Edward Tufte on the iPhone Interface

Edward Tufte is someone I have admired for quite some time. Ever since encountering a poster (originally created by Charles Joseph Minard) depicting Napoleon's march to Moscow which was amazingly deconstructed by Mr. Tufte I have been a "fan".

He most recently deconstructed some of the interface features of the iPhone. He has created a video which "shows some of the resolution-enhancing methods of the iPhone, along with a few places for improvements in resolution."

If you deal with testing user interfaces or usability testing you should check out some of this books or read though the articles on his web site. Truly amazing.

-William

CAST 2008: Call For Papers

The Association for Software Testing has announced a call for papers.

If you have a blog, a newsletter, an internal Web site or mailing list at work... any forum in which you can publicize the CFP, please provide a link to it and help to make sure that the worldwide testing community knows about it. They are looking for abstracts—proposals, not finished papers—by February 4.

From the CAST site:

Both academic research papers and industrial experience reports are welcome. The following (non-exclusive) list suggests topics of interest that the Committee would consider highly suitable for submission:

• General systems (e.g. modeling, non-linearity, complexity)
• Mathematics (e.g. probability, statistics, combinatorics / permutations, graphing, metrics, equivalence partitioning)
• Epistemology (e.g. logic, lateral thinking, critical thinking, experiment design, decision making)
• Cognitive science (e.g. biases, perception, descriptive decision making, human factors, dynamics of heuristics, learning)
• Communication (e.g. rhetoric, document design, writing)
• Visualization (e.g. graphical presentation of test results, display and presentation of test data)
• Interdisciplinary approaches to teaching software testing

In addition to looking for papers that demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach to software testing, we’re looking for personal experience reports that clearly demonstrate skills and practices of seasoned software testing professionals. We’ll be looking for rich, diverse experiences and intriguing papers that illuminate the theme. If you have hands-on experience and a fascinating story to tell, contact us and we will assist you in evolving your tale so it will be ready to present at CAST.

-William