The Road to Tek•Kind
The Question - So What? - Usability - Internet and Usability - Our Mission
The Question
Take a moment to look around yourself. How many electronic gadgets and gizmos do you see? Think back and count how many different radios, cellphones, or mp3 players you may have.
Along similar lines, how many different computers do you use? Do you check your E-mail at home, browse the web at work, or play the latest video games?
If you come across a web-site that's difficult to use or understand, how long are you willing to sit trying to figure it out? If you had a remote control that was hard to hold, and had small buttons that were hard to press, would you keep using it?
After a poor experience, would you feel motivated to purchase something else from that same brand, or continue browsing the rest of a web site?
So What?
We use a wide variety of electronic tools and toys every day. They each come with their own rules of operation, and individual methods of interaction. They all do something different, a different way, for a different reason.
These tools, in all their variety of shapes and sizes, have one thing in common; you: the real user and audience.
Every consumer application, whether it be pizza oven or web-site, is intended for use by you, the real-world person and audience. The entire lifecycles of these tools come to fruition only in your hands.
So, if a device does not fit well in your hand, it's going to be held less or not at all. By not taking your needs into consideration, it is less likely to get your further attention or understanding, and more likely to find the trash can or junk bin.
Usability
Simply put, everyone has "different sized hands". Some people can hold small objects, some only large. Some can catch a ball, and some people have to concentrate just to lift a fork.
The way an application, device, or publication is constructed sets basic requirements on the user. If the basic requirements of use cannot be met by the user, then the application becomes useless to them.
Multiple basic requirements add up, slowly excluding a larger possible audience. Too many design inconsiderations can quickly alienate a large number of people, making that application ineffective when it could have been empowering.
Usability is the science of observing, understanding, and planning for these differences. By applying simple design methods, gained from careful study of how people actually use an application, widely accessible and lasting designs can be created.
Internet and Usability
The internet is a global network of communication, and offers a vast canvas for the effective exchange of ideas. And because the internet stretches globally, it has the largest viewing audience possible of any communicative form available today.
Given this great scope of availability, the consideration of a wider audience's needs is no longer just a healthy strategy. It is an absolutely necessity for a successful media design.
However, a web-site's usability considerations only start with the human audience. Before it ever reaches a single person, technical issues must be planned for. The computer type, web browsing software, and current code design standards must be kept carefully in the picture as well.
Human usability offers a start for development of an effective design, however it is only the beginning. An intuitive web designer must also be technically proficient, in order to develop an application that is widely accessible.
When careful research is combined with a technically capable guide and artist, then you are on your way to having a TekKind site.
Our Mission
The internet is a means of communication and expression, or medium. The composed communication, or media, of the 'net is the web-site. The language of the 'site is html. The language of communication, however, is art.
Everything we do here revolves around artistic expression, and the art of crafting enriching communications. We strive to produce work that translates well to many different perspectives, maintaining a high level of accessibility to a large potential audience.
It is our mission to craft useful applications that bridge the gaps between artist and audience, and of businesses with their clients.
Through developing "kind-technology" practices, and the production of "person-centric' media, we hope to help enrich the communicative potential of your work, and broaden the experiences of those that interact with it.
Thank you for your time,-Ben s. Mason(Owner, Artist, Designer, Dreamer)