Geoff Peters Blog

A poem written by Artificial Intelligence ( talktotransformer.com )

I found a bug in the Cooked wordpress plugin. Whenever I type a comment on a blog post that contains a recipe, and then switch focus to another field, the page reloads. I found a fix for the issue. The reason it happens is because the Servings Switcher code attaches a on change event to the entire body, rather than the specific Servings Switcher widget. The suggested fix I made is below. Could you please consider including this in a future version of cooked? Thanks, Geoff Peters Software Developer Vancouver BC Canada Twitter: http://twitter.com/gpeters

Old code (with problem) in cooked-functions.js:

/**** 4. Servings Switcher ****/

if ( $(‘.cooked-servings’).length ){     var servingsSelectField = $(‘.cooked-servings’).find(‘select’);     $(‘body’).on(‘change’,servingsSelectField,function(e){         e.preventDefault();         var thisVal = servingsSelectField.find(‘option:selected’).val();         window.location = thisVal;     }); }

New code that I wrote (that fixes the problem), in cooked-functions.js :

/**** 4. Servings Switcher ****/

if ( $(‘.cooked-servings’).length ){     var servingsSelectField = $(‘.cooked-servings’).find(‘select’);     servingsSelectField.change(function(e){         e.preventDefault();         var thisVal = servingsSelectField.find(‘option:selected’).val();         window.location = thisVal;     }); }

Authentic Queens, Real Woman, Messy life situations, Costume parties and Creatures of the night.. Oh MY!!! Ever wonder what life would look like if we lived amongst the un-dead? How would we live together peacefully? Whilst protecting the ones we love... Based on the Award Winning Short Film of the same name, You Only Die Once The Series is a female driven horror comedy web series about three childhood best friends and vampire hunters, navigating life amongst the un-dead in Astoria Queens. What starts out as nothing more than fangy "pun" and games, turns deadly for our hunters and their crew. What's at "stake?" Find out when You Only Die Once The Series premieres Spring 2017. 

Check them out on Youtube and Facebook, and watch the trailer here:

by Geoff Peters

March 5 2016

I have set a task to polish and spray my new shoes every two weeks. It takes me about 10 minutes to clean them, polish them, and spray them with a waterproof spray. The process does not give me joy but I feel good the next day when I go outside and my shoes are gleaming and look brand new. Can we get confidence from physical things such as the clothes or shoes that we wear?

Can our self-esteem be tied to physical things that we do or own, or the wealth that we may conspicuously display? I think that for many people, this is the case. For example, why do people buy Lamborghini cars that cost as much as an apartment? I think it is to help improve their self image, to impress others, or to prove to themselves that they are worth something, worthy of existence.

There was an ad on a billboard for an Acura SUV that says that the SUV is a way of breaking free of conformity. Does driving an expensive and environmentally unfriendly vehicle express one’s creativity or their ability to stand out from the crowd?

I think that people who have money should use it however they feel, but in a capitalist society it is increasingly the case that a few people have too much money whereas the middle class or lower class are treated very unfairly with a very poor lifestyle and quality of life.

It seems to me that wealth should be more fairly distributed and that people who work hard should be fairly rewarded for their hard work. But won’t robots just do all the work some day, so we don’t need to define hard work as a requirement for a successful life?

When machines are doing all the labour, what will people do? Are we designed as working agents? Will everyone be bored if all there is is amazing food, and an endless stream of entertainment on Netflix?

Regarding the Zeiss VR One, a great virtual reality headset that works with mobile phones, it seems they have recently added support for more phone models now. 

The full list as of today is:

LG G2         

HTC ONE M9      

Xiaomi Mi4c   

Nexus 4Nexus 5          

Nexus 5X            

ONEPLUS X       

HTC ONE M8      

SONY XPERIA Z3 

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge

Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung Galaxy S5

Samsung Galaxy S6

LG G3

iPhone 6/6S

SONY XPERIA Z5 Premium. 

Their website is at http://zeissvrone.tumblr.com/ (which contains the CAD files for the phone holder trays for the VR One).

Typically a user would need to obtain the 3d printing CAD file from their site for the tray for their phone model, and either print the tray themselves or via a 3d printing service such as Shapeways. I used Shapeways to get a tray for my Nexus 5.

I am excited that they now support a tray for the Nexus 5X which will likely be my next phone. Hopefully it will have better performance than the 5.

It's an interesting business model / design because then as new phones are released, a user just needs to get a new 3d printed tray and can continue using their same headset, just with the new tray. 

Other concerns are how to clean the inside of the headset, since it cannot be disassembled, and they now make a special cleaning swab that can reach around the corner and clean the inside of the lenses.

I have found that using a couple sprays of isopropyl alcohol helps to disinfect/ clean the foam and the exterior of the headset. 

I also found a good carrying case that was intended for motocross goggles but works perfectly for the VR One, I ordered it from Canada Motorcycles online store.

Exciting times ahead for Virtual Reality!

Cheers,

In user interface design, or the design of any system involving humans, I am proposing that we should consider as a rule that a human will always have a single point of focus of their attention and consciousness, even though that focus point may move or change from moment to moment.

For example, much of classical composer Bach’s music, including his famous Goldberg Variations, has the concept of multiple melodic voices which play simultaneously through counterpoint and harmony. However it seems that as a musician as well as a listener there is always a distinct voice which is the “primary” focus of one’s attention. Through my experience I have found that the transitions between the voices can overlap.

I would venture to say this “single point of focus” concept should be considered a fundamental human-centered design principle, because of the way our brains are wired and operate.

I believe that the human mind can only focus on a single point at a time, whether it is a primary musical melodic voice, a particular object being gazed at, the mouse cursor, the typing insertion point, a particular window or paragraph, or even a conscious thought. We can move our focus around a screen or around the world, or through different mediums or modes, but the limitation of the human mind is that we can only concentrate on a single voice at a time. If 10 people all start talking to you at once, which one do you hear?

by Geoff Peters

Every day we are faced with too much to do. There are urgent requests, long term goals, and lots of small tasks that must be done along the way. How can we decide what to work on, so we are doing the best thing at every moment?

In my short presentation, I have three main points:

The power of asking the question: “What’s the next action?”

The importance of keeping things out of your head, using a trusted system that can capture the next actions.

How to avoid firefighting.

1. What’s the next action?

First I will give you a quick tip that will improve your effectiveness immediately at making progress towards achieving your goals. Have you ever sat in a long meeting, and at the end of the meeting it is not clear if anything is going to be done or who is going to do it? Or have you ever looked at a project or a UX design spec and wondered how you will ever reach the goal of a working product or feature?

Any time you are feeling stuck or confused about not making progress or a project that seems daunting, there is one question that you can ask that will immediately set you on the path of progress. It is simply to ask “What’s the next action?”.

Let’s take a simple example. I had a problem where the windshield wipers on my car were streaking across the window. What’s the next action? The next action was to go onto Youtube to research how to replace the wiper blades. Then what’s the next action? I called the car dealership to see if they have the new wipers in stock. Then what’s the next action? I figured out when I would have time to go pick up the wipers. Then what’s the next action? I set my alarm so that I would wake up in time to get to the dealership before lunch. Then what’s the next action? I got the wiper blades and installed them.

By always asking the question “What’s the next action” you will always be heading in the right direction to achieve your goals.

2. Keeping things out of your head.

It’s important to use a trusted system that can capture the next actions. This will reduce your stress and allow you to manage your ideas better.

I’m always curious to learn how my colleagues manage the tasks that they are working on. I’ve met some people who are using post-it-notes, and they put a task name on each post-it and then arrange them all over their desk. Other people use Outlook tasks or their email inbox (such as emailing themselves a message) to keep track of their tasks. Some people with a lot of brain capacity may hold all the information in their head and use their intuition to figure out what to do next. I’d rather reserve my brainpower for my actual work and not waste my brain’s CPU on task management.

I used to use a “daily todo list” where I wrote down everything I needed to do on a piece of paper, and crossed out the stuff that I finished, and when it got too messy, I would copy it all to the next page. The “daily todo list” system was very inefficient and took about an hour a day of my time. I also had a great resistance to taking on new work and being flexible to adjust my priorities, because I had already invested so much time and effort to plan out my work for that day.

In general, if you have a way to manage your tasks and priorities easily, you will have much less resistance to new tasks or changes in your priorities.

I’ve since adopted a new tool for managing my task lists, and it’s called TaskUnifier. It’s very customizable with many options and works for me much better than Outlook tasks. It has the ability to create hierarchies, and has a good way to organize and sort tasks by priority and due date.

There are also a lot of other apps, websites, and software available for productivity tools, and I’d encourage you to find one that works for you, if you are not happy with your current way of managing your tasks.

I noticed my productivity and overall happiness increased, and my stress level decreased a lot when I started using Taskunifier.

3. Avoiding firefighting.

Don’t get stuck always doing work in the order that it shows up. Instead, it is better to do more planning (identifying the next actions) and choose things to do from your list of next actions.

When deciding what to do, sometimes it’s easiest to do the task from the most recent email that showed up. But sometimes the most recent request you have received isn’t the best thing to do right now. Doing work as it shows up is only one option - which is necessary sometimes if the request is very urgent. But many times, if you have done proper planning and task management, you will have some other task that you have planned that is a much better choice to do right now.

If you have asked the question “What is the next action?” for all of your projects and goals, and you have collected all of these actions into a task management system that you trust, you can make the right decision whether it is necessary to do the most recently arrived work, or do some of the next actions that you have already planned.

Also, by doing the planned work, you are being more pro-active and are making better progress towards achieving your goals. If you get a request to do something, it is better to put that request into your task management system, with an appropriate date on it when you feel you should address the issue, so on that date you can be notified about that task and then work on it at that time.

Conclusion

By following three key principles,

1. Asking the question “What’s the next action”

2. Keeping things out of your head

3. Avoiding firefighting

you will be much more in control of your daily tasks and the many demands of a complex work environment.

References:

Getting Things Done (book) by David Allen.

Additional supporting information:

FRI, 15 JAN 2016 AT 5:30 PM You Are What You Design: The Ethics of Data Visualization with Stephen Few Open Studios, Vancouver, BC [Eventbrite link]

By: Vancouver Data Visualization Meetup Vancouver Data Visualization Symposium 2! #VanDataViz

Presented in partnership with the Vancouver Institute for Visual Analytics

Taking inspiration from thoughtful designers in other fields, Stephen Few discussed interfaces and displays that raise the users up rather than dumb the data down.

Key Points that resonated with me:

Stephen Few: We visualize data to Identify patterns in data.

What is the essence of what you are trying to say with the data? Avoid "dumbing down the data".

What is the story in the data or the meaning in the data?

Visual thinking facilitates finding and discovering patterns and relationships, comparisons of the magnitude, finding the structure in the data.

How we look at data when trying to make sense of it, rather than when trying to communicate information, may be different.

Many complex problems require visual thinking. Visual thinking is different from verbal or textual.

Avoid eye candy that does not add to the information content or clouds the underlying meaning or makes data inaccessible.

Can technologies be good or bad? Can technology make us less capable? Can we lose the ability to think for ourselves?

Technology can make us smarter or make us dumber. What are human needs? Where does the human end and the technology begin?

Designers of technology have an ethical responsibility to design things that have a positive effect on the world.

What are the unintended consequences of what we do? How do we explain or manipulate our environment through design?

Are we responsible for the consequences of what we bring into the world?

Technology and design has the potential to move humankind forward.

Have to understand the context of the data and what you are visualizing. Look out for hidden biases.

Add nudges rather than restrictions. Don't forbid the user from making mistakes. Design so that mistakes are harder to make.

How will users know when they are making a mistake?

How do you promote more ethical thinking? We should model good behavior and speak up about bad behavior.

Sometimes there is no question about whether a situation or decision is good or bad, and the data can show this.

Morality is not a black/white issue. Can data be the arbiter? Sometimes there is no clear answer to make the best decision.

Try asking the question during design: What is the most evil thing or worst mistake that someone might do with this?

I don't think the inventor of the automobile expected global warming to happen, or the major impact on our cities - suburban sprawl.

What is the minimum amount of cognitive load required for engagement? Can you make it too easy? Need the user's investment in the process.

A large number of hits does not always mean that people understood the content. It's not a very good proxy for engagement.

We should not ignore the effectiveness of text and words, even when using or choosing visual thinking.

My raw notes from the evening (possibly more detailed, but incomplete):

We visualize data to Identify patterns in data.

Magnitude, outliers

What is the story in the data or the meaning in the data?

Finding and discovering patterns and relationships, comparisons of the magnitude, finding the structure in the data.

How we look at data when trying to make sense of it, rather than when trying to communicate the information may be different.

Many complex problems require visual thinking. Visual thinking is different from verbal or textual.

Don't waste people's time with nonsense.

Avoid eye candy that does not add to the information content or clouds the underlying meaning or makes the data inaccessible.

Donald Norman. Book: things that make us smart. Recommendation

Technology can make us smarter, or make us dumber. What are the human needs? Where does the human end and the technology begin?

Can technologies be good or bad? Can technology make us less capable? Can we lose the ability to think for ourselves?

What technologies are useful

Mike monteiro outspoken designer. Book: design is a job

Ethics of Facebook privacy controls. Outing of a lesbian woman, alienation. Why do we approach the job of design the way  we do. What are the unintended consequences of the things that we do? What is our responsibility to the world that we live in. How do we explain or manipulate our environment through design. How to avoid carelessness in design. What are the consequences of our work?

Designers of technology have an ethical responsibility to design things that have a positive effect on the world.

What are the unintended consequences of the things that we do? How do we explain or manipulate our environment through design? How do we avoid carelessness in design. What are the consequences of our work?

Are we responsible for the consequences of what we bring into the world? Technology and design has the potential to move humankind forward.

What are the ethical responsibilities of what we design to bring into the world.

Viktor papanek. Design for the real world

Shape their tools and environments and therefore society.

Esthetic value vs functional. Attractiveness

To be a good data visualization designer we must know and learn Purposes of data visualization Activities of data visualization How the human brain Perceives and thinks Best practices of data visualization

Tools should be developed by people with these understandings

Have to understand the context of the data and what you are visualizing it. Look out for hidden biases.

Data visualization and tools should improve the quality of decision making rather than degrade the quality of decision making.

People who understand the problem should have the responsibility of checking the visualisations for accurate meanings.

Add nudges rather than restrictions. Don't forbid the user from making mistakes but design so that mistakes are harder to make.

How will users know when they are making a mistake?

How do you promote more ethical thinking? In user activities we should model good behavior and speak up about bad behavior.

We are often picking between nudges, for example the non min for y axis.

Morality is never a back and white issue. Can data be the arbiter? Sometimes there is no clear answer to make the "best" decision.

Sometimes there is no question about whether a situation or decision is good or bad, and the data can show this.

Adjusting the axis to show variances of data, while losing the bigger picture.

Asking the question during design: What is the most evil thing or worst mistake that someone might do with this?

Teamwork in design?

NASA control rooms, shared information. Operational control rooms Private displays

Large screens navigation is personal. Navigation failure.

Special memory How many piles can you remember?

Resize and reposition. Tool moon to.

What is the minimum amount of cognitive load required for engagement? Can you make it too easy? Need investment in the process. progress. When someone else is driving? How do we keep the user engaged in the thinking process so we are actually learning? Example of cake mix being too easy. The level of abstraction that the engagement occurs on doesn't have to be at the lowest level that was present before technology got involved in the process.

Sugar makes the medicine go down. Flash can attract hits, we can get informed. Trade off, need to add a little bit of bling.

Number of hits does not always reflect understanding. It's a not very good proxy for engagement.

We should not ignore the effectiveness of text and words, even when using visual thinking.

VR 3d mind mapping Vr visual space, spatial thinking, allowing large screens to be cheap for anyone to use. Can allow anyone with a cheap phone and headset (mobile VR) to have the full power of the boardroom. Screens are expensive. Sharing in presence through vr. Spatial mind mapping via Virtual reality. Using the analogy of a desk where you have piles and move stuff around, but there may be limits to how much spatial memory you can have. No need to be able to climb around a 3d bar chart.

Humans can process 2d information better than depth information: we have 2.5 dimensional processing, we use tricks such as occlusion and blurriness in background as tricks to gauge depth since our eyes can’t pick out depth so easily.

Q: Hi, can anyone recommend a carrying case for the Zeiss VR One? I looked into some ski-snowboard goggle cases but they are not deep enough. Thanks.

A: After doing some research, I ordered this one (the dimensions are right): "Scott Sports Goggle Case". Scott makes two different cases, a very large one, and a smaller one that is supposed to hold two sports googles. The smaller one that holds two goggles has almost the perfect dimensions for the Zeiss VR One. The small Scott goggle case has dimensions 11.5 x 8 x 5 inches which should fit the Zeiss VR dimensions 7.28346 x 5.59055 x 3.93701 inches (185 x 100 x 142 mm).

Product page on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009TDI9OS?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00

This is the case manufacturer's product page: https://www.scott-sports.com/global/en/products/2373332897223/SCOTT-Goggle-Case-Small/

Hope this info might help someone who is looking for a hard case for their Zeiss VR One (since Zeiss does not currently make a carrying case for this headset).

I just got a Zeiss VR One, a virtual reality headset, and used it for an hour last night with my Nexus 5. It’s awesome, the optics are way better than Google Cardboard, and the field of view is much larger (about 100 degrees, similar to Samsung Gear VR, but more than the Google Cardboard 2.0 which has around a 60 degree field of view).

I especially like the VR films provided by the VRSE app (available for both Android and iPhone).

Then I reached a point where I felt very dizzy and had to go to sleep. I felt better in the morning. (Apparently dizziness with Virtual Reality Headsets is very common, and it is not recommended to drive a car after a long session of VR because your sense of orientation may be mixed up.)

Using it for 15 minutes today I felt OK after, but slightly queasy. Oculus recommends only using VR headsets for 15 minutes at a time. It's still long enough to have a good experience.

I’ll write more about my experience in Virtual Reality in the coming weeks.

Cheers, Geoff http://twitter.com/gpeters

I think this is the first Canadian Federal election where Facebook played a crucial role in keeping people informed. There is a gradual lessening of reliance on broadcast news, newspapers, and a shift towards more social driven news by facebook.

"The data also suggest that social networks are exposing Millennials to more news than they were initially seeking. Overall, just 47 percent who use Facebook say that getting news is a main motivation for visiting, but it has become one of the significant activities they engage in once they are there. Fully 88 percent of Millennials get news from Facebook regularly, for instance, and more than half of them do so daily."