Green IT Edge » usability

Socializing Usability and GreenIT in social media

Tone Petrelius — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 09:18:46 +0000

Recently there is a large and interesting discussion going around about Social Medias. Some of them are Facebook, Wikis, Blogs, Micro Blogs likeTwitter, or peer-to peer. It is fascinating how these virtual meeting platforms are spreading, rapidly, through it´s openness. People are no longer passive readers but they actively share and collaborate with others. Osama Mansor at Center for Learning and Knowledge Technologies, Linnéuniversitetet, has written an interesting chronicle about this. My personal impression, as a fairly new blogger and a brand new tweeter, is that these platforms are now more and more accepted as a community device at work, also that they are easy to use. Let´s see what is on line, before you ever have the time to control it.

Apple watch out for NEC!

Birgitta Halvarsson — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 14:11:31 +0000

Last week the NEC Nordic Partner Event took place in Stockholm. I participated on day one which was the NEC Showcase Day.

The top management of NEC for Scandinavia and EMEA presented their visions and strategic directions and also new display series were launched.

At the exhibitions all frontline technology from NEC Displays solutions were demonstrated.
I found of course all the TCO Certified Projectors from NEC impressive. The new computer display MultiSync® EA222WMe with the TCO Certified Edge award for being free from halogen is a very nice example on cutting edge environmental technology.

The hottest release of the event was the introduction of NEC’s ultra thin computer display with the cool name Cool Office.

It is thin. It is cool. It is smart – it has sensors that feel when the user has left the display so it can turn to sleep mode and save lots of energy. I would say this product really proves that NEC can compete with Apple when it comes to combine nice design with usability and green features. What do you think?

The Lenovo L2230x Wide USB Port Replicator Monitor – For You and the Planet!

Stephen Fuller — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 12:07:51 +0000

The Lenovo L2230x Wide display carries the label TCO Certified Edge, meaning it has an extra beneficial quality over the criteria we normally esteem for both You and the Planet (read more about Lenovo’s TCO Certified Edge display). Another usability quality about this display that has impressed us still more is its ability, via a single USB contact, to replicate a Laptop computer without the need of a docking station.

We assessed the Lenovo L2230x USB port replicator at our office and agree with Lenovo that this display allows the user to connect all peripherals such as mouse, keyboard, speakers, microphone, LAN access, whilst it extends the notebook display to a full HD format with only one USB connection between the notebook and the monitor.

This functionality really fits into the concept of “you and the planet” as it feels extremely handy to come to the office and with only one USB contact replicate a Notebook on a desktop monitor without the need for a docking Lstation. We also value innovative displays such as the L2230x from an environmental perspective since it eliminates the need for additional office equipment (docking station) such that causes E-waste.

Universal charge of your mobile phone and the planet

Tone Petrelius — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:47:31 +0000

According to an agreement with GSMA, an operator association within TU, International Telecommunication Union, there is now a great chance for all mobile phone manufacturers to equip their phones with a charge function through micro- USB, according to an agreement called UCS, Universal Changing Solution.

This is great!! The goal with UCS is to decrease the manufacturing of chargers by 50% per year and be far more energy efficient. This will decrease the carbon dioxide emissions. This will also in the future eliminate all specific chargers as you will be able to charge your phone directly through your computer. And our Usability habits will surely change in a positive direction.

“Don’t Design Things Today that Make Tomorrow Worse”

Clare Hobby — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 03:51:28 +0000

I think this heading captures the purpose of truly sustainable design and the theme for World Usability Day 2009.

Each year, World Usability Day is an opportunity to highlight achievements in user-centric design. On November 12 usability thought leaders, consumers , industry and researchers gathered at events in over 43 countries to discuss the latest innovations in usability design. Basically, the mission of the event is to “Make Life Easier”.

This year’s theme was “Designing for a Sustainable World”, and reflected the growing demand for “green” design in combination with highly functional products. In the United States, TCO Certified showcased a selection of TCO Certified notebook PCs at the event hosted by Sabre Holdings in Southlake, Texas. The event featured product exhibits, usability testing demos and a keynote presentation by renown design professor and author, Nathan Shedroff. You can view a copy of Nathan’s presentation below -a useful source for why usability and sustainability in design must go together.

Nathan’s message in short: “Don’t design things today that make tomorrow worse”

http://www.worldusabilityday.org/sites/worldusabilityday.org/themes/wud/resources/nathanshedroff.pdf

It is one thing to talk about green IT…

Anna Pramborg — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:10:23 +0000

..and another to offer green it solutions. Since we at TCO Development started to develop our certification programme that declared greener displays with better usability we have had many contacts with public procurers and private professional purchasers. When it comes to actually purchasing a greener product it can sometimes be difficult to know whether a product really fulfils the criteria the purchasers have set up, and the vendors sometimes have difficulties translating and understand the demand and criteria set up by the purchasers. Verification and certification schemes are often of good help here. And, therefore I got very excited when I saw Consip, the Italian company working with efficiency in public administration, asking vendors to offer them 75.000 computer desktops that were according to the requirements in TCO-certified. A clear statement; this is what we want. The users should have a green desktop with proven usability qualities. Action is everything!
Also, see the cut-and-paste procurement document developed by UNEP/ICLEI: http://procureitfair.org/publications-en/Publication_2744/at_download/fullfile

Small Challenges for Usability and Sustainability

Tone Petrelius — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:23:15 +0000

Today we have the honour of introducing Mr Erik Borälv as our guest blogger. Erik works as IT strategist for Vinnova in Stockholm. He has a great experience in the field of Usability and he has written an imposing amount of interesting news letters about this and I think that I have read all of them, and learnt a lot!! So enjoy Eriks blog:

The European Union (EU) is currently preparing a follow-up to the soon out-of-date i2010 strategy – the EU policy framework for the information society and media [1]. The strategy promotes the positive contribution that information and communication technologies (ICT) can make to the economy, society and personal quality of life. There will be a high-level conference in Sweden on renewing this strategy. The aim is a shared and updated European IT policy agenda by 2015 [2].
There is a study document prepared for this conference that highlights a number of policy areas:
1. The knowledge economy: driver of future wealth
2. The knowledge society: participation for all
3. Green ICT: support for an eco-efficient economy
4. Next generation infrastructure: balancing investment with competition
5. Soft infrastructure: investing in social capital
6. SMEs and ICT: supporting Europe’s small enterprises
7. A single information market: enabling cohesion and growth
8. Revolutionising eGovernment: rethinking delivery of public services
9. Online trust: a safe and secure digital world
10. Clear leadership: rethinking the EU’s policy making process
Each key area is described further and detailed goals are specified in order to reach “the green knowledge society”. Having a background in Usability and User-Centred Design, a couple of ideas pop up in my head. My ideas are maybe a reaction to the high level of the policy goals – I find them to be abstract (as policy always is). Would it be possible to contrast a high-level policy with a massive low-level list of actions? What if every European citizen – on the World Usability Day, for example – each did one effort to improve Usability or Sustainability in their own everyday life? How would a policy compare to such action in terms of effect? Small challenges could be as efficient as a grand policy.
Some ideas for small challenges I got when reading the study was:
Doing less – when it comes to ICT we seem to only talk about doing more, being more productive. Would it not also be suitable to talk about using ICT instead of some old/previous/outdated procedure? The advances technology makes need also to buy us something qualitatively different, not just more computer time. Using ICT to actually do less could buy us humans time and resources that could make a real change in our lives in terms of quality.
Parallel vs. Sequential – we use ICT to be more and more available/present, both professionally and for pleasure, sometimes both at once. Modern smart mobile phones allow us to work anywhere, or play anywhere. In reality, as a result we actually are Elsewhere more of the time [4]. A TV set in the kitchen, email while sitting on the commuter train and the continuous use of an MP3 player are parallel tasks we now cannot do without. However, there is a limit on how much we can do in parallel. From many areas, e.g. music, arts, education and research, we know some things require focus over time in order to reach a certain depth. Again, it could be a question of quality, to find what parts of our lives we want to keep sequential.
I suggest going deep and using ICT for doing less on the World Usability Day the 12th of November [5]. This could give another perspective on Usability and Sustainability, at least for a day.
Erik Borälv
References
1. i2010 – A European Information Society for growth and employment.

2. Visby Agenda: creating impact for an eUnion 2015.

3. A Green Knowledge Society – An ICT policy agenda to 2015 for Europe’s future knowledge society.

4. Elsewhere, U.S.A.: How We Got from the Company Man, Family Dinners, and the Affluent Society to the Home Office, BlackBerry Moms, and Economic Anxiety.

5. World Usability Day

Usability in reading

Tone Petrelius — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:30:01 +0000

TCO Certified requires high image quality while reading on the
TCO certified displays. This guarantees that the reader can easily
read text, in good contrast and luminance, different colours
and other details. Usability matters!
Within short the first South Corean black and white 6″ reading
pad will be launched, in intense concurrence by Kindle by Amazona
and Daily Edition by Sony. Simultaneously Google is scanning all the
world´s literature books to be read digitally, which is a huge project
indeed! I hope that usability matters also here. But I wonder, can
the reader be sure about usability and readability in this future
digital medium? The reader is not supposed to print out, but read
only through a display.
Read more at Google and Kindle webs.

Niclas Rydell — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:57:57 +0000

Automatic brightness control

Lately we have started to see displays with automatic brightness control on the market. What is this feature and what is the benefit of it for the user and the environment?

A sensor on the display measures the ambient light in the room and adjusts the brightness of the display to a comfortable level. While working in a normal office room during the day the ambient light in the room may be very high. To maintain readability and visual quality the display automatically increase the brightness under these conditions. As the sun get less strong at the end of the day the display gradually reduce the brightness to be readable even in a dark room without dazzling the user.

Another huge benefit of this technology is the reduction in energy it creates. By reducing brightness when it is not needed a lot of energy can be saved and the lifetime of the display will also be longer.

This is a good example of introducing a feature to both improve the experience for the user as well as reducing the impact on the environment.

One company that have introduced this feature is Eizo:

New leadership at TCO Development – a message from new Managing Director Sören Enholm

tcoeditor — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:24:59 +0000

It’s with a sense of anticipation and opportunity that I join TCO Development. This is an exciting time to be involved in eco-labeling and green technology, withTCO Development uniquely positioned to provide leadership in this rapidly evolving space. In preparation for my new position at TCO I’ve been studying the worlds of ergonomics, environment and eco labeling. With long experience from the IT market I’m used to lots of buzzwords and acronyms, and there are several similarities with the world of product certification. For example, what does”Green IT” really mean? The definition by TCO Development includes both good usability (work environment) and low impact on the natural environment, but others define it only by the latter.

Moreover, we’re seeing a widening range of opinions about problems and solutions connected to IT in the environmental space. For instance, is IT use good or bad for the climate? This and other relevant questions about green and usable technology are vital to providing businesses and consumers with ICT products that truly do make a difference.

I’m looking forward to working with those of you already in our international network and welcome those of you interested in green and usable technology to join the conversation here at GreenITedge. I will blog regularly and look forward to your comments about green and usable products.

Sören Enholm

Managing Director