Human Factors

Today I finally found the time to have a closer look at the DVD of Mac Format’s August issue. There I learned about Color Oracle, a wee application that allows you to see your screen like people with color vision impairments would see it – all it needs is one click on a little icon in the menu bar. You can chose between Deuteranopia, Protanopia and Tritanopia, and while the colors change in front of your eyes, you’ll even learn what exactly this terms mean and how many people are affected by the chosen type of vision impairment. I think, this free application is a must-have for everyone developing for the web.

Wellington City Libraries have redesigned their search function. Typing in a search term doesn’t only bring up a list of available resources anymore, but a mind map displaying Associations, Translations, Spelling Variaties and a Discovery Trail as well. Clicking on an item in the map carries you on to the next level of mapping. This is a very helpful tool in case you aren’t looking for a particular title or author and I find it quite addictive to stroll through their suggestions.

If you don’t like it, get confused or simply loved the old search function – it’s still available, so you have the choice which one you want to use. Well done, Library!

A couple of weeks ago I was really excited about Air New Zealand’s little application How far can I go? and their google maps mashup to display travel routes. I still love both services, but in the meantime I was a little bit annoyed by Air New Zealand’s attitude towards Mac users. I stumbled across a little footer note about “Browser Compatibility” which states that the website is recommended for IE, and Mac users should use Firefox to get the best possible results, but should be aware that some parts of this site are not optimised for use with browsers running on Apple operating systems. To read more about this have a look at Philip Roy’s article on NZMac.com.
But it felt a little bit as if Air New Zealand knew that they had to deliver something to get me well-disposed again.

And they gave me Home sweet as, a competition to win one of 50 flights to Australia. Doesn’t sound too exciting? Have a look at the application and what you can do with it: If you know someone in Oz, simply write a message to him/her and Air New Zealand will display it on a large billboard (currently on Customs House in Sydney, but locations will vary during the promotion). As it is unlikely that your buddy is staring at the billboard the moment your message is on by chance, they’ll take a picture of it and send it to your friend or family member via email and you’ll get a copy, too. For me it worked out perfectly well, as Kai was in Sydney last week and I had the chance to remind him to bring some goodies home…;-)

There’s a cool new feature in the google maps driving directions tool. Now you can drag and drop changes to the shortest route to get to see things on the way that you don’t want to miss. Watch the google video, explaining how it works. And the best thing is, that it’s even working for New Zealand!

Wow, this is a great example of easy-to-use websites. Greenpeace New Zealand have updated their Clean Energy Guide and it’s pretty easy now to switch to an energy supplier that offers “green” electricity. “Green” in the case of New Zealand means energy generated only using renewable sources like hydro and wind, without the emission of carbon dioxide, which is generated by burning coal or gas.

First of all you’ll see a thermometer on the right hand side, that indicates where New Zealands electricity companies rank in regards to their cleanness. Maybe you’ll be shocked how bad your own supplier treats our valuable country and sure you want to switch to a better option. Simply follow the easy steps on the website and they will take you through to the cleanest energy supplier in your region in three easy steps:
1. Select your location
2. Choose the cleanest energy supplier available
3. Make the switch
These steps will guide you to an online form of the greenest supplier in your region and all you have to do is filling in your details. Make sure that you’ll have an invoice of your current supplier handy, because they will even cancel your old contract for you, too. So your contribution to slow down climate change is just a few clicks away – and Greenpeace and your new supplier are even doing the work for you. Amazing, isn’t it? For those who are still a bit unsure if they really want to switch, the info section on the website, which can be reached via the navigation tab on the left hand side, offers a great range of infromation and a FAQ section. It’s definitely worth reading. And if you want to, you can even send email massages to all energy suppliers in New Zealand, with different text depending on how bad they behave.

There are only two things that do need a tiny make over: The list of regions (to choose in the first step) are sorted North-to-South, while I personally would prefer an alphabetical listing. I’m so used to always find Wellington close to the end of such listings, that I get confused by meeting Christchurch and Dunedin down there ;-) The other thing is, that choosing the ooption “Select your location” instead of choosing a real region brings up an error page. It should bring you back to the start page again.

A couple of days ago Kai wrote about Air New Zealand’s fabulous new application “How far can I go”. I think it’s time to have a closer look at it – is it really as good as it appears to be?

Unfortunately this brilliant application is somehow hidden and not directly accessible from the start page – you have to find the “Offers”-tab first, from there it’s in the second chapter. But once you found it, you’re in traveller’s heaven. First of all you should check your bank account to figure out how much money you can/want to spend on your trip. Then you chose the airport you want to take off from (currently only available for flights departing from Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Wellington). You start off with a map of New Zealand and use the sliding bar on the right hand side to adjust the amount of $$$ you want to hand over to the airline. Fine orange lines show you possible flight routes and the higher your amount of money the more places in the world are presented to you. The further you go, the smaller the NZ map gets and the more of the whole wide world is shown to you. Amazing, isn’t it? The magic border at the moment seems to be 3,100 Dollar, that takes you almost anywhere in the world. The flight details appear in a frame on the left hand side and are easy to select and you can book directly from there.

But Air New Zealand’s burst of innovation doesn’t end with this flash RIA; once you’ve made your booking it goes on and on. For example they are using google maps to visualise your planned journey for you. Unfortunately you can’t access it without have a booking reference, so here’s a pic of my upcoming trip:

Although I am not a big fan of Air New Zealand as an airline (they are permanently under-staffed, flights are too often delayed or completely cancelled etc), I really love the work they did on their website. Apparently they hired a few really talented and competent people…