Saturday, July 05, 2008
#
Well I guess I should be satisfied that I sustained a company for 10 years. But it is a bit anti-climactic. I've screwed up a lot, learned a lot and accomplished a lot since 1998. I like to think of it as a long MBA program based in real world experience. I wouldn't trade anything for the experiences I have gained over the past 10 years.
Nothing is more "real world" than being your own boss and running your own company. Nothing is more real world than not getting paid by a client for more than 90 days. Nothing is more real than being on the bench for several months watching your annual profits disappear. And yet nothing is more satisfying than knowing I did it for 10 years and did a damn good job at it.
I've seen a lot of crazy stuff. Crazy stuff other contractors do, crazy stuff clients do, crazy stuff client's employees do and crazy stuff partners do. I've been everything from developer to CTO. I've been a contract developer, business partner, CTO, Chief Architect, Sr. Developer, Project Manager, Advisor to a State Health Dept. and a member of a PMO.
I managed to survive more than 6 CTOs at one client and helped two clients when they sold their companies to other companies. I was once offered 0.5 percent, that's right one half of one percent of a start up as compensation for architecting their entire solution. Which by the way the company could not exist without as it enabled their entire offering. I even ran an off-shore operation for a while.
I was offered a job at just about every substantial client that I consulted for. I was laughed at of course when I told them how much it would cost to hire me. But that was okay because they just kept me on contract for a long time at my billing rate.
One side benefit I never expected nor planned for came around 2004. It was an introduction to the "community". I came across and subsequently hired a big personality in the .Net Community. We were friends instantly and I was immediately drawn into the community. I have met amazing people since that time from the typical .Net companies and some not so typical companies. I was given great opportunities to present to the community (which has probably fullfilled me more than those that attended my sessions.) While not as active as I once was I will always hold the .Net community in the highest regard and among some of the fondest memories over the past 10 years.
So why the long rant? Well because in March I decided to take a full time employment position and I actually enjoy it very much. And so to clean things up I have decided to close my shop. So in August 2008 I will close my company exactly 10 years after starting it. A company that has brought me joy and tears, excitement and fear. If you have ever run your own company, you'll get why this is such a big deal. If you haven't you should try it some time. It will certainly give you a different perspective on full time employement.
Maybe I'll be back on the independant side some day. But for now I've hung my hat at a GREAT company with huge opportunities. So while I focus on my new career this blog will probably fall silent.
Thanks,
--chaz
Friday, March 14, 2008
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Well for those of you who follow me and my blog (and who doesn't); a major life change signifies a shift in focus on this blog. For over a year I have been a big proponent of good User Experience. But as I have made some very deliberate decisions in my career I am assuming a role as a Scrum Master and Delivery Manager. I will still have architectural responsibilities too. So to be true to the principles of software design that I believe in, I will stay true to User Experience in my new roles, I just may not blog about it so much.
As I exit stage left from the forefront of User Experience I just have to say that the term User Experience has been over used and misused by so many. The real misuse of "User Experience" came about with the introductions of WPF and Silverlight in my opinion. Now don't get me wrong, these two technologies certainly do enhance the beauty and functionality of an application. However to me User Experience is more than skin deep. The User Experience is really all about the psychology of the user in relationship to the software they are using. It is about the user's perception of ease of use, the software's ability to keep the user on task and the conversation that ensues between the two.
I've said it before in this blog, the User Experience is not owned simply by the UI designer/developer. The User Experience is the shared responsibility of the entire development team and begins at project inception. UX must be a first class citizen during solution architecture and remain so through presentation development and delivery.
--chaz
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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Silverlight 2.Oh My God! Shawn Burke posted about his endeavors with Silverlight 2.0 and he says one very important thing... "I'm having fun!" Man that is what it should be about. Programming should be fun and not a hassle. I am expecting some instant gratification from Silverlight 2.0.
Shawn also points to Scott Gu's blog. If you aren't watching that blog like a hawk already you really need to subscribe. Not to be overly dramatic, but coming from a thick client background, Silverlight 2.0 is going to change my world!!!!
--chaz
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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Okay so we've had an onslaught of new things hit in the Microsoft stack lately. I am curious how many folks are using WCF, WPF, WF (workflow), Silverlight, LINQ, etc. And for what types of problems you are trying to solve.
It would also be nice to know if you are using the P&P Guidance Packages and Ent Libs. Oh and which Visual Studio version are you mainly working with these days?
If you are not using this stuff yet why? Did you pitch it to your boss and they said no for some reason? Did they get it or not?
I consider this a reverse blog. It is probably better suited for a discussion board than a blog, but so be it. Talk back to me. I want to know which foundations are being embraced and which are being rejected.
Thanks for the feedback!!!!!
--chaz
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
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If you've watched any TV lately you will notice an odd pairing of product brands. Intermingled in car ads recently has been the mention of Microsoft Sync. I thought hmm... that might be a pretty cool feature.
When looked into Sync a little closer I had the feeling, I've seen this trick before. Like, connect your cell phone to your car via Blue Tooth to make calls etc. But there is more. Like the ability to read and send text messages verbally. Coincidently I saw on Fox News last night how kids are being wiped off the planet and injuring and killing others because they are texting and driving at the same time. So now I think this isn't only cool, it is a life saver.
With all of that said, there are a couple of additional features coming like getting a health report from your car's on board computer. But the ultimate convenience for me would be to allow my Windows mobile device (or even Blackberry) to connect to my car via Sync. And each time the two paired have Sync identify that there are appointments on my schedule or pending messages in my in-box and allow me to interact further with my calender or e-mail verbally. A pleasant voice saying ("Good afternoon Chaz. You have 3 pending appointments and 22 unread e-mails in your in-box.") after you get in your car would be cool. Then at my leisure to say "review appointments". Yeah that would be something!
I think we have entered the Jetson's age with this innovation. I'm looking forward to the continued enhancements of this product line for safety and convenience. And come on man, it is just cool to text hands free. And for old timers like me (36) it should reduce the length of time it takes me to text 5 words from 15 minutes to just a couple of seconds. I may never get out of my car again ;)
Here's a link to the Microsoft Sync site.
--chaz
I will be presenting on the interaction of ASP.Net, ASP.Net AJAX, and Silverlight 1.0 this Saturday at Microsoft in NYC. I'll also be showing off a small bit of Expression Blend 2 December Preview.
It is amazing how easy it is to pull all of these technologies together. Some of what I will be showing this Satruday is just a bridge until Silverlight 2.0 is released. But it is all relatively simple and once you've done the work once it is very re-usable.
Hope I'll be seeing you there.
--chaz
Thursday, January 10, 2008
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I am working on a port of an opensource domain specific Time & Money java library written by Eric Evans to .Net. To the best of my knowledge there are 2 ways to directly convert Java to .Net;
1. Use the built in Convert function within Visual Studio 2005/08. This lets you point directly at the java classes and allow studio to handle the conversion to C#.
2. Create a J# project, and include the java files in your project.
Using the first method there are a lot of conversion problems because a number of Java methods have no direct equivilant in .Net. A typical error is java.util.Calendar.add could not be converted. And since this domain is all about Time, there are a lot of these issues.
The second method is a little better, but still not great. I was able to bring the java classes right into J#. The only significant issue was that there were a ton of "asserts" in the code. J# didn't handle it well, so I had to clean that up. So my next step was to get it from J# to C#. I copmpiled the J# and then used Reflector to reverse it to C#. I didn't get everything I wanted.
Some classes are decorated like this;
[
I was hoping for a complete break from Java. I guess I will have to do this port the old fashion way. I'll have to understand exactly what each module does and then write copy or write the C# equivilant accordinly.
So much for getting away cheap and being lazy. It was worth a try. By the whole port exercise was very interesting.
--chaz
JavaInterfaces("2;java/lang/Comparable;java/io/Serializable;")]
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
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Okay, this is too precious to keep to myself! My DVD Rom door keeps popping open on my laptop. Probably a worn out do-hicky or an out of place gizmo right? Well I thought I'd just hit up HP tech support for an answer. Basically I want to know if I can fix it myself or if I should just buy a new drive. Here is a very funny tech support exchange:
HP Tech: Hello Chaz.
HP Tech:: Welcome to HP Total Care for Pavilion Notebooks. My name is Marisa. How may I assist you today?
Chaz: HI Marisa. I have a dv5140 US. The DVD/CD Rom door keeps popping open even when i don't hit the button to release it. Is there a tweak I can do to fix this?
HP Tech:: Let me see what best I can do for you today.
Chaz: okay, thanks.
HP Tech:: I understand from the above information that your Notebook CD/DVD drive tray suddenly pops out.Am I right?
Chaz: yes
HP Tech:: Could you let me know since how long have you been experiencing this issue?
Chaz: probably a couple of weeks now.
HP Tech:: May I know the recent Software and Hardware changes made in your computer before the issue started?
Chaz: that is a difficult question. Hardware there have been no changes, but software,I am a developer. I always download patches automatically and the volume of software I install and uninstall on my computer is large. However, I don't see how software would be an issue here.
HP Tech:: Thank you for the information.
HP Tech:: May I know the version of windows installed in the notebook, Is it windows XP or Vista?
Chaz: Vista
HP Tech:: The cause of the issue you are experiencing seems to be due to the virus affected to your notebook hard drive.
Chaz: really?
Chaz: I have an anti-virus that is up to date
HP Tech:: May I place you on hold for 5 minutes while I lookup my database for the exact information?
Chaz: sure
HP Tech:: Thank You.
HP Tech:: I am in the middle of trying to find an appropriate solution .
Chaz: great thanks
HP Tech:: Thank you for staying with me while I researched.
Chaz: no problem
HP Tech:: To isolate the issue let us try with removing and reseating the CD/DVD drive.
*** THIS IS WHERE I START MESSING WITH THE TECH SUPPORT PERSON ***
Chaz: how do I do that?
HP Tech:: You can find the manual for removing and replacing the drive in the below link:
HP Tech:: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00649956&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=499849&rule=44274&lang=en
HP Tech:: Please do not click on the link, instead, Just Copy and Paste the entire link onto the Address Bar of your Browser and press ENTER Key.
Chaz: so are we assuming this isn't a virus then?
HP Tech:: I have confirmed from my supervisor that it could not be Virus problem.
Chaz: oh good.
Chaz: so do you want me to follow the instructions you sent to me now?
HP Tech:: Exactly.
Chaz: You realize that I am communicating with you on the laptop in question right?
HP Tech:: If the issue persists get back to the chat with the results so that CD/DVD drive is replaced for free if the Notebook of covered under warranty.
Wow, could you imagine if a person that didn't know any better had this conversation? They'd be running anti-virus solutions all day and night with no resolution! This would be funny if it wasn't so common. When are companies going to hire competent tech support?
Simply amazing!
--chaz
Saturday, January 05, 2008
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So you are a loyal Verizon customer, huh? You are up for your "New Every Two" upgrade, huh. You hate your old cell phone because the up arrow and 9 key are broken. Well it is a no-brainer then, run don't walk to your Verizon store and get that new phone.
WAIT! STOP RUNNING! Do you have applications, games or ringtones on your current phone that you have paid $6 or $7 for? Hmmm... did you ever wonder how you were going to get those applications, games or ringtones on to your new Verizon phone? Oh maybe you should just download all that stuff again on to the new phone. Then just call Verizon customer service and ask for a credit. Right? Well, in a word, NO!
Verizon's policy is that if you upgrade phones, they will penalize you for continuing to use their service and purchase a new phone. The policy says, you can get your old apps by downloading them again. Oh and congratulations, you get to pay for them again too. That's right kids. Not only are you blessed with paying $90.00 or more per month for your cell service, but you get to buy your downloaded applications again and again and again each time you upgrade your phone.
Wow, just when you thought the telecom industry couldn't get more sleazy. They have found a way to drain even more of your hard earned money from you by creating applications with a limited life span. Isn't it bad enough that the cell phone itself is "disposable"? Now you get to throw out your applications right along with the old phone.
Maybe you don't really need to dial a phone number with a 9 in it. Maybe you should just keep your existing phone. At least you still have your applications!
--chaz
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
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Registration for the Philly Code Camp on January 12th is now open. I will be presenting "Entry Level Event Models". It is a part of my "Entry Level" series that will attempt to get "the willing" up to speed on fundamental architectural, design and development practices.
I'm psyched to kick off 2008 with a code camp presentation. This should be a good one, so go register now!
--chaz
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
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Hello Live Search Maps.... ehhh... Virtual Earth goodbye Google Maps! I was hanging out with Peter Laudati tonight and he showed me the next rev of what I call Virtual Earth. Can anybody tell me what the correct name is?
Peter totally got the jump on me and blogged about the new release already!
There is a new Interactive SDK (version 6) to go along with this release!
Virtual Earth ROCKS!
--chaz
Monday, October 08, 2007
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Even though REMIX07 Boston is still going on until tomorrow, I had to get back to work commitments. I'm bummed because there were so many great sessions to check out. The Key Note presented by Brad Abrams was cool. He presented a number of things I had seen before, but I think the crowd was very impressed. Most impressive for me was seeing Miguel de Icaza showing off Moonlight (Silverlight on Linux).
So I was first up after the Key Note presentation. I had a lot of time to rehash my performance on the drive from Boston back to Jersey compliments of Connecticut. I'll have to rant about Connecticut and Delaware in another post.
Anyway, I didn't think I gave my finest performance today. But I was able to review my session on Channel 9 tonight and well it was okay. It was a little drier than I prefer. I normally have some corny jokes or humorous stories. Today I was kind of serious and bland. I think it was a bit of nerves and learning just last night that they were going to film the presentations and post them on Channel 9 made it a bit worse. But I am better for the experience.
I had a really good crowd with lots of participation. I got some good questions which spurred some group discussions and although that may not make for riveting TV, I like to see my audiences participate. And all I can say about Virtual Earth licensing is CHECK THE WEB SITE. Licensing questions really caught me off guard. If you want to know what you can and can't do with Virtual Earth, go to the Terms Of Use page. The info is pretty clear, especially in section 4.
Oh and Tim & Jeff were showing off some very cool stuff at the Virtual Earth partner's booth. If you will be at the conference tomorrow I suggest you stop by the Virtual Earth Partner booth. There are some incredible examples of Enterprise use of Virtual Earth.
So that's it for me from REMIX07 Boston.
--chaz
Technorati Tags:
REMIX07BOSTON
Sunday, October 07, 2007
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Okay, being a speaker at Remix07 Boston is probably among the coolest things I have done professionally to date. And I haven't even presented yet. We had a "speaker's" dinner which included the Microsoft full time employees. I randomly wound up sitting with Brad Abrams, PM Silverlight and Seema Ramchandani PM WPF(Avalon). Brad will be our Keynote speaker who I will follow with my presentation on Developing with the Virtual Earth SDK.
There was a lot of cool conversation over dinner, but it got absolutely amazing when the crowd thinned out. Me,Seema and Andy Beaulieu (more on Andy later) were talking about how Silverlight performs with or without GPU support. Very cool stuff that is way beyond my meager knowledge of graphics, graphic cards, buffers and algebraic computations. This was the epitome of geek speak, and yet it was fascinating and cool.
I am really psyched for tomorrow. I think we've matured significantly since Mix '07 and it will show in the the presentation content tomorrow and Tuesday. Although much of the content for ReMix 07 is based on Mix '07, I expect many improvements, and of course there are a good number of additional presentations. One such presentation is "Silverlight for Casual Games" by Andy Beaulieu. Andy and I met up early on in the evening and hung out most of the night. Andy has authored among other things a Silverlight game "Destroy All Invaders". This very cool game makes use of Virtual Earth too. It is so impressive.
I wrapped up my night hanging out with the guys from the Tampa User group watching the Yankees win in the hotel bar (I may have been the only Yankee fan in the Boston bar!). These guys are a lot of fun. I look forward to hooking up with them for their next CodeCamp.
ReMix07 is off to a good start.
--chaz
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Remix07Boston
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
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Funny, I never thought a book could provide a good user experience. But sometimes it is the little things in life that are overlooked. I just bought Martin Fowler's book "Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture". And as always the book is written well and the content is aces. But what really dazzled me about the book is that the publisher (Addison Wesley) included a little red ribbon in the binding so I can mark my page. I know this is not new, but it is rare for a tech book. And it just thrilled me to not have to dog ear my spot or mark it with a Post-It or a Border's book mark.
I guess you can find examples of good UX just about anywhere!
--chaz
This is an open letter to the attendees of the upcoming ALT.Net gathering in Austin TX.
Dear Friends,
Sadly I will not be able to join you at ALT.Net due to some poor planning on my part. I regret missing out on the opportunity to surround myself with some of the brightest minds in our industry. If I were to attend ALT.Net though, my goal would have been to represent the "marginal developer". The developer who gets it, but doesn't practice it in the work place due to circumstances beyond his/her control. Or the developer who wants to get it, knows he should get it, but just doesn't.
My biggest fear is that the top 1% of the class is getting together and they will come up with things that will leave the "marginal" developer behind. Please remember to check your egos and agendas at the door and do what is best for the community. There are countless developers out there that look to you guys to blaze the trails. So long as your final message is not condescending or too abstract you will set the pace for others to follow.
To be clear about this what I mean is that there is a tendency to feel as though we are all unworthy to call ourselves developers right now if we are not an Agilest. Even if that is not the intent, it is the perception. And we all know that perception is reality. Please don't let that happen from the ALT.Net effort. You guys are on to something here.
If there is one thing I have learned from ALT.Net already, it is that a namespace is not something to take lightly. From the countless posts about what ALT.Net really is one might say that our industry is jam packed with anal retentive literalists. Let's move past the term ALT.Net already. Just don't change the namespace to ShoveItDownMyThroatLikeAgile.Net ;) Oh, just kidding, lighten up!
Oh and my final word on the ALT.Net thing. It makes me laugh when people argue that this is a movement against the Microsoft tool set. It is especially comical when non .Net or anti-Microsoft developers comment on how bad and evil Microsoft is. And how the horrible empire is following its own vision and not ours. Shut up already with this crap. Bottom line is that this is not a Utopian society. Microsoft is trying to make a buck on its efforts. And here is a dirty little secret... So are all of us. So use their tools, or use somebody else's but don't throw your hate around anymore, because it is just old.
Yes a lot of us do things for free to better our profession. But if we were all honest we do this because it puts bread on our table and not for the betterment of man kind. So great, there are languages out there that are grass roots, that don't come from an "evil empire". If that's your thing, go ahead and use it. But just stop the Microsoft bashing non-sense. I don't love MS but I don't hate them either. I think I have a practical perspective on what they are and how they help me do what I need to do for a living. In the end they are a business like any other. So enough already!
Well I guess that was a bit more than a final word, but I had to get that rant off my chest. It has really been killing me.
So ALT.Netters, have fun, keep it real and bring home some good ideas!
--chaz
Saturday, September 08, 2007
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I will be presenting "Developing with the Virtual Earth SDK" at ReMix07! If you missed Mix 07 in Vegas, you should come join us for this 2 day event in Boston!
You can get a $100 price break on registration too! Just because you read my blog! When registering, use discount code: RM07EXTB
What to expect at ReMIX07 Boston …
If you’re in the web business, learn about:
- Building a better user experience to unlock new revenue opportunities
- Forging tighter, stickier customer connections
- Building innovative media experiences into your site
If you’re a web developer, build:
- Silverlight applications quickly and easily
- Sites and applications that consume Windows Live services
- Rich, interactive sites made for the next web
If you’re a web designer, learn about:
- Using Silverlight to design gorgeous and highly functional user interfaces
- How a real-world application is built and the best practices associated with it
- The suite of Expression tools that revolutionize the way designers work with developers
If you attend, regardless of your job role, check out:
- Xbox Gaming Area where you can test your skills at Halo 3 and Guitar Hero among others
- Express Yourself Design Contest where key design agencies compete to solve a real-world design problem
- Stay tuned: We may feature some cool products and demos around XNA, Popfly, Robotics Studio and Surface
It’s Happening Here
Monday-Tuesday, October 8-9, 2007
October 8: Registration & Breakfast from 7:00-9:00 am
Keynote & Breakouts from 9:00 a.m.-5:45 pm
Welcome Reception from 6:00-9:00 pm
October 9: Registration & Breakfast from 8:00-9:00 am
Keynote & Breakouts from 9:00 am-5:00 pm
Hyatt Regency Cambridge
575 Memorial Drive,
Cambridge, MA 02139
For directions click here.
--chaz
Technorati Tags:
Remix07Boston
A couple of weeks ago I had a very intriguing conversation with an unlikely contact. I received an e-mail from an individual "in the business" based on some of my User eXperience (UX) blogs. I thought cool, a new contact in an area that I love. I should speak to her in person. So I set up a phone call. She runs a business where she places Information Architects, Business Analysts and Human Factors folks in business units at her clients. Wow the conversation was no where near where I thought it would be.
Instead of dazzling this woman with my technical prowess and contacts with some of the bigger names in software development I was somewhat schooled on her thoughts of IT and our lack of involvement in the user experience. As it turns out this woman hasn't dealt with "IT types" since the early 90's! Hmmm... I thought IT created the user experience. After all isn't the concept of user experience based on the usability of "SOFTWARE"?
I also learned that IT is apparently hard to work with. Very difficult to get anything done. Set in their ways and afraid of change. I learned that business has taken over all corporate initiatives and that IT has been relegated back to nothing more than mere service station attendants for the automobile known as "the business".
I was really taken aback and of course a little offended by some of these comments on the surface. But, being a pacifist, I sat back and listened and gave this woman the opportunity to speak her mind. And I tried to take her comments constructively. And I tried to be reflective because sometime criticism is hard to take. And here are some of the key points/questions I took away from the conversation.
1. Does anybody "own" the user experience?
2. Is IT hard to work with?
3. Is the user experience all about human interaction with software or is there more?
4. Is IT dead? Are we simply nothing more than a low level service that is a necessary evil with no value or impact on the business?
5. Is IT trying to reinvent itself and reinsert it's relevance in the enterprise?
6. What ever happened to the role of business analyst in the enterprise?
7. Is IT hard to work with?
Yes, 2 & 7 are the same. That's on purpose. I've always thought IT was hard to work with. I think there is a superiority complex among many IT professionals. I mean come on, look among our own community. There are always struggles of the haves and have nots! Are you Agile? NO? Then you are unworthy of being called IT. Are you a RAD developer or OOP? Ha! RAD.... get out of here, I wouldn't hire you in a second. VB or C#... hmmm let's not go here.
Anyway you get the idea. So if we have this conflict among our selves with a sense of elitism, how do you think the non-IT world perceives us? Add on top of that the business folks don't get us anyway. We talk in bits and bytes and they talk in... well in business.
But after reflecting upon this for a bit I think IT has come a long way. And this was my argument back to the woman I was speaking with. IT has in my opinion turned a corner. Yes there is still in-fighting and some elitism, but I think for the most part we as a community have answered the call of the Enterprise. We have stepped up our efforts to be problem solvers and strong contributors to the bottom line of the business. We aren't the IT of the 90's anymore. We were smacked down after Y2K (scam) and we got the message loud and clear. I believe there is no better evidence of this than the practice of Domain Driven Design and Domain Specific Languages. We no longer write code for the sake of writing code. We write as little code as possible to produce a solution to a problem/need in the business domain.
I believe IT is not a second class citizen in the Enterprise. I think IT is a vital and valuable part of how a company innovates, makes efficiencies and ultimately provides very valuable services to the Enterprise. I don't believe that the business has made a concerted effort to muscle IT out of the ownership of technology projects. I believe there is still an openness and willingness to collaborate and work as a team with shared ownership and responsibility. And I don't believe that the Business Analyst has disappeared. I believe that the business analyst has evolved into the Solution Architect.
And to answer the question/title of this post, I believe no single entity owns the user experience. The user experience is the responsibility of all stake holders. It IS NOT the sole responsibility of the UI designer/developer. In fact if your team starts addressing the user experience at the UI development stage, it is way too late! The user experience Must start at project inception and be a focal point throughout the project life cycle. Anything less is a hack and an injustice to the users of the system.
So Miss poo-poo on IT, I'd say the very essence of User Experience is reflective of how IT and "the business" cooperate in today's Enterprise.
--chaz
Saturday, July 28, 2007
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I have found two new inspirations for excellent user experience in a most unlikely place; my kid's toy box. Well so to speak anyway.
The first inspiration is innovative from both a marketing perspective as well as a User Interface perspective. If you have a child from 5 to 15 you probably know about Webkinz. A very short explanation for those that don't. A toy manufacturer named Ganz sells little stuffed animals with a tag on the toe. The tag has a special code that allows you to care for and interact with one (or more) virtual version of your stuffed animal. Kids in our area are nuts for the Webkinz animals and most own more than 2 or 3 and you can add as many as you purchase to your account.
Hats off to Ganz for figuring out how to drive people to a game site and pay for it without realizing they bought a subscription as well as a stuffed animal. See most people will spend money on a physical object like a stuffed animal. But they won't necessarily pay for a game site subscription quite as readily. So Ganz has very cunningly masked the fact that what you are really doing is buying a one year subscription to a game site with the lure of a stuffed animal. Don't get me wrong, the stuffed animals are great on their own, but what a genius move the Ganz marketing department!
So if the Webkinz marketing concept is brilliant, the Webkinz web site (www.webkinz.com) is absolutely brilliant. Man they got it right! The rich web UI is amazing. It is completely appropriate for the target audience. It is evident from the enthusiasm of my kids that the User Experience couldn't be better! It is fun to look at, easy to navigate and cleverly designed. Especially from a kid's point of view.
The second inspiration is from an old friend, Nintendo. We already have a PS2 so I was more than skeptical about buying a Wii. Well I am glad we did. My kids were up off the coach from the minute I had it set up. I actually sat back and smiled as I watched the kids jumping around and moving their body to play the games. Wow what a cool idea! A really interactive gaming system that just might raise your heart rate a little bit. Thank you Nintendo. Oh and I have played a number of games and I have to say the experience from a critical adult's perspective is great. The wireless controls with audio right in them is a great touch. But even without that, the novel way Nintendo has allowed us to interact with the system though the motion sensitive wireless devices is revolutionary. I'm sure others have put bits in pieces of the technologies found in the Wii to use. But Nintendo has captured lightening in a bottle in terms of user experience. The Wii will change what we expect from video gaming consoles.
I guess I would be remiss if I did not make mention of all the innovations lately around cell phones. From GPS to streaming video to full key pads, cell phones have also made great strides in User Experience.
Now if we could just think along the lines of these great innovators, I'd love to see somebody come up with a fresh idea for an OS. We have been living with the same concepts for what about 20 years now? Isn't it time for somebody to break the mold. Don't get caught up in the Mac/Linux/Microsoft non-sense. Some of the greatest ideas come from the most unlikely places. Let's hope we find a more advanced, more civilized, more User friendly OS in one of those places.
--chaz
Friday, June 22, 2007
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I am writing a bit of client side code to move data from one Infragistics UltraWebGrid to another. To do this I have given the user a button on each row of the main table. If they click the button in a row the contents of the id and descrition columns should be inserted into the destination grid.
This all should have been real simple. Except my javascript did not work. Here is my original code:
function OnClickCellButton(gridName, itemName)
{
var row = igtbl_getRowById(itemName);
if (row != null)
{
var gridrow=igtbl_getActiveRow("MergeGrid");
if(gridrow=null)
{
alert("gridrow is null");
//if no activerow then set one and add the row to the customers band
gridrow = igtbl_setActiveRow("MergeGrid",igtbl_getElementById ("MergeGridr_0"));
}
var groupNo = row.getCell(1).getValue();
var terms = row.getCell(3).getValue();
var newrow = igtbl_addNew("MergeGrid",0);
newrow.getCell(0).setValue(groupNo);
newrow.getCell(1).setValue(terms);
}
}
So the code is syntactically correct. My destination grid has an Id of MergeGrid. But remember my UltraWebGrid is on an UltraWebTab. This causes a problem. When I run this function, my row is never added to the grid. That is because behind the scenes, my grid was renamed. This is how I finally got the function to work.
Notice that I replaced the MergeGrid name with UltraWebTab1xxctl0xMergeGrid. I found this name by running my ASP.Net web project and viewing the source of the page from the web browser. There may be a better way to do this and if there is I'd like to know.
--chaz
function OnClickCellButton(gridName, itemName)
{
var row = igtbl_getRowById(itemName);
if (row != null)
{
var gridrow=igtbl_getActiveRow("UltraWebTab1xxctl0xMergeGrid");
if(gridrow=null)
{
alert("gridrow is null");
//if no activerow then set one and add the row to the customers band
gridrow = igtbl_setActiveRow("UltraWebTab1xxctl0xMergeGrid",igtbl_getElementById("UltraWebTab1xxctl0xMergeGridr_0"));
}
var groupNo = row.getCell(1).getValue();
var terms = row.getCell(3).getValue();
var newrow = igtbl_addNew("UltraWebTab1xxctl0xMergeGrid",0);
newrow.getCell(0).setValue(groupNo);
newrow.getCell(1).setValue(terms);
}
}
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
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Scott Watermasysk just posted up for a dev dinner this Wednesday night. If you are around stop by the Harvestmoon around 6:30PM.
--chaz
Thursday, May 24, 2007
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I normally don't post off topic, but I really want to get the word out about a great event! So if off-topic posts offend you or you are not from NJ, please just skip this post!
I've just learned from an anonymous source that a semi-pro (W-League) women’s soccer team, Sky Blue Soccer {ranked 17th in women’s soccer} will play the Chinese National team on June 12th at 7:30 PM at Rutgers Bush campus, Yursak field in Piscataway.
Sky Blue has many renowned soccer players from around the globe; some of the world’s best! So if you are a fan of soccer or just outstanding athletics, you may be interested in going!
Admission is $14 per adult and $10 per child.
If you are interested in seeing a regular season game Sky Blue plays at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge, NJ. You can check out the schedule and other info at:
http://www.skybluesoccer.com
--chaz
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
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A great post from Karsten Januszewski should help you get started with WPF. I like this not only because Karsten points to great resources, but because it is oganized into a nice 5 day self paced course. Really cool!
--chaz
Thursday, April 05, 2007
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As I had mentioned in my review of the NJUX meeting the User Experience movement seems to still be in its infancy stages. So I am psyched to see things like Josh Holmes' blog about the User Interface Smackdown 2007. These are exactly the types of meetings and conversations that need to happen to bring more momentum and attention to the User Experience.
It was also great to see that the attendees were cross vendor (Microsoft & Adobe). This is a reaffirmation for the NJUX that we need to be cross vendor and cross discipline.
--chaz
Monday, March 26, 2007
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The NJUX meeting was a great event. Thanks to everyone who turned out! A big lesson learned is that South Orange may not be the most ideal location to get to. We'll need to figure out a new location when the time is right.
There was some really meaningful dialog about just what a "User Experience" group should focus on. The consensus seemed to be that User Experience (especially in the Enterprise) is still in its infancy. So that will bring some challenges to the group. Some of the ideas that came from the meeting follow;
-
There will be a lot of UX news coming out of the upcoming Mix '07 Conference in May. This will give us plenty to cover as we kick off the group in a more formal meeting location. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR MIX, IT IS GOING TO ROCK!
The overarching message for the group will focus on designers and developers working closely together. Similar to Agile's paired programming I think we have to realize that the User Experience isn't a singular responsibility. Better User Experiences will come from collaborative work between the developer and designer. A major challenge for us is to figure out how to get the designer community to come out and join the group. If anybody has any recommendations please post them here or e-mail me through this blog.
A really great discussion we had Thursday night is about how to make the User Experience relevant in back office Enterprise applications. The challenge for the design & development community is to show stake holders that a significant ROI may be appreciated by well designed back office applications as well as customer facing ones. And as someone had pointed out just putting a pretty UI on a terrible application will not make the application any better. So as User Experience creators we need to challenge ourselves not to masquerade crappy architectural practices with pretty UIs.
NJUX will take a pause while we watch for the news from Mix 07 and watch Adobe’s Apollo mature (still in Alpha release). Then we will plan and collaborate to put together some great content that will get folks excited about UX technologies.
Who knows, we may even look to host some sort of kick-off event to show off some of the best stuff from Mix. The event will embody the true spirit and purpose of NJUX.
Keep watching this blog for more on NJUX!
--chaz
Thursday, March 22, 2007
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