This morning I went to the Apple home page to find one of their commercials. I went to search and noticed that the behavior mimicked Apple’s own operating system and the “suggest” features available in browser search boxes. What I liked is that it not only offered suggested terms but displayed media previews along with the term. I realize this isn’t especially groundbreaking, given the amount of AJAX development in recent years. However, it reminded me that as Peter Morville analyzes search patterns, another to add to the list is the behavior of providing suggestions before a user has even executed a search. This might remedy the need to distinguish between a basic and advanced search, or the need to revise a search after seeing results. Notice the screen capture image (click image to see original) where I entered “ads” as my search term.

Tags: [Apple, search patterns, search, Peter Morville, Partial Recall]

Today I stumbled across an email a colleague of mine sent out last July. He referred to a YouTube video that highlighted MS Vista’s speech recognition. All I can say is that while it performs admirably at times, quite a few times I found the video both painful and funny to watch (see below). It really confirms that the usability and user experience professions are here to stay.

Microsoft Vista Speech Recognition Tested – Perl Scripting

[Runtime: 10:33 | Please make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Flash installed on your computer to watch this video. To download it, please visit: http://www.adobe.com/]

– Hat Tip: Ari Weissman

Tags: [Vista, Windows Vista, voice recognition, user experience, usability, Microsoft, Partial Recall]

Tags: [Edward Tufte, Tufte, iPhone, Partial Recall, Apple, interface design, GUI, interaction design, HCI]

Click play and see how the lines between old media (NYTimes ‘paper’ style view of front page) and new mix together beautifully.

In case the ad moves, I tried to do a screen capture of it, but the voice is lost. Just focus on the ad and the paper’s headline.

Tags: [Apple, Leopard, Vista, NYTimes, advertisement, Partial Recall]

As Flickr has matured, it changed its logo labeling from “beta” to the “gamma” level of maturity. Today I noticed that their logo no longer contains this cautionary label, but now reads “loves you,” as in “Flickr loves you.” See below.

So, what does this have to say about the Flickr? What, no love at first site? Did you have to get customer commitment before you learned to love us?

In all seriousness, have you been involved with products that used the “beta” label? If so, what were the reasons?

Tags: [alpha, beta, gamma, flickr, social software, Partial Recall]

The Genius of iTunes

So, why is iTunes a Trojan Horse? I do not mean that Apple has any malicious intent to use iTunes to harm our devices or the digital information we own. Rather, I believe iTunes is Apple’s most powerful weapon for selling more products, for expanding existing markets and for reaching new markets. How? Let’s look at a brief history of iTunes (see more here):

1. January 09, 2001 – iTunes was originally released for managing music on an owner’s computer
2. October 03, 2001 – iTunes integrates with the first iPod
3. April 28, 2003 – iTunes Music Store support
4. October 16, 2003 – iTunes for Windows
5. October 27, 2004 – Supports photo sycing
6. May 09, 2005 – Supports video syncing; supports calendar and contact syncing (Mac only)
7. September 07, 2005 – iTunes can sync calendars and contacts with Microsoft Outlook

The “video” capabilities have grown to include both television, movies, and other types of video. So, with each new version of iTunes, Apple extends its reach to manage new types of content, and it also makes this available for Mac and Windows users alike.

The Sync is the Kitchen Sink

Sure, the iTunes Store is important, because Apple wants you to purchase content from them. However, the sync ability is the most important feature of iTunes. Of course the end game for Apple is to entice people to buy their hardware and to purchase content from their store. But to truly entice users to spend money on either hardware or content, they have to have sync done right. How might this be done?

Well, for one, sync needs to go two ways. Previously, sync meant updating your iPod with content from your desktop or laptop computer. Calendar and contact information was handled on the desktop or laptop, and then this content was updated on the iPod. With the introduction of the iPhone, however, we’re now talking about the ability to update content on either the device or the desktop/laptop, and have it update both ways. I applaud Apple for pursuing specific standards, particularly the CalDAV standard. For Apple to be successful, they will need to continue such efforts to pursue standards for two-way (or more) syncing all kinds of content.

Recommendations

I would recommend the following to happen for Apple to be successful:

1. Change the “iTunes” name to something more encompassing to reflect the purpose of the application. Perhaps “iHub” or something that shows how many types of content can be held and synced using this application.
2. Two-way content editing means that with the iPhone, I should be able to CRUD calendar or contact items on my phone, and then sync back to my desktop/laptop and vice versa.
3. Web Syncing does not mean forcing people (including non Mac owners) to use the .Mac service. It means working with partners Google and Yahoo to come up with APIs or other webDAV solutions so content can be synced with external web applications. If Apple can handle two-way syncing with external web PDA-like solutions, then it will have won the game.

Conclusion

There is so much content the mobile user wants at their fingertips – music, video, calendar, contacts, etc. Apple’s iTunes application is rapidly becoming the hub that syncs and manages many types of content. For Apple to be even more successful, iTunes must be renamed and it must handle two-way (or more) syncing between device(s), web application(s) and/or desktop/laptop application(s).

Tags: [iTunes, sync, CalDAV, webDAV, iPhone, iPod, Apple, Google, Yahoo, content management, Trojan Horse, Partial Recall]

Well, it’s now available and I’m very excited! Think of the possibilities. For teachers. For sharing knowledge in an organization. For sharing knowledge with the world. Sign up now and get started.

Related Posts

Post a Slideshow on Your Site – Part II

Post a Slideshow on Your Site – Part I

Tags: [PowerPoint, slides, Slideshare, social software, knowledge management, Partial Recall]

I do not envy those folks over at grants.gov. What a hurculean undertaking to provide a unified entryway into finding and applying for federal grants [author's inquiry - is there a grants.gov plan to support the full grants lifecycle, from apply to closeout?]. The politics involved. The clear communication needed. The strong leadership and management structure needed.

As mentioned in Rick Weiss’ Washington Post article and David Cassidy’s commentary [here and here], the grants.gov project will have a new prime contractor take over the development effort.

Assigning Blame

Can I assume that the previous contractor failed? Did they not deliver on time, within cost, and with agreed-upon quality measures? If they failed, was it entirely their fault or were there federal government management lapses? Can the American public not renew the contracts of any federal government leadership that may have failed?

Of course I’m being facetious, but I want to point out that at the end of the day, a project fails because its leadership did not plan accordingly. And of course when a project fails, is the solution to simply hire a new contractor who may have won on a low bid, quickly bring them up to speed, and then assume they will be the silver bullet to satisfy all stakeholders? Without knowing the capabilities of both the former and current contractor, it seems the easy target is to give the contractor the boot rather than to conduct a “lessons learned” within your own ranks and make necessary changes (both to personnel and policy).

Compatability

I’ve talked about incompatability issues between the Mac OS platform and grants.gov in the past [see here], so it does not surprise me that there still is no resolution to this issue. To be quite honest, I’m surprised that the issue is important enough to warrant a Washington Post article.

But that brings us back to a fundamental theme. Although the federal government is required to provide an option for people to transact with them electronically, do they serve the public’s best interests by favoring one operating system over another or by forcing people to conduct their business electronically? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

“So, the question is, why does this federal site (grants.gov), which has the authority for consolidating the business of grant funding among a majority of federal agencies, have the authority to mandate a technology that can only be used by users of one operating system? There are federal mandates such as Section 508 that provide for equal access to web applications for handicapped individuals. Shouldn’t there be an equal access technology policy too?”

Rick and Dave point out that a Mac client solution has been underway, but it seems the better plan might be to simply create a cross-platform solution, perhaps using the Java platform.

Tags: [grants.gov, Mac, grants, David Cassidy, Rick Weiss, Northrop Grumman, Anteon, General Dynamics, PureEdge, IBM Workplace Forms]

I know, I know. I’m late to the game. I was not able to attend Adaptive Path’s UX week in DC last month. Fortunately, there’s a wiki containing great sessions notes.

Tags: [wiki, Adaptive Path, ux, user experience, conference, usability, information architecture, interaction design]

A hilarious tale is unfolding in pixels over at the iconfactory. [hat tip to SimpleBits]. Talk about communicating without words. Simply.Brilliant.

Tags: [iconfactory, quicktime, movie, silent film, funny, web redesign, web design]