echo "hey, it works" > /dev/null

just enough to be dangerous

An input device lesson


I recently found that you can find out what time it is in other parts of the world by entering 'what time is it in blah' into Google. I use Firefox with Google as my default search engine, so to find out the time somewhere it's just a matter of Cmd+K and asking. My 74 year old father in law's son lives in Boston, and his daughters in Melbourne and Perth, so I showed him what I thought was a pretty cool trick. This conversation followed:

Him: I can get that from the World Clock site.
Me: But this way you don't have to go to the site, just type it in the seach box.
Him: But I don't have to type anything on the World Clock site.

Yes, I would prefer to use the keyboard for everything if I could. I can touch type (and I'm so glad I can), but he can't. If my father in law could use the mouse for everything, he would. I guess that's one reason we don't get much email from him.

Humanized > Weblog: Ten Ways to Make More Humane Open Source Software


[Making OSS UIs work]

Do

  1. Get a Benevolent Dictator
  2. Make the Program Usable In Its Default State
  3. Design Around Tasks
  4. Write a Plug-In Architecture
  5. User Testing, User Testing, User Testing!!

Do Not

  1. Develop Without A Vision
  2. Join the Clone Wars
  3. Leave the UI Design Up To The End User
  4. Make the Interface a Thin Veneer over the Underlying Implementation
  5. Treat UI Design as Babysitting Idiots