Bueno el evento de la NetCell Tingo Maria se sostuvo con normalidad, aquí podrán encontrar detalles de los temas tratados en este evento.

La sesión que realice la podrán descargar desde aquí, http://cid-dcb976eb58754397.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/Heroes%7C_NetCellTingoMaria%7C_UX.zip

But as usual humans are never satisfied. And naturally i am also not satisfied.

I am happy that i am informed about the purchase and the amount, but as an individual, i am more interested in get a pattern out of my purchases.

To make it clearer i will give you some examples.

In the evening i went to the mall close to my house and purchased a cool T-shirt and a pair of jeans. This purchase triggered the service to identify what category of item i purchased and sends me a message saying that it is just 3rd week of the month and you are about to exceed your regular allocated personal budget for clothes.

Or at the same time, i get a message saying that you have under utilized the allocated personal budget for personal cosmetics and then with it ,you get some related promotional material like a link to the latest designer perfume in the market.

Everyone from development team, functional guys to management starts a very risky practice of stepping in the shoes of the end-user. Now these people while doing so forget to take off their own bad smelling socks.

And these bad smelling socks are… personal prejudices, biases, previous personal experiences, individual likes/dislikes.

Now the BIG question is how do we stop these individually foul smells from entering the end user’s shoes.

If you ask me to architect a web or software application for pretty much any situation, I can quite quickly figure out roughly what is needed in the application and the technology needs for the product.  It's a fantastic thing, because most of the time, the technology that I come across and is produced by other people is either quite poor (mainly when a designer has cross-trained to being a techie) or is complete overkill (mainly when a software person starts to produce technology for the web).  The ability to produce web technology is something that people have used and reused my company and also my specific ability for, for many years.

The interesting thing is that over the years, I've also seen what has and what hasn't worked for a lot of websites in terms of design. A large proportion of this is due to the user interface design or what is also known as User Experience (or UX).

User Experience

Source: http://www.uxnet.org/

"User Experience (abbreviated: UX) is the quality of experience a person has when interacting with a specific design. This can range from a specific artifact, such as a cup, toy or website, up to larger, integrated experiences such as a museum or an airport."

Now, that encompasses a lot more than the web, but we have seen, with the advent of web 2.0, that design is important and that just looking good and capturing attention is not the only thing that matters.  The interaction is also important, and there are many factors that relate to how good or bad an experience is.

I am no User Experience guru, and I've come across only a very few good UX people. They can come from both the design and the technology side of the fence, but very often, they are not the best technologists and not the best designers. They should, however, be cherished as vitally important people.

My Inability To Design

I have always said that web design is the fluff around the back end technology. I think I may have been doing a disservice to all the good web designers out there. The funny thing is, I've almost never met one of those good designers.  There is too much rubbish talked about web design that if you google it, you end up with complete tripe.  It's also true that there are still people talking about how frames are bad... GET INTO THE 21ST CENTURY.

I cannot tell you what colours work well together, or how to produce a great template design for a website, or even exactly what makes a design great. I have friends and colleagues who are significantly better at it than me and I would use them for that.  The interesting thing for me is that I can tell you when I like using something, and that I want to keep using it.

Reducing Design - Simplicity

There is a trend in web 2.0 to reduce the amount of design a website needs, and to increase the thought on and simplicity of the user's experience (which is part of design, but not the fluff part). This sometimes leads to simple, but not necessarily pretty interfaces. Twitter is one interface which is simple to use, but definitely not nice in the designer-y way.

But, I like things that reduce design and increase simplicity.  Mainly because then it simplifies everything for me as someone who designs technology.  Too often, I've been involved with applications that are all about the technology leading the design... "we must allow the user to be able to update their preferences from all pages across the site, through a link because we spent months developing the functionality".  I'm very happy about wondering more about what people really need in an application.

Talking About My Start Up

I'm currently working on a start up. It's taking a while to get off the ground, but it's getting there. I've spent a long time on the technology and have what I would describe as a prototyped (but not designed) interface. The interesting thing I'm coming up against is, how designed do I want it to be? There are essentially only 3 functions across the whole of the main site, and everything else is in password controlled management sections - these tend to require less design, and more handholding, and as such these are pretty standard.  However, those 3 sections of the main site could be described as search, view and send information.  It's that simple.

I have a problem. I'm not a designer. I'm not the guy that can produce the fluff.  However, I am the guy that produces the technology.  I have produced flows, scenarios, wireframes and have a specification for the site. But as I don't have the designer-y gene, I'm forced to look elsewhere in my world for that designer. But have I gone too far without them already? Is it too late?  Am I just going to end up templating my own technology and hoping?

The design is vitally important. If it looks wrong, people will slate it. But if the UX is wrong, then I'm in big trouble.

Should I have done this differently? Probably. Have I got more guts than most to get into a startup? Yes.

All I know is that UX is key, and in a startup, you have to be many different things. You can't be expert in them all.

L'utilisation de uvLayer est aussi simple que YouTube, mais offre encore plus de services. Par exemple, vous pouvez rechercher une vidéo et uvLayer vous permettra de la visionner, de créer une collection et de connaître ce que vos amis Facebook et de Google Talk écoutent.

Ce qui est impressionnant aussi c'est le fait que toutes les boîtes de contenu se déplacent selon l'endroit où l'on désire. Bref, uvLayer nous fait vivre une autre expérience grâce à l'utilisation d'Adobe AIR.

There is not one solution for this kind of user interface convention, but I do want to highlight a development effort underway with the WordPy blogging application where in its move to increase functionality that a different user interface paradigm was employed. In a draft version of the next iteration of WordPy, this concept of progressive, linear exposure of features demonstrates how Internet Tablet applications can contain the power of a full-sized PC application, but be maximized for the smaller screen and different interface.

The Current Version of WordPy

WordPy is a blogging application for the Internet Tablet. Its designed for use with Blogger and Wordpress blogs and after a recent refresh, has been made compatable with the IT2007 operating system, and both Chinook and Diablo editions of IT2008 operating system.

Its main aspect of interaction happens through tabs. These tabs contain the instructions for main editing text, advanced options such as extended entries and tags, and a preview post component that allows one to see the post before hitting publish from the IT.

Settings are managed via a modified (from the default Maemo style) system menu. One can link to Flickr and Pisca web albums and then add pictures from those albums to a post. There's also a post delete function that enables on to delete any previously published post.

Seemingly simple and to the point. But there are some interface problems with that version of WordPy that at first glance don't seem like a major issue, but in the context of the IT and its usage paradigm, are pretty major issues.

Some of the Issues with WordPy

• The title field sits on a second tab, meaning that one has to navigate to another screen before publishing even the simplest of posts.
• Advanced features while present clog up the third tab, leaving little room for anything more unless a new tab is added
• The preview tab shows the post, but not using the style sheet of the blog, nor does that preview screen allow the user to post from that preview screen
• Additional settings sit a few levels deep in the Publishing menu

There are other issues that can be detailed and we will not go through them all here as its beyond the scope of the view. I believe that there is another way to interact with applications on the IT that are more conductive to simply getting things done. And to do this, by progressivly opening functionality as the user goes through the application, makes for a more pleasing experience, and overall a shorter time from idea in head to post on the page.

An Initial Proposal

If you are one who is into methodology, the idea behind this proposal was to unfold features as the user dug more into the program. To allow for exploration to open more features without exposing all of those features all at once, creating a powerful yet intimidating interface.

With tabbed interfaces, you can assume that just because the user doesn't see it that they aren't wary of more features. But tabs invite touching, and as Amazon learned when their site got too large for the 40+ sections of their website, there can be too much to touch when too many functions are added. By using a methodlogy of progressive, linear screens, an application like WordPy would be able to take advantage of the current feature set, and then also have additional functionality grafted on without changing the core user experience.

A View of the New WordPy

WordPy Future (link points to .deb file) is the current UI/UX preview for the new WordPy interface.

As one can see (screenshots coming soon, hopefully), the interface relies not on dialogue boxes, but screens. From simple information screens such as the post, add image, tags, and preferences screens, to simpler effects such as making it easier to edit or delete a post by just clicking a button from the application home screen; WordPy is designed for a device that has a smaller viewport than a PC, and accepts different interface options than a keyboard and mouse.

Following along the UI/UX screenshot posted above, the point of the interaction is not on the features, which are clearly here and in more abundance (viewable) than the current version, but on posting. With any program, the goal isn't just to have features, but to solve an issue first, and let the features be revealed to the user as they are needed.

This is a linear user interface. Meaning that you start at one point and then move to another with end-points to a final product, but very few side-streets from the main task. If a person opens WordPy and just wants to post and go, they open the application, hit Create Post and then just write and hit publish. Those that want more functionality can expose it by clicking on successive buttons which expose more functionality. When the application's feature set has been maximized, the application ends at the same point - Post.

Disclosure

So that you (the reader) do not think that I am coming against the developer of WordPy in a very public arena, this is something that I presented to him many months ago and has now made it to a UI preview stage. At this stage, I felt it appropriate to call to the table the different UI/UX conventions being employed here. But opening the dicussion of this method, it is my hope that developers reading this blog will start to think through how they design applicaitons beyond just the solving of a problem but also taking into account the fact that solving a problem on a PC is not solving a problem on an Internet Tablet.

More Information About WordPy

WordPy has been developed by Daniel Martin Yerga. The current version is compatable with the 2007 version and all versions of the 2008 Maemo Internet Tablet operating system. The version spoken of in this article (WordPy Future) is a future version that is currently under development.

For more information about the current version of WordPy, to contribute feedback or programming assistance, and to download for Nokia Internet Tablet devices, visit the WordPy homepage at Maemo.org.

So I scrolled down to the bottom of the mail and clicked on the unsubscribe link, which took me to the Monarch website and asked me to sign in to change my preferences. This was the first thing that annoyed me I just wanted to unsubscribe not change my preferences. Anyway I didn't know I had an account so tried my usual username and password and that didn't work so I went through the trial and error process of putting everything I could think of in until it finally let me in. I used the trial and error process rather than requesting a new password because by this point I had already lost confidence in the site, and though that the password retrieval process would take longer than guessing.

So I finally got in and then expecting to be greeted with a screen that would allow me to unsubscribe. Oh no, I was just dumped on my account page telling me that I was already unsubscribed so just to be sure I clicked through and found out that I was indeed unsubscribed and had some vague recollection of unsubscribing a couple of months ago.

So thats half an hour of my life wasted and still receiving spam from Monarch. Thanks Monarch I have now lost all confidence in you holding my data if you can't do something simple like check that I would like to receive email before you send it to me.

Here's what IMHO Monarch should have done.

Customer. I want to opt out of you email marketing.

Monarch. Oh, okay we are sorry to hear about that. Please get in touch with us if you change your mind.

Customer. Thanks, I will.

Simple as that and it stops negative PR from blog posts like this.

As an early registrant in the system, my account had no “Full Name” associated with it so the “My Account“ interface needs accommodate for a default case of a “user of the system who doesn’t have a full name”. How’d they do? Every been greeted in real-life like this: “Hi None”.

Possible Improvements:

• In the opening paragraph, change “Hi None” to “Welcome back”.
• Under account information, if the user doesn’t have a full name in the system, don’t display “None | Change my name” (‘my’ name is not ‘None’). Instead, just provide an “Add you name”.

What if writing weren't so often like this:

but instead were more like this:

And let me tell you, with a little bit of organisation, it's just awesome!

For those who are unaware, Silverlight gives a Designers and Developers the ability to work seamlessly together when creating rich, great looking web applications. But with all the hype and marketing out there about it, who knows what the real story is.

So lets have a quick look at the different ways you can set up you workflow for that next sweet application.

There are few different ways you can work together:

• • Create the code first
  • Create the design first
• Design and develop at the same time!

Create the code first:

So if you decide that the developer should just create the application and let the designer skin it later, this is a pretty easy way to do things, the developer should be able to throw together the application with code and roughly lay out some buttons and what ever else is needed and then the designer can go into blend with that information and make it look sweet. This is my preferred choice of workflow. I will just receive an application that is basic in look but rich in functionality, in which I can load into blend and start shining it up.

Create the design first:

If this is the case, its best to do a little ground work before you start the design and build process, make sure you know exactly what you need to have for you application and how it should work. What buttons need to be on the screen, where the information will go and how much real estate on the screen that section needs, also you should look into weather the developer thinks some items should be created with "usercontrols" and such.

Design and develop at the same time!:

This is awesome if you need to fast track a project a little, but DO YOUR RESEARCH FIRST. Get together with your developer and make sure you pen out the project from start to finish, this includes things like naming conventions for buttons and animations and anything you will be doing. You want your application to just fit together nicely with the code, and once you have both done your part of the deal, bring them together but swapping over the XAML or the code behind files and VOILA! Hopefully you have a sweet little application made in a flash.

So with that said, I guess it comes down to personal preference and what works best for the team working on the project. The best way to find out what works best is try them out and with more projects you will quickly find out what works and what doesn't. Just remember to be organised and not dive head first into a project, because you will end up with a great looking design that doesn't have anything to do with what your developer had in mind.

Alex

Hermosa Jovencita veracruzana, Veronica Quirarte o Vero como le dicen sus amigos

 a su corta edad a despuntado como una de las xalapeñas mas guapas en la actualidad

Participando continuamente en los mejores y mas exclusivos eventos de la sociedad Xalapeña

Nos comparte en estas fotos su belleza y juventud

Nos comparte tambien los momentos que tiene en compañia de sus mas grandes amigas

Last Friday's iPhone 3G launch is being called a number of things, among the most clever "iPocolypse" as coined by Apple's own fan-boy Robert Scoble. My good friend Meg Fowler, proud owner of a non-iPhone, however, decidedly proclaimed her word-of-the-day as "iDidntGetScrewed." Meaning, most everyone racing to the software and hardware upgrades did get screwed. How can a brilliant company deliver such a bad experience? Are we just suckers to Steve Jobs to have not seen the debacle coming?

Pre-game Excitement
In anticipation of iPhone 3G and iPhone 2.0 upgrades, Apple launched the App Store, and the internet lit up with buzz, building excitement for the subsequent d-day upgrade and download. I spent the night among colleagues at new iPhone-focused startup. We wrapped breakfast gift bags to pass to the people waiting in line all night for first dibs and hacked into Apple's new App Store analyzing streams of background data. So, how did Apple screw its loving all-nighter-pulling, waiting in line for too long, doting, recession-spending user-base?

Poor Planning
Clearly, early adoption of new technology comes with the disclaimer of the imperfect; you pay a higher price and deal with growing pains. Last year's iPhone lines wrapped around city blocks and there was a lot of frustration two months later when Apple dropped the price by $200. I'd like to say iLearnedMyLesson when it comes to jumping on the Apple bandwagon, because the brilliant design company continues to storm when it comes to delivering this particular device smoothly. Apple's market strategy for large-scale adoption and its delivery is a failure on a grand scale.

Last year's sticker price $599 reduced the size of the user-base, the ability to activate outside of the store, and a simple proprietary software platform delivered a great launch day. How could Apple not have foreseen or planned for a business and tech crisis that will forever be called: iPocolyspe, iBrick, iFAIL.

Four Reasons Why Users Got Screwed

1. App Store release 24-hours to launch day

2. iPhone 2.0 software upgrades to iPhone & Touch on launch day

3. Activation of new 3Gs (AT&T shares the blame)

4. Server strain

It begs the question, "How much good technology can a company launch at once?"

The launch of the App Store one-day ahead whet appetites and incited a race to upgrade from Apple 1.0 to Apple 2.0 software. As App-hungry users simultaneously upgraded to 2.0, servers crashed, and that combined with the activation of an entire new population of iPhone 3G (combined with an unacceptable level of forced-in-store AT&T activation) was nothing short of crazy, stupid, madness. Steve Jobs should be ashamed of the chaos that ensued, the data that was lost, and the damage done.

Remarkable Community
Out of the chaos remarkable things happened, when Apple and AT&T customer service didn't. Twitter, of all online communities, became a place of support and instruction for the thousands of iBricks (iPhone 1.0s that froze during the upgrade to software 2.0). Friends and followers shared news openly. Updates could be found for any number of Apple stores (lines, service, and major breakdowns). Apple failed, but the tech community rallied to help one another find answers, fixes, and share in a little humor and therapy. More than the great apps (Super Monkey Ball) that's been my favorite part of the epic upgrade experience.

At the end of the day iDidntGetScrewed. Apple can do much better. Seeing the mighty fail, makes me wonder how so much greatness can end up in a clusterfu&k.

I tried clicking on this link but nothing happened during my first few attempts. My first reaction was 'typical MS, nothing works', but then I got a bit more annoyed as I really did want to know how my private information was going to be used.  I persisted and eventually the link took me to a page explaining their privacy policy.  Shock set in, not at what they do with my data, but at the quality of the spelling on the webpage.  I counted 28 spelling mistakes on the first page (without scrolling down) and the page refers throughout to Office 200.

It's the attention to detail that always impresses me about MS software.

[slideshare id=509844&doc=information-architecture-on-a-large-scale-1215812290572025-8&w=425]

And here are the notes:

• Notes for "Information Architecture on a Large Scale"

Thank you guys for the warm reception! And if you have anything to add, comment, or critique, please leave a comment or two.

Update: here is a video, courtesy of the fearless Brit Mansell:

• Information Architecture on a Large Scale (Video)