Andre’s Blog

AJAX Alternatives review of AJAX, XUL, XAML, Flash and SVG for RIA

August 31st, 2005

Weighing the alternatives a great article by Alexei White on the pros and cons of different and competing RIA technologies.  Alexei does a great job of giving a high level overview of AJAX, XUL, XAML, Flash and SVG as competing technologies in the RIA space.  Possibly he could’ve gone into a bit more detail on how some of these technologies can work together and are not necessarily exclusive.  Maybe that’s an idea for a follow-up article Alexei:-)

 

One of Alexei’s points is very important for a lot of our corporate customers:

 

“Ajax offers something else too. It`s a way for web developers to leverage their current skill sets to achieve the first goal: build better applications. JavaScript and DHTML aren`t new, and more importantly: corporations are loath to acquiring 3rd party software components that use technologies their in house developers have no skills with. It doesn`t make business sense to jump into technologies that have rarefied skill sets unless you have to because it`s expensive to be retraining your employees or outsourcing development work to specialized consultants. “

 

Another point I’d add to this is that HTML and JavaScript have been around for years and are exhaustively tested open standards.  A huge trust factor for enterprises that have been burned by new “promising” technologies in the past.

 

 

Technorati Tags : AJAX, XUL, XAML, Flash, SVG, RIA

Posted in Technology, Software Development, AJAX, Web 2.0, Usability - HCI | 4 Comments »

Vancouver Web 2.0 User Group

August 30th, 2005

Vancouver Web 2.0user group and forum has recently started up in Vancouver, BC.  It’s a spin group from VanX and has some interesting members and blogs listed.  Looking forward to the fall events, mail-list and hearing about what other vancouver companies are working on.  Obviously I’m very interested in who else is working on AJAX here as it would be great to see some local collaboration take place.  Thanks to all those who made this happen!

 

Technorati Tags : Vancouver, Web2.0

Posted in Technology, Software Development, Web 2.0, Business | No Comments »

RSS component for Sharepoint (WSS)

August 30th, 2005

Daniel Larson’s SPBlog - Wow that’s impress Sharepoint already has an RSS component. Does sarcasm work in blogs?  Anyway, I shouldn’t be such a cynic.  We use WSS extensively internally and have built some neat information management systems on top of it for a number of clients.  Might actually help us internally right away.

 

Technorati Tags : RSS, component, Sharepoint, WSS

 

 

 

Posted in Software Development, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Blog Marketing: Ping List

August 30th, 2005

Just scouring the interenet for blog aggregators and indexes, here’s what I go so far for my blog.  I’ll add to it as I go. I’ll also add some tips and explanations for this for the less web 2.0 savvy blog readers I have.

 

http://www.popdex.com/

 

http://www.technorati.com/

http://www.daypop.com/ -

 

www.pingomatic.com This is actually the only one you really need:-)

 

Technorati Tags : Blog, Marketing:, Ping, List

Posted in Web 2.0, Business | 1 Comment »

Eclipse Web Tools Platform Project - JSF Project Launched

August 30th, 2005

Eclipse launched the JSF project just recently.  Our team is ramping up to integrate our AJAX Grid and Combo components with variouse IDEs this fall so this is good timing. Eclipse Web Tools Platform Project  (direct link: http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/jsf/)

 

Overall we’ve had a more difficult time targetting IDE and platform integration from the non MS world which is too bad.  We are are working hard to support JSP, JSF, J2EE and other related environments better, but due to the fragmented nature of the these markets it is far more cost prohibitive to develop for than say Visual Studio and ASP.NET where the whole environment is mapped out and provided by one vendor.

 

Technorati Tags : Eclipse, Web, Tools, Platform, JSF, Launched

Posted in Technology, Software Development | No Comments »

Usability Tips and Tricks - how it helped PGE

August 29th, 2005

Well it�s been about a month now since I attended WebVisions 2005. I attended an interesting talk by Chris Bond, a usability analyst at Portland General Electric. The topic was how usability improvements saved PGE approximately 250K or the equivalent of 10 FTEs (full time employees).

The presentation started with a video clip of the users of new a new client-server win app that was used in the call center. Most of the users expressed extreme frustrations, one user called it a �time incinerator� and �this sucks� was the comment from yet another dissatisfied user.

Usability is the key to customer satisfaction, you wouldn�t live in a house if the lights, plumbing and door wasn�t there�I know!?

I jotted down some points from Chris� presentation, my thoughts included in some of the points.

Classic usability problems
Takes too much physical and cognitive effort
Managing multiple windows on the desktop
Switching between keyboard and mouse, this takes time and is annoying (can also cause carpal tunnel syndrome)
Switching between typing and hand writing notes (the system should data so users don�t need to do this)
Superfluous keystrokes, unnecessary dialogue boxes (i.e too many �ok� pop ups)
Unnecessary task complexity
Unnecessary data re-entry, �swivel chair� integration (manually visually re-entering data from multiple screens, too much copy and paste, etc..)
Compartmentalization of data - transaction based
Inefficient task performance (multiple ways to do same thing - users often choose the least efficient somehow)
Pre-populated data lacking. such as: default date, employee/user number, customer/invoice number�
Default option is cancel in dialogues

Some tips on how to build a usability process: Look at baseline metrics, how long to complete tasks
Sit with the user and visually observe them
Develop top ten list of usability problems
You need a robust fully functional prototype
Solve come up with solutions to the usability problems and re-test, repeat
Measure number of steps
Measure times of tasks - before and then one month after implementation and trained users
Begin timing when tasks start
Suspend timing for questions
End timing when task is completely done
Throw out aberrations
Use same users from baseline to improvement (studies)
Note issues
Focus on routine tasks

Some GUI design tips for improving usability: Navigation task buttons
Pre populating fields
Auto tabbing
Automated calendar
Summary screens - user needs don�t map to data model and hierarchy �summary screen example�
Removing the need for a mouse for high powered users a good thing (doing this on the web is challenging though)
Insulate user from destructive actions - forced, background save

Usability / HCI metrics:

keystroke on standard board 0.28 seconds
move hand to mouse 0.36 seconds
move cursor to new location on screen 1.5 seconds

Business benefits PGE got from the usability analysis:
shorter hold times
decreased abandon rates
increased accessibility
improved service levels
shorter talk time
Savings of 170K = 5.5 FTE (Full-time employees) *I�m not sure why this number is different that the 250K why an employee is 30K per year, I�m guessing that�s a standard in ROI calculations.

Observations about users even with a more usable system:
Old behaviors die hard (training and new system isn�t enough)
Monitoring and coaching is required
Practices need closer attention

In conclusion Chris noted there is often hesitance to usability analysis and improvement for various reasons. One is the original developers/designers/managers are afraid they will be made to look bad. This would be a great argument for doing the analysis up-front and having a usability focus from project inception.

One opinion that I don�t agree with Chris on is that usability issues are defects and is not something you should have to pay for. Coming from consulting background, everything should be billable, how is this made objective, usability seems subjective on some levels. Even if it�s not, if the customer doesn�t want time spent on it in the project budget then they should if they want it retroactively. It takes a long longer to make something complex like a software system simple and easy to use. BJ Fogg and Phd from Stanford said it takes 5 times as long to make something simple.

It�s not always easy to charge for and sell usability, it should a separate deliverable in your statement of work - it�s quicker and cheaper to just slam a system with a database and a bunch of screens together without thinking about usability and work flow, and clients always demand quicker and cheaper! Looking for some ideas on this�

It was also mentioned that remote usability testing using software installed on end users computer tracks mouse clicks and screen captures is not as valuable as in person observation and interviews.

Posted in Technology, Software Development, Business, Usability - HCI | No Comments »

APIs, Usability and AJAX

August 27th, 2005

O’Reilly Radar How To Roll Out An Open API - Great article about how to create software that’s easy to use by other software developers.  Our whole team should read this to help them in our quest to build easy to use Enterprise class AJAX components.