Nov 09, 2006
Branding
An object lesson in bad design
Hits 99.1 FM out of Newfoundland demonstrates a salient principle: think about all of the ways your product will be used.
All Blog Posts (Page 56)
Nov 08, 2006
Vista
Vista Shipped!
Windows Vista’s finally out the door, and with it comes a whole bevy of new stuff, like .NET FX 3.0 (with WPF/Avalon). I’ve spent the past year working on nothing but ensuring that Visual Studio works beautifully with Vista, and it’s great to see ...
Nov 08, 2006
El Rushbo
…is back to being his old dickhead self of the mid-90’s. Somehow, everything seems right in the world, again: Now I'm liberated from having to constantly come in here every day and try to buck up a bunch of people who don't deserve it.
Nov 07, 2006
Usability
Toyota Prius Weirdness
The Toyota Prius has a really handy in-dash display that gives you all sorts of information, like the current radio station, GPS maps, and so forth. It also displays messages to you under some circumstances, like the following one that I observed ...
Nov 07, 2006
Innovation
3D Maps in Your Browser
Microsoft released version 4 of Windows Live Local yesterday, which includes the very Sim City-esque 3D maps feature. San Jose Mercury News covered this, and includes a link to a super-high quality screenshot of the service in action: Microsoft up...
Nov 06, 2006
Usability
Usability testing on a shoestring budget
Joel Spolsky and Jakob Nielsen are both big believers in conducting usability tests with no more than five people. Jakob has a few fantastic insights into this domain: The most striking truth of the curve is that zero users give zero insights. T...
Nov 04, 2006
Windows Forms
Handy Windows Forms Tricks
CodeGuru has a great article on Winforms tricks that will improve the fit and finish of your application, such as optimizing databinding and using the built-in PropertyGrid control in .NET FX 2.0. It’s short, but you might learn something that wil...
Nov 02, 2006
Customers and Community
More fun
The people on Zune get it, too. It’s about the fun, stupid. Check out this Zune ad up on YouTube, entitled The Ballad of Lion and Gazelle.
Nov 02, 2006
UI Design
More about fun user experiences
Back in July, I talked about the important role that fun plays in great user experiences. A sense of fun, playfulness, or adventurousness goes a long way towards making your software or website more inviting to current or potential customers. Of c...
Nov 01, 2006
Innovation
David Pogue Looks Back at 2006
David Pogue has an article in the NY Times today about some of the technological highlights of the year. I find it interesting how much he hates Windows and Windows Mobile, as shown here: The turkeys of the year: Microsoft’s Ultra Mobile PC comput...