Sean's Idea Kitchen

How the Cloud Changes the Application Model for UX

We've heard an amazing amount about the cloud at PDC.  And if you think about it, the cloud is going to change the application model for User Experience.  We're going to see a flip in the model from the desktop to the cloud.

Currently we have the web 2.0 AJAX model and desktop applications to use a simplified viewpoint.  The desktop applications that we use may also have a companion application, usually a web based app that you use when you're away from your desktop.  For example, Outlook and OWA (or Outlook Web Access) or Picasa (desktop) and Picasa web.

Now, we're seeing the web pushed down to desktop via Google Gears, Adobe Air and soon Silverlight.  Frameworks/ runtimes that allow "web apps" to run on your desktop.

Now we use the web for our email, projects, documents, conferences, photos and social networking.  Our applications and data live in the cloud, which allows us to share and collaborate more, all via mobile, desktop, web and API's. 

I think we'll see some interesting usage patterns.

• App's hosted in the cloud.
• Online in the cloud, and offline on the desktop.
• The cloud as a mesh between an applications. (Picasa and Picasa web)
• The cloud as a connector between applications.
• The cloud as a Sync between devices (Mesh)
• The cloud as the disk drive (Especially once we get high speed transactional TCP/IP)

Now as Designers, Developers and Architects we should take all of these into account and how our applications behave and interact.

This week I'll be attending the Microsoft Strategic Architect Forum and this will be one of discussions.  It should fit in nicely with the three different tracks.

I'll blog about it when I get back.

visitmix, now in a retro 8-bit love format

Our favorite web, UI and UX conference site has grown up.  It's no longer just a site about the best conference out there, MIX.  It's now a site for discussion, learning, ideas, projects and yes MIX still gets some love.  MIX has a new URL which is more inline with the conference.  It's http://2009.visitmix.com/  And here's a peak at the landing page.

Let's look around a bit.  First I like the way the site is laid out logically with Home, Articles, Lab, Opinions and About sections nicely categorizing content. 

On the home page we've got a nice jambalya of content.

We've got the latest articles, opinions and labs, along with links to MIX related sites, and events. It's also got a great retro "8 bit love" format to the site.  Great colors, layout and no Flash or SilverLight that I can see (bonus). 

I really like the new format, with labs being the playground for code.  And from the look of it it looks like they will be updated with fresh content.  They've started off with Oomph, a lab that teaches you about Microformats and gives you code to play with as well.  The code is on codeplex and is open source under the Microsoft Public License. I downloaded it last night and actually would love to see this as part of IE8.  Even more, I'd love to have this on my iPhone.  Next month, is Descry, Exploring Data and Information Visualization.  Looks tasty, can't wait and I'm curious to see what is created.

The articles section has articles that are clean, easy to read (which is important with the amount of info we're hit with today and tomorrow), and they're from folks like John Allsopp.  So we are hearing voices from different parts of the web.

Opinions looks to be the blog and discussion section of the site.  Check out Thomas Lewis's post which lays out the vision and direction of the new site. 

And over in About there's a lavender frog.  Huh? I don't know either.  But, there is an important statement in the about section.

• Offer insightful articles that are relevant to the scenarios you want to design and develop for the web.
• Provide freely downloadable, open source, and immediately useable prototypes with no strings attached.
• Encourage user contribution and ongoing dialog.
• Believe in sharing ideas.
• Think about scenarios and users first, technology second.

The last point is probably the most relevant.  When I have a business issue at work.  It's not a C-Level person coming to me saying "Oh, we need be on technology X right away", and if they do you should question why.  They come to you with a business objective or scenario.  And that's how we work in everyday life.

Hat's off to the visitmix team.  You've done a fantastic job. It's nice to see a different approach.

Art & Connection

Art, whether it's music, visual or another of our senses, art creates a connection to the experience. 

 Why do we disregard it in our software so often?

Here's something for you to enjoy.

Surface Has Been busy since Mix08

It looks like the Surface group has been really busy since Mix08.  Found by way of Long Zheng, are refined and polished versions of existing apps and a bunch of new applications.

Check our Long's post.

At Mix 08

I haven't really had a chance to blog to much while I've been here at Mix 08.  There's just to much to see.  From Surface to Elvis there is just to many cool things here and even more great people to meet.  I've been twittering most everything because I can do it from the session.  You can follow those at www.twitter.com/ideakitchn

I've run into a lot of folks here from chatting with Miguel de Icaza about running MoonLight on a the ASUS EeePC to Karsten and the need to add an architect role to "The New Iteration", which actually became a quick conversation about different workflows for different organizations (Enterprise, Startup, etc)

I'll post more later on, with pics and also add more about what's going on with my new job.

Sean

Off to MIX 08

I'm getting ready to head out the door for MIX 08.  Looks like the weather here in Atlanta may be a little nasty. I'll be twittering along the way.  I'm looking forward to hitting the tables at MIX, once the Sandbox is open.  I had started a Flotzam restyle, but only did a little on the Digg template.

I was just having some fun creating the "Venetian Pantry".  I was going to do "Digg Beer", "Flickr Cheese", and "Twitter Soda".  If you want to XAML for it, meet me at MIX08, contact me or wait till I get back to put it online.  See you there.

Sean

Tufte in Atlanta

Edward Tufte, master presenter, author and information design visionary will be in Atlanta on March 24th and 25th.  If you haven't seen him, register here.  You also get all four of his books included in the price. I'll be here and if I can go, possibly we could have a meetup with Professor Tufte after.

Sean 

(edited on 26 Feb 2008 for date corrections)

Photosynth usage idea

Here's an idea for Photosynth that I'd like to see happen, that I had about a year ago. 

Premise: Visual hyperlinking that uses Photosynth style photo mapping for search matches. 

Usage: You're out looking for a place to eat and you snap a pic with your camera phone of a café, the send the image to the Photosynth query engine and you get back a tagged result set with items.  Places to eat, businesses, history, events, and ratings to name a few.  You could then click through a couple of results and get impressions of other people that have eaten there.

With the increase in geotagging of photos (2.2 million this month), online public photos galleries (ala Flickr) and hyperlinking to blog posts the information is already there.  All we need now is the Photosynth query service. 

I'll be at Mix if you want to chat about it.

Sean

Wayne Gretzky "gets" new technology

Whenever the discussion comes to new technology and why would an organization risk using new technology, I think that Wayne Gretzky, yes the hockey player, got it right with this quote.

I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.

Wayne Gretzky 

 Just swap "puck" with "technology" and "skate" with "code" (or "architect" or "move") you get...

I code to where the technology is going to be, not to where it has been.

Hockey and new technology, I guess being in Canada for a day or two is influencing me.  :)  

Sean 

I'm now Twittering

I've now got a twitter account.  Follow my twitter updates at http://twitter.com/IdeaKitchn or if you'd like here's a RSS feed.

Sean 

Predictions for MIX08

I thought I'd put together a list of predictions for MIX 08.  Some could happen, some will happen and some could not happen, you decide!

1. Steve Ballmer gives Keynote in black turtleneck and jeans.
2. IE 8 demo
3. IE 8 uses the "Office Ribbon" toolbar.
4. Popfly version 2.0, now with DLR
5. SilverLight 2.0
6. Expression Design running on a Mac
7. ASP.NET MVC
8. Surface SDK
9. Six foot wall mounted version of Surface
10. IIS 7
11. IIS 7 speed race with Apache for PHP
12. Great sessions by the good people at Identity Mine
13. Actual WPF line of business applications
14. The new default "charcoal grey" color scheme for Visual Studio
15. Expression Blend storyboard mode
16. New UX ROI koolaid for business owners and project managers
17. Steve Ballmer says "Designers" twenty seven times in a row in the keynote.
18. SilverLight on the iPhone.
19. (added 25 Feb 2008) Apple to release iPhone SDK at MIX08.

If you've got some to add, leave them in the comments (You'll need a profile if you've got something to say) or send it to me on my "contact me" page.

 See you at MIX.

Sean

RIA is about to get richer

Over at the ISV Developer Evangelism blog, jpelak posted about a couple of preview SilverLight control toolsets, that are now available.  They're from ComponentOne (the Sapphire toolkit) and InterSoft (the WebAqua toolkit).  Both are beautiful and usable, (remember that UX is not just about looks) and would be at home on either a LOB (Line of Business Application) or on a Windows Media Center. 

Sapphire has six different demos and you should check them out.  They are:

• Editable DataGrid
• Stock Portfolio
• Encyclopedia (shown above using Astoria, which is now ADO.NET Data Services)
• Amazon Store
• Video Library
• ComponentOne "Sapphire" Control Explorer

WebAqua brings the Mac interface to the web, with controls like WebFishEye and WebCoverFlow. 

With MIX08 coming up less than 31 days away, I can't wait to see what else is in the works, especially when controls like these are available now.

Sean 

Surface Possibilities

I think that surface and gesture computing is going to explode over the next five years.  We're going to see it in many areas of our life.  We already are with devices like the iPhone and the HTC Touch, however Surface will bring more opportunities with it.

Surface brings a larger space to interact with, and more options.  Here's some scenarios that I've dreamed up for it and would like to see.

1. Resort and Hotels -  When you check in at a hotel or resort (say Walt Disney World), you receive a Eye-Fi 2 gig wifi card to use during your stay with your digital camera.  When you come back to the hotel after your day of running around the park snapping photos of your kids.  While you are waiting to sit down to dinner you can put you camera on Surface which would already be paired with the Eye-Fi card.  (From what I remember, Surface does not automatically see all wifi and you wouldn't want that, considering security.)  You could then shuffle through the photos, and email them to family or create a photo book to be printed in a store and then picked up after your meal.
2. Education - At a Montessori school a child interacts with real objects to learn.  Surface would be great as a lead in, because of the direct interaction between the device and the child.  And when you add "Contacts", you get real world with virtual world.
3. Library - Surface would be perfect for a rare book library that you could search, interact with and even turn the pages.  And the application is already done!
4. Hotel Concierge - Asking for directions to a restaurant or buying tickets for a show would be much better when you're sitting around Surface.
5. Medical - Reviewing XRay or MRI results with a doctor could be much more enlightening.  And Surface could also be used for a collaborative session between doctors.  (Possibly a remote linked (think RDP remote controlled session) dual Surface devices sharing one desktop for collaboration).
6. Music Engineering - A multi touch mixing board.
7. TV - Telecasting, Weather and Sports could all make use of Surface with Video playback and drawing on the device.  (Think Madden doing a review of a play).
8. Science - Data Visualization, Mapping and Chemical and/or gene combinations.

There's just a couple.  More will come and soon.  Hopefully there will be a Surface lab at MIX08.

 Sean

Geek Dinner this Thursday (24 Jan 2008)

Join all of us and our host, Shawn Wildermuth, for discussions from the Oracle SOA suite (it's not limited to just Microsoft technologies) to SilverLight (Shawn) to LINQ (Jim).  Join us for food, brew and conversation.  RSVP here! http://www.geekdinners.com/geekdinners/DinnerInstance.aspx?id=3

 See you Thursday at 6:30.

Sean

Bill Gates Last Day - (Video Spoof)

Check out the video spoof of Bill Gates last day at work from the CES keynote over at Long Zheng's blog.

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080107/bill-gates-last-day-microsoft-video/

I've always loved the fact that Bill Gates is able to have fun with these videos.  And the cast is pretty impressive.