Tag Archives: ui

It used to be plain crap, but now…it’s Beta!

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“We have to admit, the old download manager totally sucked.”

Beta is beyond retro-cool. Remember the late 90′s? Recalled by some as, “The Golden Age of Beta”, is it being eclipsed?

With a health dose of web2.0 badges screaming: “BETA!”, anything could happen.

–I am so starting a band called The Beta Band, no wait that one’s taken…how about The Beta Bubble?

UPDATE: This is how to own up to being in beta. (thanks Jimmy)

Consider the default case

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When websites evolve and acquire new features it is important to handle “default cases” well. When I registered for the site in this image, the site’s designers had implemented a very basic personal profile, screen name, email and password; later they added additional details such as “Full Name”.

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”.

Focus on writing

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When a simple 10 minute exercise in thinking and writing up a few ideas turns into a two week delay in action, maybe the environment precludes the generation of the message. Can simple applications like WriteRoom make you more productive? You don’t need to write the next, great novel to appreciate the powerful, liberating experience of letting go and focusing on the task at hand.

What if writing weren’t so often like this:

but instead were more like this:

Are there similar text editors like WriteRoom for Windows?