How to be a Genius

David Dobbs has written about the making of Genius in New Scientist on 15th September 2007. To quote:-

... forget the notion that "genius", "talent" or any other innate qualities create the greats we call geniuses. Instead, as the American inventor Thomas Edison said, genius is 99 per cent perspiration - or, to be truer to the data, perhaps 1 per cent inspiration, 29 per cent good instruction and encouragement, and 70 per cent perspiration.

Web Application Form Design

Luke Wroblewski has written about Web Application Form Design in User Interface Engineering on 26th June 2006. To quote:-

Quite rare is the Web application that doesn’t make extensive use of forms for data input and configuration. But not all Web applications use forms consistently. Variations in the alignment of input fields, their respective labels, calls to action, and their surrounding visual elements can support or impair different aspects of user behavior.

Web Changes Nature of the Organization

Gerry McGovern has written about "The Web Organizations" on his "New Thinking" web site on 18th June 2007. To quote:-

From a closed, centralized, cohesive unit, the organization is being changed by the Web into an open, dispersed, cohesive network.

In the beginning of the Web was the link, not the word. Linking is an inherently open, collaborative, and sharing activity.

The Web organization is

• measured by how linked it is,
• is nomadic. Its home is wherever its links are, wherever its content is re-published, wherever what it is about is being talked about.
• thinks beyond the website
• strives to be a hub, not an outpost.
• actively seeks out and encourages others to link to it.
• participates. It starts and contributes to conversations, and does not worry about who came up with the idea first.
• spends more time thinking about what it should share than what it shouldn't. Its first position is: Let's share this unless there's a really good reason not to. It assumes that its competitors know it already. It sees its strength in the network it is building, not necessarily what is on the network at any point in time.
• sees openness as a key strength and closedness as a major weakness.

The Anatomy of a Help File: An Iterative Approach

Mike Hughes has written about Help File Development in "UX Maters" on May 21, 2007. To quote:-

This article presents an approach to Help file design that focuses on creating a task-centered user experience and accommodates an iterative development strategy. This methodology allows the introduction of user assistance into early test phases—not only getting earlier validation for its accuracy, but also supporting quality assurance testing by serving as the test scripts for interactions with the user interface. This approach can also be a self-contained strategy—that is, one that allows an iterative approach to user assistance development even if the rest of product development operates on a waterfall model.

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

Ralph Lengler and Martin J. Eppler have written about Visualization Methods in www.visual-literacy.org (2007).

This is a highly visual page and difficult to quote from. There are some 100 Visualization Methods identified, classified and illustrated (with pop-ups), all laid out in a classic periodic Table of Elements style.

Methods cover visualization of:-

• Data,
• Information,
• Concepts,
• Strategies,
• Metaphors and
• Compound forms

providing either

• Process views or
• Structure views

Methods are classified as either providing

• Overview,
• Detail, or
  
• Overview AND Detail

illustrating

• Convergent or
• Divergent thinking

Very creative and information rich.

The Seven Deadly Sins of AJAX Application Development

Scott Robinson has written about "The Seven Deadly Sins of AJAX Application Development" in "ZDNET Builder-AU" on 20-Apr-2007. To quote:-

The AJAX bandwagon is a good place to be. It takes you to faster, more efficient, more dynamic apps. But it also has pitfalls all its own.
(Actually 14 'sins' - 7 'lesser' and 7 'deadly')

1. Misuse of the Back Button


2. Not telling the user what's happening


3. Neglecting Links


4. Trading content control for page control


5. Killing spiders


6. Producing unspeakable text


7. Not letting the JavaScript-challenged user know what's going on.

(The 'deadly' sins).

1. Letting memory leak


2. Not knowing what "asynchronous" means


3. Keeping the server in the dark


4. Getting lazy with GET


5. Not accounting for data type


6. Some apps just don't know when to shut up


7. Keep your JavaScript out of your DOM

The BBC's Fifteen Web Principles

Tomski has written about "The BBC's Fifteen Web Principles" in www.tomski.com on 6th Jan.2007. To quote:-

We developed these as part of the BBC2.0 project. I've been meaning to publish them for a while since they were signed off by the BBC board.

1. Build web products that meet audience needs:


2. The very best websites do one thing really, really well:


3. Do not attempt to do everything yourselves:


4. Fall forward, fast:


5. Treat the entire web as a creative canvas:


6. The web is a conversation. Join in:


7. Any website is only as good as its worst page:


8. Make sure all your content can be linked to, forever.


9. Remember your granny won't ever use “Second Life”:


10. Maximise routes to content:


11. Consistent design and navigation needn't mean one-size-fits-all:


12. Accessibility is not an optional extra:


13. Let people paste your content on the walls of their virtual homes:


14. Link to discussions on the web, don't host them:


15. Personalisation should be unobtrusive, elegant and transparent:

Good to great intranet

Toby Ward has written about Intranet Quality in "IntranetBlog.com" on Thu 11 Jan 2007 . To quote:-

What is the difference between a good intranet and a great intranet? What do you do to get to great?

There is no simple answer. In fact, using the Prescient Digital Media intranet methodology of rating and scoring an intranet out of 10, I estimate that to advance a 6 out of 10 intranet to an 8 out of 10 requires twice the effort and much more intelligent thinking.