jennybee.net

The concept of ‘folksonomic interface development’ was discussed briefly at yesterday’s Creative Coffee Club.

It’s potential thesis juice so I thought I’d scribble down what’s in my head around the subject.

Folksonomy is the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy

It captured my imagination because I recently labelled the entire contents of my Gmail inbox (groan) and I struggled to define a useful naming approach. I’d have liked to have been able to select some off-the-shelf labels to get me started.

Either way, my labels are forever in ‘beta’ and there will be plenty more hours spent re-labelling everything when I come up with a new genius way of managing my mail (delete button is probably the best option).

‘Folksonomic’ doesn’t quite describe what I’m interested in however (which is a shame cos ‘folksonomic interface development’ sounds really good!).

What I’m interested in is the notion that users of software might be able to alter the user interface and then share their changes with a community. The key word here is ‘users’. I’m not describing open-source development by software creators.

Imagine if in your favourite piece of software you can re-arrange functions and buttons. You can add and remove functionality. You can skin the interface to make it look pretty. Then you can publish your version of the UI for others to use.

That’s about it for now. Most of that thinking was done on the 159 bus on the way to work this morning. There is much more to be done.

I’m applying to do a Masters this year. It’s the MSc in Human Computer Interaction (with Ergonomics) at UCL.

I had to write a statement outlining my academic interests and why I want to do the course. Thought I’d share it with you.

I’m fascinated by the way our lives are changing and adapting to a ubiquitous web; we’ll soon see a time when almost all devices will necessarily be web enabled. Interfaces are being increasingly judged on usability and interoperability yet the way we interact with content is becoming more complex. How should interface design evolve and improve whilst supporting significantly more intricate methods of content production, syndication and participative social systems?

This shift towards a ubiquitous web will also have dramatic consequences for the workplace as work and home life merges. We’ve started to see a change take place already with web applications such as the Google suite (docs, mail, calendar etc). Skip forward a few years and people will no longer expect to use a different - often more complex - application for work uses and companies will no longer expect to finance training courses for basic software. Employers will see good interface design as being integral to a productive workforce.

In relation to my work of recent years in the gov/non-profit sector, I’m interested in notions of authority and expertise online. The newest generation of web-users (who are ‘digital natives’) are source agnostic and are likely to trust information from peers more than from figures of authority. What does this mean for cultural institutions, education systems and government departments who are in the business of imparting knowledge?

As content is increasingly syndicated, how do people interpret and engage with expert content when it may be sitting alongside content produced by amateurs? The role that interaction design plays in this is unclear and something I’m interested in exploring.

A third area of interest for me is with the human to human interaction facilitated by social media applications. There is great potential for collaborative working and forming genuine relationships through websites such as Twitter or Seesmic. I’m interested in exploring the impact that the ubiquitous, social web will have on human relationships, communities and collaboration.