Lucid Interface

Onward and Upward

2007-10-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

I am no longer providing design and usability consulting services through Lucid Interface. I actually haven't been for quite a while now, since about a month or so after starting at Princeton Softech.

Between the commute and the responsibilities of the position, I don't have the bandwidth to take on anything more. The site will remain up and I will continue to provide publishing services for authors, but I will no longer be providing design and usability services.

Additionally, Princeton Softech is being acquired by IBM and the challenge of the integration should keep me very busy for the foreseeable future.

New Community for UX Pros: Catalyze

2007-08-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

It's brand-spanking new, so there's not a whole lot there yet. But what is there looks pretty darned good. I'm optimistic that this will grow to become a valuable resource to BAs and UX pros alike.

http://www.mycatalyze.org/

Future of Web Design '07

2007-08-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, NYC
November 7 - 8, 2007

I recently registered for this event. It should be a good one. I decided to stick around for day two as well and attend a couple of the workshops. So I'm looking forward to being in the city for a couple of days and doing a bit of networking.

http://futureofwebdesign.com/index.html

Publishing & Author Marketing

2007-06-29T13:25:00.001-07:00

I recently entered into the publishing business and am also working to market my brother Paul's upcoming book, Original Faith. The book will be available later this year.

I've been working hard to promote the blog and book and recently put out a press release which was picked up by Air America. Long story short, Paul's interview on the nationally broadcast radio program "State of Belief" will air this weekend.

The interview was taped over the phone yesterday. The show airs tomorrow, Sat. June 30 at 10 AM EST (7 AM Pacific) and again on Sunday 7 PM EST (4 PM Pacific). The show is also available online and is archived. They provide details on how to listen on their site.

To send Paul comments, visit his blog at www.originalfaith.com/blog.

Review of "Getting Real" by 37signals

2006-07-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

As promised, what follows is a short review of "Getting Real, The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application" by 37signals -- makers of Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack and many other successful Web apps.

I bought the book (which is a .PDF download on their site for $19.00) for two reasons: Firstly, I have always liked the applications 37signals produces and secondly, I loved the title of the book.

Working at a large company as I do, it is constantly frustrating to be mired down by the people and processes that seem to pervade every aspect of development. From the bloated meeting agendas to the overkill MS Project docs -- all the process and documentation actually detracts from the team's productivity -- and the product suffers for it.

This is the key message offered by 37signals with this work: Less is more. Fewer features mean you can focus on delivering a higher-quality product that does just enough and not too much. And although they write from the perspective of a company building web apps to sell to the general public, the same principles apply to the kind of internal development efforts my team is involved with at SAP.

Some of the most valuable points I found in the book include the following concepts:

Fix time and budget, flex scope. If you can't fit everything you wanted into the time and budget constraints you have, don't extend the deadline or throw more money at the project. Instead, pare down the scope. It's better to do something small well rather than do something larger that is of poor quality. Add what you had to leave out in the next iteration.

Learn to say "no." This is a biggie. Ignore customer requests for additional features. Completely. Don't even bother to write them down. If they are important, they will resurface. That may sound harsh at first, but the quality of the product depends on it. Don't let scope creep take your team away from the original vision. Software development is an iterative process. If the feature request is truly of value, your customers won't forget it and you can work it into the next version.

Design your interface for all three states of the application: regular, blank and error. I'm so glad they included this point. I had to learn this one the hard way. The easiest state to forget is blank. When developing and application that is database-driven, we are working with dummy data and never see the app without something populated in the tables and fields. But your customer's first pass through will be a blank state. Don't forget to design for that. And of course, make sure you know how to handle errors. The best book on this subject I've found is another by 37signals: "Defensive Design."

Context over consistency. This idea is difficult for interface designers to embrace, but I think its time has definitely come, particularly as it relates to AJAX and RIA apps. Forget the mantra that says consistency creates usability. Context is far more important than consistency. It's okay to forget about consistency if your application functions better that way. The context should be the driving force behind the design.

Overall "Getting Real" was a valuable read and I learned something from nearly every chapter. I love the style of writing used in the book. It's fun to read and the quotes at the end of each chapter really make the ideas come to life.

All-in-all a good read and I look forward to more from 37signals.

Beginnings of a Blog

2006-06-17T18:53:00.000-07:00

I have decided to create a new blog to accompany the Lucid Interface site so I could create a history of my reactions to various articles, books, events, etc. related to Web design and development.

My next post will be a review of the new book entitiled "Getting Real" by 37 signals. I related immediately to the basic idea that less is more. But moreover, I found it contained a couple of interesting points that were immediately relevant to work I'm doing currently at SAP and for Lucid Interface.

If you haven't downloaded your copy yet, I suggest you do so. You'll get plenty for your $19.00.