August 2008

… 1′s and 0′s Not Far Behind…

by Paul Sherman on August 22, 2008 · 3 comments

in Everything Else

File this post under “more signs of the USPTO apocalypse.” In a story reminiscent of The Onion‘s parody news article “Microsoft Patents Ones, Zeros“, iTWire reports on Microsoft’s patent “Method and system for navigating paginated content in page-based increments“… which is a fancy way of describing the Page Up and Page Down buttons.

The iTWire article isn’t bad, though like most news outlets it doesn’t provide sufficient background on why the patent system is in such a sorry state. (I did explain this in some detail in my UXmatters article; follow this link to read “Your Design Is Infringing On My Patent.”)

I don’t blame the Microsoft employees who put their name on this patent; they’re just playing the game that they were hired to play. (Though I do wonder whether they look at that patent plaque in their offices and feel a slight twinge of embarrassment.) It’s not Microsoft’s fault either. They’re playing the game too. The fault lies squarely with the USPTO, and with a Congress that is too deep in the pockets of large incumbent businesses from many domains.

I hate to keep ringing this bell over and over, but the fact of the matter is that patents stifle innovation and provide a means for lazy and litigious people to live off the work of others. And by patenting something so (pardon the pun) “patently obvious” as Page Up / Page Down buttons, Microsoft degrades the user experience for us all. Think about it: every time Microsoft (or some other software company) patents a commonly-used interaction pattern or UI design, they make it less likely that other product producers will want to pay a licensing fee to use the pattern or design. Which means that the producer will have to skirt the patent by creating a new interaction or design, even though a common and perfectly reasonable one already exists.

This isn’t just an academic problem, folks. If this is allowed to continue, we’re headed even farther down the slippery slope. What’s next? Will Microsoft or Apple or IBM patent the “OK” button? Will we have to label it “Affirmed” to skirt the patent? How many other patent landmines are sitting out there waiting to be stepped on?

If you’re interested in patent reform but don’t know what you can do or where to start, check out these organizations. You might find a way you can contribute to the elimination of obvious and overly broad patents. (These are taken from my UXmatters article.)

  • The Electronic Frontier Foundation — The EFF is a nonprofit organization that advocates for free speech and individual rights in the digital domain. Its Patent Busting Project is an initiative “to protect innovation and free expression” by fighting against vague, obvious, or overly broad patents.
  • Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure—Based in Europe, this organization currently runs the NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, which has as its aim stopping enaction of a US-like patent system in the European Union.
  • The Free Software Foundation — Founded by Richard Stallman, the FSF promotes and supports the free software movement. The FSF supports a less restrictive approach to patenting intellectual property. Founded as a US-based organization, FSF branches have opened in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
  • Another advocacy group is the Software Freedom Law Center, which Eben Moglen founded in 2005.

Microsoft Granted Page Up Page Down Patent  ::  iTWire

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Now *This* Is A Great Out-Of-Box Experience!

by Paul Sherman on August 20, 2008 · 0 comments

in Everything Else

I believe Samsung has surpassed Apple with this OOBE…

Samsung Omnia i900 Unboxing: Greatest. Packaging. Ever. :: Digg

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Smashing Magazine Article On “Futuristic” UI’s

by Paul Sherman on August 19, 2008 · 1 comment

in Everything Else

This article has been making the rounds today. Thought I’d do my part to keep the meme alive. OK, this isn’t really a meme. But it’s an interesting little compilation of UI concepts. Of course the author cites Adaptive Path’s Mozilla Labs effort called Aurora.

My last article for UXmatters also touched on the topic of this article.? I was focusing on 3D virtual spaces and navigation. Still, I would suggest reading that article of mine if you’re interested in uncommon user interfaces.

10 Futuristic User Interfaces? ::? Monday Inspiration? ::? Smashing Magazine

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Gruber on Thomas

by Paul Sherman on August 5, 2008 · 3 comments

in Everything Else

A few colleagues have pointed me to the article by movie director-sounding blogger Matthew Paul Thomas entitled “Why Free Software Has Poor Usability, and How to Improve It.”

I’ve given you the link to the original Thomas article, but I’m more interested in discussing Johnathan Gruber’s take on it. Says Gruber in this post:

I posit that the usability and elegance of any product, software or hardware, tends to reach and seldom surpasses the level that satisfies the taste of whoever is in charge of the product. This applies universally, not just to free and open source software. For example, it explains why Microsoft produces such crummy software even though the company employees [sic] thousands of talented programmers and even designers — Microsoft’s decision makers have no taste. But the problem is endemic to open source.

The people in charge of most free and open source software products tend to have poor taste in user interfaces; people with good taste in user interface design are seldom in charge of open source software projects.

Put another way, if you have to ask for better design, you will lose. You need to be in a position to demand it.

Yes. (Adding some more later in the day…) Aside from the comment about Microsoft’s decision makers having “no taste” – undoubtedly a reference to Steve Job’s comment about Microsoft – I have personally seen what can happen when leaders demand better design…and what can happen when they don’t.

Design leadership *has* to come from the top. It can’t be, as Cooper said in February at IxDA 2008 – an “insurgency” driven from below.

Matthew Paul Thomas :: Why Free Software Has Poor Usability, and How to Improve It

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Short Strange Trip

by Paul Sherman on August 3, 2008 · 1 comment

in Everything Else

We moved from the suburbs of Atlanta Georgia to Austin Texas this weekend. Actually, we started on Thursday night. The trip turned into a 1,000 mile odyssey. We were traveling with our two kids, the babysitter who has family in Austin and came along for the ride, and Petunia. So we were limited to pet-friendly hotels like Residence Inns. Oh, and we were wagon-training: Susan was driving the van and I was driving the car.

Because we left in Atlanta traffic at about 4pm, we only got about 150 miles on Thursday, stopping in Birmingham for the night. On Friday we drove for about 10 hours, not including an abortive stop to search for a Starbucks somewhere in Mississippi where we almost ended up in a four-car rear-end chain reaction. The little old lady in front of the truck in front of me jammed on her brakes, then the truck jammed on its brakes. I missed the truck’s bumper by inches, and Susan swerved onto the shoulder to avoid hitting me. She missed a telephone pole by a few feet. Oh and Hattie puked in the van around this time.

Sometime late Friday I noticed that my car was overheating. The temperature gauge was floating up to the top of the range, staying there for a few minutes, then dropping back down to somewhere above the midpoint. I’ve seen that behavior before. It’s usually indicative of a bad thermostat or a faulty water pump. So we stopped in Tyler Texas, at yet another Residence Inn.

On Saturday morning when I started the car it was still overheating, so I looked in my GPS device for nearby service stations. At 9AM I went to the closest one and told them that I suspected it was the thermostat. They told me they’d check it out in about an hour. I decided to send Susan and the girls ahead to Austin in the van and wait out the repairs by myself.

Seven hours later the mechanics were still struggling to get the thermostat into the car. Evidently it was a real bear to access, and another bear to swap out. They finally got the part installed and I hit the road at 4PM, with about a 6-hour drive ahead of me. Susan and the girls had arrived hours before and were shopping for house stuff.

About four hours into my drive Susan called to say that the van had a flat, and AAA was flummoxed because we changed our membership to the Texas “club” but Susan’s mobile phone still had an Atlanta area code. They hung up on her four times. She finally gave up and decided to change the tire herself. Oh and Hattie had a fever and it’s 102 degrees outside. A good Texas samaritan pulled over and helped her change the tire. Thanks for nothing AAA.

So it’s Sunday and we’re waiting for our moving truck full of stuff to arrive. We made it to Austin safe and sound, and only a little the worse for wear.

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