Three Perfect Tools An Article by Tim Bray www.tbray.org There is a particular joy in a product that just does what you need done, in about the way you expect or (thrillingly) better, and isn’t hard to figure out, and doesn’t change unnecessarily. Here are three to learn from. toolsperfectiondesign
Apps Getting Worse An Article by Tim Bray www.tbray.org Too often, a popular consumer app unexpectedly gets worse: Some combination of harder to use, missing features, and slower. At a time in history where software is significantly eating the world, this is nonsensical. It’s also damaging to the lives of the people who depend on these products. ...Maybe we ought to start promoting PMs who are willing to stand pat for an occasional release or three. Maybe we ought to fire all the consumer-product PMs. Maybe we ought to start including realistic customer-retraining-cost estimates in our product planning process. We need to stop breaking the software people use. Everyone deserves better. It begins with craft uxsoftwareproducts
The Eyes Have It A Research Paper by Ben Shneiderman www.cs.umd.edu The Visual Information Seeking Mantra visualizationinformationdata
The Visual Information Seeking Mantra There are many visual design guidelines but the basic principle might be summarized as the Visual Information Seeking Mantra: Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on-demand Each line represents one project in which I found myself rediscovering this principle and therefore wrote it down it as a reminder. It proved to be only a starting point in trying to characterize the multiple information visualization innovations occurring at university, government, and industry research labs. visualizationinformation