• The UX of Q&A websites

    I used to use Experts-Exchange alot.  I really liked it and racked up a bunch of points.  I could answer people’s questions and get instant positive karma (and points).  It was a fun activity and it felt morally rewarding.  I started in 2003 and sort of faded out on it…

  • An idea for Project Management software

    There is no such thing as SaaS management software. There are bug trackers like Jira and Bugzilla.  There is Agile project management software like TargetProcess or FogBugz.  There is Microsoft Project.  But there isn’t something I look at and say, “That would work to manage the never-ending work a SaaS…

  • The SuperDiv

    Without any doubt in my mind, this is the holy grail of web development.  A superDiv.  I spoke with Brad Neuberg about this at AjaxExperience.  He was working on possibly using the <canvas> tag to do interesting things like this.  Corner.js does this pretty well for <img> tags, but not…

  • The UX of Online Tennis Ladders

    They all suck.  How hard is this?  The rules are simple.  The business model is simple. People register and join a ladder.  It costs a minimal amount per player, like 25 cents a month per player. Ladders have rankings for each player in the ladder. 1-n. Each player has a…

  • Storm Large: Beautiful

    I love this song. I don’t know what it is about it. I don’t think she will make it big time, but the song is worthy to me. From the Storm Large site.  I have a few live versions.  I should get the LP.  The studio version is the best.…

  • What’s a Financial Crisis?

    I heard this story on NPR about the credit crisis and financial meltdown.  It was a clear objective view of what happened.  No one was demonized or blamed.  It was a collective system that led to this outcome.  I learned more about finances during this episode than I have in…

  • The UX of Electric Cars

    Once the Chevy Volt and other Electric Cars come on the market, I believe there will be alot of people who trade in their cars for a gas-free commute.  This will have an important effect.  Electric bills are going to skyrocket. What is now considered ‘cheap’ will become an important…

  • My Favorite Slide

    Also known as Baby Sandwich. This was my favorite slide from my presentation.  There are ideas that become wrong over time and you have to willing to get rid of it.  It could be your own code, your own ideas or positions you had previously taken.  It doesn’t matter whose…

  • The UX of the Renaissance Hotel

    At AjaxExperience, we stayed at the Boston Renaissance Hotel.  It was mostly 95% pleasant, but the 5% really annoyed me.  Is this nitpicking or human behavior?  I definetely feel like it’s the little things that matter.  Although if you screw up the big things that is bad too.  In general, I…

  • Browser Possession Part II

    Remember Browser Possession?  It was at the end of last years AjaxExperience.  I had figured that it was a dead issue, but apparently it has come up again a few times in this years conference. I asked the Adobe guys about it and got a surprising answer.  They are talking…

  • The UX of Forms and the Enter Key

    Someone at the conference just asked me a question: “What should the enter key do on a form?” My answer, based on research during my stay at Intuit is: Submit the form only if A login form with 2-3 fields like username/password A short form like “New Widget” or “Save…

  • AjaxExperience Presentation

    I think it went well.  I had nice reviews from people afterward.  So far, the conference has been fun and informative.  I have met lots of new and exciting people.  I love being around such brain power.  It’s inspiring and exhausting.  Somehow though, I feel like last years was more…

  • The UX of SmartClient

    The other day I blogged about a list of RIA frameworks.  Apparently TheServerSide.com picked it up and spiked the traffic.  Anyway, by the end of the review, I came across SmartClient and I was tired of RIA Frameworks and they all looked the same.  I gave them too quick of…