The site, My Starbucks Idea, is nothing profound or new. It’s a blog engine where users post their ideas and Starbucks respond to them. These ideas can be commented and voted on, and a raft of social media links help spread the word.

This has been done many times to varying degrees of success, but what struck me most about My Starbucks Idea was the obvious engagement of the users and their receptiveness to the responses from Starbucks. They were being listened to. They were being interacted with. A simple thing, really, but something that big companies are traditionally bad at doing for their customers, paralyzed by the fear of negative comments.

Of course it helps that the design is clean and simple, making it easy to follow and become immersed in. The website’s purpose is obvious and it’s easy to see both what people are suggesting and how Starbucks respond to those suggestions. The list of ideas put into action was prominent and larger than I expected. I was also pleasantly surprised to see that Starbucks responded in a frank, honest and human tone, as opposed to the corporate tone of many companies.

Ok, so there are some problems too. One idea I ran across, a free shot for card holders on Monday mornings, was noted as being vetted two years after originally being posted. Another took around six months, and a raft of user comments, before responding to a request for a larger non-smoking area outside of the stores.

Categories are not easily accessible (the navigation has a couple of types, but search results have links to a number of others) and it took a while to figure out that the website did indeed touch upon the world outside the USA. And why oh why is the dropdown list of categories only available in the semi-hidden categories themselves and not in either the main categories or within any of the posts?

However all things considered, I thought that this was a fantastic website, playing a great role in providing a positive customer experience. Having seen so many of these kinds of ideas fall flat due to lack of investment or through a myriad of corporate issues, I was really happy to see one that appears to be successful. Well done Starbucks!

One notion that I take exception to, however, is that the iPad signals the death of the keyboard and that touch interfaces are destined for ubiquity.

Now, I’m no technological conservative – I’ve been using touch-screen phones since before the iPhone came out. But I think a more fundamental point is being missed here, which is that the roles computers play in our lives are multiplying greatly.

Computers used to play a relatively limited set of roles which could be supported with a common set of interface models, mainly centred around the keyboard and the mouse. The keyboard & mouse setup worked when the computer operator was sat at a desk, had enter lots of data from a large character set, and needed direct access to many (maybe even several hundred) on-screen controls offered by their applications.

Today, not every computer user is sat at a desk and in the need state described above. Computer users might be on the other end of a phone line from the machine itself, operating it through a (notoriously infuriating) voice interface. They might be delivering a parcel and collecting the recipient’s signature using a handheld computer’s (notoriously infuriating) pen interface. And of course the computer user might be using a personal device like a smartphone, which needs to be small and light and whose functions don’t require the sort of  intricate and precise interactions supported by the keyboard/mouse combo.

But this doesn’t change the fact that some computer users will still be in situations where the keyboard and mouse paradigm is appropriate. Therefore the keyboard will not die.

What things like the iPad illustrate is that we are using computers more than we used to – in a wider number of contexts and for a wider range of reasons. They don’t replace what we already have, they’re just a new addition to our collection of tools.

Below are a collection of resources to get you going down the information architecture and data visualisation path. Whether you just want to become more familiar with infographics and data visualisations for occasional use or are thinking of making it a career, the resources below will surely come in handy. There are also some beautiful examples and more roundups to see even more fantastic graphics.

http://www.noupe.com/design/fantastic-information-architecture-resources.html

Usability Post
A blog about design. Design isn’t what something looks like, design is about how it works. Making something usable means understanding what people expect from your product and thinking of ways to make the use of the product simple and enjoyable.

Boxes and Arrows
Devoted to the practice, innovation, and discussion of design; including graphic design, interaction design, information architecture and the design of business.

UI Trends
A dynamic light-weight repository for interesting user interface designs and trends for website and web applications.

UXmatters
A web magazine that delivers compelling content about developing effective user experience (UX) strategies and designing digital product user experiences that optimally serve people’s needs and satisfy their desires.

User Interface Engineering
A leading research, training, and consulting firm specializing in web site and product usability.

Konigi
A community-authored and maintained resource for the user experience design field, covering information related to its practices.

The study involved 66 graduate students with either normal or corrected vision being given a short story to read online. A preliminary reading test was carried out on participants so the study could predetermine their reading speed. Different text layouts were used, such as multiple column, full justification and so on. Study participants were tested for both reading speed and reading comprehension.

• Reading speed: Multiple-column layouts impaired reading speed when text was left-justified. However, left-justified text was read more quickly in a single column layout than full-justified text. The highest reading speed was 269.33 words per minute for two-column, full-justified text.
• Reading comprehension: No significant variation was found across the different text formats.
• Fast versus slow readers: Faster readers benefited most from the 2-column, fully-justified layout. Slow readers benefited from 1-column, left-justified text.

The study was perhaps limited by the fact that the participants, as undergraduates, were heavier readers of online text than the average member of the population. I’d be interested to see if any similar studies have been carried out with a larger sample size, broader age range and a more representative mix of internet ‘natives’ versus internet ‘newbies’. Does anyone know of any? If I find some I’ll post them here.