Visualizing A Taxonomy Using Tree Testing

In the summer of 2012, I worked with Matt Turpin and the wonderful folks at the Seattle-based UX Design firm Fell Swoop on a taxonomy redesign of the FAQ pages on a client’s website.

***Update 11/22/19: clear.com no longer exists but it lives on via the Internet Archive. Here’s the clear.com FAQ page before the taxonomy redesign and after.

We conducted user testing in the form of a closed card sort and multiple tree tests using Optimal Workshop’s awesome tools. Not only did the results of the card sort and tree testing inform the taxonomy redesign, but Optimal Workshop’s OptimalSort and Treejack created great visual deliverables that we used to show the client how we were progressing and the improvements that we were making.

As a taxonomist and information architect, it was a revelation to not only incorporate user testing into a taxonomy project, but have compelling metrics and visual deliverables instead of just a spreadsheet to present to the client.

I wrote an article about the project that was recently posted on the Fell Swoop blog.

***Update 11/22/2019:  FellSwoop took down the blog post a long time ago, but it lives on via the Internet Archive. Read the archived version here.

X-posted on my Infogration Consulting blog.

21st Century Viking: Vote No On The School Levies

Here’s the link to my latest opinion piece for the Ballard News-Tribune.

This piece discusses my opposition to an operations levy and a capital levy totalling $1.25 billion to fund Seattle Public Schools. I do not discuss the details of Propositions 1 & 2 but instead condemn the practice of holding elections on issues like this at times of the year when voters are less likely to participate.

As with all Washington State elections, this one will be held by mail and the votes will be tallied on February 12th.

21st Century Viking: Digging Deeper Into The Coal Train Controversy

Here’s the link to my latest opinion piece for the Ballard News-Tribune.

It is a follow-up to a piece I did last month about the proposal to build coal export terminals on the Washington state and Oregon coats. If these terminals are built, Washington state and the Ballard neighborhood in particular would experience a lot more train traffic.

The environmentalists are vehemently against this project for a variety of reasons and quite vocal in their opposition. For the first piece, I interviewed a railroad union representative who had some real issues with the stances of the anti-coal advocates. For the second, I did some further research some of the union rep’s best points and asked someone from the Sierra Club, which is leading the fight against the coal trains, to see what they had to say.

My intent with these pieces was to objectively present the facts about an emotionally charged issue and hope that the readers will use them to come to their own conclusions.

Who- Or What, If You Like- Is Doctor Who?

The BBC science fiction television series “Doctor Who” celebrates its 50th anniversary this November. While Doctor Who is a beloved television institution in England, it has been, for most of my entire life, a fringe cult phenomenon. Recently, however, “Doctor Who” has been something I never thought it would become in America- cool (well, cool among the sci-fi geek crowd, anyways). In honor of the 50th anniversary I wanted to start writing a series of articles on my experiences as an American Doctor Who fan. I think it is a story that may be of interest to longtime as well as new Whovians, wherever they are, and maybe to people who have always loved things that nobody really understands.

Before I begin telling that story, however, I realize that there may be people out there who may have never even heard of “Doctor Who” so I am going to to give you my own personal overview of the show and let it serve as the intro to my future articles on the subject.

What- or who, if you like- is “Doctor Who?”

“Doctor Who” is a science fiction television series produced by the BBC. The protagonist of the series is “The Doctor,” a member of a highly advanced, nearly godlike race called the Time Lords who hail from the planet Gallifrey (formerly in the constellation of Kasterborus) of indeterminate age who travels around time and space with a variety of friends he picks up along the way in his semi-sentient ship, the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space), which is “disguised” as a Police Box, which was a common sight in London when the series premiered in 1963. A bit of a run-on sentence, and I apologize, but it is about as simple as I can make it. The original conception of the show was a semi-educational show suitable for family viewing where The Doctor (originally played as a grandfatherly old man by William Hartnell), escorted his teenage granddaughter Susan (Carole Anne Ford) and Ian and Barbara- her two high school teachers who were unwittingly along for the ride- on a series of historical and scientific adventures.

The show truly exploded in popularity when they encountered what would become The Doctor’s mortal enemies, the Daleks, in the second story.

The Daleks became the ultimate kid fad in England from the end of 1963 to 1966 or so, and are a recognized part of their pop culture to this day. The series was immensely popular but by 1966, Hartnell was getting tired of doing 40+ episodes per year (no, really!) and decided to leave the show. The producers came up with an amazing idea: when The Doctor is mortally wounded (aka the actor playing The Doctor decides to leave or is fired), he can, due to his Time Lord physiology, “regenerate” his body and be reborn as a completely different-looking man with a completely different personality.

The Doctor (now known as The First Doctor) fell ill after an adventure and got up as a much younger but still middle-aged man played by Patrick Troughton.The audience went along with this startling change in lead actors and the series continued for 22 more seasons and five more Doctors (including the one most Americans remember- the guy with the afro and the long scarf- played by Tom Baker), ending its original run in 1989.

In 1996, there was a BBC/FOX co-produced television movie starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor but the series was not picked up. For the first time, however, the special effects- for which the original series was always rightly derided- were finally well-done and you got a glimpse of what the series could really be like. At the time, many of the fans of the original series chafed at some of the changes made by the producers, one of which was making the relationship between The Doctor and his (usually) human companions possibly romantic. In the original series, which was always supposed to be aimed at kids, The Doctor always ran around with a bevy of younger girls and sometimes boys, some of whom wore outfits that were more for the dads watching with their children. The Doctor never batted an eye at all the eye candy around him, and he was always portrayed as a chaste alien uncle who would never ever even think anything untoward about his young wards.

In 2005, Russell T. Davies, an award-winning British television producer and lifelong Whovian brought “Doctor Who” back. In the intervening years, a Time War had occurred between the Time Lords and the Daleks and The Ninth Doctor was now alone, the last of the Time Lords and a battle-scarred tough guy played perfectly by Christopher Eccleston, the highest-profile actor to ever play the role.

He meets a plucky nineteen year-old working class gal named Rose played by former pop star Billie Piper who, over the course of the first series, helps heal his hardened heart. The first series of the new (not a reboot) “Doctor Who” was a huge hit in England, and at the end, the Ninth Doctor regenerates into the Tenth Doctor played by David Tennant.

In the second series, the possibly romantic relationship between The Tenth Doctor and Rose becomes a little more explicit- not sexually, mind you, but you can tell they are in love. All good things come to an end, but the adventures of the Tenth Doctor continued. David Tennant was one of the youngest, certainly the handsomest guy and the first fan of the series to play the part. “Doctor Who” was once again a ratings hit and soon his episodes started to trickle over to America. American fans, most of whom were unable to suspend their disbelief of the admittedly terrible special effects and appreciate the amazing storytelling of the original series were now ready to take a second look. Doctor Who started to become a geek phenomenon.

David Tennant left after 3 series and the Eleventh Doctor appeared, played by Matt Smith, the youngest actor to ever play the role.

After Matt Smith took the reins, “Doctor Who” achieved a level of popularity and visibility that it has never had. Most notably “Doctor Who” made the covers of Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide
Insert pics of magazine covers as well.

This can be explained by several factors: the Tim Burton-esque balance between weirdness, wackiness and seriousness the series has taken under producer Steven Moffatt, the witty banter between the Eleventh Doctor and his first companion, the attractive redheaded Scot Amelia Pond (played by Karen Gillan), and the fact that Matt Smith has nailed the role in a way that few of the actors ever have.

The most recent episode of the series, “The Snowmen” was broadcast on BBC America on Christmas and was its highest rated (check) show ever. Now we are back to January 2013. “Doctor Who” will celebrate its 50th anniversary and is as popular as it perhaps has ever been worldwide.

Check back in next time as I talk about starting to watch “Doctor Who” when I was 4 and to see it go from this very strange thing that very few people had even heard of let alone understand to being on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

2013 New Year’s Plans

As this is my first post for 2013, I wanted to take this opportunity to announce to the world my writing goals for 2013:

-Finish My Second Novel: The main project I will be working on this year is finishing the manuscript for my second novel about an outbreak of an alien virus in Seattle. I have been writing it since November 2011 (it started as an unofficial NaNoWriMo project) and initially was my attempt to write my Great American Zombie Novel but has grown quite a lot since then. I will be talking about it periodically in this space.

-Get My Work Out There: Whether it is a blog post, an opinion column, a feature, a short story, or my novel(s), I want to cultivate a wider audience in 2013. That not only means being prolific, but getting out there on the writer’s playing field pitching and submitting things in order to get published. It’s not writing if nobody reads it!

-Regular Posts: What’s the point of a blog with sporadic new content? I want to maintain a regular publishing schedule in this space (as well as on my Infogration Consulting blog), and in that spirit, will post 2 new articles a week for the next 3 months. If I can maintain that schedule, I may expand. First things first, however. If you don’t see any new content, demand it!

21st Century Viking: What Is the Coal Train Controversy Really About?

My latest 21st Century Viking opinion piece for the Ballard News-Tribune is my first foray into the coal train issue. There is currently some proposals going around to build coal export terminals at ports along the Washington and Oregon coasts. The coal will have to be shipped by rail through Seattle (and Ballard) to these facilities.

There is a concern among local environmentalists and activists about the increased pollution from the coal dust and length of these trains. Most of the dialogue around the coal trains is coming from the anti-side so I wanted to take more balanced look.

My plan is to learn more about this subject and the state of freight and transportation in general around the Northwest.

21st Century Viking: McDermott debates…but not with the right person

After the Ballard News-Tribune published my 21st Century Viking column about why Jim McDermott should debate his general election opponent, Ron Bemis, I got a hot tip. McDermott was going to debate someone the week before the Nov. 6, 2012 General Election- but it turns out that it was going to be conservative talk show host Michael Medved rather than Bemis!

I decided to get to the bottom of it and filed another 21st Century Viking column called “McDermott debates…but not with the right person.

I covered the McDermott/Medved debate for the Ballard News-Tribune. The debate was taped and was supposed to be broadcast the Saturday following the debate on UWTV, but it turns out they never aired it.

While it would have been interesting to find out why it was never aired, the General Election has passed- the latest figures show that McDermott beat Ron Bemis 79.48% to 20.52%. The election may be over, but the issue of deeply entrenched incumbents- regardless of party- ducking their duty to participate in the democratic process remains.

21st Century Viking: Why McDermott Must Debate Bemis

Here’s my latest 21st Century Viking article for the Ballard News-Tribune on the “race” for the 7th Congressional District (WA) seat. McDermott has so far managed to duck having to formally debate his current challenger, independent/Blue Republican Ron Bemis, a tradition he has carried on for at least the last four elections. We will know in a couple of weeks whether his constituents (some of whom are new to the 7th CD) reflexively vote him in once again or whether he will be called on his shenangians.

Starting To Think About The Disposable Computer Culture

Yesterday I was listening to NPR Morning Edition and one of the top stories was about the unveiling of the iPad Mini. Something inside me finally snapped- why does NPR consider a product launch to be news? Instead of constantly talking up Apple’s product launches, why don’t they do investigations into the environmental concerns caused by their products?

A couple of weeks ago, I heard Kyle Weins speak at the Content Strategy Workshops. Kyle is one of the founders of iFixit, a company/ online community that creates and publishes the world’s largest collection of online repair manuals in addition to selling the parts and tools. The company was started in 2003 by Kyle and his business partner Luke Soules when they were students at California Polytechnic State University. they also founded Dozuki, which sells the software platform they use to write the iFixit repair manuals to other companies. Here’s an interesting article about them from Mother Jones.

iFixit has turned into a large and vibrant online community of people who like to fix things who have created thousands of manuals for different products, not just Apple products and other computers. There is a companion blog site, iFixit.org, that features teardowns of new prodcuts like the Retina MacBook Pro and activism around issues like trying to promote a culture of fixers rather than consumers and the very important issue of E-Waste.

During his talk, Kyle showed an iPad he had taken apart and explained how difficult it was to repair it. Apple has been at the forefront of the sleek and exciting computer revolution of the past decade. While everyone celebrates Steve Jobs for creating products with elegant user design, few people seem to notice that these i- and Mac- Things are slowly starting to become less fixable and more disposable. Kyle has been talking about these issues for many years and writes regularly for Wired, including this recent article entitled “Unfixable Computers Are Leading Humanity Down a Perilous Path.”

Hearing Kyle speak was a real revelation as he put into words the nagging feelings I had about the other side of the information revolution. Kyle mentioned that even with electronic waste recycling, there were still necessary rare earth elements that cannot be recovered. We are increasingly dependent on these devices that are made with rare earth elements that are hard to mine and will eventually run out. What are we going to do then? During the Q&A, I asked whether there was such a thing as green computing and his answer was basically no.

These issues, especially the ones surrounding the mining of the necessary rare earth minerals, are only going to get more important the more we become dependent on computers. Will our dependency on foreign-mined rare earth elements replace oil as a national security issue?

You can’t really call either of us are anti-tech, Luddites, or Apple player haters (this post was written using a MacBook Pro), yet we are both concerned with the way things are going. I thank Kyle, Luke and everyone at iFixit for getting me to really start thinking about this complex tangle of issues. I am only at the very beginning of my journey to learn about these issues that he has been discussing for years and plan to write more about them in the near future.

The 21st Century Viking Lives!

In 2008, I started writing freelance articles for my local newspaper, the Ballard News-Tribune and writing a column that I called “The 21st Century Viking” in honor of my (Finnish) and Ballard’s Scandinavian heritage.

At the time, I was trying to kick my writing career into a higher gear while applying to grad school at the same time. I got into grad school, the demands of homework and projects kicked in. The freelancing and 21st Century Viking columns dwindled for awhile, but never truly died. Once during a random conversation it came up that I was the 21st Century Viking. The person told me how much they liked the columns and asked when I was going to do another.

Well, here we are a couple of years later. Grad school is over with, I’m married and ready to really, actually kick my writing career into high gear.

Earlier this summer I did my first article in a long time for the BNT, which was an interview with Ryan Gabriel, a primary candidate for one of Ballard’s State Legislature seats. The popularity of that interview has led to the resurrection of the 21st Century Viking column. Whereas before, they were mainly observations about life in Ballard, I have been asked to do columns with a more political bent.

Here are the first of the new batch, a meditation on the 36th Legislative District general election race entitled “Two Candidates, No Choices.”

I will post links to some of my older columns soon.