Facebook Interface Changes

If you don't already have a facebook, you at least know what it is. Facebook is a social networking website and is used all around the world. Over time facebook has grown to perhaps the most popular networking website on the Internet. Facebook is used by many from small children to the older generation.

It seems as though, everytime you get used to their set up and learn where everything is at, they go and switch it up on you. If somebody is just joining and then the next day facebook changes thier layout, it can really confuse those individuals. People get very frustated when facebook changes the layout and usually don't like it at first. It takes time to get used to it and then before you know it, the layout is changed. I'm not too sure what their logic is behind it besides probably trying to keep things up to date. I'm sure they don't want people getting bored with it so they try to change things to make them more interesting and user friendly. However, even when facebook does decide to mix things up, people don't just stop using it because they don't like it, they deal with it and get used to it. Facebook has a large enough base of people and is constantly growing, they have the ability to do these things without losing any users to make any significant loss.

Overall, I don't like the fact that facebook changes their layout as often as they do and don't feel like its necessary. My concern is irrelevant to them and they do what they feel is best for their site. They are growing in numbers and any change they make won't lose any ground for them.

Interaction

We interact everyday. We do human to human interaction and human to computer interaction all the time. When you have a converstation with a person, you are interacting human-to-human. When you use a computer, you are interacting human-to-computer. The last interaction is computer-to-computer which includes telecommunication.

In society today Human-to-computer interaction feels like it is most common. Just writing this blog is an interface of human-to-computer interaction. The interaction occurs through an interface. These interfaces have been produced in a way that makes it easier for humans to use. The design of the web page is layed out in an way that will appeal to out eyes and make it easier and essentially quicker for us to use.

As I write this blog the interface is set so the important items are set to the left and are in bigger print. Things that seem of less importance (or less used) and in the upper right. The reason the interface of the blog and many other sites are set up like this is beacause in the English language we are taught to read from right to left, top to bottom. There for the more important things (like titles) will be at the upper right. This is the first thing we will read and determine if we are interested in continuing the reading.

People have done studies on this to make their web pages more effiencent to users. In the research they discovered what is called the F pattern. In the F pattern it shows that we read web pages in an F formation. Top, to right side, Middle, right side again. (Middle picture shown.)

This pattern varies on cultures through out the world.

Thought controlled computing, and gaming!

After talking about automation in class i got interested and searched the web for something related to the Olympics. Visitors to the Vancouver Olympics this year are in for a special treat. A canadian company has created the largest thought-controlled computing installation, and is letting visitors try it out! It is an experiment that allows people to use their brainwaves through a special pair headphones to contol the lighting at three major Canadian land marks, one being Niagra Falls! Talk about Automation! "The headsets have an external probe that touches the wearer's forehead, to measure baseline brain activity." It measures the brain's electrical output and alpha waves, realated to relaxation, and beta waves, related to concentration. When you relax or concentrate it sends a signal to change the lighting accordingly.

"As consumers get more comfortable with going beyond the keyboard and the mouse to interact with their computers, companies are looking for more ways to make the experience better." Posted by Priya Ganapati, on february,3,2010 @ Gadget Lab Blog, a blog for people to interact about gadgets and technology. She thinks harnessing brain waves or other biological data are slowly emerging as a third option, especially in gaming.

There is a company called Neuro Sky, and they make special head phone.They are said to translate gamer's brain waves into action. Microsoft is working on alternate forms of input, my boyfriend told me about Project Natal. I youtubed it and saw that they say they will add gesture recognition to xbox 360 systems late this year. Check out this video about Natal on youtube..Its amazing! Cant wait to see what we have in 5 years!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jqG28KTepY