Lastly, the average enterprise won’t effectively use Flash or HTML5 or any other shiny new UI technology. Because the root problem as I see it is not lack of powerful UI technology. Instead, the root causes for sub-optimal user experience have to do with lack of appropriate process, and governance, and lack of a genuine commitment to a quality user experience. Such a commitment would lead organizations to adopt a user-centered usability-oriented development process. Rather than taking thes

This could be big. Google is introducing a new set of social networking tools to Gmail. From media sharing to status updates, Google Buzz let's you use your Gmail contact list as what is essentially a "friend list". This makes it compete with literally every social network out there. From the Official Google Blog:

In designing for entertainment companies, the issue of content prioritization takes a challenging turn: which one of the multi-million dollar brands—the parent or the product—gets top billing? At Sisu, we have designed award-winning websites for a number of entertainment companies, including Sony, Nonesuch Records, and Paramount Pictures. We've also handled the promotional sites for entertainment companies' TV shows and band websites. In doing so, we've learned a good lesson: designi

With major players like YouTube trialing HTML5 versions of their sites Adobe has to keep an eye on Flash's performance which is often blamed for crashing browsers and high CPU loads. While HTML5 video playback definitely has performance benefits Flash still has some advantages over it such as fullscreen playback, but for how long?

With major players like YouTube trialing HTML5 versions of their sites Adobe has to keep an eye on Flash's performance which is often blamed for crashing browsers and high CPU loads. While HTML5 video playback definitely has performance benefits Flash still has some advantages over it such as fullscreen playback, but for how long?

Thus far I've discussed the actual UI elements, but what about the way you interact with them? This was the truly disappointing part for me. The ability to use two, three, and four-finger gestures, short and long taps, and other benefits of direct digital interaction are pretty scarce. Sure, there are some specific gestures in, say, Keynote, but come on… I have more multitouch capability on the laptop I'm writing this piece on, so I know that Apple has the imagination for it (a piece here

The main trouble in visualizing an interface for a tablet device is lowered expectations. This stems from the lack of true tablet devices available to the consumer. Of course there are convertible laptops and a few tablets here and there, but they all share the same crippling flaw: they run an OS that was not designed for tablet use. The limited resources of a physically small, low-power computer have restricted them to either running Windows XP, CE, or some sort of heavily accoutered mobile OS.

The best iPad applications give people innovative ways to interact with content while they perform a clearly defined, finite task. Resist the temptation to fill the large screen with features that are not directly related to the main task. In particular, you should not view the large iPad screen as an invitation to bring back all the functionality you pruned from your iPhone application.

Check out this TechCrunch article on concept demos released by Google of a possible Chromium-based tablet.

Last year at CES "gestural input" was all the rage in the major CE booths (Sony, Samsung, LG, Panasonic, etc.). Translating from CES-speak, this was primarily things like "changing the channel on a TV using a gesture." This year the silly basic gesture crap was gone and replaced with IP everywhere (very important in my mind) and 3D (very cute, but not important). And elsewhere there was plenty of 2D multitouch, most notably front-and-center in the Microsoft and Intel booths. I didn't see much sp

Google is officially phasing out their support for IE6. This means we can all start working on more important things rather than debugging for old and quirky browsers.

10:25am - comment: Everything that has been shown up to now looks pretty much as expected, even the tablet design which is basically a stretched iPhone. Buttons are bigger, font sizes have been adjusted. Videos look great, photos look great. Our guess is that it needs more to become a must-have device vs something that fits uncomfortably between your phone and notebook.

The trick is to figure out which details help users identify the UI element, and which details distract from its intended meaning. Some details help users figure out what they’re looking at and how they can interact with it; other details distract from the idea you’re trying to convey. They turn your interface element from a concept into a specific thing. Thus, if an interface element is too distinct from its real-life counterpart, it becomes too hard to recognize. On the other hand,

Last weekend I sat on the Tube (the London Underground to international readers), Piccadilly line to be exact, heading into central London. A young man got on and sat down opposite me. He got out a little ASUS netbook, turned it on, and swiveled the lid to use it as a touchscreen. "Awesome," I thought, "he's got one of those cool touchscreen netbooks running Windows 7. I'd love one of those, it'd be so convenient."

Amazon posted an announcement of an upcoming beta SDK for developing "active content" for the Kindle. The announcement also describes the revenue-sharing scheme, and mechanisms for controlling bandwidth usage on Amazon's Whispernet.