Does anyone have recommendations for a decent webhost?

I have been getting a few emails about the blog being down. It’s rather silly when my blog is being linked from international news sites and they get a memory error instead of content. I’m getting tired of the lack of performance. The dreaded “Out of Memory” error is because my current host cannot handle the load from the readers on WordPress. I have moderate traffic and run a few websites. I’m currently paying $30 a month, which seems outlandish for what I’m getting.

Dunbar’s Number, Monkeyspheres and how to design for social

I usually begin with definitions to gain a common vocabulary. This article begins with two stories.

1. You have a ton of monkeys

You are a monkey pet owner. You have several monkeys. When you begin adopting monkeys you give them names and remember them by their attributes. As you begin to amass your monkey army, some of the monkeys do not interact with you that often and therefore begin to be second thought in your mind. The ones who interact with you the most are the closest to you. You recognize them from a distance, you know their names as well as you know what day it is. Those monkeys that are close to you, your intimate circle, are what we will call your “Monkeysphere.”

The psychology question is at what point will you start forgetting their names? When will you begin to start thinking of them as “the other monkeys” or “the monkeys that don’t come to me when its feeding time.” What’s happening is the monkeys are being established in your mind in 2 initial sets. You have a monkeysphere and an extended circle of monkeys. The extended monkeys, even though they are close, are more distant in your emotional response and interactions with them. The answer to the question, “When will you start forgetting their names?”, we have had several studies based on that exact question. We think we know the answer.

2. You are a prehistoric man that lives in a tribe

As a cave-person you understand that living and moving about the bountiful plains in a group is much safer. You are a member of a tribe for support and safety. In this tribe you also have your immediate family and close friends. You have daily interactions with your family and friends. That group we will call your intimate network.

The intimate network you have around you is a small subset of your tribe. You have daily close interactions with them. You might groom each other, talk about the day’s events, share food, protect them with your life if need be, care for them when they are sick. This group is small and tightly monitored. One of the reasons this group is small is that it is made up of people just like you in some manner or they are relatives, who you feel a connection with. What keeps them in your intimate network is the constant actions with them. You are always reminded of their presence and well-being. Much like the monkey pet owner, if you have constant interactions with them, the closer they get to your emotional well-being.

You also look for them as your own personal support network. You will ask for their opinions, affirmations, and look for guidance as well. You may borrow things from them knowing they will say yes, and that you will return them in good order. You take a less critical eye to what they say and they do likewise to you as well.

Your extended network are those in your tribe. You have interactions with them, but not necessarily daily. You conduct or attend ceremonies with them, you might support them from a distance by donating food to the group, and you may attend tribal council meetings to help shape or establish rules for all to follow. Your extended network is important to you, but they are not crucial. You may look at them with a slightly more critical eye than you do to your intimate network, but not like a stranger.

The interesting thing is that we believe there is a set number you can have in your intimate network and your extended network. That number is based on brain size and species. How big is your tribe and how big is your intimate network? We think we have a good idea of that answer as well because it is the same as the first story. The answer is 12 for intimate networks, and 150 for extended networks.

Dunbar’s Number

Dunbar’s number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person.^[1] Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restricted rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar’s number, but a commonly cited approximation is 150.

Primatologists have noted that, due to their highly social nature, non-human primates have to maintain personal contact with the other members of their social group, usually through grooming. Such social groups function as protective cliques within the physical groups in which the primates live. The number of social group members a primate can track appears to be limited by the volume of the neocortex region of their brain. This suggests that there is a species-specific index of the social group size, computable from the species’ mean neocortex volume.

In a 1992 article, Dunbar used the correlation observed for non-human primates to predict a social group size for humans. Using a regression equation on data for 38 primate genera, Dunbar predicted a human “mean group size” of 148 (casually rounded to 150), a result he considered exploratory due to the large error measure (a 95% confidence interval of 100 to 230). [via Wikipedia]

This is important because using this theory, we understand that there will only be about 12 very intimate people in someone’s network and about 150 total. When someone says “How many friends do you think our customers will have?” that is a great starting point.

If this is true, why do people have thousands of facebook friends and have hundreds of people they consider “great friends”? What we see through research is that people have augmented their extended network because in modern civilization people have gotten more secluded. Yes, more secluded through technology. When you wake up you don’t have to interact with anyone if you don’t want to. The sizes of communities have gotten smaller and more niche. We do not have to interact with people like we used to. You probably feel close to some online friend than you do to your neighbor that lives 4 houses down. This is the crux of modern society. We have gotten more lonely.

To maintain our extended network, because we find that people really do need an extended network, we use other avenues to look for affirmation and guidance. These can take the form of online groups, message boards, or another place that you may frequent, such as a grocery store. You may go to the gym to work out and then afterwards sit and talk to the people that work their or others that work out there, because you show similar interests as them, and therefore consider them a part of your extended network. This is the same reason people gossip about celebrities with each other.You and I don’t know any celebrities, but it is a way for us to have a common ground to discuss something. Therefore we reaffirm our morality and our views based on them with each other. Through the use of this dialog we struggle to maintain our values, our principles, and our extended network.

What does this mean to design?

Well, the full meaning of this to design is well beyond the scope of this article, but it can be boiled down to a few things. First we know that most people will have a very close circle, a monkeysphere, of about 12 people. That will be a group comprised mainly of your close friends and family. We also know that most people will have an extended network of about 150 people. Using those two numbers you will have a great start at designing the features and functions of a social network. You can limit features and functions based on those numbers to save on development and iterations. We know that you will not need 50 functions for 500 people, but you may need 50 functions for about a dozen. Of the next set, you will not need 25 functions for 500 people, but you may need them for 150 or so.

When you design for a social experience always keep in mind ‘what is their monkeysphere?’ and ‘where will this play a part in it.’ Most social designers fail to realize this and try to design a small amount of functions for everyone, thereby leaving out the intimate network and leaving user’s wanting more.

This is just a light skimming of the theory and I hope it has motivated you to go out and read more on it.

Welcome to the OCGM Generation! Part 2

In this post I’m going to explain some of the concepts and give a few examples of each. For the most part I will be responding to other posts I have seen on the issue. I will not be explaining it 100% because I want you to let your mind roam and explore this area. Think of this as the Socratic Method for promoting and understanding this concept.

OCGM

This concept for promoting the design and development of modern interfaces is not an end all, be all solution. This is just another step in the discussion of design.

When discussing interface or system design we need a way to discuss it to the non-design person so they understand the general concepts. This would be a way to use it when discussing what type of interface you are going to have on your system. It bolts out the quick cornerstones of development and will encompass the general ‘feel’ of the end result. Typically when you hear what type of interface you are going to design, you hear “WIMP,” which stands for Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointing Devices. This tells the developers in short and quick fashion exactly what to expect. This is still being used to this day.

In our generation, systems and interfaces are growing by leaps and bounds. The easiest way to communicate that to a developer, stakeholder, or another designer is by using the new acronym, OCGM.

“What type of interface is it going to be Ron? WIMP?”

“Actually, No, its going to be OCGM!”

“Ummm, huh? Like… we already have these templates made out with buttons and sizes… wait.. what the hell is OCGM?”

OCGM breaks down the basis of all future interfaces into two categories and those are broken down into two subcategories. One for items and one for Actions. Everything on an interface that you will be interacting with is going to be one or the other. Of those two categories, they are then broken down even further, by saying, we have a base unit and then we have a complex unit of each. With those 4 items, you can begin to discuss exactly how those will come into play into your future interface.

OBJECTS – Objects are any type of unit or part of a unit on your interface. This is just a way to define your smallest quantifiable bit. This could take the shape of a piece of album art, a picture, an icon, a ball, or an aura of some kind. The importance of this is that each of these objects represent something or some action in the system. This is meant to be all encompassing because we do not want to limit designers or developers when they sit down to brainstorm ideas. If you tell them Icons and Windows… they will design Icons and Windows. Let them think outside the box when they develop.

CONTAINERS - Containers are a way to discuss the relationship of objects. Containers do not have to take the form of an actual physical box or window. They take the shape of a relationship between objects that you manage through your interface in whatever means you see fit. They could be 5 balls circled around a larger ball which forms a sort of a menu. They could be a simple tagging system. Then by the use of a gesture you reveal the tagged objects and therefore reveal the container. Relationships are key to managing objects and understanding how they will interact with each other is key to your design.

MANIPULATIONS and GESTURES are absolutely crucial in their significance from each other and their significance when designing the user experience. Understanding the difference between these two interactions will make or break the user experience. Manipulations are direct action and reaction on your interface. The user manipulates something, gets immediate feedback, and understands the result of their action. These are simple, easy to understand, somewhat intuitive, and graceful. Gestures are complex actions that are indirect. They can be harmful (format a drive), they are usually not intuitive (draw a ? for help), and are not geared towards the first user experience. So let’s break this down a step further.

Why does the designer or developer need to understand the difference and design accordingly? Because manipulations are the easy way out. They can be your absolute best friend and they can perform most of the common daily user tasks that the user will need. They are designed for beginners, medium users, and for accidental activations. Accidental Activations!! When designing your interface, always design for accidental activations and always gear them towards a Manipulation. Never allow them to be a gesture on accident! While using a Surface Unit, when I brush my sleeve across the screen (which happens significantly) you should never design a “left swipe” to delete a file. This is the core of understanding the difference.

If you want to start the self destruct on a ship, you don’t merely have to press a button. You have to perform a gesture, several manipulations in a sequence that are recognized at the end of the sequence. Only then, after the order is maintained and accomplished does a gesture get recognized and then the action is performed.

Ok, that’s enough explaining for now. Let me answer a few blog posts about the subject. I will dissect the arguments a little to pull out points.

Some great critical thinking over at the clevermonkey. (we need more of this)

… I’m sorry to say that OCGM fails both of my tests. It is at once non-inclusive of the three primary technologies I outlined as well as being to ambiguous to be useful. In addition, the terms used in the acronym overlap so much as to be redundant. ..

The first test is…

Touch UI

Voice UI

Gestural UI

Tangible UI

Organic UI

Augmented Reality

Automatic Identification [via clevermonkey]

Organic UI on the side of a Coke Can, but can it remove the sugar? That's my question.

Richard is saying that OCGM does not encompass the first three of his 7 technologies. I think the first problem I have with this, is the list is it is not a list of NUI devices. This is a mixture of interface types (OUI), interaction types (GUI), experience types (Augmented Reality), and Identification Methods (Automatic Identification). I don’t see a relationship between these devices other than they are new and could be perhaps governed by a non-standard UI. That is the case in most devices though, isn’t it? Let me give a quick sentence on some of the farther reaching devices.

OUI - is a non-symmetrical, bendable, or wearable interface. The determining factor is how its displayed to the user. The actual interface will take the shape of its viewable area, but it is just a way to describe non-Monitor types of interfaces. [Examples: bracelets that have an LCD around the band, shirts that tell your vital signs, a small LQD that bends around a table leg and gives you scores/radio for your favorite show or game].

Automatic Identification – This is a method to identify a user, an action, or another system by any means necessary. Could be authentication, recognition for home entertainment, DNA for weapons [District 9 killed!]

The F-35 Demon Helmet is Augmented Reality to the extreme

Augmented Reality – superimposing the results of a system onto your life through vision, motion, or some other means not developed yet. [Yelp on your phone while looking through the camera, a HUD on a fighter jet superimposing targets on the screen]

My Answer: The first 3 all fit very well into the OCGM acronym.

Voice - Voice is a complex system. Of the few dozen or so pure voice systems I have played with most of them. The latest and most advanced one that has come out, came from MSN Auto. It is a purely voice driven menu system for a car. It contains OBJECTS [people, phone numbers, favorites, places, presets], CONTAINERS [groups of contacts such as Work or Home, groups of places such as frequently shopped locations] Manipulations ["Volume Up!" "Call ..... "] and it contains Gestures ["Emergency!" automatically performs a complex manipulation {"dial.... 9.....1.......1....... "}, or presets, "Becky!" automatically performs whatever action you set for the Becky command].

The OCGM system works very well with most languages as well, and especially well with Bill Buxton’s paper on the 3 State Method. If anyone hasn’t read that, you should read it now or put down your pen forever!

Touch UI – This absolutely fits the model because it is inherently part of the birth of it. It contains OBJECTS [pictures, icons, floating buttons, small song notes that represent songs], CONTAINERS [groups of pictures in a Pod or Bar {PS: I was published on my creation of a selector system for the POD in Surface at the 2008 IEEE Tabletop Conference}, playlists of notes, tagging multiple photos], Manipulations [touch the ball and move it across the screen] and GESTURES [right now this is slim on the Surface, but there are several in the SDK, such as draw a ? for help, draw an X for delete].

Project Natal. "Falcon Punch! Body Blow! Body Blow! FINISH HIM!"

GESTURAL UI – I’m not sure what you mean by this one. Do you mean SPATIAL? If you mean spatial, I’m not really sure what I can disclose about NATAL, but I can assure you that all of the 4 items are covered.

The second point I see from Richard is this one

Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointer are all pretty clear. An acronym for NUI should be equally as clear or its not useful. [via clevermonkey]

I wholeheartedly disagree with this. In fact, we want to go the opposite direction. We want to not spell out all the details for interfaces and we want to empower the designers to design for their experience. We want to arm the designers of the future with the cornerstones of good design and let them go wild! It’s no secret that I am not a big fan of UI DESIGN PATTERNS. I think that for the most part, they are a waste of talent. When designers could and should be thinking outside of the typical experience, they rely on a “crutch” called a UI pattern. Those patterns were developed by City Engineers because there were only so many different ways you can put 3 buildings on a city block. That’s where they came from and that’s where they need to stay!

This acronym is intentionally vague by only discussing the bare mechanics of a future driven interface. The reasoning for this is simple. It’s to empower the designers! Designers need that room to breathe when sitting down to solve their next problem. By only giving the mechanics we allow the designers to design the experience.

That’s all for round 1! I welcome emails or comments for tomorrow’s battle. With this, I leave you one last question:

WIMPy vs OCCAM. Is there really a choice? I mean, OCCAM got to wear a wreath on his head every day. That is awesome!

OCGM (pronounced Occam['s Razor]) is the replacement for WIMP

WIMP is the current acronym for the Windows User Experience. It stands for Windows Icons Menus Pointing Devices.

In human–computer interaction, WIMP stands for “window, icon, menu, pointing device“, denoting a style of interaction using these elements. It was coined by Merzouga Wilberts in 1980.^[1] Although its usage has fallen out of favor, it is often used as an approximate synonym of “GUI“. WIMP interaction was developed at Xerox PARC (see Xerox Alto, developed in 1973) and “popularized by the Macintosh computer in 1984″, where the concepts of the “menu bar” and extended window management were added. [2] [via Wikepedia]

The WIMP interface is a slow dying breed as our demands on user experience and the demands of user’s keep inflating. It’s time to start thinking in a new direction. A direction that sheds many of the harnesses of the old acronym and begins to explain the building blocks of the future. It will be simple, concise, and cover all of the bases we need. There is no need to rely on pointing devices, menus, or windows anymore. It’s time to let the experience be the interface, and the user to be in total control. The interface will begin to blend in with the experience and the experience will be the interface.

I have spent several months thinking about this and trying to solidify something presentable. This is the fruit of my labor. I present to you:

This acronym is short, concise, and to the point. It contains all the elements the modern designer will ever need. In discussing this acronym with someone yesterday, he asked “Why do you separate out manipulations and gestures?” This is a good question and lies at the very core of modern design. These are the two basic interactions needed for a NUI, Touch, or even a Windows based system. The first is easy, intuitive, usually engulfed in a metaphor of some sense. The second is complex, learned, non-physical, and super-natural. The understanding of these two types of interactions are core to designing something for the modern world.

We have objects, which can be grouped into containers. We have manipulations, which can be contained inside of a gesture. The simplicity is liberating.

By a lucky coincidence, the acronym also bears very similar pronunciation and essence to Occam’s Razor. The simplest answer tends to be the right one.

Occam’s razor (or Ockham’s razor^[1]), entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, is the principle that “entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity” and the conclusion thereof, that the simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one. The principle is attributed to 14th-century English logician, theologian and Franciscan friar, William of Ockham. Occam’s razor may be alternatively phrased as pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate (“plurality should not be posited without necessity”).[2] [via Wikepedia]

I hope you love this acronym as much as I do. Thanks for reading and feel free to comment.