I dog on myself for not writing enough, but I’ve been charting it for a while now and it’s not volume, or even hours logged, it’s where it goes. Here’s a day:

– 200 words at USSM
– got gmail inbox from 3600 unread to <1700 - ...during which I wrote ~500 words of email to friends I'd neglected lately, making myself feel better - Wrote 400 word mini-essay on gmail and usability here on HLWT - more USSM - 1500+ novel words I crank out a couple thousand words on days where I don't make progress on my fiction. Maybe I need to be a little bit kinder to myself.

Today I found myself digging out from two weeks of not reading/answering emails on my gmail account, which is publicly exposed and used for signups etc etc.

What I really wanted to do is this: sort by sender to see which newsletters/notifications are responsible for the massive bulk of unread emails, create filters/etc to deal with them, delete, move on. Nope! Not there. At all. Can’t be done.

It took me a little while to wrap my head around this. I’d always figured that the reason I couldn’t do it was that it was concealed functionality.

Where this really got interesting for me that if you look for ways to do this, you find that there many complaints about exactly this problem, and the conversations are fascinating insights into how usability fails. It reminded me of my job in many ways.

“I want to be able to do x.”
“Gmail doesn’t support that, but you can do a from:sender.”
“Yes, I get that. I want to be able to do this thing.”
“I don’t see why you’d ever want to do that.”
“I need to do this thing.”
“Have you considered up setting up filters for all your contacts and then looking at unlabeled emails?”
“I need to do this thing.”
“You can have all your gmail sent to somewhere else that supports sorting…”
“You’re not helping me do the one thing I want to do.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had conversations like that at work. It’s why use cases are so valuable in specs: “this user has to be able to accomplish this task” clearly sets out how someone needs to be able to do something and how. You get to argue that out in the definition and design phase, rather than after release.

Here’s the maxim of usability design I’d like to have drummed into everyone’s head:
No one’s intended use is wrong.

If someone’s on Expedia and wants to do a multi-origin, multi-destination search and we can’t do that, I can say “we can’t do that, for technical reasons that you don’t care about.” Or I can say “the best workaround we have is this, which takes extra steps…” Or “ah! I see what you want to do, here’s another tool that will do that.” And if their response is “that’s cumbersome” that’s their right.

No one should ever say “that’s a dumb thing to do.” It’s not. Someone’s trying to do it to accomplish something important, and they’re frustrated. They have a need that’s unfulfilled, and they’re asking for help. Help them, or acknowledge your failure. But mostly, help them.

Hooked up the PS2 yesterday to try it. I like it so far, though the first hour or so is pretty much a cut scene. Or “RPG on rails” even, where there’s no real choice about anything. The first two hours, really. Actually, it still hasn’t opened up yet entirely, but I do get to shop a little, which is nice.

I think if they’d released it for (say) the Wii with little or no modification it’d be a contender for game of the year (and not win). If you’re into Japanese-style RPGs, it’ll be one of the best games ever.

The funny thing though is that it has game mechanics that are incomprehensible to me, and I’ve been playing games pretty much continuously since Asteroids on the Atari 2600. There were whole sections of exposition where something would be explained to me and I’d just start laughing. At one point, after an entirely nonsensical jargon-filled little speech, I had a dialogue choice between “I understand” and “Can you go over that again?”

I wanted to be able to pick “Whatever, I’ll just go look on the Internet for better documentation.”

I’m worried that my cavalier attitude will end up ruining the game for me: I’ll find some level boss two-thirds of the way in that can only be beaten if I’ve cross-fused the right trio of spirit personas or whatever. More than one game’s been tossed aside only to find out later that it’s the collectible-card mini-game I hated that could have earned the armor that lets you finish the game.

It’s snowing in Seattle again. I work on the 15th* floor of my building, which has a decent view (of Bellevue!).

Today, I came around a corner to our little “neighborhood” of EU people and outside the snow fell upwards. And kept falling up.

And while rationally I thought “sure, there’s some weird wind thing going on” I also felt, deep inside, that I was dreaming or the world had come unhinged.

* not actually the 15th, as there’s no 13th

In table form

                       Works             Does not work
Dropbox                  X
Live Sync                                      X

… and actual means I don’t know what.

However, on her fifth studio album, Middle Cyclone, she literally becomes a force of nature: Case sings opener “This Tornado Loves You” from the point of view of an actual tornado, tearing up trailer parks and cutting a 65-mile swath in search for its beloved: “I carved your name across three counties,” she sings defiantly as the guitars whip around her and the snare patters frantically, suggesting destruction can be a demonstration of love.

Stephen M. Deusner

Shouldn’t Pitchfork, as the indier-than-thou center of the music universe, be awash in English major editors who get all twitchy at this stuff?

I’ve worked for two people in my career that I’d say I’m absolutely loyal to. I use one analogy a lot to describe the standard: if they called me up and said “I need you to go the 20th floor and jump off the balcony” would I do it?

And when I say that, I’m kind of joking that they’d have arranged a water slide or a net or a helicopter rescue or whatever, but I’m also… I’m kind of not really joking at all.

I’ll tell a story here about the first, and how it connects to the second. When I worked at Expedia’s LuxTech division, building ccv.com and other fine work, about a year and a half in the new head of the company decided to shut us down, move development to San Jose, and fire all of us (well, we weren’t fired, per say… we were offered laughable cost of living increases they wanted us to turn down).

So my boss’s boss, Jeff Lubetkin, who’d been with Expedia since before the start, an old Microsoft hand who’d gone through the spin off, the acquisition, the whole thing, he took his list of twenty people and found them other jobs at Expedia.

Even when there weren’t jobs. Jeff didn’t look at the list of open headcount and match people. He knew the company and all the people in it so well he went to individual managers and hand-sold us, one by one. He convinced people who didn’t have open heads that not only did they need someone but hadn’t realized it yet, but that he had the perfect person for the job. And because they trusted him, they made things happen. Positions shifted, reqs closed in one place to open in another… the company shifted.

And then when it was all done, they didn’t have a place for him, and he was laid off.

Jeff found me a job with Kristina Miller, dong deep backend work and eventually building Expedia’s cryptography system. I used to say that I became twice the PM on joining Expedia and working on Luxtech, and I think I easily did that again working for Kristina. When she took another job, I followed, and she was promoted, and again, but even while not working for her directly I felt sure there was noone at work as smart, dedicated to her people, loyal to the company, and just good.

This week Expedia laid her off for no earthly reason.

I’m a pretty cynical guy, with low expectations for groups of people, but even I can’t fathom how these things happen. How do people who inspire absolute, unflinching loyalty from people like me get tossed aside? Why tear out your own heart and drop it in the garbage? If these are the people who can call nearly anyone in your company, say “I need you to quit your job and show up at 5th and Union next Monday” and have people immediately get up and hand in their resignations, don’t you put them in charge?

Apparently not.

The 2008 Nebula Preliminary Nominees are up, and Asimov’s put their nominees up online, so you can go read them. Right now!

Best Novelette
– James Alan Gardner:The Ray-Gun: A Love Story
– Lisa Goldstein:Dark Rooms
– Ted Kosmatka:The Prophet of Flores

Best Short Story
– Michael Cassutt:Skull Valley
– Kij Johnson:26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss
– James Patrick Kelly:Don’t Stop
– And my favorite, James Van Pelt:How Music Begins

I didn’t make the Locus Recommended reading list for 2008

That’s a pretty sweet list, too.

$$$ TOYOTA CAR/TRUCK/AUTO SALES $$$

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Big start, the all caps is enthusiastic, they clearly do intend to shout… I like that if you’re bilingual it’s a plus, and they don’t spell bilingual right… the particularly weird thing to me, anyway, is that they’re disclosing what a salesperson’s commission makes, when generally car dealers want to cloak the whole thing in mystery.

1. Medical, Dental, Vision benefits available.
2. 401K retirement program.
3. Manufacturer bonus $$$ on various models.
4. Liberal “spiff” and demo allowance programs.

If you’re like me, you skidded to a stop right there. Really? They have a liberal spliff program and they allow you to drive cars? And there’s a minimum guaranteed income? How can this job even come up on Craigslist? It should be like the Vegas jobs where people bribe the hiring manager.

And then I realized “ooooooooh, spiff, like on-the-spot cash bonuses for sales. Right. Of course.

5. Top producers receive free trips to Hawaii, Las Vegas, etc.
6. Access to Seahawks and Mariners tickets.
7. Paid Vacation.

Nice.

DON’T WAIT! CALL NOW!

Aaaaah! Don’t startle me like that! I thought we’d settled down to talk like reasonable people!

…

EOE/Drug-Free Workplace

That line’s a lot funnier if you still think they’re handing out joints.