http://fivesketches.com Ideation, design, and usability for development teams Mon, 31 Jan 2011 04:24:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 http://fivesketches.com/2009/08/my-twittering-2009-09-24/ http://fivesketches.com/2009/08/my-twittering-2009-09-24/#comments Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:00:00 +0000 JeromeR http://fivesketches.com/2009/08/my-twittering-2009-09-24/

The results again show: good designers & content creators use #usability testing to get an even better user experience. #UX #

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Computer injury up 700%. How? Seniors, kids TRIP on wires, hardware. Frustrated users HIT & KICK hardware. #ux #design issues! #

A view of a real or fake plants incr workplace productivity, and patients go home 1 day sooner. #UX design: plants in your product’s GUI? #

A request in someone’s right ear has more success, so when explaining your #usability-report recommendations, sit to the developer’s right. #

Keele University researchers: swearing reduces the pain of a physical injury. …Does this work for #unusable-software pain? #

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Not only gestalt principles, also 2D design principles apply to UI design. User’s brain vs your UI design: http://tr.im/uFoP #

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The cynical information architect’s view of online newspapers: http://htxt.it/0oi6 #

No wireless access today, during the @JMSpool UIE Road Show 2009, which means no Twittering! #

During today’s UIE Road Show, @jmsppol said that great experience design is not open to introspection. It must be apprenticed. #

Online videos average 3.5 min. In total, US internet users watch 8 hrs/year. We must learn video literacy and basic video editing! #

I’m waiting for the market to comment on the usability of ZoomPass. This involves money, so it better be usable. http://htxt.it/kQp8 #

In Europe: upgrades from Windows Vista to Windows 7. BBC reports details: http://htxt.it/kIDz #

Either the Microsoft name or the promise of beating viruses attracts 75,000 beta testers in 1 day. Which is it? http://htxt.it/hiY0 #

UXCamp Jul 18th in Edmonton. Free; only 87 spots left. http://bit.ly/uxcamp #yeg #yyc #ux #design Pls RT #

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If you missed the UPA 2009 conference, here’s a compilation of my micro-blogging: http://bit.ly/15muMY #

When it comes to sharing my PC desktop, I’m liking free #Mikogo for its features. Macworld UK likes the Mac version: http://bit.ly/LePdS #

Attempting to model the transitions in a wireframe by using Axure’s dynamic-panels feature. #

]]> http://fivesketches.com/2009/06/my-twittering-2009-06-21/feed/ 0 http://fivesketches.com/2009/06/my-twittering-2009-06-14/ http://fivesketches.com/2009/06/my-twittering-2009-06-14/#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:00:00 +0000 JeromeR http://fivesketches.com/2009/06/my-twittering-2009-06-14/

This week, my tweets will focus on the UPA conference, and my research into usability research. After that, normal broadcasting resumes. #

Made it to Portland for #upa2009. Had a nice dinner with a school friend from years ago. #

Users wiling to struggle with an unusable intranet if the info is useful. Kath Straub at #upa2009 #

Offices with background music degrade the performance of their staff. Staccato music is worse than meditative music. #upa2009 #

Blind experienced Internet users gesture to indicate spatial organization of information that is different from the visual org’n of a site. #

Add to the public data of US internet users: do the self-test at the Pew Internet Project site. Look on http://htxt.it/ffxk #upa2009 #

If you’re at #UPA2009 conference and interested in user research, please participate: http://bit.ly/zmRCI #

By show of hands, 2 of 15 usability testers collect time-on-task data. #upa2009 #

Kath Straub on a meaningful measure of web-site usage: Engagement Index (visitors move n clicks beyond the landing pg). #upa2009 #

Lickert scales and subjective sliders give the same results. The latter is more “fun” for participants. #upa2009 #

The volunteers and staff running #upa2009 this year are so friendly and helpful! #

Today at #UPA2009, in the Tools Of The Trade workshop, 7 participants will present the tools they use in their usability practice! #

Research idea: put iPhone-app icons on scrabble tiles, w/ a text label below each icon, so research participants can shuffle them. #upa2009 #

Further to prev tweet, you can get “fake” scrabble tiles at art-supply store, because some people make jewellery out of them. #upa2009 #

Wall-mounted User Personas incl a video cam attached to the wall. Staff watch representative video of users from the UP research. #upa2009 #

Annette on user personas: “The greatest sin in my work life is to have my own work not digestible and usable.” overheard at #upa2009 #

Discussion: editing research video faster. “It takes a long time w Adobe Premiere Elements.” Problem with handheld cam: Batteries! #upa2009 #

Discussion: editing research video: You can import avi, wmv into #Morae, then playback >100%, but do you get the editing features? #upa2009 #

Shane from TechSmith says: #Morae can log/tag events with a wii remote during the research, if your laptop is bluetooth enabled. #upa2009 #

Lisa says Balsamiq is cheap, and low-fidelity (sketch-like) but for $75 there are somethings it doesn’t do. Overheard at #upa2009 #

Tools: To share your Balsamiq interactive prototypes, your recipient needs #Balsamiq or you can provide live desktop-sharing. #upa2009 #

I’m impressed at the ease with which Lisa adds tables/grids and tabs to her prototype, by using Balsamiq. #upa2009 #

Discussion of HTML vs Axure vs Balsamiq for prototyping. At Mary’s company people like Axure. “Visio is a nightmare.” #upa2009 #

For usability testing, S asks room “Do ppl still prefer low-fi prototypes when we have tools to make things look fantastic?” “Yes!” #upa2009 #

Peers presenting tools to each other. Linda demos Revolution prorotyping tool, which evolved from HyperCard. Multimedia capability. #upa2009 #

Put a mirror in front of people as they work: they’re more productive, make fewer errors. From @kas’s #upa2009 session RT via @trentmankelow #

RT pls. What do you use to make multimedia-prototypes for usability testing, other than Runtime Revolution and Microsoft Blend? #upa2009 #

Annette doing impromptu demo of FlairBuilder. Let’s hear it for online presence and Twitter at #UPA2009 conference. #

Comparing FlairBuilder & Balsamiq: very similar, FlairBuilder is 2x price ($150) but not low-fi. “Lisa: Seems like it works better” #upa2009 #

Annette: “OOHH! YouTube” as she adds multimedia to FlairBuilder. Trent points out Annette’s Ooh: “There’s user delight.” #upa2009 #

ProtoShare combines prototyping, collaboration features, and spits out a document. Interesting, but no trial software! #upa2009 #

Another prototyping “tool” is taking big paper & markers to customers to walk thru the prototypes and gather sketched feedback. #upa2009 #

The weakness of paper prototyping is the lack of interaction — the transitions between the sketched states. #upa2009 #

Tip: Before sharing your PowerPoint prototypes: compress your ppt file: Format tab > Adjust group > Compress Pictures (one or all). #upa2009 #

Oh dear. When the client sees your obviously low-fi prototype and still says “I LOVE the visual design.” #upa2009 #

Raluca on attaching a camera to users’ mobile devices: users don’t want their device scratched, an extra half pound gets unwieldy #upa2009 #

Document camera looks like desk lamp, built in camera. It’s good to view user activity on a surface but not on a hand-held device #upa2009 #

Demo of a document camera. Its light may cause glare on a shiny device. Excellent image! Soft controls for brightness, focus, zoom. #upa2009 #

Discussion: is a web cam a substitute for a document camera? Doc cam ($3000) better for high detail, larger surfaces. #upa2009 #

Raluca: users “are really cautious” about having you attach video cameras on their phones for usability studies. Damage. #upa2009 #

Best: connect document camera to Morae (only if DirectShow driver). Or display the video live, and use #Morae to record the screen. #upa2009 #

Usability study collects user input into a “diary” by SMS/Twitter during the day. Users review and expand the diary in the evening. #upa2009 #

Cost of using private Twitter accts or D message to conduct int’l user research: whatever the cost of SMS/texting in your country. #upa2009 #

Shane demos #Morae. I’m already a user so it’s hard to pick out its amazing features because it’s all familiar to me. #upa2009 #

Need participants for research on the epistemology of usability research. Details at FiveSketches.com. Please approach me at #upa2009. #

Mary showed the use of SurveyMonkey. Discussion of privacy issues. SurveyMonkey is located in Portland. Any of you at #UPA2009? #

To recruit study participants, 3%-8% of Facebook ads get clicked, whereas display ads in MySpace “are broken”. Overheard at #upa2009 #

Annette says: recruit study participants with Facebook ads, buy a $1 age-appropriate photo from iStockPhoto.co; works for all ages. #UPA2009 #

Q: Incentives for int’l recruitment: how to pay ‘em? A: Via local bank; mail a USD cheques+$25 cashing fee; send local Amazon certs #upa2009 #

Tools workshop continues: productivity tools! Screen-sharing alternatives for PC & Mac: Yuuguu (time-limited) and @Mikogo (free). #upa2009 #

Christina Wallace shared several techniques for directing and redirecting a team by using images. #upa2009 #

Susan Weinschenk presents with great graphics, precision timing, visual jokes, engaging content. Excellent learning op. #upa2009 #

The next session’s another thrill! Four more Big Names: Chauncey Wilson, Karen Bachman, Rolf Molich, Nigel Bevan, on BoK. #upa2009 #

Body of Knowledge sess’n starts w 3-min frantic writing, on individual cards: “What should be in the BoK?” Results posted tomorrow #upa2009 #

Chauncey says the Body of Knowledge (http://www.usabilitybok.org/) is what’s left of UPA’s certificat’n attempt of a few years ago. #upa2009 #

Spanking! Chauncey Wilson: “Usability … is still a relatively young field in serious need of some discipline” at BoK session. #upa2009 #

Nigel Bevan says “invite people who put advice on lists (eg UTest) to add to the Body of Knowledge. http://www.usabilitybok.org/ #upa2009 #

Rolf Molich: If we’re begging volunteers to contribute content to the Body of Knowledge, it suggests we want quantity, not quality. #upa2009 #

Impressed yesterday to watch attendee w limited sight nav/pan so fast around Hilton’s sign-in page at 500% magnificat’n. #upa2009 @whitneyq #

Molich calls for HFI to publish what content the CUA certification covers. #

Rolf Molich calls for HFI to publish what content the CUA certification covers. #upa2009 #

First REAL discussion between audience and panel presenters I’ve seen, this year, at the Bok sesson! #upa2009 #

Carol Smith’s session on usability testing tips - the logistics of it. Tip 1: Hire a professional to recruit participants. #upa2009 #

Recruiting for remote #usability testing: recruit pple who have a separate phone line & Internet connection: screen share + talk. #upa2009 #

Can your remote participant install minor applications (e.g screen-sharing app.)? Some IT dept’s lock down user ‘s computers. #upa2009 #

Get someone to run you through your own usability test, beforehand. Give assistant a checklist to ensure you don’t forget anything. #upa2009 #

RT @MaryT_ A theme I’m seeing: have your team members try design or user research, and then share findings with everyone. #upa2009 #

“When you conduct on-site studies, always bring duct tape and painter’s tape {masking tape]” says Carol Smith at #upa2009 #

Technical trouble during a remote usability study? Log in to a user’s machine remotely: https://www.copilot.com/ #upa2009 #

In Online Card Sorting With Images, Jed Wood says “tell people the purpose of your study (e.g. website); you get better results.” #upa2009 #

Jed Wood says: Start with an open card sort, validate with a closed card sort. #upa2009 #

Modified Delphi method: card sorting with serial participants: one person sorts, the next person continues/adjusts it. #upa2009 #

If you have a very large set of cards to sort, give participants overlapping subsets. Works if subset is 60% of larger set. #upa2009 #

To study the IA of ALDO’s online shoe store: card sorting with images (not text) of footware. 51 womens, 53 mens. #upa2009 #

People think about footware in diff ways. Card-sorting with the same 104 cards, men create 7.2 groups, women 8.4 groups. #upa2009 #

Jamie Hart’s card-sorting results: “Surprise, surprise, men have a simpler view of shoes.” #upa2009 #

In the IA, men need 8 categories (down from 18) vs women need 22 groups (up from 18). Sales incr, user-complaints decr. #upa2009 #

Chris Nodder’s Usability for Evil: UI purposely designed to emotionally involve users in something that benefits you more than them #upa2009 #

Nodder: “If you want to learn about evil, read marketing literature.” “A complete disregard for their users; it’s maximize profit.” #upa2009 #

Nodder shows how companies put important information in plain sight, but use design, layout, to ensure nobody looks at it. #upa2009 #

On LinkedIn, Ron Bates has 40000+ contacts. If he spent 1 min with each, it would take him 3 working years to talk to them all. #upa2009 #

On an online store, a “Hacker/Virus Safe” logo in top left corner increases sales 8%, but are 2x as likely to be untrustworthy. #upa2009 #

“Give people member-only perks to keep them coming back.” How is this Evil? “THEY benefit more than YOU,” says Nodder. #upa2009 #

“Anything you can do to make people feel loved will endear them to you.” Can you do this on your site? #upa2009 #

Hebard at Intuit on ethnographic user research: “Our ethnographic findings are pretty durable,” can be used in successive projects. #upa2009 #

Hebard: “Ethnographic questions are about the LINK btwn culture & behavior.” Not “What are you wearing” but “Why’d you choose it?” #upa2009 #

Evangelize your research methods. Tell people what ethnography is, how to work with you, how it’s valuable. #upa2009 #

For longitudinal ethnography, use a pre-screening activity. If they can’t complete THAT, exclude them from long-term research. #upa2009 #

Example pre-screener for your longitudinal ethnographic-research subjects: “Take a photo of yourself, write a short introduction.” #upa2009 #

Ethnographers see emotions and FEEL emotions. Hebard tells story of flood that wipes out businesses & hope. Not like lab research. #upa2009 #

Ethnography: one of few ways to get people’s values & emotions. Write them down in your fieldnotes. Important for emotional design. #upa2009 #

Hebard’s hardest things about ethnography: 1. Framing the question, 2. Emotions (both the level of engagement and the abrupt end). #upa2009 #

At Intuit, the ethnographic research informed strategies for the design of future products, says Hebard. #upa2009 #

Eva Kaniasty lists four common criticisms of usability testing, proposes web analytics as a way to address some. #upa2009 #

Visitor/session tracking lets you track what visitors are doing. Where are users dropping off the optimal click path you designed?#upa2009 #

Kaniasty calls clickmaps & heatmaps from CrazyEgg “poor man’s eyetracking”. http://crazyegg.com/ #upa2009 #

Email datamining (e.g. via Facebook) is “stalking on a grand scale” says Kaniasty. Use the data for u-testing recruiting profiles, personas. #

Session recording (web sites) gathers scroll maps, form analytics, page actions. Helps find potential problems, tests browsers. #upa2009 #

Kaniasty says A | B multivariate testing is “pretty difficult.” I disagree. (@kas recommended testing multiples in a diff #upa2009 session) #

Eva Kaniasty’s overview of analytics/usability-testing methods covers the basics, so it’s perfect as a New-To-Usability topic at #upa2009 #

“Software is a necessary evil for those who build hardware,” says Leo Frishberg, at #UPA2009. #

Discussing famous Agile Process diagram (Desiree Sy in JUS 2:3 2007) where design in one sprint informs the dev of the next sprint. #upa2009 #

Sometimes you’re designing one or two cycles ahead of the coding, testing two or three cycles after the coding. #upa2009 #

Says the Agile session moderator: “I’d like to hear from you guys what REALLY happens in cycle zero.” #upa2009 #

When designing of concepts begins at sprint zero, then we need a research phase before that — 2-3 months for the field research. #upa2009 #

One speaker: at SAP the designers feel they own Agile’s sprint zero. #upa2009 #

Leo: “How do we approach the up-front research in an agile way so it’s not a black-box block that precedes Agile’s sprint zero?” #upa2009 #

“Make the thing fit the human, not vice versa” is ergonomics. “Make the __ fit the human, not vice versa” is #usability. So what’s the __? #

Leo thinks there’s a huge apology for the notion of Big Design at Agile sessions at #upa2009. Can you get a user experience w/out that? #

Sprint zero is about understanding. “During sprint zero, we had lots of getting-to-know-you and who-has-personas discussions.” #upa2009 #

If you work from the single sprint out, it’s difficult in any one sprint to know whether the piece is the right piece. #upa2009 #

Flashback to Jared Spool’s opening session: our role is like the stranger in the ‘Stone Soup’ story. We’re an enabling profession. #upa2009 #

“The only projects I’ve seen succeed is the-brilliant-dictator and the people-admit-the-product-will-iterate with customer input.” #upa2009 #

Lissajoux: “During Agile development, the project’s vision must be reset from time to time … and the pieces refactored.” #upa2009 #

In my experience, development teams like the promise of “speed” in Agile development. Is that the (sole) goal of Agile? #upa2009 #

“Our field has a tradition of critiquing. Do we hop on board Agile train if it produces bad results? Do we critique the process?” #upa2009 #

“I’ve come to appreciate Agile but it is a developer-focused process…that is it’s shortcoming. What about the rest of team?” #upa2009 #

“Agile is developer-focused because developers have been so inefficient. …With Agile, the bottleneck has moved to UX/UI/design.” #upa2009 #

Agile is rather ironically named. Isn’t it a broken development-centred philosophy? #upa2009 #

“Agile is an ogre that dominates the room.” (Much frustration with Agile being expressed, now, at this #upa2009 session.) “Futile” #

Voice of support: “Agile isn’t about checking off boxes in a process, but about organising the work in ways that gets it done.” #upa2009 #

[Do US attendees of #upa2009 notice that I use Canadian spelling, or assume I’m making Twittypos?] #

Leo says: “Agile has an extraordinarily dependency on co-location.” #upa2009 #

OK, I’m packing up; my ride is here! THANKS to all the volunteers and conference staff for a wonderful time. Enjoy closing plenary! #upa2009 #

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There are things I just cannot do on my blog without Camtasia: narration + music bed, and zooming and panning across the image. #

Mass #media adds #usability to government: interactive European Parliament elections map http://bit.ly/eJSVl #fb (Thx @demsoc) #

UPA provides mini-certification for its conference attendees (“Passport To Success”). Details in this pdf: http://bit.ly/WyymG #

In contrast, there’s also “maxi-certification” through the Certified Usability Practitioner (CUA )program. Details: http://bit.ly/9wruk #

I love that Akismet catches all the spam comments posted on my WordPress site, so I can give readers a better experience at FiveSketches.com #

#Whole Foods’ localisation is off: in Canada it’s called “pop” & “softdrink” (not “soda”), and real Cdn stores do this: http://bit.ly/fnrp2 #

No privacy: Imagine your Internet service provider watching your online activity and selling “best time to reach me” info to others. #

A friend just said: “The software is not supposed to have issues, yet it does.” #

Cool use of progressive disclosure technique. Obama’s Cairo speech + BBC analysis in “one” text flow: http://htxt.it/v1Ug #

Also in the BBC’s multi-modal text coverage of Obama’s Cairo speech: a cloud of the words in Obama’s speech. http://htxt.it/v1Ug Yay media! #

Error foregiveness = Usability. RT @pkyo: typed “nwewslette” in #Bing. Nothing. Switch to #Google. “Did you mean newsletter?” Why yes. #

How our news sources have changed, shown as a graph: http://bit.ly/mkcoV. The whole article: http://bit.ly/lVbbL #

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“A real human interface” shows a cognitive model of how a computer functions, using an actor: http://ping.fm/qNqPN #

Keith Raboid says eBay lost market share because social apps are more fun. A lesson for interaction designers? #UX #UE http://bit.ly/eZcyw #

Any publ’d usability-test results of the voice-search feature on Yahoo, Blackberry, Nokia, Win Mobile handsets? http://ping.fm/bxEt9 #

Mobile-phone sales dropped 8½%, though smartphones increased. Is it fashion or experience design that bucks the trend? http://is.gd/FckF #

Quick usability test: time it takes to find the most effective, non-surgical birth-control method at http://ping.fm/mvAb5 #

Jared Spool calls for re-use of patterns, components, and #IxD frameworks. http://ping.fm/iLis2 #

RT via @jmSpool: Nice, solid research paper by Frank Long at NCAD Dublin shows user personas improve team dynamics http://is.gd/I5Zk #

Based on TCO (cost) and features, Examiner.com says students need a SmartPen, not an iPhone/iTouch. http://bit.ly/X3YrT #

RT @bskelton: @lynneux Haha - I just make up my own tags all the time #itmakesmehappy #

A $40 computer-in-a-thumb-drive may stimulate the design of user-interface hardware, since you’ll buy that separately. http://bit.ly/17YBAK #

Do you think your phone company should confirm your identity to businesses that you approach online? Should they sell this as a service? #

Security and identity present #usability problems (http://bit.ly/vUDLr). I think we need a new model to verify identity. Vouching. #

Phones reduce commuter-biking performance: cyclists swerve more, miss signage and potential traffic danger. Keep it up = #darwin awards 4 u #

A radio researcher in NL just commented that it’s more difficult to find content on .fr domains than on .com, .de, .uk, .nl. Is France l … #

Babies can’t distinguish Connecticut English from Jamaican at 15 mos but can by 19 mos. Are babies better at identity basics than computers? #

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Code of Conduct for companies who (want to) use Twitter: balance your crediblility and need for confidentiality. http://bit.ly/yJCt3 #

$15 airport fee? OK. In return I’d like: airport access by rail, a smile at security, free wireless, free bag carts, no-gouge food pricing. #

Good advice can be simple: IBM tells its blogging employees: “Stay away from controversial topics that aren’t related to your IBM role.” #

Good advice can be simple. PR firm tells its staff: “Don’t Tweet anything you wouldn’t say to your mom.” http://is.gd/ySqz #

If 44% of phone-caused crashes are due to drivers looking for their phone after a text-mssg/voice-mail arrives, do cars need phone holders? #

Jared Spool on the challenge of showing good design in your portfolio when good design is usu invisible. http://ping.fm/5bcI9 #

Experience design. IKEA shows politicians the way: give people a degree of (the illusion of) control. http://ping.fm/aDkAY #

Usability idea: noise cancellation on mobile phones means we wouldn’t have to yell into our phones, to the joy of the crowd around us. #

Users want usability from their next mobile phone, but will they recognise it at point of sale, or do advance research? http://short.to/aero #

RT @AngelAnderson: If I had a nickel for every time I wanted to redesign a site or product that wasn’t working: http://tinyurl.com/rypbtr #

“There are 600 documented phone viruses” says Digital Planet (BBC, 28 Apr), but you’ll only catch one from the same type handset as yours. #

LOL! Do you know how many people tweeted “hate my job” in the last hour, alone? http://twitter.com/search#search?q=hate%20my%20job #

Facebook TRICKED me into inviting 100s of people from my gmail address list by replacing the list of 3 I wanted to invite with a HUGE list. #

My opinion: The user is not the weakest link! The development process is, often starting with the lack of up-front and real design. #

Whatever makes a wireless signal fluctuate between Good and Weak is a mystery to me. As user, my mental model of wireless is “???” #

Normally, I only twitter on topic, but someone just set off a skunk in our neighbourhood. Peeeeuuuuu! Don’t you know how to handle a skunk?! #

Proposal: send data via Twitter to trigger your apps. Usability issue: who wants to enter (or read) machine data? http://short.to/bc3q #

Is “3D web navigation” the right term for this navigation model? 1) http://short.to/bbv1. 2) http://snipr.com/in7qz. 3) http://short.to/bbv2 #

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Cookie usability. Cookies have affordance: the edge fits in toddler’s mouth for biting. The flat side only affords licking. #

Canadian airports with free wireless: Vancouver, Fredericton, Edmonton. Yay! Any others? #

You’re a usability nerd if your answer to “Why is cutlery always in the top drawer?” includes the words “taxonomy” and “statistically”. #

“We should not fall into the trap of thinking that if it’s hard to design, it must be good.” - Gerry McGovern #

A semantic-web thought: imagine supplying info to a 3rd party’s customer about that 3rd party. Any money in that gap? Ask Google. #

Ways to record your ethnographic observations. For those of us who need to produce something. http://ping.fm/J5hu3 #

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