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The Official Google Blog defines 10 things that the user experence teams feels makes good code:
1. Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people’s trust.
10. Add a human touch.
For the most part I think my programming follows these guidelines.
Focus on people. If I didn’t care about my users I wouldn’t listen to them. Any problems or ideas that JWebGen users have gets handled promptly.
Every millisecond counts. That’s kinda a tough one. I haven’t mastered the habit of placing timing code into my programs. Generaly I don’t place a high priority on this item because I can’t remember ever getting a comment about the speed.
Simplicity is powerful. This one always trips me up. As I mentioned in a prior post, I have a big problem trying to design first, code later. Who cares how how dirty the code is if the end result and user interface is fast and clean? I don’t.
Engage beginners and attract experts. JWebGen doesn’t have a place for experts. Everybody can see how to use it and it doesn’t need a manual. I rest my case. If it needs a manual you have a problem. Users don’t read, and shouldn’t have to.
Dare to innovate. Why do it everybody else’s way? Do it your way. It sets you apart and people will either love it or hate it. If they hate it, they will either tell you or they won’t. Don’t sweat it.
Design for the world. Designers and programmers aren’t always users. What makes sense to them doesn’t always work for us. If you can use your creation, and want to, and it requires very few questions of ‘How do I do this?’ they you suceeded. It’s nice to feel needed, but don’t be silly.
Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business. In the case of JWebGen, that really just means programming for the future. Can you easily add new features? How bad will things break? Will they break at all? Is your code static, or can it grow?
Delight the eye without distracting the mind. Is it good to look at? Does it have extra pretties that aren’t needed? Extra fluff? Not enough visuals?
Be worthy of people’s trust. It’s fine to create a privacy statement but lets face it, people don’t read them. Either people trust you or they doesn’t. If you except people to locate a privacy statement and be conviced they should trust you then you’ve lost. People shouldn’t even think about this. Be trustworthy.
Add a human touch. I talk to my users. In my code, on my site. Don’t script. People are human. Speak to your users. Build a relantionship. Be informal. Banter. If your users know you, if they trust you they want to use what you give them. They know it’s for them, not that it has a hidden reason for you.
Originally published at The website of Joseph Becher. Please leave any comments there.
Almost forgot. To help out with my Time Warner duties I created a new little tool, DNS 360. It’s great for pulling WHOIS and DNS records. There are some changes I’d like to make, but it works for now. Check it out if you want.
Originally published at The website of Joseph Becher. Please leave any comments there.
It’s been a month since my last update. Credit Flock with getting that one out to you, although I don’t use the browser. Call me old-school (or new) I like my Firefox. Version 3 is close to release and Parent Folder is 100% compatible with Beta 5.
On the JWebGen front, I added a feature called Surprise me that is a bit hit. Simple code, amazing results. It’s interesting, but I can only program when I just do. Any attempt to design or plan first hits a dead end. Trance helps as well. To those who follow my Last.fm you will see a fair amount of trance showing up. That often means I’m slinging code, and this time is no exception. Not saying what is is because it’s rough and I want it to be a surprise, but there is progress. I just need graphics.
That’s the update. Until next time, keep it turned here, same time, same great station.
Originally published at The website of Joseph Becher. Please leave any comments there.
MobHappy » Blog Archive » Dead Happy
Proof there is still ‘good’ news.
Originally published at The website of Joseph Becher. Please leave any comments there.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Dear Joe -
I've always admired your self-directed learning style, the knowledge and skills you've aquired on your own, and you willingness to help anyone you can with their computer problems. You deserve the best! And you owe it to yourself and Katie to be justly compensated for the work you do.
You are well qualified for the jobs Dad told you about with the Federal Government. They're local, pay $50-60,000 / yr. with full benifits, and don't even require a college degree. This could be a great opportunity.
But Dad says he still hasn't received a copy of your resume. Did you send it? If not, and you're sincerely interested in the jobs Dad told you about, please e-mail it to _____________ right away.
Love ya! Mom
- Mood:
predatory
MAYHEM FESTIVAL PRESENTED BY
VAN’S WARPED TOUR/ROCKSTAR TASTE OF CHAOS FOUNDERS IN ASSOCIATION WITH LIVE NATION
ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK IS THE TITLE SPONSOR
FUSE-TV AND REVOLVER MAGAZINE ANNOUNCED AS MEDIA PARTNERS;
JÄGERMEISTER ON BOARD AS STAGE SPONSOR
TOUR TO KICK OFF JULY 9 IN SEATTLE
1 - Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Ra
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 - Go to Random quotations: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.ph
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 - Go to flickr's "explore the last seven days" http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesti
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
Put it all together, that's your first album.
Lots of people use FaceBook
This network has accessed http://www.unimelb.edu.au/ :-D
I'm very bored. It's unlikely anybody here will get called other then the first three. I need food.
- Mood:
hungry
Oh, and I'm playing solitare!
in vagis mode and loosing aton on money. Just like old times :)
Except the old computer didn't have speakers, just big-ass headphones. I wonder how much a pair of those would cost. the ones I have now are junk.
You grow up old-school, you want old-school.
he gave birth to gets and had contest with his brother to see who had the most kids.
he rode the glider to the moon.
he went fishing in the pond behind his house in the woods.
he had an imagunation. he had fun doing things with computers.
these days he's too afraid that if he does anything he'll get arrested.
he can't focuse on his imagionaly world.
the sound of a fan depresses him and puts him to speel.
he misses the chair and the computer in the basement.
the lighting in this room sucks.
this journal should get flagged for that. this journal shouldn't exist. this boy wants to have fun again. he doesn't like being a grownup.
he don't like knowing about the world. the world sucks and there is nothing this boy can do about it.
this boy forgot how to have fun.
- Mood:
depressed
You are not allowed to use money as an excuse unless you apply it fairly to yourself.
*I* do not have a problem managing money.
Stop acting like a baby whenever you don't get you way.
- Mood:
cranky
The Cult of Phelps needs a nuke dropped on them.
That is all.
I wouldn't mind comments. It gets a little sad when you can't tell if people are reading your work. I have left off the title so that I can present the story to you in the order it was planned, not the way it was written. Therefore you will only see the chapter titles. I hope you like it.
Track: Soldiers Of The Wasteland
It's wtiting time. The plan to write a novel for national novel writing mounth fell though. My stength lies in shorts stories or poetry. Not novels. si I've decided to try something new. I will write a post and show what music I'm listening to at the time of the post.
I love dragonforce. I don't like facebook. I need to find a way to get the apps I like off of it and into something I trust. Open social is good, but the only website that I trust doesn't yet support it.
I need to make my own container I've thought about it in the past. It was going to be called Google TSart, but It might be renamed because it will cover a few other websites.
Lets see what websites I use:
deviantaart - closing
livejournal - faily boring
facebook - hate the interface, love the ideas behind the games
last.fm - music, too much data
panadora - music, don't use as much as I should
gaia - like the clouthes, don't like the forums
pony island - like the ponies, dislike the admins and forums
google reader - lots of info, too much to handle
delicious - love the bookmark extension, needs sorting and processing.
parent folder - don't use anymore
...
I have a few projects that I came of with a long time ago and never made.
to date the best project that I have made is jwebgen. I'm bored with it though because in order to keepworking on something I need to enjoy using it.
Artist: Symphony X
Track: Smoke And Mirrors
I don't use pony island anymore so I have no need for the jwebngen. I know other people use it so it stays up. It was was a two point project. One, to see if I could do it. two, to show up in google before the pay generator. I did both. So I lost interest. There are a few things that the pay one does that I don't do, but I have no need to add theem. I don't want to completely clone the pay one, just give people a choice.
pony island turned me off when they decided to support a pay project from another user. It doesn't matter if I work for you or are a customer, when you support an non-deserving customer you loose my respect.
I have worked customer service. I don't have a degree, but some pwople do not deservse to be supported. I belive ethat when customers are underserving you should cut them off. kick them out, do whatever it takes to get rid of them. let them be someone elses problem. your other customer and therefore your your bottem line will thank you.
Artist: Iron Maiden
Track: The Wicker Man
I'm hungry. my shomach is crampted. I need a new chair.I like this typing to music. This is how I get into my programming groove. I can write a lot cool things when I'm zoning to music. It's when I stop to think that I loose my flow. I should go and pull a project out of my folder and work on it. No matter how old and silly it seems just to create something.
good night all :)
(disclamer: this post was written. It will contain spelling errors. I don't care. the importany thing was that I wrote at all )
