Friday August 29, 2008

Auto-correct FTW!

I’ve turned off most auto-correct functionality in Word and PowerPoint, because they typically don’t correctly identify my intentions. I meant that to be a dash. Please don’t change it to an em dash!

But recently I’ve seen auto-correct features that are truly useful. In this example from the Mac version of NEAT Receipts, I can type a literal like “wednesday,” or “last tuesday,” or “next monday” and it will look up the date for me.

Details like that provide great ease of use and a sense of friendliness.

Have you found other examples like this in the wild? Share them with us in the comments below.

Auto-correct FTW! Image posted by Mark Kraemer in Usability . Comments (6)

Thursday July 24, 2008

Halo Experience

I’ve used several teleconference systems before to have meetings with clients all over the world. But none of them compared to the very cool experience of using the HP Halo system I enjoyed at a client this morning. This system has been available for several years, but this was my first experience using it. The picture above doesn’t do justice to 1) how easy it was to use and 2) the “real presence” feeling it provides. Even though we were talking to people in Chicago (we’re in Dallas) it felt like we were in the same room. I think part of what makes this happen is the tight control over the color and scale of each Halo room.

Halo Experience Image posted by Mark Kraemer in Interface, Technology, User Experience .

Wednesday July 2, 2008

Post-its as Pixels

Amazing rendering of Donkey Kong – the full article has other fun ideas for stickies. Found at MAKE: Blog

Post-its as Pixels Image posted by Mark Kraemer in Culture, Graphic Design, Visualization .

Monday June 30, 2008

Twelve emerging best practices for adding UX work to Agile development

Very interesting article by Jeff Patton on how UX practitioners have adapted to work in Agile environments. We’ve had mixed experiences with Agile approaches. I realize the benefits to iterations and small changes, but its also hard to balance that with the long term planning sometimes required for things like global navigation. I’m particularly interested in extending what we have tried before for “parallel track development to work ahead, and follow behind.”

Twelve emerging best practices for adding UX work to Agile development Image posted by Mark Kraemer in Infographic, Project Management, User Experience .

Wednesday June 25, 2008

Replace the fuzzy Windows icons in VMWare Fusion

We’re in the Microsoft Services Practice here at EMC, but most of us in 404 run VMWare Fusion on our MacBook Pros. When you’re in unity mode, it’s nice that you can cmd-tab between Mac and Windows apps alike, but the Windows icons don’t scale up nicely. Here’s how to fix that . (hat tip: Team Fusion )

Replace the fuzzy Windows icons in VMWare Fusion Image posted by Mark Kraemer in Interface .

Tuesday June 24, 2008

Oakland Crimespotting

This elegant display of human misbehavior was created by Stamen Design.
(via Adaptive Path)

Oakland Crimespotting Image posted by Matt Donovan in Design, Information Design, Usability, Visual Design .

Thursday June 12, 2008

Gradient Grunge

Web 2.0 as a style is not dead, far from it. Styles don’t die. If anything they percolate and then fuse into other styles. They get absorbed by the forward movement of design trends. Web 2.0 styles are mixed with grunge designs in many websites and graphics today. This style is Gradient Grunge.

This article in AiBurn discusses the attributes of this current trend.

Gradient Grunge Image posted by Mark Kraemer in .