Happy birthday to me

October 12, 2007 ⋅ 6 Comments »

Birthday cupcake

I almost forgot, today is the one-year anniversary of this blog! A year ago today, I started the ball rolling with a post on the Cognitive Dimensions of Notations framework. Back then, I had just left my job, and was thinking about returning to the academic world to study human-computer interaction. And a year later, here I am — working on my master’s in the DGP lab at the University of Toronto.

I started this blog for a couple reasons: first, as a way to sort out some of my thoughts on the human side of software; but most importantly, to interact with other people who are interested in this stuff. So far I’ve gotten lots of feedback on my articles, but I usually seem to hear from the same five or ten people. According to Feedburner, there are almost 60 people who subscribe to my RSS feed, so I’d like to hear from some of my other readers! Leave me a comment and let me know a little bit about yourself. What do you do, what are you interested in, what’s your favourite beer? (Mine is St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout.)

In the next few weeks, I’ll be launching a new design for site. Before I do that, I’d like to hear your opinion on things. What do you like about the blog? What don’t you like? Would you like to see more or less of certain kinds of topics? Let me know! You can leave your comments here, or email them to me at pat@[this domain].

So, thanks everybody for a good year. For the newer readers, check back on Monday — I’ll be posting a retrospective of some of the most popular articles from the past year.

(Photo by ieatstars on Flickr)


6 Comments:

  1. Craig Box - October 12, 2007:

    Hi, I'm a subscriber.

    I think I came in on the article "Usability mistakes with radio buttons", possibly linked from an OSS Planet aggreagtor - can't find where it was linked from. I "joined" because I've just moved to Toronto, and have an interest in usability and UI/UX issues.

    Don't drink beer sorry, but I like what I'm reading enough to continue doing so!

  2. Anand - October 14, 2007:

    Oatmeal stout? Gross!!

    I'm more of a pilsner man myself.

  3. Chris - October 15, 2007:

    I think you should have more beer related content.

    Perhaps the beer bottle as the perfect interface?

  4. Patrick - October 15, 2007:

    Chris:

    That reminds me of an amazing poster I saw. It was this circa-1980s Labatt Blue poster. A guy is sitting at a green-screen terminal, pushing himself away from the desk in surprise, as an arm is coming out of the monitor holding a bottle of Labatt Blue. The caption: "User Friendly".

    I covet it.

  5. Dubroy.com/blog » Greatest Misses: Popular posts from the last year - October 15, 2007:

    [...] In celebration of the one year anniversary of me offering my opinions up for public consumption, here are some of the more popular posts from this blog in the last year. [...]

  6. Chris - October 16, 2007:

    Pat:

    That's pretty awesome. It almost makes me want to drink a Blue. Almost.