| Still
reading...
08.24.1999 |
| I'm continuing to read The Inmates are Running the
Assylum by Alan Cooper. I like what he
has said so far, but I can't wait until he gets
to the promised solutions. |
| To me, his preponderance of anecdotes sound
all too familiar. However, if you are not
familiar with the software development process,
this may be necessary to convince you of the
problem. |
| He makes a business case regarding the value
of design. Designers focus on desires. Marketers
focus on needs. (I may need an operation but I
don't desire it. I may desire a vacation, but I
don’t need it.) He gives convincing examples
of how loyalty is a by-product of good design.
Think of the fanatic loyalty of Apple
compared to the mere tolerance of Microsoft.
Admittedly Microsoft has an enviable position,
but when another solution comes along, even a
technically inferior one, many will eagerly leave
Windows behind. Contrast Macintosh devotees.
Despite all the disadvantages, they've managed to
hold on to their small market share for years.
When their market did dwindle, they were able to
regain it again by re-focusing on desires. |
| With the current control programmers
sometimes have over design, very computer-like
(vs. human-like) decisions are made. Developers
are trained to "think like silicon." |
| Interestingly, he relates a story from Jeff
Bezos of Amazon.com. He asked his
programmers if they could implement "one
click ordering". After explaining the
concept, they all agreed that it was easily
implementable. When the programmers returned with
a prototype, the first click displayed a
confirmation screen. One click ordering had
required 2-clicks! Bezos had to negotiate with
the programmers to remove the unnecessary
confirmation screen. (Note: After your first
order, only one click is needed to "Buy this
book" and have it sent to your address of
record.) |
| Don't wait for the
movie 08.23.1999 |
| I've finally starting reading Alan Cooper's
latest book: The Inmates
are Running the Assylum. So far, it's been much
better than his last book in that I can share
his frustrations with the devlopment process. I
can't wait until I get to his promised solutions
to these problems. |
| This book was written to enlighten business
people on probelms with the software development
process, especially as relates to user
interaction design. Now, if we can only get
business people to think in terms like Cooper
outlines (or even read the book)... |
| As I continue reading, I'll write more. |
| Beware:
Bad UI porting 08.12.1999 |
| This reader feedback to The Java Look and
Feel Design Guidelines
discusses the folly of allowing the user to
switch the look and feel of an application using
java swing components. |
| However, The same warning
could be given about allowing developers to
recompile the same java code for several
operating systems. (This is the holy grail of the
development community.) Be aware of the inherent
loss of transfer of learing. |
| In the example given, the port
of a typical (and usable within it's context)
Motif UI to a Mac look and feel would most likely
completely confuse a Mac user. The transfer of
learing from familiar Mac applications is lost.
(Mac users are especially sensitive to badly
ported software. Most will recognize a Windows
interface in Mac clothing and detest this.) |
| Although the various Operating
Systems have similar widget sets, the combination
and typical use of these components varies widely
and should be considered cautiously when
"cross-platform" applications are
developed. |
| More than
one way to skin a... 08.06.1999 |
| I just spent some time talking
with a "cowboy programmer" who
showed me a ton of UI customization tools and
shells. These are technologies that could be used
to implement custom widgets. |
ActiveX control/add-in for any
VB app: (Similar to java swing components, only
this works with Visual Basic and C++).
http://www.softshape.com/activeskin/ |
Alternate windows shell/UI :
Look at the THEMES section. This replaces the
entire windows UI for all applications.
http://www.litestep.com |
Windows SHELL enhancement to
alter the windows GUI
http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds |
SKIN sites: (No this is not
what you think.) These refer to a growing number
of applications that allow anyone to design a
custom "skin" for an application. This
is interesting as a strategy to enable UI
revisions without affecting the rest of the code.
http://www.customize.org
http://www.skinz.org |
| All of these technologies make
it easier to change the look of a UI but none can
really change the UI at the functional level. Oh
well, cool stuff any way. |
| E-books looking
for a technology... 07.12.1999 |
| Microsoft has developed a new display technology that
will increase the resolution of text on LCD
screens. This should make electronic books much
more enjoyable to read. This is a really
significant technology that challenge some of the
current UI paradigms. |
| Digital paper is another
technology under separate development by Xerox,
e-ink,
and IBM.
It will be interesting to see who can make this
work first. (E-ink has this working but only for
large display singnage.) |
| Digital paper has a spatial memory advantage
over Microsoft's display technology. For example,
it's hard to find your way back to a hyper-linked
page in a long series of documents. With an
ordinary book however, You can sometimes remember
a page was about near the middle of the book, and
flip through a subset of the pages to find it. |
| Think of the possibilities! Digital paper
could make each page of a book it's own
interactive computer screen. Someday we could
have animated illustrations in books. |
