The Future As Seen By Me In 2010

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Well looky here, things one has scanned in eh. (ignore the photo, that's some guy that made some accounting software, not sure what became of him ;) MIKE RIVERSDALE is fuming. The expensive headphones he bought in Sydney three weeks ago have just died. His first reaction is not to randomly spill expletives into his coffee, but to use his iPhone to vent his frustration to his Twitter con- tacts, under the moniker Miramar Mike. "I will also put, 'What should I do?' It's a conversation. I'm reaching out to the people following me." The council predicts hand-held digital devices such as smartphones will rule the world in 2040. They already rule the life of Mr Riversdale, whose company WaveAdept helps businesses adapt - their computing sys- tems to allow staff to work from anywhere - and with anyone. In order of fre- equency, he uses his iPhone to tweet (1136 followers; 8363 tweets since joining), e-mail, make phone calls and use online services, such as checki
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It's all about the "user experience"

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Tacky phrase, I think, "user experience". Having said that though, it is true - it is all about the "user experience". One of the key points to the project I am running at work is that the interface IS the product. The way it looks and feels (old way of saying "user experience") IS what the person remembers. If it works with them the product is good, if it works counter to what they believe then it doesn't.

For instance - MOSS (latest release of SharePoint) doesn't seem to offer drag-and-drop capability to uploading files. If you are emailed an attachment then you want to have it put into a document library (whatever that is?) - should be drag-and-drop. And this isn't a case of Microsoft forgetting to implement it - there are ways of doing it and so the feature is supported! However the interface doesn't work WITH me. It makes me think.

And that's the key, or maybe just one of the keys, to a site/product that people use.

To further educate yourself I'd recommend this two sets of 'usability' videos:
  1. CEO Sumit: Better by design - presentations
  2. Google: Seattle Conference on Scalability: Scaling Google for Every User
I have only watched the Sam Morgan video and most of the Marissa Mayer (Google VP Search Products and User Experience - try and ignore her blue top!)

Sam Morgan's three tips are:
  • Speed matters
  • Embrace convention - which is basically the Don't Make Me Think book
  • Measure everything

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The Future As Seen By Me In 2010

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