Today I’ve had a complete ‘computer day’, buying a wireless router yesterday was continued by the purchase of a switch for using two computer with one monitor, mouse and keyboard, and I also got a graphics card (my first GeForce - I always used ATI before). Since all this took time to make work, and I still can’t get the TV connection to work on the graphics card, I decided to install Ubuntu Linux on another computer while waiting for all those reboots for the first computer…

So far so good - Ubuntu is up and running, and all media files and plugins seem to either work right away or have a codec automatically downloaded after asking if I want to download it and of course also asking if I really really want to download it. For example getting the codecs for my old video files only took a minute, even though I had created them with unusual codecs (a few years back while studying I made movies for presentations etc).

The router was no problem to install, as long as I stayed away from the manual, which had suggested that I had to install something before I plug the router in - but the software on the CD was for another piece of hardware, so in the end I just plugged everything in, turned the devices on and had instant contact. Of course, there was still some configurations to be done for security, but that’s another story…

The graphics  card was a pain in windows, and then a pain in Linux as expected. Never having tried the Nvidia interface before didn’t make it easier, but at the end it all looked much nicer than with the old crashed graphics card - even though I still didn’t manage to get the image on the tv…

Finally the switch was left to install, but now it’s getting late so I’ll watch a movie before bedtime and continue tweaking and installing tomorrow - and perhaps also make a note here about configuring wireless networks..

Having a site everyone can use is obviously something every designer should strive for, but how should we do it, and why are certain methods better than others? As with many other research areas, there are divided opinions also within Usability. Some believe that the Usability rule set could be applied anywhere and goes above everything else, while others believe that usability should go hand in hand with a pleasing design to let the users have a relaxed look while trying to find what they look for. However, all agree that the user come first and the designer opinion last - meaning we must understand the target group to understand how to create the product…

In my first University course in the subject, we were first introduced to this way of thinking by looking at the Usability of real objects, such as kitchen appliances and parking meters. The books we used for a start were Designing visual interfaces by Mullet and Sano and The Design of Everyday Things by Norman - two books I can highly recommend both for a novice in the area and for someone who wants to know more about Usability in general. If you look at everyday things such as stereos, cellphone, laundry machines or even toasters, you can easily notice some part of the object which is more difficult, which is true especially the more advanced objects.

So what can designers, programmers, developers, managers, users and others do to help making for example web applications more user friendly? What can the ordinary man or woman do to help the designer, and what can the annoyed user with no patience do to help the programmer get it right? What can the programmer do to help both designers and users and what can the graphical designer do to help himself and everyone else?

What the users can do is pretty simple to answer - give feedback, comment and tell both what is good and what is not good enough. For this, the designer should give space for simple ways of contact - after all, the users is what should make the site live. However, the designer should still allow some security precautions to avoid spam, which can distract both programmers and designers…

One of the so called gurus of Usability is Jakob Nielsen, creator of the useit website and author of multiple books. If you want something simple and fast to read I recommend his book ‘50 websites deconstructed‘ - but when you look at his own site it’s easy to wonder if he cares at all about the design, and then the thought can be extended

The last course I had in Usability included one of the simplest books on the subject (besides many articles and essays of course) - ‘Don’t make me think‘ by Steve Krug - a well thought out book with simple illustrations and explanations of how the designers and programmers should think, to let the users keep their mind on the intended goal.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll write more about Usability and Accessibility, with simple rules to follow and methods to use - and also include simple analysis of a few websites. You are welcome to make comments here (or send a mail) to ask for an analysis of a specific site, or I’ll find one or a few myself which catches the eye - and maybe I’ll even use my own site as a starting point (yes, I am aware that it has flaws)…

Happy reading

Since this topic is quite popular at the moment, I had a look at different solutions. For anyone curious to explore more, you can look at sites such as AjaxProjects for a comprehensive list, Digital Trend for the best a year ago (according to them at least) or maybe you should simple start stumbling upon them? Looking at Stumbleupon, I start wondering what actually should define Web 2.0, since I used that site about 5 years ago before going tired of so many stumbled spam sites…

Some say that Web 2.0 is about mashing it up, creating sites like del.icio.us and digg, or maybe collecting the most popular sites to one, and showing feeds from the mentioned sites and others, also including media sites such as Flickr and ifilm…

Before uploading your photo to Flickr, you can edit online with tools such as picnik, and the videos can be fixed at sites like eyespot before putting them on for example youtube or Revver….

If you feel like being passive for the day, you can instead use services such as Songbird for streaming from a multitude of online radio channels, or go to Travelistic to see travel videos…

When you look at all the sites and what they have in common it can be difficult at a first glance, but then you start to think of words and terms like ‘user experience’, ‘creativity’ and ’simplicity’ - which are very important parts of the new web taking shape for the future. For example, you don’t always need AJAX or other new technologies to make it ‘Web 2.0′ - but you need to make it worth the time spent to visit the site…

By the way, is anyone else tired of hearing terms such as ‘Web 2.0′, ‘AJAX’ and similar? The technology and thoughts have been around for ages…

Googling for the term ‘Web 2.0′ gives results showing people aren’t tired of it, and actually it’s one of the most hyped terms our there at the moment. Sites like All Things Web 2.0, WebWare and Web 2.0 Magazine try to list as many as possible in categories, while some show the contenct from multiple sites, for example the before mentioned popurls or the iGoogle portal.

Something I’m thinking about now is how to set up a good travel section for this site. While working with development for a travel search engine where I’m now adding search for other travel related items to accompany the flight search already available, my interest for traveling has increased even further compared to before, also leading to insight in accommodation sites and finding out a little about what’s happening behind the scenes. Of course, I can’t share any of this knowledge here because of contracts and NDA’s, but can at least recommend what I come across and am impressed by. For example, I’d like to recommend having a look at Hip Hotels for some nice views before a trip, or if you feel like backpacking there’s usually some hostel with available beds through HostelBookers - or maybe you want to do some lifechanging travel, for example by volunteering in a third world country?

While on the road I usually bring the laptop, and there’s often available net either at or close to the hotel so I can use Skype which is of course connected as my home phone with SkypeIn and SkypeOut. This is actually what I also use at home, instead of getting a regular phone after moving to Denmark I simply decided to go with Skype, and can have a phone number in any country no matter where in the world I am at the moment. Now there’s even software to help if you want a temporary number - where Numbr sends any calls to the temporary number onward to your normal phone.

[Some of the links in this post are affiliate links where I earn a small percentage on sales - if you’re curious about the products but don’t want to support my blogging, the url’s are www.Skype.com, www.HostelBookers.com and www.i-to-i.com]

Every morning while having my breakfast, instead of reading the newspaper or watching tv like regular people, I often go online to read the news and check the latest updates on some blogs. My current favorites include problogger, Wired Top Headlines and lifehacker, while also following a few through iGoogle about areas I’m interested in such as photography, languages and coding.

Today lifehacker recommended a tool for embedding a flickr slideshow on your site, problogger looked at why you should attract RSS Subscribers, while Wired look at how some new Virtual Reality applications (someone told me a couple of years back that VR is dead, and that Augmented Reality is what we should talk about - still not much has changed on that front) use techniques seen in Sci-Fi movie Bladerunner to zoom in on image objects and rotate them. The topic in Wired sounds very much like my MSc thesis, so it caught my eye a bit extra for that reason - early in the thesis process, there was even talk of me and my thesis partner going to one of those conventions in the US and present our project. In the end we both had jobs though, and the idea ran out like sand in the hourglass…

In the article from Wired I notice that MS haven’t been able to solve more of the image to 3D than I did during the thesis project, so I’m still not behind in that field of science. The main difference between their successful project and what I did in the thesis is that they use hundreds of images to create a 3D model, which is fairly simple - with few images it’s much more difficult, something I’ll probably describe here in the future. I heard about the product while at work last week, but then thought they had solved how to create 3D from only one image - but since this was not the case I’m still not impressed…