Author Archives: ivanka.majic
Ivanka, quo vadis?
On the 1st of June 2011 I will be departing these shores on an extended honeymoon with my husband of almost 3 months!
I am taking what I believe is officially called ‘a career break’.
We will be traveling from the top to the bottom of the world on a motorbike. (Yes, one motorbike. No, I don’t [...]
In support of students
For me, it is very simple: restricting access to education is wrong.
Education is as much of an investment for a government as it is for the individual.
Posted in humanity, observations 15 Comments
Looking at Ubuntu Brainstorm: Idea #25801
The Ubuntu Technical Board is currently conducting a review of the top ten Brainstorm issues users have raised about Ubuntu, and Matt asked me to investigate Idea #25801: Help the user understand when closing a window does not terminate the app. In other words, figure out to signal to the user that an application will [...]
So, you want to provide an API for the world to use?
I conducted 5 qualitative interviews with developers and here are some findings.
You have two problems. The first problem is to design the API. The second is to help people learn to use it.
Great API design
Is consistent, predictable, learnable. You are creating an API that developers will interact with. In the same way that a [...]
I am we.
A few days before I went on holiday my regular newsletter from the Fawcett Society opened with the following:
The Fawcett Society has filed papers with the High Court seeking a Judicial Review of the government’s recent budget
This blog post has been brewing ever since and I apologise, mostly to myself, for not getting it out [...]
Unintended consequences
Two stories.
1) A former colleague of mine did a research project for a power company on one of those machines you have in your house that goes red if you are consuming lots of electricity. One participant started boiling water on the gas hob when she was making tea because that way she could keep [...]
Design by enthusiasm
As many of you are most probably aware I work for Canonical and some of my blog posts from here are syndicated to design.canonical.com. I was asked a rather interesting question on that blog and partly due to the impatience of the asker decided to respond by way of a post. My other motivation for [...]
Guadec Day 2: In pursuit of critical mass
Today I was reminded of this quote by Jane Goodall:
If everyone could think a little bit about small choices they make every day: What do you eat, does it result in animal cruelty? What do you wear, how was it made, does it damage the environment? When people start thinking like that they do change. [...]
Dangers of double negatives