02.15.07
So Yahoo! has gone and integrated IM with mail, and it looks like they did a pretty slick job.
However, from what I can tell in the video, they haven’t found a solution to the big problem: bridging the gap between the desktop and the web. If the user has a desktop client running at the same time, I can’t help but feel like the experience is broken. Some of the user’s conversations will be taking place in the client and some will be taking place through the web. How is the user supposed to manage and/or consolidate these different conversations?
Not only that, but due to the inherit limitations of HTML, the web experience is going to be vastly different from the client experience (unless you want to dumb down your client experience to match, which doesn’t make any sense to me). So not only does the user have conversations in different places, she also has to deal with different behaviors and capabilities depending on where the conversation is taking place.
No matter how smooth the implementation, I don’t really think the integration of Webmail and IM will ever be complete unless this hurdle is overcome.
Posted in Development at 7:04 pm by Osman Ullah
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02.13.07
So while I was working on this theme I was trying to anti alias the corners that are “cut off”. The only way to do this of course, and still have one image which can be used for different colored boxes, is a transparent PNG. I had it working great, but things weren’t quite looking right in IE:
After trying multiple times to fix it, I found this story which explains a fundamental pitfall of PNG: The Sad Story of PNG Gamma “Correction”
Posted in Development, Ramblings at 9:46 pm by Osman Ullah
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02.07.07
It sounds wrong, doesn’t it? I mean, if my friends don’t want to use this version of AIM, is it really going in the right direction? But a question that seems so easy to answer, really is kind of difficult.
With a big rewrite like AIM 6.0, some features slipped through the cracks. I assumed these features would be added at a later date, especially ones that are in high use. For example, just about every person I have talked to who doesn’t use AIM 6 is stuck because of one key feature that hasn’t been ported from 5.9. This is actually a great feature and is all about sharing and communication. So it only makes sense to add it back in, right? Well, what if the powers that be decide that adding new features (that my friends probably would never use) are more important?
It’s quite a paradox. I mean, we all want to write features that we think are fun and interesting. The unfortunate reality is that developers aren’t really a good representation of the user base for a product that is used by over 60 million people. On the other hand, no single group can be. Developers DO generally know the product well enough to be aware of strengths, weaknesses, what is possible and what is not so easy. Furthermore, if a developer is checking the pulse of the community (which does include his friends), he should have an idea of at least a couple features which are mutually beneficial. So what is a developer to do when the product direction is one he doesn’t agree with?
Posted in Development at 12:41 am by Osman Ullah
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01.31.07
It’s very difficult to get a perfect user experience on the first try. Most of the time, creating a product with a great user experience takes many iterations of design and development. But with rushed schedules, who has the time for that nonsense? Is the experience “good enough”? SHIP IT. Fix it in the next version.
This is the kind of environment many software developers find themselves in. The resulting user experience generally is still pretty good, but not perfect. So what’s a developer to do when improvements are needed but time and priorities don’t allow it?
Too often I hear the words: “We want to fix that too, but we really need something new in the next version.” Product management will end up saying bug fixes are delayed and tweaks aren’t made because it’s important for the next version to have some cool new feature that “makes it worth downloading”. Why can’t a better experience be reason enough to make it worth downloading? The way I see it, an obsession with features and marketing will only lead to a product that does many things, but none of them really well. I’m not saying it will be a horrible experience; for most users it might be good enough. So if the users aren’t complaining, it must be all fine and dandy, right? But wait! Users generally don’t realize what they are missing until they are shown how great it can really be. So can a company driven by wow and sparkle, which compresses schedules and never gives enough time to get it right, ever release great products? I guess only time will tell.
Posted in Development at 8:16 pm by Osman Ullah
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