful games such as the Wing Commander series, the Ultima series, and the Deus Ex series.

Warren Spector's Commandments of Game Design

With regards to quality, we can take some good lessons away from this.  When we analyze a design for any type of user experience, we look for things like rewarding the user, making the goal visible, giving multiple ways to achieve objectives, avoiding unnecessary steps.

But, even more than these:  when game design meets user experience, it can be an amazing thing.  You tap into people's motivation to help them achieve their goals in a pleasant way.  Every solution should strive for this result.  It reminds me of an article I read recently where developers are bringing video-game-like-achievements into real life. 

If you can tap into people's motivations, not just their behaviors, you have created a successful user experience. 

You've gained the 'Floss your teeth' achievement!

History at your fingertips!

For those of us who love the study of history and graphical representations of data!

1931 Histomap

I wonder what this would extrapolate to now, and then again in 100 years?