... and then a miracle occurs ...

Is UI really just common sense? In some ways, yeah.  But in more ways than one, its not.  Like the doctor who made his patient fall, the UI designer often fails to see things from the user's point of view.... or maybe just his browser.

One of the most repeated suggestion today was "give clear instructions" (she said it for more than 5 of the apps).  When I had to manage little kids, I always remembered to be absolutely detailed in my instructions.  Even then, some idiotic kid will still get himself into trouble because he DIDN'T follow the instructions.

The biggest takeaway from the lesson last week was from getHelp's idiot proof step-by-step.  Instructions mingled with limited things to view.  I think that's an excellent way to "teach" people how to use apps.  Instead of having to read a "wall of text", they are guided through the process.

Unfortunately, our extension has lots to improve in this regard.  Too bad we din get any pointers from Pamela Fox :P (PLEASE GO ADD OUR EXTENSION!!!!)

Most of the time, miracles are really supposed to occur in our applications.  I guess, we just need to remember to help users find it :)

best pitch in my book

it may not have been the most prestigious option to be working on for your final project, but the pitch that left the greatest impression on me was given by This Man.


how many times have you heard that "there is no future in (insert field) in singapore"?  i had my fair share from my father.  in fact, he was so adamant on his point that he almost forcefully tried to withdraw me from my CCA, with bad results as an excuse.  thankfully, i had wonderful teachers who knew much better.

so why redsport? although i'm not to keen to pursue it as a final project, i cannot help but be amazed by the passion that emitted from the guy.  with a no frills presentation, he highlighted just how much of a difference redsports made.  kudos to yanjie for trying to contextualize this for many of our foreign classmates, but as a sportsman and assistant coach myself, i knew the value of redsport to the local sports scene.

i was still in school about the time redsport started, and it got more popular when i was helping my coach.  before redsport, there was no consolidation of local school sports results and reports.  several sites had tried to do the same thing as redsport, but their execution failed and eventually they faded into the depths.  redsport is the only site that had withstood the test of time.

Mr leslie focused on what he was good at, which was basically to bring the sports story to us.  and most importantly he stayed true to his passion. I quote:
I’m not sure I can comment about that but for me, I’m driven by the need to do something meaningful for society. Telling the sports story of my fellow Singaporean makes this website worth doing for me. Without meaning, I can’t get excited about the work I do. Of course, starting is the easy part. Now is the other struggle – persevering, focusing on the next step. The other thing that works for me is just keeping things simple and executing well. There are a thousand and one ideas out there but executing well and repeatedly is the hard thing to do.

70k (was this the number? i can't remember) daily hits may not seemed much for a page, but if you think about the community who is actually bothered about local sport, its actually quite a huge number.  its one thing to follow your dreams blindly, its another thing to follow your dreams and successfully make a difference.  and can you say tell a 13 year old that redsport doesnt really make a difference in the grand scheme of things? of course you can't, to them, this is their grand scheme of things.  how could then say that redsport is not a success?

and if all the bolded phrases sound familiar, its because they are.  these few catch phrases have been repeated again and again throughout this module, whether its by prof ben, or other successful people have said.

i look forward to hearing and learning more from him in the next session we see him.

the 62 comment lesson

well, thank you all for your support for my previous post.  don't expect anymore exciting flame wars like that anymore :P  i'm normally a very peace-loving, low profile guy.  (its true.... though i doubt most of you would believe me)  i hope nobody took any offense from the whole episode, and i apologise for any grief caused.

anyway, i think there were quite a few things i learnt from the whole episode.

1. (i think) generating interest isn't very hard compared to sustaining interest.  the latter is the recipe for success in this fast pace, tightly knit web 2.0.  the former normally fades into darkness due to the lack of real substance(aka me).  there are definitely exceptions, but frankly I don't think such people make any contribution what-so-ever to this planet.

so i think the biggest challenge lies in turning attention into opportunity and value.

2. watch your words on the web.  because of the lack of tone, context and familiarity, your words can be easily misinterpreted.  again, this by no means is something new, but i think nothing drives home the message clearer than making the mistake yourself.

3. (i feel) its pointless getting into a fight online.  there are no winners.  i think people who have frequented forums will definitely agree with me.   even though you may be right, bowing out really might not be the worse thing.  there are jackasses (like me) who just want to start a fight for the sake of starting a fight. just let them be.

or, if you're bored, you could always just entertain them.

4. prof ben is cool.  seriously, find me another prof that would praise you for starting a flame war?

I destroyed my hands :)

Alright! I totally destroyed my fingers using with the Adobe Pen Tool. But I'm still very unsatisfied with my end product.  Looks terrible kiddish, and unprofessional. Bah...



So I took a break here: Gametrailers' Angry Video Game Nerd: Hydlide Review


The video is part of a series which runs at Gametrailer.com.  Essentially, a vulgar, angry dude picks out terrible old school games on old systems (Atari, NES, etc) and complains about them .  In this episode, the target of his wrath is "Hydlide".

 If you're allergic to vulgarities, you might just want to skip to 6:30min for the gist of the whole video.  Why I'm sharing this video is because I felt that he actually said something that made some sense.  He noted that essentially, this crappy game was just as cryptic as the first Zelda (for those who don't know what this is, Zelda is one of the all time most popular console game series) in terms of how to progress in the game.  However, what made the difference is the design of the game made it fun for people to play, so people were willing to collaborate and discuss it, even though the game's puzzles were extremely difficult and cryptic.  In order to beat Zelda, fans collaborated to come up with guides and game world maps (it was considered massive at that time) using game magazines. (obviously there was no Google then)



In days where collaboration was no mean feat, the design of Zelda managed to bring about such huge steps in their players.  Today, Google makes this process so much easier.  In some ways, I think this idea is rather important for facebook apps.  As long you manage to earn some form of leverage over the users (be it a great design, addictive gameplay, essential services), users might actually be willing to help you back.

Of course, its not going to gain that form of leverage nowadays, since users can simply just SWITCH to alternatives once you can't deliver.
Anyway, i must do a disclaimer on my statement from my previous post.  Its GOOD that Prof Ben keeps repeating himself.  Why does he repeat himself? I think that it could be for two reason...
1) He really believes in what he says (in that its important for us to hear it)
2) People don't listen/People forget to what they hear

I had lots of fun (and pain) getting the version one of whoisthemonkey's UI done.  Too bad I'm not paticularly pleased with my end product. Well, enough 3216 for the weekend.

a trip to the doctors

so i just came from my physio session in the afternoon.

while i was waiting for my turn, i saw this giant of a doctor talking to a patient, who had a cast with a special shoe over his right foot.  the doctor was trying to explain something to him.  the patient obviously felt that talking to him while seated was either uncomfortable or discourteous, so he stood up. the doctor then asked him to be careful and sit down, and then proceeded on with their discussion.

within seconds, the patient stood up again, before the doctor asked him to sit down again.  after two more times this happened, the patient finally lost his balance and tripped.  fortunately, he only fell back onto the chair, sustaining no injury.

so i was watching this spectacle rather curiously.  why didn't the doctor just sit down beside the empty sit beside the patient, who clearly was NOT going to stay seated to talk to the doctor?

of course, i could say all i want, because
1) there's no guarantee i won't overlook the exact same thing if i were in his shoes, like the saying goes 旁观者清 (which means things are clearer to someone spectating)
2) maybe the doctor was REALLY REALLY busy at the end of the shift

anyway, my point is, i think if we remember to apply some common sense, and try to see things from the users point of view, we would be able to provide a much better user experience.