From: Slow is beautiful (Bloomstein, net, July 2014)

The quotes below are from a one page article in the July issue of net magazine. The message is that while efficiency in online experiences is critical especially in ecommerce and business there is still a place for 'slow' and content that asks questions (I hope so):

"Second thoughts undermine efficient ecommerce experiences. But if we only value efficiency, we ignore opportunities for learning and validation that characterise effective, less transactional experiences.

... (How several brands - "Foster Good Decisions")

DESIGN FOR QUESTIONS

These content types and design patterns aren't necessarily the fastest way for users to complete transactions. Instead, they help users engage with purchases with greater confidence, satisfaction and certainty. When content pushes us to weigh options and wrestle with difficult concepts, it pushes us to ask questions - and place greater weight on their answers."

It does not take a giant leap of imagination to consider this in health and social care contexts?

Margot Bloomstein, .net, July 2014, Issue 255, p. 42.

Semantic Web journal Special Issue on Cognitive Science and the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web journal invites paper submissions for a special issue on "Cognitive Approaches for the Semantic Web." The scope of the special issue includes research from cognitive science that employs Semantic Web technologies, ontologies, or Linked Data as well as semantic web research that takes inspiration from Cognitive Science findings and methods. We also invite work from domains that would benefit from a closer integration of cognitive science methods into the Semantic Web such as the digital humanities, bioinformatics, and GIScience. Submitted research may address a variety of topics including (but not limited to) reasoning, information retrieval and integration, personalization, context, patterns, user interfaces, spatial cognition, and learning. All standard paper types from the Semantic Web journal may be submitted (research paper, survey paper, tool/system paper, dataset description paper, application report, ontology description - see http://www.semantic-web-journal.org/authors ). In addition, we invite vision and position papers of the highest quality, which will be evaluated as to their potential to stimulate research investigations on the interplay between Cognitive Science and Semantic Web.

Deadlines

Paper submission deadline: January 10, 2013
Notification: March 10, 2013

Editors of the special issue:

Rob Goldstone (Indiana University, Bloomington, US)
Frank van Harmelen (VU Amsterdam, NL)
Pascal Hitzler (Kno.e.sis Center, Wright State University, Dayton, US)
Krzysztof Janowicz (University of California, Santa Barbara, US)
Kai-Uwe Kühnberger (Universität Osnabrück, DE)

Guest editorial board (to be completed)

Benjamin Adams (University of California, Santa Barbara, US)
Claudia d'Amato (University of Bari, IT)
Alan Bundy (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Jérôme Euzenat (INRIA Rhône-Alpes, FR)
Helmar Gust (Universität Osnabrück, DE)
Cory Henson (Kno.e.sis Center, Wright State University, Dayton, US)
Zhisheng Huang (VU Amsterdam, NL)
Werner Kuhn (Universität Münster, DE)
Alexander Mehler (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, DE)
Simon Scheider (Universität Münster, DE)
Christoph Schlieder (Universität Bamberg, DE)
Lael Schooler (MPI für Bildungsforschung, DE)
Wei Lee Woon (Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi, AE)
Gudrun Ziegler (DICA-lab, University of Luxembourg, LU)
...

Contact: If you have questions, please contact us via contact @ semantic-web-journal.net .

-- Prof. Dr. Pascal Hitzler
Dept. of Computer Science, Wright State University, Dayton, OH
http://www.knoesis.org/pascal/
Semantic Web Textbook: http://www.semantic-web-book.org
Semantic Web Journal: http://www.semantic-web-journal.net

Gestalt, patterns and models: pressing buttons

The three recent events have all in different ways emphasized the role of patterns.

Patterns were there at the Drupal Education Camp, then the Visual Methodologies Workshop and the Scottish Ruby Conference.

There is a lot of very informative content in .net magazine. In the two most recent issues a single page has proved a great help (Buttons gestalt, .net August 2012, p.74) and in the current issue (.net Summer 2012) page 72.

Gene Crawford notes that gestalt in graphic design refers to how a person will recognise and react to an element of something we've designed. Buttons are discussed as an essential part of any design. Crawford points out how a button is the end point in submitting a form, completing an action, or transaction of some form.

A button has to fit in with an overall design - so that as an individual element it shouts out its function, its potential; whether or not that potential is realised.

In case of a medical emergency there is only one button to press: that which activates emergency procedures.

When we are concerned to deliver health and social care the button we should press is: Hodges' model. This is a compound operation. One press activates four (five) buttons: four care domains. This is the umbilicus, not just the nexus, the physical 'belly' button, but the mind, the social, political and spiritual.

For holistic, reflective and integrated care viewing h2cm as a button begs we contemplate the potential that lies beneath. Beneath in the sense of what follows after the button is activated. This is precisely Gene's focus in the summer 2012 issue of .net Mental Models on page 72.

He points to a book: Mental Models Aligning Design Strategy With Human Behaviour, which I also learned of from a lady staying in Lund at the same B&B. Here the thought processes of a visitor to a web site are central. I have some old content - archive material, but vital and still central to understanding and the history of h2cm. How are visitors to navigate their way to find original content, what mental model do they bring even before they seek out menus and buttons. What expectations will they associate with the words and vocabulary of the website: Hodges' model, conceptual framework, structure, content, and conceptual spaces?

I often think of h2cm as a care (information) architecture and Crawford notes the need for empathy with users as a website is designed. So, closer than ever these worlds: nursing and websites. ...