iamnearlythere

Leaving out (pdf)

… or rather - welcome in, pdf!

I just posted a link to a pdf and named it Title of important document here (pdf).

Is that really necessary anymore? As a Google Chrome user, I don’t really have to bother checking the target of a link anymore because of the built in PDF-reader. It deserves so much cred, it’s unbelievable.

PDF used to be unbearable in web context, now it’s like any other page. Huge thumbs up for making us leave out the “WATCH OUT, PDF INCOMING” warning at each link (ok, starting now..)

How to design form buttons in one breath

• make their display order count, be consistent
• avoid reoccurring phrases (use alive headings/icons instead of “Information”, “Settings”, “About”)
• never use general wordings (like “Ok”, “Cancel”, “Abort”) - use active phrasing (like “Store my information”, “Place order”, “Annul reclamation”)
• use words humans understand, not machines (“Save location” vs “Store latitude & longitude in memory until cookie dies”), always use a metaphor belonging to the user’s mental model of the current situation
• differentiate the primary choice of many for example by letting a “cancel editing”-button become an <a>-element while keeping the “save information”-button more button-like; different sizes and colours are alternatives as well
• let the user confirm their lesser-important-actions by adding an undo-button and confirm their more-important-actions before the action’s taken place with a confirm-dialog or checkbox

Updates in background processes are sweet

I’ve fallen in love with Google Chrome in most ways. Not that Chrome’s anything extra, it’s rather that it’s not.

Everything is slimmed down, it’s super fast and it feels like it got less than half of both the competitors GUI (in a good sense) and their settings.

One of the best things about Chrome is the sense of versions. Background: I grew up with IE6, which still harasses my workplace’s usage statistics, the same app that MS doesn’t bother getting rid of (maybe they do, but as far as I know, they’ve yet to implement the subtle updating process of Chrome in IE 9).

Except being a wonder for us developers, the hidden update is good because:

• You’ll never see the “Your app has been updated, please restart it/your system”. Take a minute and realize exactly how important this is to avoid if you’re targeting anything but a techie crowd. At best, you’ll annoy users, at worst you just lost them.
• No compatibility issues for the user (since developers are responsible for serving only the latest version).
• Your app challenges your competitors app. Your competitors app has to challenge both you and earlier versions of itself. This could be applied to the cellphone industry where most companies release every.. I don’t even know, it’s ridiculous.
• The release pattern is used successfully in web based apps. The web as a medium has won much simply by being able to provide background updates - new layouts can be pushed right away (don’t even get me started on ajax).
• If an update is seamless and invisible, you could make a rollback seamless and invisible.
• Minor changes are pushed out more easily, a hotfix could take 15 seconds to download but make a large part of your users more satisfied with your app.