Category — Wireframe Tools

Increased storage

It is rumored that the new iPhone 4G will have up to 64 GB of storage capacity—almost the same amount as the iPod touch.  This will allow users of the new iPhone to store more for entertainment purposes: photos, films, tv programs etc.

Ebooks

Apple has launched a literary equivalent of iTunes: the iBookstore, which is currently available via the iPad. The new iPhone 4G interface design will likely include this new application, giving users the capacity to download and read books from the comfort of their own phone.

New Design

According to rumors coupled with the viewing of leaked images, the new iPhone 4G will likely be smaller and lighter than the older model, with a smaller yet higher resolution screen.  Since the iPhone supposedly is vamping up its storage and camera abilities, it is likely that a higher resolution screen is more than just a myth.

The expected release of the iPhone 4G at The Worldwide Developers Conference 2010 promises to vamp up the public’s interest in the event. If the rumors surrounding the new iPhone 4G are true, then customers have much to be happy about and competitors better get back to the prototyping board!

A quick example: Say your presentation is centered around 3 keywords or themes. These can be displayed as really huge items with further information on those themes much tinier and clustered around the keywords. As you go through your presentation you could zoom further down in which ever direction and angle. Prezi’s interface design for creating presentations is a breeze to learn and use thanks to very little noise and a few but powerful options (to adjust size for example). Prezi is also optimized for editing. Say you were going to perform your trusty presentation to an audience but wanted to leave something out: simply change the path to exclude the parts you wish to exclude rather than deleting slides. Just drag and drop all you may want to work with onto the canvas and the world is your oyster! Google wave users can look forward to embedding Prezi presentations allowing for non-locking, realtime collaborative editing between multiple parties on multiple devices. Considering that Prezi is similar in functionality to the Microsoft Office Labs pptPlex concept project, a look into my crystal ball tells me that the next iteration after Office 2010 will also include a zooming user interface design of some sort. But for now Prezi seems the leader of the new school.

Real-time collaboration capabilities

One of the main benefits of cloud computing is its facilitation of real-time collaboration among users. Cloud app mobility allows people to work and access their material from anywhere.  When designing your cloud app, think about ways to facilitate communication among users. For example, provide users with chat features or the ability to simultaneously access and edit documents (features already provided by Microsoft’s competitor, Google Docs, or by other more specialized tools like the wireframe tool Pidoco).  If your cloud app is related to gaming, make sure that players can easily communicate with each other.  The beauty of the internet is its capacity to provide the world with instantaneous forms of communication.  Don’t forget to make your cloud app a shining example of why real-time collaboration is one of cloud computing’s main benefits.

Interface design

It is important to have a cogent and executable concept behind your cloud app, but it is even more important to have an interface design that supports your app’s usability.  Cloud apps are completely dependent on internet access.  Many of them are accessed through a web browser. Think about internet connections. It’s great to have a high fidelity interface design, but is it usable for those with slow internet connections?  Think about the simple things like browser bars, the back button, page linking, even a possible search engine.  Do all of these seemingly simple features assist your user or do they detract from your interface design’s usability by making the user experience convoluted? Do they integrate well with your applications navigation flow and processes or are they misleading? Your interface design should be so simple to use and seamlessly integrated with the browser navigation options that your users don’t have to think about or notice it (well, maybe you can add some flair—it should look nice).  If you want users to appreciate the substantive value of your cloud app and what it potentially offers them, you have to make sure that the structure is clean and usable.

Google seems to have done pretty well on these points. Now it remains to be seen how the new Microsoft Office Web Apps will fare.

The world’s most popular encyclopedia just got a makeover. After months of beta testing by 500,000 account holders the new interface design theme, called Vector, went live replacing the old Monobook skin. The redesign follows a usability study conducted in April 2009 by the Wikimedia Usability Initiative Team along with a user experience consulting firm mainly focusing on the editing experience and process, drawing the following conclusion among others: that three quarters of updates are made by men of an average age of 25. Although 80% of users would like to edit pages found the editing process under the previous skin too intimidating. The usability studies found that young people were more willing to experiment with editing while older users were afraid to destroy the site.

A sleeker interface design improves usability

The result is a much sleeker interface design that scores big on usability providing users with “so much more less”. The new interface design looks less dated than monobook. For starters there is much less noise around the interface design and the menu items interaction, toolbox and languages are now expandable/collapsible, instantly clearing Wikipedia of unnecessary clutter that often goes unclicked. Navigation on the page has been improved with the use of much bigger tabs. The search bar has been moved from the middle of the left sidebar (where it was previously hidden between menu options) to the top right hand side of the website under the ‘log in/create account’ area. A discernibly big space between the two is there to make sure that users, particularly those with jittery hands, don’t accidentally click on log in and vice versa.

•    One-way linking:  A one-way link is a hyperlink that directs the user of your website to a different website, but only in one direction.  There is no reciprocal link, meaning that the website you link to is not connected with your own website. One-way links can be beneficial for your interface design because they bolster your link directory, but they can often be more advantageous for the websites you establish links to since you are basically providing these sites with advertising in your link directory, thus increasing their popularity.

•    Reciprocal linking: A reciprocal link is a joint link between two websites to guarantee mutual traffic.  You can submit your website to reciprocal link directories in order to network with other websites and increase your search engine popularity. With one way linking you provide your users only with links away from your website, but if you utilize reciprocal linking, various websites can provide their users with links to your website.  This increases the visibility and marketability of your own website.This method is valuable because Google, for example, uses link popularity algorithms as part of their ranking process.  The more your website appears in the link directories of other websites, the more popular your website will be.

•    Resource linking: Resource links are categories of links.  They can either be one-way or reciprocal.  In essence, they are hyperlinks to or from your website to another website deemed to be relevant or beneficial to users of your website.  Since you are posting links that are helpful to your users, i.e. links that correspond to the relevant content of your website, this method is extremely useful for increasing your website’s search engine ranking.  Search engines have recently made it clear that the quality and relevance of links that you post on your website are major factors in your website’s search engine rating.

Link building will increase the visibility and popularity of your website, but you should make sure that the link directories do not clutter your interface design. It is important that you establish well-organized link directories on your website, and it is vital that you find ways to have your website included in the link directories of others as this increases your search engine ranking.  You want your website to be seen as a common building block used in the continuous construction of the internet.

Apple’s influence is such that several websites such as YouTube, CNN, Vimeo, Reuters, Time, the New York Times, ESPN and more have converted content on their website to be streamed through HTML5. This along with Microsoft announcing HTML5 integration within its upcoming Internet Explorer 9 would seem to point to a future where Flash’s ubiquity will be less pronounced. Despite being squeezed out of the world’s most successful and lucrative mobile platform there are other encouraging signs for Flash. Android keeps growing in leaps and bounds, RIM is still growing, Samsung is releasing the Bada OS, Nokia and Intel have teamed up to launch the MeeGo OS, and Windows Mobile has been revamped as Windows 7 already boasting exciting handsets such as the Dell Lightning due to come out. Flash plug-ins can already be installed in jailbroken iPhones which even have a dedicated App Store in Cydia where developers can sell their apps. Upcoming tablet devices such as the HP Slate, the Dell Streak and the WePad all boast flash compatibility.

Perhaps another way for Adobe to counter is by (drum roll please!) emulating Apple! By this I am referring to the open source Webkit project which started out as Apple proprietary technology but is now being used by Nokia, Google, RIM, Palm, the KDE Project and more. Surely, if Adobe were to make Flash open source and also allowed other developers to improve the code, Apple’s major arguments against Flash would be shot down. The first being that Flash is a proprietary technology would no longer be valid and the second that it crashes often would be tackled by numerous developers who would then adopt and improve the then open source code.

HTML5 has to power to effectively render Flash redundant as far as the web is concerned but it is still a couple years away from mass adoption. What Apple is effectively trying to do is to hasten this. Websites such as YouTube are already in the process of making all of its videos available in the .H264 codec mainly to allow iPhone (and now iPad, too) users to use their website. In addition to numerous others that are “iPad ready” we can see a sort of conditioning at work that will no doubt have Adobe, a company that has long shared a symbiotic relationship with Apple, worried for the future. The way I see it is that they can continue as they are right now by betting big on systems like Android or they could, by going the open source route, make Flash even more entrenched while its ubiquity is still dominant. Perhaps then Apple would have to yield and allow not only for Flash to be used to code apps for the iPhone but also allowing Flash itself to be on the iPhone.

This is the fourth and last part of a four part blog post series about the future of the real-time web.

Real-time Collaboration: Utilizing the capabilities of the Web in Business

And there is yet another field where the real-time paradigm is causing disruption. In business where different people work together, saving time and increasing productivity is of great importance. That is one reason why businesses have long started adopting social networking to speed up communication and foster team work. Now, real-time is entering the picture in the form of real-time collaboration. The great promise of real-time collaboration is allowing work to be done across different teams, countries and even continents simultaneously – if necessary even while communicating directly! In a globalized world where virtual firms, international partner networks, and outsourcing are on the rise, this is a superb value proposition.  Modern applications provide collaboration features such as chat, audio and video conferencing, or digital whiteboards. But there is still more: From Google Docs allowing the sharing and editing of documents online and the upcoming Google Wave which even shows you live keystrokes of your collaborators as they type, more and more innovative real-time collaborative applications allow for an ever faster, virtually immediate turnaround, speeding up team work considerably. Other services that facilitate real-time collaboration include WebEx, an on-demand video conferencing suite or pidoco°, a wireframe software used for rapid software prototyping and user interface design, which even permits synchronous remote usability testing. Many of these applications mainly work online and are offered as software-as-a-service.

Conclusion: Where the Real-time Web is Going.

With more and more software applications operating through the cloud computing model and being operated through web browsers, the web of the future (secure and adequate internet connection permitting) will be an even more virtual construct, having more in common with outsourcing than inside contracting. It will be the basis for real-time applications and real-time collaboration – which can be considered a combination of real-time communication and real-time editing. Services such as Mashpedia and Kosmix aggregate your search input with content from wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, and other sources, as well as live feeds from websites such as Twitter to effectively usher in an era of the real-time encyclopedia. And there are many more examples. Morgan Stanley recently released a report showing that the mobile internet is expected to surpass fixed internet within the next decade, allowing for even more immediate exchange of information, whether at home, at work, or on the go. The trend is going toward real-time interaction in all areas of our lives. The future of the real-time web is in fact happening right now!

Key Benefits of Storyboarding

Storyboarding is useful for outlining, critically reviewing and optimizing the structure of a website and its interface design. It helps gain a good understanding of users’ requirements regarding a website’s interface design and structure and is a helpful communication tool to explore the tasks that need to be performed on a website or the context in which it will be used. Storyboarding is ideally pursued before the development process begins. When creating a storyboard, one should keep in mind these critical usability questions:

1.    Who are the visitors of the website? What is their background?

2.    What do they want to know? What do they need to know?

3.    How do visitors want to use the website? What tasks do they want to perform?

4.    How can I make navigating the website easy and simultaneously interesting for visitors?

Keeping these questions in mind when planning a website it is much easier to increase usage efficiency and marketability of a website, prevent costly development errors due to gaps in the requirements analysis, and ensure a great user experience. Creating websites that are well planned with user friendly interfaces will be more profitable for your project.

Through prefab website elements (e.g. radio buttons, links, navigation items, controls etc.) GUI designers can create clickable and animated web or software interfaces in no time. Without any programming skills, interface designers can focus on the web concept and use cases, site structures and the overall layout of the site, instead of getting lost in details that will later be overhauled anyway.

Now, where we have illuminated the hygiene factors, let’s move on to the higher level: the user experience. The difference between good usability and a real user experience, one can say is like the difference between just liking it and getting people to talk about it!

Serving users well and delivering everything that they expect is usability – a great user experience however is, when your site over-delivers exceeding expectations in some key areas. To create a great user experience, it is important to find out, what your users really want and expect. This can be done by user surveys and other (qualitative) studies. When you are clear about that, make sure, all hygiene factors are implemented and in place. Now it’s time to show your creativity and define areas in which you can and want to exceed expectations.

I suggest to either choose areas with low user expectations, since those are the low hanging fruits where it’s easy to over-deliver or issues that are the deal breakers where it is really important (and worth it) to put some more effort in to create something really impressive for your users.

But when creating real user experiences, do not make the mistake to just focus on your website! User experience has got to do with every point of communication over all the different media and channels (product, website, support etc.) between you and your users. It is like a web analytics system which only shows its real value, when the loop is closed and you can track users from the