The IA+D seniors are humming right along with their portfolios. I will be posting links to their work when they have refined it a bit further and have up loaded it to the web server. The revisions to the course curriculum, so far, has worked out quite well. I've developed the curriculum to incorporate a web component and a paper based too. Basically the students are producing a simple portfolio web site and a PDF portfolio too. The intent is to have a system which can be printed, sent via mail or email and can be viewed on line. It amazes me how much progression I've made through teaching. I've now been teaching just over a year. Becoming a part time educator has made me continually re-evaluate my own work too. Also, earlier, I received notice that I have been accepted to NYU's ITP!

Spring is exciting, it is. The snow is melted in Milwaukee and the grass is beginning to green up. It's the first day it really feels like spring (even though I'v been telling myself spring is here for the past week or so). I 'm beginning to hear back from schools! I've received notice that I was wait listed at the Interaction Design Institute, but did get in to the Institute of Design at IIT. I haven't told my new boss that I'm leaving yet, so, Steve if you're reading this (and I'm hoping you aren't) I'm going back to school next fall. I've felt mildly guilty for the past few months not telling people at work, but l feel its the right thing to do because nothing is set in stone yet. Its a careful balance, all information is, of what people know and at what time. I'm excited for spring. I'm excited for FITC. I'm excited for California this spring too. Lot's of exciting adventures in the near future.

We booked all our reservations for FITC this week. Work is picking up my tab. Tricia will be my partner in crime. The list of speakers is amazing. I have had an annoying time trying to claim my tickets. Apparently you can't buy a ticket, logout and buy another ticket later. Isn't buying the tickets all I should have to do before arriving?

This week was mixed bag, a good mixed bag, but mixed bag nonetheless (yes, that's one word). We finished the Paper Envy photo shoot. The picture above is of Tricia setting up some work at the shoot (Photo by Robert Nero). Overall things are going quite well with the Paper Envy web site. We now have all the work shot, we have a functional prototype and are working on the visual design.

This weekend we finalized our plans for FITC. We're looking forward to that in a few weeks. It will be a great break and the list of speakers is quite extraordinary.

In the tech department, I configured my Apache serve, installed PHP, and MySQL. It's interesting that I've known how to build dynamic interfaces, but have never really gotten in to the data side of things. I've come to the conclusion that I can set up many of the services I need to access the data in many of the sites I build. So, I've take the first step towards understanding that side of the coin.

An interesting article published by Adapative Path this past week was their AJAX article. The article caused allot of chatter amongst online communities. What strikes me is that this direction they define is how the industry has been moving for quite some time. First with remote scripting thought hidden iframes, then with the XHHTP request object. The striking part is that it takes some one to call out the direction before it takes off like wild fire. Its like we need those buzz words. I guess when you get down to it, thats what language does: gives us a common set of semantics that we use to describe the world around us.

Apple has the right to subpoena email form the Think Secret, Apple Insider and PowerPage ISPs. Fan sites, bloggs, wikis, and chat rooms are not journalism, they are speculative opinion mixed with some fact. The first amendment does not give us the right to distribute trade secrets, confidential information, or, information obtained under a non-disclosure agreement. Our freedom of speech mens we can say whatever we want. However, we must be accountable for what we say. Just because someone claims they are are journalist does not give them the right to break the law.

The bigger issue here is: What constitutes journalism? The line between what is news and what is opinion is particularly blurry with the branching of so many new mediums, political interests funding and motivating the media. Take Fox news for example, its mostly opinion.

This article is interesting because it was written before this got out of control: Washington Post.

More on the issue:
CNet, SlashDot.

This is absolutely hilarious! True Majority Action recently recently released a new video to promote awareness of how out of whack the United State's nuclear policy is (and yes, their web site is awful, I'v already told them).
 
 

I recently emailed True Majority Action. I love what True Majority Action is doing but their web site is terribly hard to use. Unfortunately if something is hard to use, people hit the back button and are on to something else. A system that is easy to use has direct benefits for user/activists and for True Majority Action.

The email alerts are good but when I follow the take action link, it gets confusing. I can literally do everything on the page that comes up, which may sound like a good idea at first but it becomes too much. I can read about an issue, take action, sign up, and log in. The page lacks purpose. I've already read the alert in the email and have decided to take action. You need to let me take action as easily as possible.

Having the Registration and the Take Action functionality on one page is confusing. They should be separate. It would clarify what they're expecting users to do. And, the Go button is gray on white and tiny. I didn't see it the first few times I went there and ended up filling out the registration information again. I can only assume I'm not the only one.

I did a quick mock up and sent it to them. I can guarantee that if they made a few simple design changes they would improve the usability of the system and would increase the completion rate of people taking action.

The bigger point that I wanted to bring up is in relation the First Things First manifesto that was circulating fairly actively a few years back. Designers from all design related disciplines need to at the very least consider how they can use their talents to contribute to the community at large.

Earlier this week I received an advanced draft of Jenifer Tidwell's UI Patterns and Techniques (O'Reilly). The author does have a web site where many of the patterns are documented. The intended audience is interface designers with some experience who want to expand on their existing knowledge. Tidwell's UI Patterns and Techniques fills a void that has long been a problem in the UI design world. That is, there are plenty of books devoted to designing web sites, and, there are plenty of resources for building desktop applications. But what about the vast number of people who work in both worlds, those of us who are expected to work with and adapt to adapt to a vast number of technologies like Flash, DHTLM, C++ and Java, and, are expected to work with changing user group and contexts for their applications use. There are pleantly of book devoted to the patterns of application development, but what about patterns for the user? This is partially what immediately drew me into the book. The author is able to build a case that by using interface design patterns, and, by using visual vernacular, we make the software we create more inhabitable. In the end, for me any way, this is a great goal: creating interfaces that are comfortable and feel like home.

I've only read the first three chapters and so far I am very impressed. Tidwell does an amazing job of consolidating her vast knowledge about user interfaces in to one source, without speaking down to the reader and without presenting it all in an overbearing way. As she states her self, 'the book is nothing new'. At first this put me off: Why should I care about something if it's old news? But the overarching point she is making is that the conventions and patterns are conventions we're all used to, things we probably use every day, or have even built. What is new, in my opinion is the analysis of the collection. It's hard to compare things when they're scattered and strewn about. Now, that we have a set of UI conventions it becomes easier to look at and compare how things are working and what the reoccurring problems and solutions are.

Tidwell brings up many issues and provides innumerable solutions. From perception of what a UI design does to the more technical issues about what patterns work in specific contexts (and why). From structure to behavior, from tasks to context, and, the great thing is that it is all presented in the context of the user and their interface. I look forward to the release. Any revision will only make this already great book even better.

I realized how much headway the FireFox browser has made today when I saw the local news had switched from using Internet Explorer to the Mozilla browser for their Internet features. I still giggle inside whenever I see a television trying to look like the web, it seems so irrelevant. This instance was mostly relevant though, it was intended to make a clear connection. Sometimes television tries to rip off a visual style like, a hand for a pointer, which has nothing to do with TV. Silly.