Software « MICHAEL MCWATTERS

Software

Goodbye Site Map, Hello Mind Map

A mind map is easier to read than a traditional site map.

There are a few reasons I’ve almost entirely ditched site maps in favor of mind maps. (Mind maps are traditionally considered tools for concept mapping or diagramming complex ideas, not websites.)

First, site maps tend to be better for page-based site diagramming, but as we move toward states and modes, user decisions and flows become more relevant than pages. I find mind maps do a much better job showing routes and decisions that don’t necessarily correlate to a page change.

Second, I find the better mind mapping software to be more intuitive and fast-paced than most site mapping software.

The MindNode UI.

For example, MindNode, an excellent Mac-based mind mapping application, lets you start designing web experiences in seconds. The interface is extremely minimal, and while you can’t customize the look and feel of your work much, the default output is quite elegant and clean. The experience is so easy and fast you actually feel creative again. (MindNode also comes in a touch version for iPhone / iPod / iPad, and it works really well, even on a small screen.)

MindMapper...how very Office-y of you.

But beware. Some mind mapping software leaves a little bit to be desired. For example, MindMapper is feature rich, but I find the interface cluttered and overwhelming. When I want to sketch, I want the UI to disappear. In other words, using software should be as fast if not faster than simply sketching on paper.

Finally, it’s become clear to me after years of experience that most clients just don’t get site maps. They stare blankly, and have little if any feedback. They want to see what the experience will be like for the user. I’ve found mind maps, while still abstract, do a better job conveying what the user experience will actually be like.

Software / Technology / Thoughts — 2 Comments
8
Aug 10

Why Google Wave Failed

Google Wave is dead. Over. Kaput.

Of course, to anyone who considered using it, this isn’t a surprise. Nonetheless, it’s a bit sad; Google Wave had great promise and received much fanfare. It was heralded by many, including Google of course, as a revolutionary way to communicate.

But it had one major, insurmountable flaw: no one understood it. Or, rather, it took too long to understand.

And in this there is a lesson. Successful products and services almost always share the trait of understandability. When you encounter them for the first time, you understand what they do and how they can benefit you. If they are complex, then the wrapper does a good job of explaining why you should buy, though that’s a less desirable circumstance for the provider to find themselves in.

It’s not that Google Wave was overly complex in and of itself; rather, it’s that Google never did a good job explaining to people why they should use it. On top of that, the product itself—the user interface—gave few if any clues as to what made it tick, why you should use it, and why it was so revoluationary. Adding insult to injury, you could only use it with other Google Wave members, so it meant you were only able to communicate with the rare few who, like yourself, “got it.”

I’m sorry to see Google Wave die. Not because I think it was great, but because it might have been great but I just didn’t know it.

Software — No Comments
15
Jul 10

Screen Capture Widget

Here’s a great little Mac-based screen capture widget from apaulosdesign. It does a great job with long / wide pages, as well as pages with Flash. Very nice; I think it should be in every Web designer’s toolkit. (I hope their glyph widget is available soon!)

Rants and Screeds / Software / Technology — 5 Comments
24
Jun 10

You Snooze, You Lose

As I’ve mentioned before, a shortage of ideas isn’t my issue. I have plenty. It’s getting them going (enemy number 1: time, or lack thereof).

Anyway, yesterday I saw that 37signals had launched an iPad app called Draft. This app is so similar to something I’d been mulling over it actually spooked me.

37signals Draft for iPad

No, I don’t think the folks at 37signals got into my brain and stole my idea. I do, however, lament that, yet again, I may have let an idea escape that would have been pretty cool.

Ah, well…I’ll take consolation in the idea that it wouldn’t really make sense to develop an iPad app at the moment…given that I don’t even own an iPad (yet!).

Rants and Screeds / Software / Usability — 1 Comment
15
Jun 10

The Neediest OS

Really? A window is 'busy'? How does that happen exactly?

I often use Windows 7 at work, and it’s like the entire OS is an insecure teenager, constantly begging for my attention with its error messages, warnings, alerts, reminders, and status updates. “You just turned me on…let me tell you 3 things you should know about your color scheme! Oooh, want to launch that app? Okay, but first I need to get some stuff off my chest! System updates are available! You know you want them!”

Don’t get me wrong. I think Windows 7 is far better than its predecessors. I’m just frustrated that it still isn’t confident enough to let me get some work done without constantly vying for my attention.

Photography / Software / iPhone Photos — 4 Comments
5
Jun 10

Hipstamatic Fun

Even snapshots take on a dreamy, nostalgic quality.

Do you have an iPhone? Do you like lomography? If so, you have to try the lomo app Hipstamatic.

Yes, there are other iPhone camera apps that will take images with that retro, time-worn, ethereal quality so popular these days. But Hipstamatic is by far the best app I’ve used in this category.

The Kaimal Mark II Lens

The basic version comes with several interesting shoot modes, allowing you to try different flashes, lenses, and film types. If you want to extend your experience, a variety of other options are available on the App store, and you can purchase them directly from within the Hipstamatic app iteself. In addition, Hipstamatic provides the built-in ability to upload your shots to services like facebook and flickr.

I have two nits to pick with the app, and one larger concern. The first nit is that the app is quick when set to the default 800×800 pixel mode, but dreadfully slow when set to high resolution. My second nit is that the UI, which is incredibly cool looking in the way it mimics an old-time instamatic camera, isn’t always intuitive, slowing you down when you might be trying to get your shot off quickly.

My larger concern is about the whole iPhone / digital / lomographic trend in general. While I love that I can create these sleepy, dreamy images without having to lug around old cameras, and while apps like Hipstamatic do a pretty amazing job replicating images from those old cameras — light leaks, crummy lenses and all — there is also something sad about the fact that you can now fake almost anything with pixels and digital technology. That’s why this week’s photo hunt will be done entirely with authentic, if crummy, film-based equipment. Look for the results in a few weeks.

Cool / Software / Technology — No Comments
9
May 10

Save the Earth, One Letter at a Time

Ecofont..the holes save ink, money, and the environment.

Ecofont is a software program that allows you to reduce ink or laser toner usage by as much as 25%, thus cutting costs and doing less damage to the environment. Ink and toner production, use and disposal are actually serious issues.

The nice thing is that at almost any normal size the holes are invisible to the naked eye. However, Ecofont claims the impact on your bottom line (if you do a lot of printing) are apparent.

You can either download an ecofont for free, or purchase the software that will allow to turn almost any typeface you normally use into an ecofont.

Software / Technology — No Comments
21
Apr 10

Walled Garden, or Eden?

In or out?

I am surprised at the anti-Apple vitriol surrounding the Flash issue on iPads and iPhones. Whether or not you agree that these devices would be made better by the inclusion of Flash capabilities, the argument that Apple is creating a walled garden has always rung a little false to me. Then I read the following quote from Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller in an article on CNET, and it all made sense:

“Someone has it backwards—it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 (all supported by the iPhone and iPad) that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary.” (Thanks, Daring Fireball.)

Rants and Screeds / Software / Technology — 2 Comments
15
Apr 10

Photoshop for Rent

Pay for play.

As long as I’m railing against Adobe for their exorbitant upgrade pricing, I might as well relay one of the ideas that’s been bouncing around my head for a while: why not allow users to download software for free, and only pay each time they use it.

Heavy duty Photoshop users, for example, would pay more than the casual experimenter. Professionals would likely pay more than amateurs. And you could have corporate pricing, similar to family plans in the cell phone world.

I believe more people would download the applications to try them out, and if they liked them, subscribe. Plus, users wouldn’t have the pain associated with upgrade cycles. When new releases come out, they just download the update and keep paying. This would alleviate the perceived need on the part of software developers to push upgrades out every 18 months, and allow them to focus on iterative improvements instead. And, it would reduce the revenue lull between upgrade releases for developers, providing a more consistent stream of revenue.

I’m sure there are many sound business reasons why things don’t work this way, but I’m too frustrated to think of any right now.

Perhaps as software continues its migration into the cloud, this is the way it will be.

Until then: Adobe, lower your upgrade prices, dammit!

Rants and Screeds / Software — 8 Comments
15
Apr 10

Adobe C$5

Not in my future.

Dear Adobe,

No, you know what, no! F-you. I’ve been a good guy. I’ve purchased all my software. I’ve done the right thing.

And how do you repay me for doing the right thing? By charging me $799 to upgrade to CS5! Are you kidding me?

I know, I know: so many people rip off your software, you need to make up the difference. Great, so now I’m subsidizing criminals. Thanks for that. Here’s a thought: maybe if you lowered your prices, people wouldn’t be as inclined to steal your software. Just an idea.

And sure, it’s a great product. It does amazing things. It’s not free to design and develop powerful tools. I get it.

But, $799? Really? I had to skip the CS4 upgrade for this very reason, and it looks like I’ll have to skip CS5 as well.

Don’t worry, you’ll make it up when you charge me $999 to upgrade to CS6 in 18 months. Or maybe there won’t even be an upgrade option for people priced out of previous versions.

If you want my vote in your battle against Apple locking you out of its hardware, maybe you should try not locking your customers out of your software.

Yours truly,
Michael McWatters

Software / Technology — No Comments
27
Mar 10

Next Year Photoshop Can Drink

Photoshop is celebrating its 20th birthday, and to celebrate, one of its original developers takes you through the first demo of the iconic software.

I started using Photoshop about 17 years ago, long before layers, alpha channels, editable type, layer effects, smart objects / filters, 32-bit support, etc. Photoshop is one of the rare pieces of software that was fantastic when it first appeared, and has only gotten better since.

Enjoy your cake. I’m going to have myself some PSDs.

Design / Software — 3 Comments
25
Jan 10

More Wireframe Tools

HotGloo

I’m in the middle of a project using mockflow. I’m pretty impressed with it. However, I’m also trying HotGloo, as well as Mockingbird which is great for quick sketching.

And, my friend and colleague Graham turned me on to FlairBuilder last week. While many of these apps are very similar, they all have certain strengths and weaknesses that make them more or less desirable. I’m beginning to conclude there may not be a perfect tool, but many depending on the job. Makes sense.

In any event, I’m free from Visio (doesn’t run on a Mac anyway) and Omnigraffle (not really a dedicated wireframe app).

I intend to post a comprehensive review of these tools and a recommendation sometime in the first quarter of 2010. I’m sure you’re all waiting with bated breath.

Software — No Comments
4
Jan 10

Go Mockingbird

Mockingbird: one of the simplest prototyping tools available.

In my never-ending search for the perfect wireframe / prototype tool, I just discovered mockingbird.

Here is my short review:

Pros

Easy to use, intuitive (little learning curve)
Low cost (free, for now)
Unobtrusive UI
Pages scale to fit content (most wireframe apps lack this basic feature)
Great for quick sketching
Buttons and text resize automatically
Drag-and-drop linking
Supports multiple pages handily
Sharing with others is quite easy
Doesn’t require Flash

Cons

No collaboration feature (only one author per prototype)
Export is limited to PDF and PNG, and wonky at that (HTML or clickable PDF would be great)
Could use more UI elements in the library
Preview mode is unattractive

In short, I think mockingbird is a fantastic alternative to the bloatware alternatives, especially for quick sketches. As a full-fledged prototyping tool, it needs a bit more polish. I’m excited to see how it evolves, and I definitely plan to use it when appropriate.

Software / Technology / Web — 2 Comments
10
Aug 09

IE6 Must Die

So long farewell, auf weidersehen good-bye

We all know that Web sites should be programmed to run on most modern browsers; nothing is more frustrating to a user than to be told their software is too old to view your site.

However, we also know that Internet Explorer 6 is a buggy, non-compliant, frustratingly difficult browser to support, as this CNN article points out. Personally, I’ve seen time that could be spent on innovation and engagement devoted to band aid-type efforts to make simple sites work properly in IE6.

Bring Down IE6

That’s why I’m excited to see a grassroots movement that includes Web developers and designers finally taking aim at this albatross. Their mission is not anti-Microsoft. If it were, they wouldn’t recommend upgrading to IE8 as one of their solutions. Rather, they are trying to make sure development time isn’t being wasted supporting a completely buggy piece of software whose time has long gone by.

So, if you’re on IE6, please, please, please, upgrade your browser as soon as possible. Otherwise, the Web might just be leaving you behind.

MICHAEL MCWATTERSThoughts on digital design, and other nonsense.