Flyover Country

Aaron Brethorst on Politics, User Experience, and Photography. I like sushi.

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Entries from September 2006

Project Runway - whew! !!SPOILER ALERT!!

September 28th, 2006 · No Comments

I’m so glad Michael, Uli and Laura made it. I think the idea of having four designers show at Olypus Fashion Week is a nice change from past seasons. Nothing deep to add beyond that, just wanted to share. And for those of you who are at a loss…

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Tags: Uncategorized

You are not done yet!

September 28th, 2006 · 3 Comments

I wanted to share a fantastic blog posting on accessibility that I just found by way of Coding Horror. As part of Michael Hunter’s DDJ blogging series entitled “YOU ARE NOT DONE YET,” Michael posted a great list of accessibility scenarios that should be checked for every application. One example includes:
Run in high contrast mode, [...]

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Tags: Accessibility

Simplify UI Development for Native Windows Mobile Apps

September 27th, 2006 · No Comments

Mel Sampat from the Windows Mobile team blogged about a new UI management library, called ScreenLib, that dramatically simplifies creating native user interfaces for Windows Mobile applications:
[ScreenLib] takes away a lot of the pain of designing user interfaces for multiple screen sizes, orientations, form factors etc. It lets you create a user interface once and [...]

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Tags: Windows Mobile

The Shrillness of Conservative Whackjobs

September 27th, 2006 · No Comments

Every now and then I get into a masochistic mood, prompting me to read NewsMax, a proud purveyor of mainstream American notions and values, like “Bill Clinton hates America,” or “MoveOn.org is sponsored by a crazy, liberal billionaire who is trying to raise your taxes” (my question, why would that even make sense?).
One [...]

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Tags: Uncategorized

An auspicious number

September 27th, 2006 · 1 Comment

Back in July, I decided to create a new weblog where I could share my thoughts on UI design and User Experience (especially the snarkier ones) with the world, and keep my writing skills (shabby though they may be) from deteriorating completely. I tend to be pretty bad about maintaining these things, as you can [...]

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Tags: Meta

Cozi Central launches, families can breathe a little easier

September 26th, 2006 · 2 Comments

Cozi just launched their first product, Cozi Central. I’ve mentioned them before in conjunction with their Chief Product Officer, Jan Miksovsky, who was formerly a UI Architect at Microsoft and is a strong proponent of inductive user interfaces.
I was invited to download the Beta last Friday, and I was pleasantly surprised by the [...]

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Tags: Innovation

new design slowly creeping in

September 26th, 2006 · 1 Comment

I became tired of my rather pathetic looking home page, and redesigned it a while back. I put the project on hold about two weeks ago when my priorities dictated otherwise, and didn’t have a chance to resume the project until today. I hope to replicate this theme (or a variant thereof) across the full [...]

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Tags: Meta

Vista’s New Start Menu

September 25th, 2006 · 3 Comments

The Windows Vista love-in on my UI Design blog continues unabated! I was browsing through a surprisingly active thread on the Shell Revealed site about the design of the new Vista Start Menu. Not surprisingly, some people love the new Start menu, some hate it, and some are demanding that Microsoft change it back the [...]

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Tags: Vista

Exposing Expose on Windows Vista

September 24th, 2006 · 3 Comments

Simon on the (dot)Net released an awesome Vista utility (with source code, might I add), which duplicates the functionality of Apple’s Expose feature on OS X. It’s still a bit rough around the edges, but it’s an awesome example of what can be done with the DWM in Windows Vista.

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Tags: Vista

More Menus (or Aaron Ballman Calls BS on Me)

September 24th, 2006 · 7 Comments

Aaron Ballman left a comment on this blog last night, raising a good point about needing to pony up a solution to my “I hate menus” dilemma. Unfortunately, I’m not certain what the best solution would be, at least not universally.
I don’t think that menus are universally bad. Some are quite useful and [...]

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Tags: UI Design