Publications

AM+A Publishes two New eBooks: Republishes Aaron Marcus’ Conceptual Visual Language Artwork of the 1970s and 1980s

AM+A has received permission from the Editor of West Coast Poetry Review to republish as eBooks two monogaphs that Aaron Marcus published in 1975 and 1982: Soft Where, Inc., Volumes 1 and 2. Mr. Marcus, who founded AM+A in 1982, had been the first graphic designer in the world to work with computers in 1967 and one of the world’s pioneering computer graphics artists. He also experimented with visible language poetry and design and conceptual art works that were exhibited and published worldwide in the 1970s and 80s. These two monographs contain case studies and exemplary materials from this body of work, including one of the first virtual environments designed by a professional designer, and environmental art works that are the size of the entire earth. The publications are available as complimentary downloadable files from AM+A’s Website.

Aaron Marcus and Associates has authored numerous Books, Articles, White Papers, and more. Please see the menu to the left to browse them at your leisure.

Software,Inc.Volume1.021112.LM.OPT

AM.SoftWhereInc.Vol2.Pgs1-92.Opt101212

Cross-Cultural User-Interface Design

When they consider design strategies, cross-cultural user-interface designers should account for dimensions of culture, e.g., Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions. Recent publications suggest other deep cultural influences on the way people think, act, and feel, which suggest there may be cultural biases in traditional industry usability precepts.

Published in:

Smith, Michael J., and Salvendy, Gavriel, Eds., Proceedings, Vol. 2, Human-Computer Interface Internat. (HCII) Conf., 5-10 Aug., 2001, New Orleans, LA, USA, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ USA, pp. 502-505. The complete article can be viewed in the file below. Files: CrossCulturalUserInterfaceDesign_HCII01_Marcus_16Apr01.pdf

Globalization of User-Interface Design for the Web

User interfaces, including information visualization, for successful Web-based products and services enable users around the world to access complex data and functions. Solutions to global user-interface design consist of partially universal and partially local solutions to the design of metaphors, mental models, navigation, appearance, and interaction.

By managing the user’s experience of familiar structures and processes, the user-interface designer can achieve compelling forms that enable the user interface to be more usable and acceptable to a wider range of users. The user will be more productive and satisfied with the product in many different locations globally. The complete article can be viewed in the file below.

Files: AMA_GlobalizationUserInterfaceDesignWeb.pdf

Cultural Dimensions and Global Web User-Interface Design: What? So What? Now What?

This paper introduces dimensions of culture, as analyzed by Geert Hofstede in his classic study of cultures in organizations and considers how they might affect user-interface designs. Examples from the Web illustrate the cultural dimensions.

The complete article can be viewed in the file below.

Files: AMA_CulturalDimensionsGlobalWebDesign.pdf

Improving the User Interface: An Interview with Aaron Marcus

Interview to Aaron Marcus conducted via e-mail by John S. Rhodes for webword.com on 28 April 1999.

The complete interview can be viewed in the file below.

Files: AM_Interview_ImprovingUserInterface.pdf

AM+A Completes a Heuristic Evaluation for a Calamity Assistance User-Interface Design Developed in Saudi Arabia

Prof. Maysoon Abulkhair of King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, engaged AM+A to conduct a heuristic evaluation of their R+D project, a calamity assistance iPhone application (in English), called iCalamity Guide. The objective of the app is to assist university faculty, administrators, students, and visitors to find safe buildings and to avoid dangerous ones at times of natural disasters, such a floods or earthquakes, as well as terrorist or other similar social/political conditions. AM+A reviewed the screens for general users as well as security personnel and made recommendations based on AM+A’s User-Interface Design Heuristics. AM+A also redesigned six screens to show how recommended design improvements might be implemented to provide a superior user experience. The two example screens show AM+A redesigns that improved terminology and navigation consistency. The project was completed in August 2012. AM+A received permission to make the PDF downloadable at AM+A’s Website as an example of AM+A usability evaluation documents.

The complete article can be viewed in the file below.

Files: SA.KAU.HeuristicEval.16Sep12

AM+A Publishes eBook about HCI in Sci-Fi

On 24 August 2012, AM+A published its first ebook, The Past 100 Years of the Future: HCI in Science-Fiction Movies and Television. The book, downloadable at the AM+A Website, is a work in progress, because movie studios have demanded extremely high publication permission rights, as high as $4500 per image, for individual images for some of the many films cited in the book. This cost seems prohibitively expensive, especially when the publication is being issued as a not-for profit, non-commercial, but downloadable publication. Consequently, the book appears without these images. As rights are secured, revised versions will be published. AM+A hopes readers enjoy the current version, and thanks readers in advance for their patience and for coming back for later versions.

The complete e-book can be viewed in the file below.

Files: AM+A.SciFi+HCI.eBook.17Aug12