So I was listening to a 7 or 8 month old podcast from IT Conversations that featured one of the lead developers of Flock demo’ing a developer release of their web browser.
Even though I was listening to an audio version of a live demo, it just sounded too cool to pass up. So here I am, composing my first post on Flock’s blog tool.
I gotta say, it’s a damn site better than that tiny little text box that Six Apart crammed into the “New Entry” screen of Movable Type…I am really liking this.
Blogged with Flock
Like every other wanna-be semi-guru in this field, I’ve written a book. OK, I really just wrote three chapters, got 10 other people to contribute chapters, and edited their contributions…but still, I think this counts as “I have a book coming out.”
It will be available in September or October of this year. It’s published by Gower, an imprint of the Ashgate Publishing Group.
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The Unofficial Apple Weblog has an interesting post about the iPod’s simple but aging UI. See this page to read the article.
The author’s main point is that the iPod’s user interface is efficient and usable, but hasn’t really kept pace with its DAP (digital audio player) competitors. He makes a couple of suggestions for “improvements” (they are actually somewhat dubious), and asks the TUAW readership for their suggestions on how to improve the iPod’s UI.
The article is interesting mainly for the varied comments. Some people are completely focused on eye-candy (“Apple should add a screensaver to the iPod…”), while others suggest geniune improvements.
It’s refreshing to see what the lay people say about usability and desired features. I sometimes get a little tired of hearing my colleagues’ opinions.
Regular readers of UsabilityBlog (now *that’s* an amusing concept…) know of my recent struggles with Linux. Not content to leave bad enough alone, I decided to try fixing a nagging little annoyance on my (now) dual-boot Ubuntu/Windows desktop.
I shouldn’t have bothered.
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So here’s how this post started: I was intending to write a “roundup” piece touching on the various usability/user-centered design resources that were on the web and free for the taking. You know, like IBM’s Easy site, or Microsoft’s usability area. (I know they also have resources available on the MSDN site, but I couldn’t find them. MSDN.com doesn’t display right on my Mac…what a shocker…)
But when I got to this IBM resource, I just had to stop and post this as a standalone article.
IBM’s little ditty is called “EasyChart”, and it’s a teaching tool in application form. From the IBM site:
What is EasyChart? EasyChart is a charting tool that has been designed to purposefully violate well-known interface design rules of thumb (heuristics).
What is it used for? EasyChart is designed to demonstrate the effects of poor interface design has on the usability of an application or Web page.
Now this I *gotta* see. I can’t wait to download it to my PC.
Recently I’ve been thinking about just how goldarned stupid the desktop metaphor is. Think about it: you have a wide expanse of pixels, on which you can drag and drop files to your heart’s content. The thing is, it’s very, very inflexible, and doesn’t *really* help you get organized.
In fact, it’s too true to the metaphor – like your physical desktop, papers end up in piles, and similar or related papers tend to get grouped together. And just like your real desktop, the organizational scheme of your computers’ desktop is always one minor incident away from anarchy.
But the operating systems’ desktops (I’m talking to all three of you, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux…) are also less useful than your real desktop, in the following ways:
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A few months back I got a friendly note from one Chris Baker, proprietor of Usability Notes. It’s a nice blog, Chris has some quality insights.
Since I can’t actually face installing a blogroll on my site (it gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about mucking around with all those big scary configuration files…:-), I figured I’d just blog him and the site.
Recommended.
For the love of Bob, please help Linux and open-source applications get better.
The KDE organization has a usability project you can contribute to. So does the GNOME project.
If you’re interested in making open source software easier to use, start with the two GNU/Linux desktop vendors. Or start here.
If open source software and GNU/Linux are ever going to win hearts and minds, they have to stop focusing on the hobbyists and the already-converted. I doubt that any of our mothers and fathers want to stop/start X servers, or log in at different runlevels.
I really, really want to like Linux. But it’s just not likable. Because it’s just not usable! Case in point: I downloaded and installed the latest version of the Xandros Desktop distribution. I actually got further than I did with the Ubuntu cluster-f of April, in that Xandros recognized my Ethernet card, grabbed a DHCP-assigned NAT address from my router, and got onto the Internet without me having to futz around.
But here’s the thing: anytime I try to do ANYTHING to a Linux installation that requires even a small bit of customization, everything goes down the toilet.
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Big computing tries to foist another poorly-thought out ahead-of-its time device on us again. Say hello to the “Ultra-Mobile PC.”
Of course MSFT is pushing it, but it’s not just them.
For more on why the UMPC platform is generating negative reviews, see this Google results page.
Interestingly, the Sony VAIO UX50, a UMPC-like device – but with a keyboard – is getting good press. I’m no fan of Sony (for all the right reasons), but I do appreciate good design.
Found an interesting article about a new device for delivering insulin at The Street.
The new device, basically a large inhaler, is the first viable alternative to self-administered insulin shots; but the the device is seen by some as lacking in usability. It’s not so much the inhalation part; rather, some see difficulty for the end users in setting up and maintaining the system.
The article is here.
