Get your own info! LMGTFY as a cultrual shift
by Liz on Dec.15, 2009, under Web Development
It used to be a hallmark of geek culture, dispensing information. Having the most up-to-the-minute info about releases, or being on top of the rumor mill is one thing, but explanation was once a respected occupation of your time. Now, its become a second-class geek status.
Once, long ago in the halls of a high school or the collegiate-choked grounds of a campus were where you would find geeks patiently explaining details of complex scientific methodologies, math inundated with referential equations and the ins and outs of How To Fix Your Computer- but we have grown weary. Now that tech support has become an occupation we get paid for, no one seems to relish taking the time to educate their fellow man.
From “frustrations” tees at thinkgeek “no, I will not fix your computer” and “I read you’re e-mail”, the status has changed from “the smartest guy in the room” to “geek monkey”.
The trend of the crowd to recognize an avenue for exploitation has resulted in your average geek becoming overworked. He has coped by creating user-friendly tools for use by the massses in ascertaining their own information, rather than asking a question every time they had a thought.
Geeks however have become so used to getting their own info, and then pointing people towards Google or Wikipedia when they got a question more than a few times, they believe by now the public should have also learned this skill.
What do geeks do when faced with repetitive tasks? Create a tool that automates the process.
Hence sites like Let Me Google That For You- geeks have responded in a familiar way.
The growing trend, being irritated at questions with easily obtained answers, stems from the familiar Internet hate machine known as 4chan. One of the oldest and largest anonymous posting sites in the world, people are generally subjected to the rudest, most vile comments this side of xBox live- so it’s no wonder the trend started as a meme. This has become a legitimate tool over the months of use however- and it is now acceptable to send a link to your mother or a coworker, as long as they have at least some sense of humor.
Either way, the message is clear- geeks are tired of being your own personal search engine.
Context in Design – Design in Context
by Liz on Oct.07, 2009, under Net Culture, Web Development
When designing a website, or any user interface, we must consider context. What you are producing is a tool, not a product or an application. The better the design of the tool, the more use it will have, and the more it will be used. Designing for multiple levels of skill is something many coders lack in, mainly because they are power-users. What is apparent to them is not apparent to others, and what is contextually relevant to them is, again, obscure to the general populace.
In designing a website or other web-based application, we must consider what else the user is doing- using our application is generally not the sole focus of their task, but a tool to augment it. Whether it be a web-portal for a customer service rep, or a mobile application for tagging music- we have to consider what else is on their mind, and what else they may be interacting with. They may choose to stop using our tool very quickly, and then return to it at a later time- but how likely are they to do that? What are the ramifications of that action?
Mobile devices are short-usage only, and with short timespans the user does not have time to wait for a lot of images to load or an animation/splash screen to play. In Internet-enabled applications, a login prompt may be too much, especially if the data is not especially secure. Having a session expire daily, rather than an application-launch login event may be the way to go. Other tools, such as an intranet, may receive heavy use over a long period of time, followed by long periods of inactivity(like lunch breaks, or leaving for the day.) Where the browser is the application window. Triggering a login following a closed browser may be the best security route, since you are dealing with company data but don’t want to effect productivity.
We must also consider what the user sees when they see our icon, link or button. What are they trying to accomplish by clicking on it? What associates in the user’s mind when they think of using our tool? The human brain is very good at making connections and associations- but remembering ALL the tasks a tool can be used for is simply out of the question. What has to happen, in order to prompt it’s use, is for the user to associate the task with our tool. For instance, if our tool becomes “the button that lets me identify songs”, we have successfully marketed and designed a music-tagging application. However, if the user then wants to “find more songs like this one”, and the answer to the question “what tool should I use” is Pandora, or Last.fm- we have failed in either the placement of the “suggest more songs like these” button, or we simply do not return results relevant enough to the user. We will assume we do however, provide the best service available, being that this is an article on design and not algorithm.
When the user reaches out for related tasks, we want them to look at our tool not as a “multi-purpose” tool, but a “category” tool. If our tool is modular, we need to integrate with other, categorically-relevant tools (consider Shazam’s youtube, twitter, and iTunes integration) in order for the user to associate us as their “category” tool. In being a portal for anything associated with that category, we can ensure use despite alternatives.
Inexperienced users often flock to one-stop-shop applications because they see categories as entire tasks. When they want to “do email”- they click on outlook. This also involves calendars, task lists, contacts, even newsgroups. This is not seen as a multi-purpose program for many tasks, rather all of those tasks are part of email- and email itself is a category we might call “communication” or “business” or “productivity”. Thus creating an “Email” application must take into account things it belongs in the same category as, as well as things it might relate to. The more category-related things it can do (and the more seamless it can make them) the more polished, intuitive and “easy” your tool is.
Do try to maintain however, category apps. Mozilla has Firefox and Thunderbird for a reason- they didn’t want their “Internet” application becoming too big. By keeping the applications themselves light enough to respond quickly, and yet featured enough to encompass a category, we have successfully created a tool that is associable to a particular activity, rather than a specific function.
On a mobile device, this idea is very different. People use an application to perform one or two specific functions, and have a multitude of other applications to choose from. Consolidating here is not recommended as it will slow your application down when time is of the essence. Adding additional functions to an app based around a leisure activity is fine, but any application that has to be used quickly (song tagging, flashlight, 911 dialers) is suicide.
If your service is modular and we are simply concerned with network penetration instead of forward-facing usage, you can consider creating a web service, or API to interact with other websites. Modularization is a characteristic of the web and most people don’t want to receive all of their content from one provider- even if they do want it all in one place. Consider letting others plug into you, rather than attempting to be a full show when you’re a sideliner at best. It’s OK to be a sideliner, this is the web.
We’re all sideliners here. Even Google.
In an intranet however, things are different. Launching of different websites or “systems” as users often refer to them hurts productivity. When a user has to click back and forth or even manually migrate data from one “system” to another, we have failed in the basic mission of computers: make data easier to organize, and less work to manage. If you have data entry staff that don’t interact with handwritten items, there is something seriously wrong with your system.
Humans are not technological stopgaps- they are the reason technology exists. Taking one system, modularizing it and creating an interface that allows for quick access to other parts of the system is no small feat, but it is worth every second of effort. An (overly) simple rule of thumb is that for every hour a programmer spends optimizing a program, or a designer spends optimizing a design, 1000 man hours are saved each year. This goes for big operations as well as small- even small businesses need to save precious hours in a day not processing data- that is the computer’s job.
Smooth navigation is key here- try to make the “drilling down” process easier to manage, by ensuring a map of the site is available on each page. Keeping this map navigable by utilizing dropdowns and expanding trees rather than having the user “back out” of what they were doing and having to “go back in”. We aren’t walking down tunnels, we are on an open plane- point to point navigation needs to be simple.
Human thought processes have a momentum about them- they have to get going before they can stay on one track- such is the case with work. Focusing on a task involves minimizing distractions and freeing your mind of nagging tasks- this is why getting “re-engaged” after interruption(phone call, lunch, or just getting there in the morning) is a huge productivity drain. By minimizing the “set up” process and keeping “re-engagement” to a minimum using efficiently designed user interfaces, auto-completion, user-specific frequent links, bookmark-friendly URLs and a logon page that directs you to the last used page, rather than starting you at the “top”- these practices and others will create a seamless flow into work, allowing users to flow in and out of using your tool, instead of making the tool the task in and of itself.
Apps v. Websites: Ultimate showdown in the mobile browsing era
by Liz on Sep.27, 2009, under Web Development
I was looking at my iPhone the other day when I was in a particularly bad dead zone, and thought to myself “Wow, I don’t have much to do that’s not Internet-required”. Other than a few games and stanza, it appears most of my apps are simply an interface for a single website.
As I thought about the implications of this, I realized that the line separating webapps and desktop applications has blurred. I use mint.com to manage my finances, and facebook to manage my social circle. I use google docs to deal with my documents and gmail.com to manage my e-mail. All of it, since gmail can check other POP-enabled accounts.
Now, to look at it another way- there are many thousands of apps in the App Store in iTunes, but the Pre and Blackberry have disappointingly low figures. Of course, the iPhone has been around longer than the Pre, and it has a larger, more technically-capable cult of followers than the business-centric Blackberry, but the real reason is that developers simply haven’t had enough time to learn an entirely new SDK, and why would they want to?
The simple solution is to develop an application that is cross-device compatible- a webapp. Something they have only to fire up their browsers to get to, it increases the user base of your application to anyone with a portable connection. The roadblock? Session Management.
The biggest problem with the iPhone, Pre and Blackberry (less so with android phones, but a problem nonetheless) is that it can’t carry data past more than a few webpages. The choice to use a webapp is simple when you don’t have to login- you can store everything in the URL variable scope. When users have to access personal information, or verify their identity (for purchasing things perhaps?) the choice to use cookies, or session variables is one that is difficult to make. When you want your users to spend time using your site- increasing their exposure to your brand and maximizing revenue potential- you need to bite the bullet and write a device-specific application. When you only need to provide data in short bursts (like twitter, or meetways) you can afford to make a smaller, data-optimized version of your website.
Literally every job
by Liz on Sep.14, 2009, under Web Development
Literally, ever job I’ve ever held involves Craigslist in some way.
I have been reading article after article regarding job situations, and many of them have practical advice for any other job searcher.
But I’ve given up. I now know I have only but to post my resume on Craigslist, and jobs will come to me. I don’t even bother applying for the ones that are up there- for I know the deluge of responses they get from staffing companies, Nigerian scammers and overseas developers looking to sell outsourcing.
Craigslist is the only free resume repository of any meaningful size- it does not cost to put your resume out there and there is still a higher legit-to-scam ratio that you can perform a keyword search without having to wade through too many unqualified or irrelevant responses.
I can do a search on my competitors for free, post for free, and recieve responses for free. They want nothing in return, except your continued patronage to other parts of the site.
If Craigslist were to start charging for resume search, I know I wouldn’t bother putting it anywhere but monster.com- which is the second-cheapest resume search.
But now that you know, just go ahead and post it there. Unless you’re a mid-to-senior level web developer. Then it’s no good. Stay away.
On Love, and Design
by Liz on Aug.28, 2009, under Web Development
Love is a fickle, transient creature whose whims and motives are unknown to the most studious of pupil, and are blindingly apparent in every schoolchild crush. Impossible to predict, and similarly to live without.
I have a love for design.
But, like with most loves, there is an element of childish behavior that goes along with it. I am speaking of scorn, and the post-apocalyptic effect upon your creative genius that is unmitigated by your strongest of efforts.
When I was laid off from my last job, I felt the scorn that web design had lain upon me. Even though it was a faultless occurrence, feelings- ones necessary to do my job- were bruised. I had lost touch with “the flow”- the name I have for the creative energy that sustains me.
The thing that appears in my head when an idea is mentioned or a thought is provoked by a business owner, a friend with an idea, or by someone with a really bad website- flow. The site comes together quickly in my head, and I struggle to quickly bring it together in Photoshop(I know, I’m supposed to use Illustrator…) and I am eager to deliver. The code appears before me in a dreamlike trance as I contemplate the great balance between form and function- neat effects and search engine optimization. I can hardly sleep, eat or anything that does not engage my brain to the fullest- I am agitated until the creative energy can burst forth in some form or another- be it a comp, a demo or an update- and I would be finally fulfilled.
The scorn I felt, much like the scorn of a lover, was paralyzing. I could not open Dreamweaver without feeling a great weight settle down on my shoulders- “You will never feel that love again”, it seemed to whisper.
A man who loves his job does not work a day in his life, a wise man(Ben Franklin?) said. I never feel like I am at work when I do have a job- merely settling down in the arms of someone I cherish deeply. While I can get frustrated, disillusioned, and wish to be alone sometimes, the love that keeps us together is a lasting one.
But time heals all wounds, and the trauma of unemployment is waning, which is to say- I’m back baby.
I Somehow Manage
by Liz on Feb.10, 2010, under Career, Gripes, Net Culture, Rants, Self Esteem, Social Commentary, Status Updates
I waited a bit after writing this- 3 months to be exact. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t fueled by a slight against my ego, and that the feminist rage I was feeling wouldn’t falter after time. This is the blogger equivalent of writing an angry letter and waiting till morning to send it.
Here I present, the most feminist rant ever.
A question I am invariably, and I do mean invariably, asked when people find out that I have a child, “How do you manage a family and working?”, or alternately, “Who watches your son while you are at work?”
The audacity of this question is understated, as it has clear implications: people always want to know- not as a polite aside like “What is his name”‘ “How old is he”, etc, is how I can be so irresponsible as to have a career when I have a child to raise. There are then unfortunate implications to that statement that do not merely happen to be rather rude and presumptive, but effect my career as well. Assumptions range that I do not actually like what I do, I am merely doing this to “feed my kids”, that I would not do this if I didn’t have to, that I am disorganized, rushed or hurried in my work, or that I simply do not care.
But this is not predijudice against parents- it is prejudice against mothers, spisifically. My male collegues, many of whom have children- some of whom are single parents- are never asked this question. They might be applauded, if they are single, but it is a badge of honor, not a mark of shame.
This stereotype is absurd- the idea that I would rather be a housewife or homemaker of any sort- that I don’t do what I love or love what I do- that my ambitions for myself are extensions of the ambition to provide well for my offspring, these assertions are ridiculous.
I am much more ambitious than many of my personal acquaintances, and many of my coworkers- but the assumption is that I would give it all up were I to marry someone well off, or attain some sort of lump sum in a stroke of luck. This stereotype is not only one of the single most damaging ideas to feminism in society today, but many professional women- women who would raise intelligent, well-fed and well-adjusted offspring put it off until the end of their careers, or off entirely, due to this assumption. This leaves these incredible people out of the gene pool, and can only hurt posterity. To talk about sustainability, sustaining a population segment with a high enough IQ to maintain and use the technological wonders we use today is one of the highest priorities we can have as a species- this trend has to stop.