Four short links: 12 September 2018
Millibytes, Webpage Bloat, Neuromorphic Computing, and UX Dark Patterns
- Measuring Information in Millibytes — a cute conceit. Therefore, the information given by one passing test run [in our 1-in-90 failure scenario] is just a little over one millibyte.
- The Developer Experience Bait-and-Switch (Alex Russell) — a pointed observation about bloat: If one views the web as a way to address a fixed market of existing, wealthy web users, then it’s reasonable to bias toward richness and lower production costs. If, on the other hand, our primary challenge is in growing the web along with the growth of computing overall, the ability to reasonably access content bumps up in priority.
- Brainchip Launches Spiking Neural Network Hardware — Brainchip’s claim is that while a convolutional approach is more akin to modeling the neuron as a large filter with weights, the iterative linear algebra matrix multiplication on data within an activation layer and associated memory and MAC units yields a power-hungrier chip. Instead of this convolutional approach, an SNN models the neuron function with synapses and neurons with spikes between the neurons. The networks learn through reinforcement and inhibition of these spikes (repeating spikes are reinforcement).
- The Dark (Patterns) Side of UX Design — We assembled a corpus of examples of practitioner-identified dark patterns and performed a content analysis to determine the ethical concerns contained in these examples. This analysis revealed a wide range of ethical issues raised by practitioners that were frequently conflated under the umbrella term of dark patterns, while also underscoring a shared concern that UX designers could easily become complicit in manipulative or unreasonably persuasive practices. We conclude with implications for the education and practice of UX designers, and a proposal for broadening research on the ethics of user experience.
