31 May 2007

Kubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn

Hooray!  My free (in both senses) Kubuntu 7.04 CD has arrived.  Only a couple of weeks since I requested it.

A Thousand Thanks to Canonical and all who sponsor this stuff!  I'm in a space right now where the cost of the download really is significant for me, and I would probably have had quite a lot of hassle inobtaining the latest Kubuntu update if not for their free shipping program.

I've been using Kubuntu on my (HP) laptop ever since I got it, and it mostly "just works".  The only hassle I've had was over non-free video drivers, and that was quite easily solved.  I'll probably load Kubuntu onto my desktop machine, too, in the interests of reducing clutter in my life.  For about 5 or 6 years, now I have had Mandriva on my desktop machine. I have no complaints about Mandriva. It has served me extremely well through the years, but it is one more distro to obtain, update, download bits of, and maintain and I'm into extreme simplification right now.  If I do move the desktop box over to Kubuntu I'll have things about right: down to two distros -- Gentoo for servers (where I want complete control over everything that goes onto the box) and Kubuntu for desktop/office work (where I want everything to "just work" without having to think about things).

Anybody in the South Cape who wants a copy of the Kubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) CD, please drop me a line and we'll arrange something!

29 April 2007

5 Trust Points for Website Usability

For a while now I've been working (slowly) on a new web application; the details are unimportant; I'll talk about the specifics in a couple of months when I'm ready to show something.  I have about 60% of the backend written, and am just starting in on the web frontend.

I am far from being a good "web designer", having the graphic-design and artistic skills of a newt.  The best I can hope for is creative imitation.  It worked for the Japanese car manufacturers, didn't it?  Consequently, I am paying close attention to what works and what irks on other websites, particularly the flow around initial engagement and user sign-up.  Here are the most irritating and unnecessary five things I've figured out.  These are all prompted by stuff I see over, and over, and over again on website after website.  It's getting old.

1. Don't Make Me Jump Through Premature Hoops

Allow me to explore the website. I am entitled to poke about and get some reasonable idea of what the site does, the why and how, before you ask me (or require me) to create an account.

I grant its really not a big deal creating an account, especially since most/all of the details I'll give you initially will be bogus because I have no reason to trust you at first. IBM still, about ten years after filling in a webform on their site, send junk mail (the paper kind) to "Lord Mike" :-)  But there's still some small effort involved in entering a Login-ID, email address and whatever other bits and pieces you require me to fabricate before you allow me into your walled garden.

If I cannot fathom enough detail about the site, if it does not help me to figure out the value proposition it offers me, I will just walk (well, click) away to somewhere else.  The Web is, for all intents and purposes, infinite.  For me to have stumbled across your tiny patch of virtuality was nearly a miracle in the first instance.  Don't block me from finding out whether I want to actually give you my time and attention.

2.  Don't Assume a Trust You Haven't Earned Yet

When I actually do sign up for an account, don't ask me for my whole life history, food preferences, sexual orientation and DNA samples.  I'll just lie, anyway.  I don't really trust you yet.  I only think that your site may have something I want.  This ties into the previous point: The more information I am able to glean before signing-up, the less likely I am to lie to you about myself, the more trust you will have created between us.

For the site I am building, I will be asking for:
  1. Your choice of Login ID
  2. Your email address.
Nothing else.  I don't need to know anything more about you yet; why would I assume that you're willing to give me any more?  I will generate a password and send it to you; I need to confirm that your email address works anyway, and, since I want to be able to send you email, I need you to confirm that you're OK with that, so I may as well send you a password at the same time.  You can always change it to that standard password you use everywhere later, if your browser doesn't remember it for you, anyway.

Incidentally, I just made the sign-up process as quick and painless as it can possibly get, didn't I?  There's only one way to make the process shorter.  Do you really, really need people to sign-up?  I know its an attractive proposition to a certain mindset, but is it really, truly necessary?

As I gain confidence in the site, I may go back to my profile page and fill in missing details, and correct some of the more egregious inventions.  This may take months or even years.  This brings me to my next point:

3. I Am Human, Ergo I Forget.


OK, so you don't burden me by asking for too many personal preferences and details early on.  Well done!  On the downside of that, I will repay your consideration by almost instantly forgetting that I left out details, lied about my birthdate or typed jarblewarblefarble into that form-field.  I know that you can actually make your site more useful and usable to me if I do give you those details, I just was not ready yet.

I suggest that you remind me occasionally.  Perhaps every second or third time I sign in, put a little reminder message on my landing-page, and ask me to fill in one specific piece of missing data.  And make it dead easy for me to do so, either by linking to my profile-management page, or by placing a relevant edit-field right there on the page.  Don't get tiresome by nagging me every time.

And while we're talking about reminders, if you're running any kind of email service, do remind me that I am subscribed, together with my subscription details and your unsub-algorithm periodically -- not more than once a month, but not less than quarterly.  Perhaps in the form of a newsletter.  (You did get my explicit permission to send me email, didn't you?)

4.  Don't Make Me Sign In Again

I'm talking about the phase immediately after initial-sign-up.  I've made the emotional commitment (however small!) to sign-up with your site.  Don't immediately demand that I do more work by signing-in.  I've just told you all that stuff -- login-id, password (twice, no doubt) -- don't make me type it all in again.  You're just being tiresome.

What?  Did you think somebody may have hijacked my IP address in the intervening two second?  That some malware may have sucked your session cookie out of my browser for nefarious unpredictable purposes?  Get over it: you already know who I am (for some value of "know".)

And then, once I am "signed in", don't forget it. (Hello, Feedburner!)

5. Reciprocate My Trust


Having
  1. signed-up for an account, possibly
  2. jumping through the confirmation email hoop, and then
  3. signed-in to that new account
Don't pretend you don't know me!  Don't present me with a page that says

Get an Account with Us!
Here is how:
Step #1: Create an account at Flibertigibbet.com
Step #2: Blah, blah, blah.
Step #3: Blah, blah, blah.

That's it!! What are you waiting for? Get major benefits, make money, win friends, influence millions! Create your account now!
Didn't I just do this?  Who are these idiots?
You just trashed my tentative trust in you.  Goodbye.

26 April 2007

Netbeans Collab Modules

Installed the Netbeans Developer-Collaboration Module yesterday, and gave it a trial-run together with Jason.  Wow! 

The chat-client is pretty standard; not much to say there.  The only thing we both disliked was that you have to use "Control-Enter" (or "Alt-N") to send your text rather than plain "Enter".  Probably we could reconfigure the keybindings somewhere...

But!  The ability to drag a file, folder, Java package or, indeed, entire project into the collab area, and then have both people (and presumably everybody in the chat session) simultaneously able to edit the same files, seeing each other's edits live,... pretty cool.

The real OhMiGod Factor was when Jason hit "compile" on the shared file, to have it compile on my PC (since the original file came from there,) with both of us seeing the compile output.  Very, very cool!

We were speculating about some alternative form of development setup where all the code (and docs, web-pages, and other project components) get stored in a wiki-like (auto-versioned, of course) system so that its not just one developer's PC that gets to do the work...  Just daydreaming, really.  For now.

If you're working in Java, C/C++ or Ruby, and you work with other faraway developers (even occasionally -- the dowload is only a couple of meg) you owe it to yourself to explore the Netbeans Collab stuff.  I am pretty sure that what we're seeing now is only the start.

10 March 2007

Great Tools, Great Times

Just as much as some software is a pain in the arse to work with (even though it may be totally essential) on the other side of the coin we discover things like the CSS editor in the Firefox/Web-Developer Toolbar!

Working on a significant look&feel upgrade for the farm website, I tripped across this thing today.  "Oh!" says Jason, "I've known about it for ages -- can't work without it.  I thought you knew..."  Well, call me Mr Slow...

Despite its few quirks and oddities, the ability to fiddle with CSS -- especially the somewhat complex CSS I'm working with, where there is a cascade of CSS files, each one overriding another -- and see the results as you type...

That rocks!

06 March 2007

Software That Makes You Angry

Isn't it peculiar?  Some pieces of software are actually an almost physical pleasure to use.  Others make one actively angry.  Or is that just me?

I will refrain from mentioning a specific piece of software, here -- it would just be a distraction.  The software in question has been pissing me off the whole afternoon.  All I want is to make a simple change to some templates.  But it turns into a huge bloody performance: hoop jumping, contortions, hystrionics and hysterics, all resulting in a Resort to Strong Drink.

The software itself is not such a terrible piece of work.  In some places it is excellent, and the rest of it certainly gets the job done.  But the thing taken as a whole just makes me angry.  Microsoft Windows has much the same effect on me.

On the other side of the fence are pieces of software that just slide effortlessly into your life.  When you stop and bother to notice them, they're just... effortlessly there for you.  No muss, no fuss.  They just get out of your way and work.

So what's the key?  I would certainly only like to write the latter kind of software and avoid foisting the former on the world.  I think it boils down to "Do things my way or else" vs. "Let me serve you; here's what I do... I'll stay out of your face, now."

What software pisses you off?  What software do you love?

27 February 2007

The last 10% takes 90% of the Time

I guess its easy when it's a larger project.  There's a Project Manager, there are Account Managers, there are User Representatives.  They may or may not be actually doing much.  But they're there, pushing for completion.

When it's only two developers working together, it's hard!  How do you keep the focus, keep the energy going, especially on a short-term project that you have zero interest in...?

23 February 2007

Software Testing

OK, I confess: I'm a crap software tester.  I totally lack the nit-picky, step-by-step, over-and-over, document-each-step patience and discipline needed for the task.

Jason and I are just trying to finish-off the last 3% of a project.  You know!  The 3% that takes 50% of the time.  We're bored with the project, sour on the whole concept, and have much more exciting ideas we would rather be getting on with.  My job is to drive the testing, and I'm having a rough time knuckling down to it.  How I wish we had a good tester on the team!

Good testers are worth their weight in gold.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...