25. Mai 2012

Towel Day 2012

Liebe THS-Leser, bitte denkt daran, dass heute internationaler Handtuchtag ist (Towel Day).

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Hence a phrase that has passed into hitchhiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

Also, nehmt ein Handtuch mit ins Büro. Kann ja nie schaden.

(Image: All rights reserved by caz roberts)

22. Mai 2012

Kostenlose Mockup Templates

Eben haben mich die Jungs (naja, eigentlich eine Lady) von keynotopia.com kontaktiert. Die haben gerade diese sehr coole kostenlose keynote-mockup-templates Aktion.

With Keynotopia Mockup Bundle, you can sketch user interfaces using Apple Keynote. When your mockups look like simple hand-drawn screens, it’s easier to get feedback on layout and structure, without getting distracted by the detail. Keynote mockups are better than hand-drawn sketches because you can iterate on them and modify them without having to redraw them.

Ist sicher was für Euch, meine lieben THS-Leser, wa?

20. Mai 2012

Remote User Testing mit Jeff Sauro

Auf meinem Videoblog IA Television läuft gerade ein ziemlich interessantes Video. Es handelt sich dabei um ein Webinar mit einem der neuen, jungen Usability Päpste namens Jeff Sauro.

Das Video - oder besser gesagt, das Webinar - ist recht sehenswert und Jeff's Englisch gut verständlich. Schaut also unbedingt mal rein, wenn Ihr Zeit habt. Lohnt sich.

(Image: wpclipart.com)