Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter is making quite a name for himself with his predictions. The latest of note to us is his predication that GTA IV will sell some nine million copies at launch across both systems. Here's what
The ultimate next-gen game is finally in the hands of the masses as GameStops and Best Buys across the country doled out copies at midnight tonight. I counted around seventy people at my local GameStop. As I approached the line
Just a friendly post to let everyone know tha the podcast is now up and available for download. It is just Stephen and myself this week, but we hit on several topics as well as some great news. As for
So here we are, about 12.5 hours after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV and we are already getting reports of the game causing freeze errors on early hardware, eerily similar to the issues that came up with Bully
Capsule Review by Chris Henry (4/4): The True20 Adventure Roleplaying rule book's section about vehicles is a little over two pages long. Heroic Toolkits: Vehicles covers nearly thirty times as much ground at considerably less then the cost of a
This tutorial is based on the PC version of Microsoft PowerPoint 2003, but the principles explained here should be similar for older versions of the program and for Macs. Cramer, Dan
Defining a site is one of the more complicated procedures in Dreamweaver, so do not attempt this process unless you have some time, patience, and knowledge of how to transfer files to your server space. Cramer, Dan
This tutorial is based on the PC version of Microsoft Word 2003, but the principles explained here should be similar for older versions of the program and for Macs. Cramer, Dan
This study investigated the legibility of onscreen typefaces and the influence of individual character features on correct identification. Specific attributes of alphanumeric characters and symbols shown to be the least legible were measured and analyzed using a statistical method called
This study investigated the effect of website typeface appropriateness on the perception of the site's company. Results indicate that typefaces that are high in appropriateness should be used for websites. Neutral and low appropriate typefaces significantly decreased the perception of
This article discusses users' visual scan paths of web pages containing text and/or pictures while conducting browsing and searching tasks. User performance on three usability tasks on an e-commerce website is described. Results show that users follow a fairly uniform
This study investigated the effect that a font has on the reader's perception of an email. Based on a previous study by Shaikh, Chaparro, and Fox (2006), a sample email message was presented in three fonts (Calibri, Comic Sans, and
TechSmith's recent release, Morae 2.0, features a new graphing tool, integrated satisfaction survey, and embedded task definitions. The editable marker log in Observer and the improved timeline controls in the Manager improve operator efficiency. This article highlights these and other
A list of common mistakes with e-commerce shopping cart design were identified in a previous issue of Usability News. This article revisits that list and reviews how 500 of the top Internet retail sites of today implemented their shopping cart
This paper summarizes some of the major lessons learned about conducting usability tests with visually impaired participants while working as interns at Google, Inc. The lessons were in four major areas: (1) recruitment and scheduling, (2) preparing the usability lab
This study evaluated the usability of three websites for Spanish-English Dual Language K-8 schools. Twelve participants (6 parents, 6 teachers) reviewed and performed tasks on the three public school websites. Site usability was determined through both objective and subjective measures,
TechSmith's Morae is a powerful tool that is useful for any usability study. Its simplicity, efficiency, cost effectiveness and portability has redefined the data collection process and allows researchers to focus on the user experience rather than the data collection
