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Old Posters Don't Die, They Just...

31 Jul 2003 by Matthew Oliphant

It is with regret that I wither into my previous existence on this site. Thanks for the opportunity to present usability/design issues that are important to me. With the exception of that damnable cow thing, I did try to stick to usability/design topics. Hopefully you found the topics valuable as reference material, and as an opportunity to discuss.

When you work for a company that has an homogenous, slow-changing user group that numbers more employees than work at Microsoft (which I find strange), you do tend to get a bit myopic. As such, I welcome the different points of view that are expressed daily on SVN.

The Web revolution has been over for a while, and after a couple of years of stagnation, the Web evolution is kicking in. It will be important to continuously question standards and research, update skills (both methodological and UI development), and never give up hope that user-centered design will someday become the process and not just a tool.

8 comments so far (Post a Comment)

31 Jul 2003 | Sonia said...

I found this site at the point when you started as a guest poster, and now it's a daily visit. Well done!

"The Web revolution has been over for a while, and after a couple of years of stagnation, the Web evolution is kicking in."

Context: North America and other technofriendly/fast moving areas.

Here in Spain it's all happening at the same time - and very slowly and heterogenously. Granted, we're new to the game, but boy it's hard to preach standards and usability when the guy down the street will build you a cool flash site for twice the price!

31 Jul 2003 | JF said...

Matthew, thanks so much for your valuable contributions. Some of the materials/links you posted have become permanent fixtures in my bookmark list. Thanks again for being our guest and I look forward to seeing your comments again!

31 Jul 2003 | fajalar said...

There are only two truisms in life:

1) There's never any Kleenex (nose tissue) around when you really need it.

2) There's always someone out there who can do it better than you, in less time, for less money.

You're right about context, Sonia. That's my myopia I spoke of. But don't worry as much about the guy down the street as the usability/design people in China and India. Comin' atcha fast, and kind of speaks to #2 above.

31 Jul 2003 | ~bc said...

Faj/MO,

Way to be. Good job this month!

16 Jan 2004 | Theodosius said...

At WWDC, I listened to Apple representatives make some excellent points about taking the time to build a 100%-compliant Aqua application, and I think all developers need to look beyond the code and listen to what the folks at Apple have to say

16 Jan 2004 | Walter said...

For example, if you see an AIM window peeking out from behind your browser and you click on it, that window will come to the front, but the main application window will not. The Mail.app/Activity Viewer is another example. The Aqua system of layers works well in many instances, but not in all. Thank goodness that the Dock is always there to come to the rescue. I know that clicking on an application icon in the Dock will always result in not only the application coming to the front, but also any non-minimized windows associated with it. And if the application is active but no windows are open, clicking on the Dock icon should create a new window in that application.

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