Gerry McGovern recently wrote that the best websites are the ugly ones - he is wrong. Only cheap companies can have ugly websites.
We often discuss design. Should it be simple or complex? Should it be colorful or grayish? Do you make it low-tech or media rich? The answer can be found by looking at how design breathe.
One of the worst things you can do is to not design for real people and real content. It is obvious in the same way that you will freeze if you sit in a freezer. That, however, doesn't seem to stop people from making a mess of everything.
Carmine Coyote has written an excellent article on multitasking and how ineffective it makes us.
Second life is undoubtedly a big phenomenon, and it is an interesting example of social interaction mixed with massive capitalism - which is by no account a bad thing. But it is not the next web. It is not going to change how we interact in general. It is simply a brilliant example of wasting time on a massive scale.
Having the right tools for a job is just as important having a great idea - especially on the web. We see something new all the time and in many cases it is made with technology we know nothing about.
A while ago I looked into what browser sizes people use to... well... browse the internet. I have received a good amount of feedback both as comments on the website, but more so in form of emails. With this article I will try to make sense of it all, and explain why the whole discussion about fluid vs. fixed layout is irrelevant.
2007 is here, and so it is time to look ahead and provide some wild guesses as to what will come.
Update: Cranberry Style is out - it only lasted a week before I started to hate it. Now it is this orange/purple Power Style (lets see how that goes...).
2007 is here. With it comes new plans, a fresh start. And, what better way to start a new year than by redesigning Baekdal.com - and adding new things?
Within the usability community we constantly hear the mantra "make it easy", but lately more and more products are made too easy for their own good. Take something like Apple's Remote. It is incredible easy to use, but at the cost of essential functionality. Just a few more buttons, and a few tweaks to the interaction would make it much better.
Digg.com is a fantastic site, it has an amazing influence on making stuff popular. But, it is also a constant burden on website owners. If you get "dugged" you got to have a very good hosting plan in order to stay online.
As you might have noticed this site has gone pink, and it is not because I have suddenly developed feministic tendencies - it is about something much more serious. Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Security are ruining our life. It is terrorizing user experience making "computing" less and less desirable. I think that instead of waging a "war on terror", we should wage a "war on security".
Many write and publish on a daily basis - like the journalists at newspapers. But, whereas the journalists have an editorial staff, we have to do it all by ourselves.
There has been a lot of buzz lately about "Google Apps for your domain". It is said this will move Google into the enterprise world, and Microsoft will soon lose its dominance.
The move of Baekdal.com to a new and stabile server is complete. You are now on the new server.
I am pleased to offer a special discount to everyone who have tried WEB2DNA.
Should you publish at regular intervals, or does it really matter? In my opinion it doesn't. But, you shouldn't make your publication plan too irregular either.
I have been speaking out against the use of synchronous interaction principles on this site, and other places. It is has mostly been trough to use of words, but I really wanted to illustrate it instead.
Updated: Added fun comic...
The main reasons why it is so hard to create usable products is that there is a conflict between a high-usability level and great user-experience. You might think this as strange, but there is a important difference between the two.
Windows Vista has been released for public testing (last week). But, none of the major anti-virus companies support the new operating system - yet.
I have now had the chance to use Office 2007, and I have created a number of documents with it and analyzed how much more efficient the new interface is. The verdict? It is a revolution in terms of efficient usability.
Today is big day. It is redesign day. This particular redesign has been underway for more 6 months.
In January I reviewed Google Video. In short I beat it with a virtual stick until I was satisfied that it was no good at all. Google Video is a hyped up piece of wasted efforts.
Manipulating your computer is, in general, not a very efficient way to work. Using the keyboard to - say "print the first page, in 4 copies, of a document", involves around 6 to 21 keystrokes. Using the mouse is not much better.
In January I wrote about the coming ActiveX update that will change how embedded content will be handled in Internet Explorer. In short, things like Flash movies will have to be activated (clicked) before they can be used.
Update: Apple did release an iPhone - see below
I have always been more or less addicted to the internet - and having to live without it for about a month is not something that I like. But, being offline has made me realize how much time I waste on the internet.
Notice: No new articles or email handling for about a month
We have all been in a situation where we have bought something so far away that we need help getting it. This is where the great people of UPS, FedEx or DHL come in and take care of all the transporting. They even offer you a way to track your shipment as it travels - like this:
I am an explorer - a virtual Earth explorer that is. It used to be with Google Earth and their nice coverage of satellite images from all over the world. Then came Microsoft with Live Local and their even more impressive "Bird's Eye View"
We have all seen many articles about effectiveness, just yesterday; To-Done published yet another one. Each of these articles points out very interesting things... but, there are 4 basic elements that are far more important - feeling rested, not being hungry, having physical energy and keeping a positive state of mind.
A few weeks back I wrote a rather favorable review about parts of iLife 06. I said something like "amazingly", "most impressive" and other really nice phrases you would use for very good products. I even went to the extent of defending the product against fellow developers who did not think so highly of it.
I have been using IE7 for a while and I really like it. It just seems simpler, safer and better than IE 6 - and it feels like a user-focused version of Firefox.
You would think that with all that money, Google should be able to launch a killer video store. But, in reality the only thing it kills are its users. Google Video is one huge lump of wasted efforts.
Notice: Updated April 30, 2006 usable workaround, read below
Update: Apple iLife 06 products has turned out rather undone. Read the update.
2006 is just around the corner, and that means that it is time to bring some (vague) predictions for this web business we are in.
Some of you might have wondered why I rarely refer to the term AJAX. The answer is quite simple. I rarely use it, but I often use XMLHTTPRequest. Let me explain that.
The good people of Microsoft User Experience and Microsoft Typography have found that the minimum font size used on computer screen is too tiny for modern computer displays. The absolute minimum size used to be Tahoma 8pt (comparable to 11px on Mac OS X or on the web).
A few days ago Google announced yet another offering from their seemly endless stream of products. This time it was Google Analytics - a free website statistics package.
I have finally been able to solve the problems with the newsfeeds on this site - and thanks to those kind people told me that it was broken! I really appreciate the feedback.
You know, we can do many things with our lives. We can deceive ourselves with misleading statistics - or we can try to look past these false numbers and start to make real sense of things.
A few days ago, I talked about the end of the usability revolution. Today, everyone knows that good products are easy to use, good looking and often highly advanced.
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