Don't make me Review Reality
Jun. 12th, 2014 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So a mixed-media review. One movie and one book.
First the movie. Last week I saw The Dance of Reality by Alejandro Jodorowsky. I'd never really heard of Jodorowsky until the recent release of Jodorwsky's Dune -- a documentary about his failed attempt to produce a movie based on Dune. Beyond that, all I knew was that the guy created some complex, arty movies. I like being challenged occasionally, so I figured I'd give this a shot.
First off -- I can only imagine that had Jodorwsky made Dune it would've been amazing and quite possibly better than the book.
Second off -- this movie again makes me wonder how you cast and direct child actors in movies with violent or sexual content.
Anyway, this movie is a fictionalized account of Jodorowsky's childhood. He appears as himself to talk to his younger self. Jodorowsky's son plays his father. There are surreal and magical things. Alchemical and shamanistic imagery appears throughout. The movie stops being about Jodorowsky and turns to his father and his complex plan to assassinate Chile's dictator (sort of involving a kangaroo dog). The mother in the film sings all her lines as if in an opera. It's...funny and sad and confusing and obvious and...
Oh man, I really want to find some of his other movies. If this is what he does when he's vaguely suggesting factual events his fiction must be completely gonzo.
Incidentally, this movie completely fails the Bechdel test, although the Mother is an amazing character. It's well worth seeing but be prepared to go "what the hell did I just watch?", but in a good way.
Now on to the book...which is a work book. My workplace bought me (and the rest of the development staff) a copy. It's Don't Make Me Think (3rd Edition) by Steve Krug. It's a book all about building usable web sites for people who aren't actually usability experts. The take-away is in the headline -- usable websites are ones in which you show up looking to do a thing and can immediately see how to do that thing. Google has been held up as a particularly good example of this. On the google homepage there's a text box and a search button and that's basically it. You go to search and you search. Other web sites have more complicated purposes and there's always pressure for space on the homepage, but the idea remains the same.
The book also talks about how to conduct a semi-formal, low-budget usability test. This is a slightly fancier version of my usability test which I call "hey, Mom, go to my website and try to do X". If she can do it, then it must be right. To be fair, my mom has gotten a lot more internet savvy over the years, but she's not exactly a power-user and the web is always a means to an end for her. The book talks about setting up a monthly study to run a couple of people though your site while dev team members watch on a separate screen in another room. It's something that would be great to have at our office, but even this low bar would probably run into some implementation issues.
Anyway, it was a fun fast read and if not a detailed treatment, it certainly gives a lot of food for thought.
later
Tom
So a mixed-media review. One movie and one book.
First the movie. Last week I saw The Dance of Reality by Alejandro Jodorowsky. I'd never really heard of Jodorowsky until the recent release of Jodorwsky's Dune -- a documentary about his failed attempt to produce a movie based on Dune. Beyond that, all I knew was that the guy created some complex, arty movies. I like being challenged occasionally, so I figured I'd give this a shot.
First off -- I can only imagine that had Jodorwsky made Dune it would've been amazing and quite possibly better than the book.
Second off -- this movie again makes me wonder how you cast and direct child actors in movies with violent or sexual content.
Anyway, this movie is a fictionalized account of Jodorowsky's childhood. He appears as himself to talk to his younger self. Jodorowsky's son plays his father. There are surreal and magical things. Alchemical and shamanistic imagery appears throughout. The movie stops being about Jodorowsky and turns to his father and his complex plan to assassinate Chile's dictator (sort of involving a kangaroo dog). The mother in the film sings all her lines as if in an opera. It's...funny and sad and confusing and obvious and...
Oh man, I really want to find some of his other movies. If this is what he does when he's vaguely suggesting factual events his fiction must be completely gonzo.
Incidentally, this movie completely fails the Bechdel test, although the Mother is an amazing character. It's well worth seeing but be prepared to go "what the hell did I just watch?", but in a good way.
Now on to the book...which is a work book. My workplace bought me (and the rest of the development staff) a copy. It's Don't Make Me Think (3rd Edition) by Steve Krug. It's a book all about building usable web sites for people who aren't actually usability experts. The take-away is in the headline -- usable websites are ones in which you show up looking to do a thing and can immediately see how to do that thing. Google has been held up as a particularly good example of this. On the google homepage there's a text box and a search button and that's basically it. You go to search and you search. Other web sites have more complicated purposes and there's always pressure for space on the homepage, but the idea remains the same.
The book also talks about how to conduct a semi-formal, low-budget usability test. This is a slightly fancier version of my usability test which I call "hey, Mom, go to my website and try to do X". If she can do it, then it must be right. To be fair, my mom has gotten a lot more internet savvy over the years, but she's not exactly a power-user and the web is always a means to an end for her. The book talks about setting up a monthly study to run a couple of people though your site while dev team members watch on a separate screen in another room. It's something that would be great to have at our office, but even this low bar would probably run into some implementation issues.
Anyway, it was a fun fast read and if not a detailed treatment, it certainly gives a lot of food for thought.
later
Tom
