Month: February 2007

Internationalisation

February 26, 2007 / Chris / 0 Comments

International users of computer software have come to expect their software to â€œtalkâ€ to them in their own language. In many cases language barriers and nationalism preclude end-users from utilising English-language software. This is only part of the problem though, even for those that understand English, a major issue is productivity. Users who understand a product fully will be more skilled in handling it and avoiding mistakes. On a purely financial level, globalised software will lead to greater potential for the introduction of products, both in terms of penetration of new emerging markets, and by allowing greater reach to users in existing areas.

The value of internationalising software and user interfaces for the international market is no longer in question and in my opinion over the next few years, markets will be divided between those players who succeed by understand the importance of fast globalisation i.e. simultaneous localization of their products into all markets in all languages, and those that fail. A successful global product or service is not made only for a single language group, it is made for a global community of users. The price of not understanding this can be pretty high, according to the U.S. State Department, U.S. firms alone lose $50 billion in potential sales each year because of problems with translation and localization.

Internationalisation, though, it is not an easy task It is therefore essential to understand the needs and requirements of the international marketplace as early as possible in the development cycle, and then to build the capability to support these into the product design and development processes. It is important to develop the product in a modular, extendible, and accessible way, so that when the need to localise for a particular market arises, the localisation can be done as easily and cheaply as possible. Few people have an issue with the idea of developing open systems these days. This means products that are developed with an eye to scalability, portability and interoperability. It is my contention that a fourth important dimension of any open system as we move into the global marketplace is localisability.

Damien Rice

February 20, 2007 / Chris / 0 Comments

Went to what was one of the greatest gigs I’ve ever attended tonight. Damien Rice has long accompanied me as the soundtrack to some of those poignant events in life. He’s been there when falling in love and when love has left. Tonight, was the first time I’d seen him live, and the memory still resonates.

On a balmy evening we headed for the Palais in St Kilda. The old theatre was charming, and smelt like an old piano. He came on stage, and was electric from the first moment. What seemed powerful and ethereal on record was gut-wrenchingly heartbreaking in real life. He was accompanied by Lisa Hannigan, who was willowy, demure and has *the* most incredible voice.

Home now, but I think I’ll dig out some of those old albums tomorrow and try and live this evening over.

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Multiple Versions of IE on same machine

February 13, 2007 / Chris / 5 Comments

At Acumentum we always test our designs on multiple browsers. As we all know, one of the great pains in our business is getting a design to look, as it should, across a variety of browsers.

Internet Explorer 6 is still the most common browser on the web, yet in our office most people are running Firefox 2.0 and IE7. This makes quick testing, as you go, a pain, as IE5, IE5.5, IE6 and IE7 cannot co-exist on the same machine…or at least that used to be the case.

One of the enterprising lads in the office found that some clever people at Tredosoft have created an installer (10.3 MB) that allows you to have all versions of IE available on the same machine.

This is one of the most useful tools I’ve seen this year.

The Quiet Usability Heuristics

February 13, 2007 / Chris / 4 Comments

We are all familiar with a variety of common heuristics which we can use to measure, test and design interfaces. However, there are a few that tend to get overlooked, but like all good children they deserve their day in the sun! In this post I’ll just touch on some of the key aspects of these. A quick search on the web will give whole reams of further information should you be interested.

Window Organisation: By decreasing the time the user spends adjusting, moving and re-sizing windows, we can increase the amount of time they spend concentrating on their real goal, and consequently increase user-satisfaction. By observing the relative locations and size of spawned windows in relation to the parent window and other related windows one can judge whether the placement is optimal. If a certain task requires the user to move windows around, and re-size them to achieve their goal, this is a sure-fire indication of bad usability.

Some key characteristics of good window organization are
– simple user navigation
– minimal and simple user window management

Readability: The textual aspect of interfaces is very important. Much of the information imparted by a UI is textual, therefore the layout and form of the text has a significant impact on the ease with which the user assimilates information. Since text is one of the primary sources of information for users it is important how it is worded. If the text is worded poorly then the users will perceive the interface poorly. Certain standards do exist for text size, labelling, fonts and formatting.

Clarity: Crowded screens are difficult to understand and hence are difficult to use. Experimental results show that the overall density of the screen should not exceed 40%, whereas local density within groupings shouldnâ€™t exceed 62%. Items that are logically connected should be grouped together to communicate their implied association, and can be tested against. Clarity can be empirically determined through ratios of signal to noise at the interface.

There are many more less lauded UI heuristics out there, and in the coming weeks I’ll come back and talk more about these.

St Kilda Festival

February 12, 2007 / Chris / 0 Comments

Went to St Kilda festival over the weekend, this was my first opportunity to experience this famous event (it was cancelled last year, I think due to the Commonwealth Games). In the morning it seemed like the Gods had frowned upon us, with some early rain and grey clouds. However, by lunch time the sun was out again, and the crowds started milling into the area.

The festival itself had so much going on, with areas set aside for bands, rides and my personal favourite, extreme games. We checked out the skateboarding, wakeboarding and BMX events, which were fabulous. As the day work on, the wind picked up, and we got fatigued by the ever increasing mass of people. So, we went back to my place, and opened up a few beers. Loads of friends were passing through and called in, before we knew it we had a mini gathering on our hands!

It was a really great day, and the vibe in the area was amazing. Melbourne truly is a place that lives on events such as these. Barely a weekend goes by without some event happening in the city. Next up the Grand Prix….

Check out my pictures of the day.