Grow Smart Blog

Over a year ago in a blog post I discussed what makes a great user interface. I questioned Facebook’s big interface switch and I held up Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn to its standard. Looking back, everything I discussed feels relevant but also somehow remarkably out of date.

When I surf the web now I’m not just thinking about interface, I’m conscious of my experience. I think this subtle shift in terminology captures the gradual evolution of the web towards fun, user friendly spaces that encourage collaboration and community.

I found this user experience Honeycomb on Flickr. There are probably a lot of different matrixes to try and explain the new user experience phenomenon, but I think it comes down to one factor: resonances with our daily lives.

The “Machine is us” video taught us that users drive and therefore are the content of the web. If anything has changed its that now the user driven experience of online platforms, tools and methods of communication are fostering change in our real life experiences too. Social media has connected people online in an incredible way – real people, real issues, real-time. What happens on the Internet is a product of our lived experiences, and in turn our activities online ripple outward into the world.

So, what I think about now is what the next generation of user experience innovation will be. Videos, blogs and streams of updates are currently giving websites a tangible, interactive look and feel. Its not just click-ability and interest-factors that are providing value any more, its spaces that foster conversations and that appeal to the relevance of user’s everyday lives.

Now that we, the general public, are more in control of how web giants generate user interface and experience simply through the communication of our wants and needs – where do you think our passion for dialogue and engagement will lead the web?

I want to think about this question and write about websites currently providing unparalleled user experience, and then brainstorm about the kind of experience I’d love to see created online in the future.

Image Courtesy of Flickr user A-dit-ya. I love Creative Commons licensing.

So we couldn’t help following the string of TechCrunch stories over the past couple days releasing confidential Twitter company information and strategy on their blog. TechCrunch was e-mailed the info by a hacker who managed to answer the password safety questions of one of the Twitter founder’s gmail account. Yikes.

TechCrunch’s actions are highly controversial, and everyone is up in arms about whether or not posting the stolen info is wrong. TechCrunch didn’t do any stealing themselves, but many people still contend that chosing to act on the news tip was unethical.

To be honest, right now we are completely undecided. We see arguments for both sides.

We want to know what you think?

During a rare day off work due to getting the flu, I picked up a book I had purchased a couple of months ago that I hadn’t gotten around to reading. The book is called ‘The Dream: How I learned the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship and made millions’ it is basically an autobiography of Indian American entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal. The book is a very easy and pleasant read with a lot of great business tips and inspirational successes. I was surprised by how engaging it was, I actually couldn’t put it down. Gurbaksh or G as he is known to friends, immigrated to the US from India along with his parents, grandmother, two sisters and older brother. He always felt like a misfit and dropped out of school, only to found a multimillion dollar company at the age of 16. The story continues, and he shares business lessons he learned the hard way and highlights how to trust your instincts. His current project is www.gwallet.net which is a website that aggregates online coupons and good deals. I had a look at it and will definitely check it out when I am going to make my next online purchase, some of the deals are quite amazing.

With all of this said, I googled Chahal and it seems he has a kind of playboy, ego, consumption-addict image which was a bit of a disappointment…who knows what he is really like…and honestly, I could care less really. The book was a good read, especially if you are like us here at Smibs, a tech start-up.

Some other reviewer comments:

“While success like his is often attributed to luck, Chahal’s story, like that of many immigrants, is more one of sacrifice … it was years of hard work, persistence and faith, along with the support of his family, that brought his financial rewards–not chance.”–San Francisco Chronicle

“Chahal is a prodigy, a successful entrepreneur, and a writer. His story is remarkable and we think it is a prime example of what can be accomplished with a little motivation and ingenuity. Young Hollywood wants to know what this young man can’t do!”–Young Hollywood

Book image courtesy of Amazon

I think every software developer should read AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures, and Projects in Crisis. It’s not the most engaging read (it could be much worse), but it’s well worth it. Knowing software design antipatterns is just as important as knowing the Gang of Four patterns. Not all of the patterns are perfectly applicable, but at some point as a developer, you’ll run into one or more of the antipatterns. Being able to identify them and find ways to refactor or work around them is crucial.

Some of the reviews on Amazon are critical of this title for using CORBA as the basis for some examples, being old (published in 1998) or using obscure analogies (The Grand Old Duke). I did not find those issues impacted the relevance of the material. The languages and technologies used for examples are old, however the same mistakes, in new languages and technologies, continue to be made.

In my experience I’ve seen lots of these “problem patterns” used. I’ve done some of them myself. The project I’m working with at Smibs is fairly new, but some antipatterns have already appeared. I’ve seen the Yo-yo problem (A structure which is hard to understand because of excessive fragmentation), Input Kludge (not validating user input properly) and Error Hiding (not informing the user of errors). None of these are of a crippling nature, but they all need to be addressed to provide a quality, usable product.

I’d also suggest checking out the Wikipedia article on antipatterns. It expands on the material by detailing additional antipatterns and giving more contemporary examples.