Jan 29
Today I read the the article What Matters Most? written by Gerd Waloszek, User Experience, SAP AG. He wrote an article about which usability problems annoy him most.
1. Waiting Times
2. Crashes
3. Missing Functionality
4. …
Source: What Matters Most?; Gerd Waloszek; December 15, 2005
I really agree with him. If a product is not very usable you can find your way through the application. But if there are a crashes or huge waiting times then you might loose your data or you have to wait for hours for a response.
What matters you most?
Jan 28
Microsoft Max is a new kind of photo viewing and sharing application. It contains a new interesting user interface for viewing, sorting and sharing your photos. Have a look at Channel 9 video weblog for viewing a video with Piero Sierra and others presenting Max software.
Marketing says: “Microsoft® Max is built on the next-generation WinFX Runtime Components technology that will drive the development of Windows Vista® applications.” Now, what is Max, exactly? We send Scoble to find out. He sits down with project Max Group Program Manager Piero Sierra and friends to find out more about Max (Max is a codename mind you).
Scoble’s assessment? “Microsoft Max is a new kind of photo viewing and sharing application which might be remarkable enough by itself, but the team that developed Max is pretty remarkable themselves.”
Source: Channel 9 video: Microsoft Max
Is this only a Microsoft copy of Google’s Picasa or Apple’s iPhoto?
External Links:
Download Max:
Jan 26
Microsoft releasd the Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the Expression Interactive Designer. (Only a .NET password is required for downloading the preview.) Expression Interactive Designer is used for creating the user interface and layout of Web or Windows applications
Design the applications of your dreams.
Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer helps you create streamlined, innovative and just plain beautiful applications. Users experience increased satisfaction, while you develop in a flexible, productive environment.
Source: Microsoft Expression Overview
Does anybody had a look at the preview or tried to create a user interface?
Download
Videos
External Links
Jan 26
Most icons in today applications are not very descriptive for the task they represent. As example have a look at application icons for a web browser. Internet Explorer’s icon is the letter E graphically designed, Firefox is a fox on a planet and Safari is a compass.
To quote Tom Bridge:
…is the language of computing something we have to train people into doing, or is it really as easy as we’d like to believe? The answer’s in the icons, but like all pictures, the interpretation is key.
Source: Icons, Usability and Computers by Tom Bridge
In addition if you look at the icon guidelines of the various operating system (e.g. Microsoft, Mac)
then all details are very clearly specified, but I wonder why the real world design practice are not very unified.
Internal Links
External Links
Jan 25
Jared Spool has written a great article about design patterns.
Design teams are discovering that a well-built design pattern library makes the user interface development process substantially easier. A quality library means team members have the information they need at their fingertips. Choosing usable components that work smoothly for users becomes the developer’s path of least resistance. Innovation, while not prohibited, is reserved for those times when it’s really necessary, allowing the team to leverage the work already done by others…
Source: The Elements of a Design Pattern by Jared Spool
Jan 24
User Interface of Xerox Star
Today I found two great articles about the history of the graphical user interface (GUI).
Jan 22
Today I had a look at Wikipedia to look for various definitions.
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