Update: This project is now deprecated and Twitter has removed basic authentication.

Custom apps have major implications for usability so I decided to roll my own. I wanted to try out Fluid, the Prism-like app to contain web apps in their own process/window, to see if it is possible to build a complete open source ad-free twitter client in a single web page only using javascript and HTML.

So, I cuiled for a jQuery twitter plugin but had to google it to find it. Some minor modifications to the code by the fine folks at SeaOfClouds and adding a method to post new status messages gave this native-looking OS X twitter client (HUD-style to the left, default style to the right and HUD avatars style below):

Thank’s to the twitter json api it was trivial to query my own friend feed and display it in Safari. Then, I used Fluid to create a self contained OSX app that displays my static HTML page. Googling a nice application icon makes it much better-looking in the taskbar. I decided to call it “Twoot”. Twoot consumes little memory and plays nice with embedded URLs (they open in a new Firefox tab).

Unfortunately, Fluid does not allow you to distribute the created app so you will have to roll your own by:

1. Download and install Fluid.
2. Create a folder called “twoot” in your home directory.
3. Download the twoot html, js and css files from github and place in the twoot folder.
4. Edit twoot.js and set your twitter username and password. (Enter credentials in the basic auth form when launching app the first time).
5. Open Fluid and create a new app by pointing to the twoot.htm file (e.g. file:///users/you/twoot/twoot.htm) and set a nice icon.
6. Save the app as “Twoot”.
7. Your new twitter client is ready! Run it and resize as required, set the window to floating, kill tabs etc. Change the twoot.css and html file to customize it further.

Simple API:s are wonderful for usability!

It is amazing how much you can improve the percieved site speed by some minor changes to your htaccess file. This site runs WordPress and I was tempted to install the WP-Super-Cache plugin but was put off by some of the incompatibility issues that were reported with the latest version of WordPress and PHP safe mode. Until then I managed to lift my YSlow site score from grade F to grade C by:

1. Removing ETag headers by adding the following lines to my htaccess file (outside the wordpress-specific rewrite area):

Header unset ETag
FileETag None

2. Setting a future expires header for static files by adding this to htaccess:

<FilesMatch "\.(ico|pdf|flv|jpg|jpeg|png|gif|js|css|swf)$">
Header set Expires "Thu, 15 Apr 2012 20:00:00 GMT"
</FilesMatch>

If your app/blog uses some sort of dynamic generation of images you can modify the matching rule above for a more precise selection of files (e.g. only files in the templates folder).

Presto! Two simple additions to htaccess and cached access is down to two requests (of which one is Google’s javascript file for ads):

…research has also found that multitasking contributes to the release of stress hormones and adrenaline, which can cause long-term health problems if not controlled, and contributes to the loss of short-term memory.

I spend a lot of time in front of my computer every day. I discovered that over time, I have added so much attention-stealing stuff to my main work environment that I feel constantly interrupted. You get growl notifications, tweets, new email sounds, new email icons, RSS feed notifications and IM alerts. When you are reading stuff on the web you are constantly bugged by the latest in advertising technology.

So, starting a couple of weeks ago I decided to remove attention-stealing stuff from my work environment. A short list so far:

1. Disabling Growl notifications for everything but really important stuff. Done!
2. Turning off new email notfications for Outlook (on my Windows computer at work). Done!
3. Reduced ads in internet content by installing Adblock plus in FF3. Done!
4. Removed MailPlane icon from taskbar. Set “Do not disturb” mode in MailPlane. Done!
5. Turning off IM for long periods of time during the day. Done!
6. Scheduling RSS reading to specific time slots during the day. Hard!
7. Turning off notification sounds in Windows. Done!
8. Hiding the windows taskbar to get rid of spinning mini-icons in the right-hand corner. Done!
9. Turning off yellow alert popups from stuff in the Windows taskbar (like “A network cable was disconnected” – who the hell decided that that was a brilliant idea!?). Not sure how yet.
10. Creatign a consistent editing environment for blogs and wikis with the Universal Edit Button. Done when they’ve fixed the Delicious extension incompatibility.

I am feeling a lot more focussed already. The biggest improvement was from turning of new email notifications in Outlook at work.  I guess the experience is similar to what people are getting from the pomodoro technique.

The next step is to reduce clutter in my blogs to stop annoying other people. Mark Pilgrim gave some interesting tips in a blog post a while ago and I have implemented some of them already. Who the hell needs a visible RSS link (or RSS for that matter, now that we have Atom)? I am thinking about removing the whole category list as well. Do people ever click items in the category list?

It would be great if all apps could share a standard API to set a “do not disturb mode” toggable via a keyboard shortcut or a small timer app that allowed you to schedule this mode throughout the workday.

It presents some information that is different from how the Standish Group defines success in their often refered to CHAOS report. The Standish Group assumes that success is the traditional “on time, on budget and on scope”. In many ways this does not make sense as an estimate of time and budget are made when the least information is available (early in or before a project starts).

In Scott’s survey the following success factor priorities emerged:

• “Schedule: 61.3 percent of respondents said that it is more important to deliver a system when it is ready to be shipped than to deliver it on time.
• Scope: 87.3 percent said that meeting the actual needs of stakeholders is more important than building the system to specification.
• Money: 79.6 percent said that providing the best return on investment (ROI) is more important than delivering a system under budget.
• Quality: 87.3 percent said that delivering high quality is more important than delivering on time and on budget.
• Staff: 75.8 percent said that having a healthy, both mentally and physically, workplace is more important than delivering on time and on budget.”

Comparing Agile with other development methods

Based on these success criteria the survey investigated the success rate of different development methods:

A small step, but apparently Agile methods have the upper hand if the study is correct.

The missing pieces

What I still think is missing is a study that actually measures the outcome of a project after it was put into production and compares this with the desired effects that were envisioned. Neither the Standish Group nor Scott’s study on success factors seem to cover this.

• How quick was the return on the investment (if the goal was to increase revenue and/or reduce cost)?
• Were all of the desired effects realised?
• Were all the developed features used in a way so that they contributed to realising the desired effects? (think “reduce waste” if you are into Lean or “usability” if you are a human factors kind of person).

Measuring the above items would give more insight into the true success rate of a project rather than measuring the highly subjective “do you think is was successful with regard to factor X”? The only problem, I guess, is that few projects detail the desired effects in a way that is measurable in isolation from other factors in the environment (e.g. “the economy”).

The above items would also make it clear that the usability perspecive should be included from the start of a project.

• IR LED in the 920 nm range (a bag of 20 cost me )
• 1.5V AA battery
• a glove
• battery holder (with optional velcro to fit it to the glove)
• some wires
• a Wiimote
• software (I tried Uwe Schmidt’s java based Mac version).

The first beta version looks like above after some soldering.

After calibration the precision is really good, even when using it in front of the small screen of my Macbook Pro. It worked very well for card sorting in the OptimalSort demo and it feels natural to pick up objects with your fingers instead of pushing a switch on a pen.

I am eager to try it with a projector but that will have to wait until tomorrow when I get back to work. It would also be nice to try the virtual scrum board that Jesper Rønn-Jensen and hos colleagues are working on. Updates will follow.

The result should be useful for those who are trying to convince their IT department:

Stunning. The iPhone has introduced a new interaction paradigm to the world, in an uncompromising way that proves that “less is more” when it comes to true user experience.

Some other interesting quotes from the report include:

Most of the subjects did not mention the HTC at all when speaking of which device they would prefer. [...] Only one of the users was able to carry out all tasks [on the HTC] without the assistance of the test leader and all five users had severe difficulties with at least three of the tasks.

What is it then that makes the iPhone different? Most importantly, it has removed one level of abstraction by allowing the user to act on objects using the finger directly on the phone’s surface. The difference between this and having to press keys on a keyboard and watch the screen to see what happens is striking.

The full report is available in PDF from the inUseful blog.

Case in point: zooming in and out of a document:

• Safari: Apple +/-
• Keynote: Apple </>
• Preview.app: Apple +/-
• iPhoto: Alt 1/2

At first I thought that Apple +/- was for increasing and decreasing text, but in that case Preview.app is inconsistent. Oh well, moving on…

I have been running the beta version of MailPlane which provides at desktop version of Gmail (using Webkit). Apart from keeping Gmail in a separate branded window it also provides standard mac shortcut keys as well as desktop integration for screenshots and other file related things. Pretty sweet.

I was interested to see if Prism could provide a similar experience. Prism is currently an early beta at version 0.8 so it isn’t fair to expect too much of it. The feature wish list looks great.

Launching prism and creating a Gmail app worked great. However, Prism currently has some issues:

• It consumes close to 100% of a CPU core on my MacBook which makes it unusable for now.
• Font size can not be adjusted (should be a parameter?).
• There is a white space at the bottom of the app screen which reduce valuable screen estate.

I would also like to see an option to map access keys to native OS keys (e.g. Prism forwards ⌘+r as alt+r to the web app). This would allow users to work with the application in a way indistinguishable from a desktop application. also, if there was a way to interact with files (drag and drop etc) à la MailPlane I could see how Prism could be the preferred choice of many application developers in the future.

Couple it with a stand alone Ruby on Rails app (by using Joyent’s Slingshot) and you have a whole new way of developing applications that work offline, online and in a coherent way with other desktop apps. The future is bright!

Stockholm public transport has a tradition of being late to the 21st century. Pre-paid tickets are still paper based and stamped by the bus driver. Previously you could buy them directly from the bus driver. However, robbery prompted the public transport authorities to remove all cash handling from the bus drivers, hence the increased need for outdoor ticket vending machines.

So, how do you interact with these machines?

1. You start in the middle and press a blue button one to three times to tell the machine if you want a ticket for zone A, A and B or A, B and C.
2. Move down and press the second blue button once for a regular ticket or twice for a reduced price ticket.
3. Now it’s time to swipe your credit card on the top left side of the machine.
4. Move back to the center and press the green button once.
5. Ticket appears to the left.

Complaints mainly focus on the illogical placement of buttons (4, 1, 2 if you read top to bottom). In between pushing the buttons you have to look at the two line dimly lit LCD display to see what you are supposed to do next.

I am guessing most people buy a regular priced ticket for zone A (the city center). This involves pressing three buttons. Maybe the most common scenario could be reduced to “press a zone button and swipe your credit card”? Why does it have to be difficult?

I remember the pleasant experience of the Tokyo subway system. On some machines, all you did was to push a button representing your destination on the map, dump a fistful of coins into the machine and it would hand you the ticket and spare change in an instant.

Update: We won the World Usability Day design contest with a redesign of this machine. The design proposal and background is here (only in swedish).