February 2006 Issue
Trust and Blame
Published: February 20, 2006
I lost my address book recently. It was one of those near-death
computer experiences where you see your data pass before your
eyes and start searching through the trash, then the Web, hoping
to find the information you need right now. The experience
made me think about blame—and trust.
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Category: Columns
A Glimpse of China's Future at User Friendly 2005
Published: February 20, 2006
The taxi jerked to the left suddenly, and my life flashed
before my eyes—yet again. Narrowly missing a truck’s
bumper, we careened past it at 60 mph and dashed into a small
opening between two vans. In the back seat, Daniel and Jo from Apogee exhaled
with relief as we burst into an empty stretch of highway for
a few moments and could relax our grip on our seats. Before
long, however, our taxi driver plunged back into the fray,
driving at breakneck speed away from the Pudong airport toward
downtown Shanghai.
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Category: Reviews
Live by the Mockup, Die by the Mockup
Published: February 6, 2006
Mockup… The term itself brings to mind the duality inherent
in this omnipresent design artifact. It’s both a direct
representation of a product experience and a shallow portrayal
of an interactive system at the same time. Perhaps the term
originated with engineers or product managers intent on pointing
out that the mockup was just that: a superficial representation
that could never compare to the real product they had to build.
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Category: Columns
The Role and Evolution of Design in Software Products
Published: February 6, 2006
Design professionals often decry the lack of importance and
investment their companies place on design. After all, most
software projects revolve around a product’s engineering,
to the ongoing detriment of its design—not to mention
the chagrin of so many designers, who wriggle uncomfortably
toward the bottom of the food chain. But there is a good reason
for this: products can be very profitable without investing
a single penny in interface design—at least, beyond the
user interfaces the engineers build. Indeed, at least in the
early stages of a market or company, resources dedicated to
intentional interface design are often a bonus rather than
being viewed as a necessity. Sound crazy? Consider the natural
and normal evolution of a software product.
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Category: Columns