10/GUI
Interesting concept, lots of thoughtful interactions. However my wrist and fingers felt tight mocking the gestures, particularly the 3-finger pinch/swiping. Gestures are definitely on the rise but is mousing so inefficient as to warrant this complexity?
There some modest rethinking of the desktop here as well, but not a radical enough departure. I think fundamentally the environment and not just the input need to evolve. The use of single-dimension windowing seems like a stop-gap to support the gestures and input and not truly in service to the benefits of 10-finger touch support. Love the work, excited to see where it goes.
WordCamp Denver Recap
Wordcamp Denver was great, not a lot more I can say. It was awesome to spend a couple days in the Crowd Favorite offices and meet with the team and the other flotsam that flows through there. Denver is a lively place, I was much more content there than most of travels and feel I’m well situated between Denver and Orlando – the two pockets of close friends I’ve developed. If you want to read more details on the event there are some great writeups I’ll list at the end. For me it was about the moments, the conversations and handshakes outside the events that meant a lot.
My panel discussion seems to have gone well, although a cell/wi-fi failing during the talk prevented the flood of commentary the other sessions received. Kevin and Brian are both talented pros, it was an honor to be on stage with them. It was also nice to catchup with Brian, we’d met at An Event Apart in Chicago a few years ago. Other highlights were Micah’s dynamite closing session, Alex and Sean’s dev sessions, the open source panel, buddypress overview…basically it was full day. Hopefully you can catch it on WordPress.tv in the near future. This was my fourth large presentation and I’m looking forward to more, I’m getting more comfortable on stage.
Recapping WordCamp Denver – Lijit Blog
WordCamp Denver – Andrew Ferguson
WordCamp Denver, 2009. My humble experience. – Sean’s presentation recap
Some of my Favorite Photos
MacBook Wheel
Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard
So much truth in this piece it hurts. How can you not love The Onion.
How Products Are Designed
Inspired (via core 77)
Virtual Lobsterman
This is a pretty impressive idea. While not for the faint of wallet, Catch a Piece of Maine allows you to purchase a Maine lobsterman and trap for a year. So anytime you want a lobster dinner sent next-day anywhere in the states, you just logon and hit go. Pricey, but a very cool idea.
Enterprise Software – The Worst Kind of Swiss Army Knife
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about enterprise software and how it fits into the current river of super-simple, super-focused web-based apps in the market. When I was designing enterprise products I spent a 60%-40% split in time focusing on desktop versus web application design. Most of the web projects end up being an afterthought or was viewed as a analog or mirror of the rich functionality. I believe that’s changing and business is evolving to a point where the focus can justifiably be on the web. That said the same problem plagued overall direction of both platforms.
The Knife
I remembering having a conversation with a manger in the past about what the biggest frustration with the products I was designing was. My response was this: “We design a swiss army knife, which is great. Lots of features that fill various needs, always available. But the problem is our interface forces the user to have every blade and gadget open at the same time, by default. So you have a tool that’s infinitely useful but on the verge of useless. If all the blades are open all of the time you’re not just going to cut yourself, but you’ll never find the toothpick.” I think the analogy struck a chord, and I think it’s still the biggest hurdle in enterprise and high-end commercial products. Products are driven by market and internal pressures to enhance functionality, and no matter how good your interface is, if it’s release out-of-the-box with everything turned on you’re going to confuse and mystify your users.
That Damn Box
Solving this issue goes well beyond interface design conventions, snazzy interactive widgets or progressive disclosure of elements. You have to look at how the product is delivered, implemented and ultimately rolled-out to users. There is a tendency for interface professionals (developers, designers, UX folks, etc.) to ignore the final piece in the product puzzle. Often rolling out large enterprise applications takes months to years, and on-site developers work to enhance and extend the core application to meet specific client needs, integrations, etc. If you’ve never met with these folks or seen what your product looks like at the end of this cycle you’d be shocked. Many times a large portion of this effort is in TURNING OFF functionality that’s exposed out-of-the-box. Why? Well we have contractually obliged ourselves to having a boatload of new and great features in the product, that’s how we’ve gotten customers to pay for the latest and greatest. So there’s a perceived need to show all of that off – every-time – something new is rolled out. Out-of-the-box tends to mean the newest stuff in the box, which makes sense for marketing but makes no sense to a user. If it’s a new feature or considerable enhancement to existing functionality chances are slim to none I need that up and running by default.
The Fixes
There are a few potential remedies to this issue that may surprise development and marketing teams.
Turn it off – When a feature is introduced turn it off by default. This requires a robust feature management capability that’s exposed to the end user – not just admins. Give users the power to manage what they see and how they use it.
Tell ‘em about it – Taking a cue from successful single/limited focus web apps, make sure you have a message center or place within the product to announce changes and tell your users about the new features. Rather than confound and frustrate them by adding new things, simply tell them there are new things. Empower them to add what they need and make it as simple as a click from your messaging center.
Let them test drive – Even though your developers spent 200 man months on this great new enhancement, there’s a chance a user may not like it after they’ve activated it and had a chance to play around. They may prefer an old way or simply not find a need for your great new widget. No worries, just give them the ability to turn off functionality as easily as they can turn it on. Check your ego at the door, if they don’t like it’s not a big deal – they will be happier with your product if it concedes gracefully than if it’s a jerk about going away.
Put it in the manual – Documentation is softwares oft-forgotten ally. Put it in the docs, make sure users can search for new features the day the product ships. If we make documentation a key component in delivering the message of new functionality it we be elevate its usefulness and necessity.
If you’re involved in enterprise or larger commercial software endeavors I hope this helps. If you’re already doing this drop me a line, I’d enjoy hearing about your stories.
Dell Crystal Monitor
I love my Macs as much as anyone, and applaud their design and innovation. However there are others out there doing good work as well, case-in-point Dell’s new Crystal Display unveiled at CES. Really nice overall design, I haven’t dug into specs or any other info, but on the surface I like the anti-brushed aluminum approach. Curious to see how it’s received.
The Franklin is Just for Show
You can do the same with a Washington…
Seth Godin on Design
We all have skills and expertise. Seth Godin is a master at what he knows, what he does. I’m not sure he fits into a tidy box, but his skills lie in the marketing world, not every world. I value his opinions on marketing, building community around markets, know people and products – I do not value his opinions on design and design strategy. It’s fair enough I guess, I can value what he says in one space but not another. Take for instance my listening to Al Gore when it comes to lockboxes, but not the environment.
There’s so much about Mr. Godin’s post that’s behind the curve, misleading and lacking in technical and design insight that I struggled to believe he actually wrote it. He muddies the water of development, visual and interaction design to the point that I was coming up for air midway through. I highly recommend Mr. Godin stick to what he knows and leave design and design strategy to the professionals, let he lose credibility and mislead organizations into making terrible design choices.
Free Icons for BlogOrlando Folks (and everyone else)
Thanks to everyone who made it to my session at BlogOrlando. In case you missed the links are located at: http://ma.gnolia.com/people/jharr/tags/blogorlando – this list will continue to grow so keep an eye on it.
Also, as a little bonus, I have a set of icons for everyone who made it out to the event, or if you’re reading this post. They are free and provided with no restrictions. If you design something cool with them just leave a comment so I can check it out. these will eventaully make it to the downloads section, but for now, grab them here.
These are small, micro-icons that work well as blog category indicators or to simply pep-up your blog sidebar. I have included 4 colors (grey, green, navy and orange) totalling 120 icons. Enjoy.
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