About Ruth
Ruth has a PhD in computer science. Sometimes she is a university lecturer and at other times she is a consultant.-
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Tag Archives: cognitive science
Experiencing embodiment
Last spring I began six rounds of chemotherapy which changed the relationship between me and my body forever. The chemo worked so well on the first round, it shut down my immune system and put me in hospital. Then each … Continue reading
Posted in Musings
Tagged behaviour, chemotherapy, cognitive science, embodiment, feedback, obsolescence, patterns, The Matrix, user experience, yoga
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Upgrading your embodiment
In 2002, I watched Stelarc at the CHI 2002 conference in Minneapolis, give his keynote speech entitled The body is obsolete. We used to talk a lot about obsolete software. Nowadays we mostly talk about giving software an upgrade. In … Continue reading
User motivation: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Last summer I found myself exploring an early Iron Age home at The Crannog Centre on Loch Tay. The Crannog was cosy, as its focal point was the Iron Age hearth – a large open fire. During the day the … Continue reading
Cognitive Science: What makes your users tick
Like many usability consultants I have spent hours locked in rooms with strangers saying: “What do you think about this web page?” It is boring way to earn a living especially as you often know the answers and could tell … Continue reading
Posted in Design
Tagged artificial intelligence, charles pierce, cognitive bias, cognitive science, colour, constancy, depth cues, edward tufte, expectations, george miller, human-computer interaction, jakob nielson, joseph campbell, limitations, memory, patterns, perception, reasoning, superstitious learning, usability
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Security and usability: Don’t let your users get you down
After my first year at university I spent the summer working in a delicatessen in Putney. One morning during my first week, whilst in the middle of carefully carving six slices of Parma ham for some lady’s dinner party, we … Continue reading