Tag: ux

Design, Art, and Science In the Context of Software

I was listening to a recent Hanselminutes podcast where Scott Hanselman speaks with Natasha Irizarry about User Experience (UX) (you can find the podcast episode here), and a very interesting debate got started in my head.

The Daily - I'll Pass

On February 2nd, News Corp. launched The Daily, an iPad app that aims to bridge the gap between the print and digital world in the news arena. There were a number of news stories about this one before it arrived because Apple had been working with News Corp. to figure out a subscription payment structure and how to support it in the iTunes store. Curious, I downloaded the app, which nicely includes a 2 week free trial, and decided to see what all the fuss was about. Here’s what I found:

Valve Got it Right

On May 12, 2010, Valve made its Steam platform available on the Mac. There are a few key points of the way Valve chose to do this that show design decisions which support the needs and desires of the customer base. All too often, software companies do things the way that is easiest for them, at the expense of end user satisfaction. The Steam platform has grown in a way that exhibits the exact opposite: Valve gave themselves extra work, and sacrificed some potential revenue, to build a platform that caters to the users.

Is Flash Dying?

With the launch of Apple’s iPad yesterday, it really makes me wonder if Flash is going to get phased out. Actually it almost seems better just to ask how quickly Flash is going to get phased out. Based on Apple’s list of iPad ready sites, there are some major players that have already cast their lot with HTML5. It seems perfectly logical that web sites are more interested in delivering their content than trying to get Apple to support Flash on its mobile devices.