If we should make UI elements we want users to click on large, and ideally place them at corners or edges for maximum clickability — what should we do with UI elements we don’t want users to click on? Like, say, the “delete all my work” button?
Of course, totally unrelated1 to a recent event triggered by a bad UI design, Jeff Atwood captures why it is so important to handle interfaces you want users just not to use lightly.
It, absolutely, is not in response to the event — just check the day when Jeff published it. Is it unrelated? Well, heck no.↩
The time in between sparked a brief panic in a state where fears of an attack by North Korea have heightened in recent months. Residents and tourists reported seeking shelter, frantically gathering supplies, and calling and texting loved ones to say their goodbyes.
The alerts quickly turned a serene Saturday morning into “mass hysteria” on the roads.
“My boyfriend was like, ‘Who do we sue for this?’ We don’t just need an apology, we need an explanation. Someone could have had a heart attack,” McLaughlin, 29, said. “It took something that’s kind of incomprehensible and very quickly made it very personal. All of a sudden going through your mind is, ‘Is this the end of my life?’ I called my mom, I called my dad, I called my brother and basically said my goodbyes.”
Honolulu resident Noah Tom was picking up breakfast for a meeting when he heard of the alerts. Thinking he might only have 15 to 20 minutes before a missile strike, Tom considered how his family was split up across three locations: He had just dropped off his oldest daughter at the airport, while his two younger children were at home. His wife was already at work.
“I literally sent out ‘I love you’ texts to as many family members as I could. It was all kind of surreal at that point,” Tom, 48, told The Washington Post. He made the difficult decision of turning the car toward home, where his two youngest children were. “I figured it was the largest grouping of my family.”
Irrespective of how pathetic and juvenile the cause for the trigger of this alarm was, it shows what the fallouts of such a tragic event, wish and hope it never really happens, will be. Looking at the positive side, if we can, it also has triggered an opportunity for all, the relevant agencies, those governing and those governed, to gauge how ready we are for such a calamity. And how it deeply can affect us.
Appearing strong on Twitter is one thing. But staying strong when faced with an imminent, life altering event is a whole different ball-game.
Well, the user interface that’s one of the causes for this whole mess is even horrible than what I had imagined. It’s so amusing to find that the system that is supposed to alarm the population about a calamity is such a horrible hodgepodge of strangles text. This is no better than having nothing, which we in India have.
I know the having-nothing-like-India argument is bit of a stretch, but man this interface is horrid.
Looking at these graphs feels a lot like looking at a graph of dependencies in a codebase. If you add a node for each class, and draw and edge between the classes that communicate, you’ll end up with a graph like the ones above. My talk of “components” and “modules” was influenced by thinking about these graphs in terms of software. The last example touches on an important point - you can manage a growing codebase without growing in complexity if you manage the way modules connect to each other. A codebase composed of small interconnected modules that communicate with each other in a well-defined way will have a lower complexity than one where the modules communicate with each other haphazardly.
This is an example of how it’s better to manage interaction along a point than along an edge. By that I mean modules that present a single point of interaction will be able to maintain their own internal dynamics without polluting the complexity of the codebase. If programmers don’t think about how they connect the modules in their codebase, and they end up connecting modules along multiple points of interaction, the complexity of the codebase will grow.
This is such a fascinating read. I have recently come across the four color theorem many times in different variants. It is a fascinating mathematical statement on graphs, specifically maps. But I could never imagine how it could also be applied to represent software complexity, or rather how one can build and manage the growing codebase of a software without adding to the complexity.
“May I enter Detective?”, Mr Rao peeks through the open door of the kitchen. “I heard you had something you wanted to talk to me about.”
“Of course, Mr Rao. Come in. And please call me Naik. ‘Detective’ burdens the conversation for no necessary reason. I just want to have some chat. And at the same, if I can get the work I am here for, done quickly, better for all of us. Right?”
“Sure. By the way, ‘Mr’ is no less burdensome,” quips Mr Rao, half-heartedly.
“So what do you know about the situation we are in Rao?” Naik’s quick, curt response takes Rao by surprise. He realises that irrespective of the words used, the conversation to follow is going to be somber. His brow is getting damp, and he knows that isn’t a good sign.
“Nothing much to be frank. I came late from work yesterday, was completely tired you see. So I went straight to my room and went to sleep. I was woken up only in the morning by your friend, asking me to join you here. So in a sense, I know lesser than you do.” Rao blurts out everything he had come prepared with.
“That was lickety-split, huh, Rao.” Rao sees Naik lean closer and look deeper at him. He could sense Naik believes he knows more than what he was revealing. “Anything else you want to mention? We can also go through, you know, the regular drill. I can ask some questions to remind you of stuff you may know.”
Rao sighs. “I gave you what matters Naik. Others’ just stuff. Details.”
Naik is again quick to respond, “It is the stuff, the details I love Rao. You see otherwise this detective job is boring. What fun is it to listen only to the sad, murky bites from people’s lives?” He pats Rao’s lap a couple of times, then slumps back into the beanbag. “I love this job because I get to know people - their habits, their thoughts, their behaviours. I happen to solve some crazy cases over last few years just through such chats. Nothing much.”
Rao knows that wasn’t really the case — Naik was in the news a lot recently because he was a sagacious detective. He realises his attempt to skim through yesterday’s happenings was futile. He also knows the regular drill with Naik would be a lot more dreadful.
“As you wish Naik. I have been living in this house for last 4 years. You must already know ..”
Rao sees Naik signalling something to his friend. Realising Rao has stopped, Naik grins and mouths a nimble ‘sorry’ and leans back again.
Rao continues, “You must already know that we are 4 people sharing the house. Actually, 3 now, given, you know..” He peeps at the chalk outline around where Joy’s body lay. ”I met Joy just a couple of weeks back when he joined us in this house. Adi and he knew each other from the beginning. I am not sure how though. I haven’t got much chance to talk to them about their acquaintance. Adi and I have known each other for last two years. He is a good guy, so was Joy, I guess. Unfortunate, he had to fall this way.”
Naik’s scratching his soul patch, deep in some thoughts. “How do you think Joy died?”
Rao shrugs and then responds, “Well, it was an unfortunate accident, wasn’t it? An electric shock while using that Microwave? And that is why I was stumped in the morning when I heard you are on the case. Why, do you think there is some foul play here?”
“Sir,” Naik straightens up, “I rarely do think when I am on a case. As I told you earlier, I just come to chatter. I have just happened to have solved few cases over such chats. Anyway, do you know a lot about Microwaves?”
Rao is taken aback by the direct question. “Why? Me? No. I mean I am not an electrical engineer.”
“It’s alright, of course,” Naik grins. “I just felt you looked a lot confident on the reason behind Joy’s death. So I thought you must know something about Microwaves that I don’t. Why do you feel that that harmless device is the reason we are sitting here Rao?”
Rao continues to stare at Naik, his heart pounding now. I have no idea what’s cooking inside this devil’s mind. The perspiration is now clearly visible on his forehead. “Mr Naik, I have no idea what you are hinting at. On my way here, Adi had mentioned that Joy’s died of electric shock. I see him lying here on the floor, his legs towards the Microwave, with it still displaying the time since it had been on. Other than Joy’s fallen body, nothing else looks out of sort for this room. There are no signs of any combat that might have played out here last night. So I connect the dots and feel his death has to be natural — he got the electric shock while using the Microwave and ..”
“.. and he then turned around to fall face first?” Naik isn’t looking at Rao anymore — he is busy noting down something in his diary. After a momentary pause, he apologises, “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to break your train of thoughts. But you were doing my job so well, that I felt I should help you too.”
The tone of snark in Naik’s voice isn’t lost on Rao and he is done fooling around though. “See. I have no clue what’s going on here. I have no idea why you are even here. I came home late yesterday, slept right away. I haven’t been to the kitchen since then — came here only in the morning today when you called me. I do not know Joy well, neither did I have an issue with him. He appeared to be a calm sedate guy, it’s unfortunate that he passed away. Even more unfortunate is the fact that now that you are on the case, we all would be held up in this house till you are done and I have to chat with you.”
“Aha, that’s how you summarise,” Naik is already jotting something in his notebook. “Thank you so much, Rao. You can leave now.” He goes through the content of page titled“Mr Roy (x)”.
Does not know Joy. Adi knows Joy well. Rao knows Adi well.
Easily swayed by bites of information and runs with it.
Lies about not being to the kitchen yesterday after office — has his tiffin at the wash basin.
As Rao is about to leave the kitchen, Naik stops him. “Just a food for thought Rao. Why do you think Joy died while using the Microwave and not, say, after using it?”
Rao, wiping his brow, shrugs, “I don’t know. Maybe because people do not instantly die after using a microwave. They usually eat?”
Naik slumps back, satisfied, in his beanbag, “There you go. Thank you, Mr Rao. You can go back to the living room.” He makes another note.
The Apple Event of September 2017 was in many ways just another iPhone launch day. It was marked by the typical, yearly frenzy in the media and the tech community. But in few other ways, it also lent the day a uniqueness of its own. Of course, it was the first one from the Apple Park at the Steve Jobs Theatre.
Dan Frommer from Recode has perfectly captured the launch of this stunning architecture in this great photo essay, also summarizing this well run event. I remember all the pictures that had started pouring into my Twitter timeline were full of excitement and amazement. And of course, so was Tim Cook.
It's a big day at Apple! We are honored and thrilled to host our first keynote at the Steve Jobs Theater this morning. pic.twitter.com/gyiqPJB46y
I, personally, am always excited for every Apple event — their story behind and commitment to the design of their products always mesmerises me. They are proud of every product they make and that shows from their excitement while exhibiting each one of them. The unveiling event of any product is never about just showing what the product is or about a spec roundup to opine on how their’s is better than the competition. It is, rather, a well-choreographed and well-rehearsed stage show. And for them, it matters that they tell their side of the story — be it the detailing that went in while designing it, the breakthrough they achieved in a thing that people might perceive as almost irrelevant or their reasons and justifications behind the known compromises1.
So in that sense, this event at the Apple Park was indeed unique. Apple revealed this newest product, one that got unveiled the first - Steve Jobs Theatre, without they arranging any show, narrating any backstory for it. Apple just opened the doors and handed it to the curious media straight for hands-on. Steve was heard saying2 at the beginning of the event “One of the ways that I believe people express their appreciation to the rest of humanity is to make something wonderful and put it out there”. Apple did just that with the Steve Jobs Theatre.
John Gruber, as always, has the apt perspective on the significance of this latest product from Apple.
Five, ten years from now, the Apple Watch Series 3, the iPhone 8, and even the iPhone X are just going to be old products sitting around in drawers. But the public debut of Apple Park, the grand opening of the Steve Jobs Theater, and the company’s first public tribute to its founder — that’s what I’ll remember most about yesterday
Apple gets often dinged for attempting to justify and advocate the compromises they had to introduce in the products. For looking at these compromises as an opportunity to sell other costlier products. Sometimes they succeed, at times they don’t. But at least they try when there is just no need given the sales that they eventually achieve.↩
It was overwhelming to hear Steve’s voice and his crisp words. I feel no awkwardness in revealing that I had a throat choked with emotion just by the fifth words into his message. Very few people have had that effect on me.↩
A sudden and repeated knock on the door reverberated through the room. It shook Rama, bringing her back from a sombre which had her unmoved for quite some time now. Unmoved, since a rock shattered her windows and her spirit. A rock with a paper wrapped around it.
She had no clue for how long she had been staring at that piece of paper. The words it read were pretty conspicuous in imparting the intentions of the one who wrote them. And they had had her shaken to her core.
Who knows about Sam? And about Ali? And how? Rama wondered.
No one should know about them. No one knows where they came from. No one will ever know where they went. Isn’t that what you always believed? A voice in Rama’s head chided her.
She read the words again.
I know about Sam. I know about Ali. I know what you did to them. I know what you intend to do to Rachit. I will not let you. Beware.
None of the three lines should be written by anyone, but herself. And she was pretty confident she had not written them. Or had she?
Another knock pierced the silence of Rama’s lab. Darkness was creeping through the shattered window into the lab now.
Who can come to the lab? Who even knows you have a lab? The voice questioned Rama again. And you would not be stumped now had you not let Sam and Ali ever leave the lab. Or had them put away forever.
“They had to if Rachit, the cherished felicity of my existence, was to come to my life. They were not perfect. Rachit is,” shouted Rama.
The knocks grew louder, and faster now — each thump pounding vigorously at her mind. And, just as they began, they ceased suddenly. The lab went silent again. And a lot darker. So did her mind.
Ganeshotsav - a festival that has me mesmerised for 10 days. One that makes me forget all the crippling and cribbing of the routine mundane life. That makes me attempt to overcome my shortcomings, imbuing me with a sense of calmness and a zeal.
One’s devotion to a deity is about beliefs. And I believe I am blessed with a divine presence during Ganeshotsav.
No wonder then that Anant Chaturdashi - a day of immersion of Ganesh idols - dawns with a sense of emptiness, restlessness. But irrespective, Bappa has to be given a smiling farewell. And 2017 was different. News18 hascaptured the whole festive mood really well — just a good click for reference. Do visit that link.
This has to be the best click and a great comment on what Ganesh Visarjan should, and does, represent.
I like to write. Emphasis is important because that is exactly what I like to do. I do not want to make the writing process too complicated. I just want a blank canvas that I can fill up with some thoughts in the form of words. It should not matter then if I open it from a desktop or a laptop, a smartphone or a tablet. A blank canvas, without any bells and whistles.
But even after 10 years of the whole smartphone revolution with the iPhone launch, it is surprising why the platforms that crown themselves as champions for writers’ interests still fail at enabling them to write on the go. The interface they provide are either too loaded or are just non-existent. For example, this is where Wordpress wants the writers to write at on mobile devices.
Can this be made any more clunky? Why does it need so many options? Why can’t words be interpreted as they are written1? Why does the interface still need to ask for all this added metadata - especially on a mobile device where the space is already a limited resource?
It’s just the same with many of the professional publishing platforms. They just have too clunky an interface. Squarespace, same. Wix, ditto. At least with these, it can be understood that the target user base just may not be the writers and the bloggers sort. A look at the templates that they provide and it is clear that they want to target the designers, the professionals in photography or the small businesses. However, irrespective of what sites their users own, they need to understand that they do write too, at times. And when they present their intention to do so, shouldn’t you provide the cleanest experience you possibly can? Why load them with too many choices?
Ghost comes closest to ticking all of the right boxes. It has a markdown based clean editing interface with a preview option. However, during my extended usage while I was hosting this site with Ghost, I found that the interface was a bit too buggy and a lot heavy. It tries to do a lot many things which it needn’t really do. When I write, I just do not need a constant CMS and metadata access for the post neither do I need a live preview of what am writing. Unfortunately, it just cannot sort out the minor niggles2.
And then there is the flag-bearer of writer’s messiahs - Medium. This platform impressed me with how clean the writing experience was. That was before I intended to do so on a mobile device.
Yep. No comments. “You can’t be a serious writer if you want to write from a mobile device. Get a typewriter and then we will talk. We are for the serious lot.”
“But there is an app for that,” you say. Yes, there is. But first of all, there is nothing the app does that cannot be fit in the web application. Secondly, the app itself is extremely limited. There is no support for series or publications, yet, for example.
This just makes no sense to me. I just cannot stress this any stronger - Do not neglect mobile. Today’s mobile devices (especially, the iPad) are getting a lot capable. There is nothing they cannot handle. A plain text editor should be a cakewalk. Alas, I still do hit such forced hinderances.
"Not Yet Mobile Friendly"! Sorry, in today's age that just makes no business sense. pic.twitter.com/DQjJArqNWj
Anyway, as an attempt to mediate, I propose the following guidelines for writing interfaces for all the writing/blogging platforms out there, especially on mobile.
Interfaces need to be clean. Just let the text be written without any onscreen distractions.
No toolbars, no sections, no configurations.
If emphasis to the text needs to be added, let the word(s) be highlighted and provide the limited options then.
If image is to be added, provide option as a shortcut (for example, long press on new line)
Forget 1-4. Explore and enable Markdown with easy (not live, but closer to WYSIWYG) preview mode.
Remember, many writers do prefer writing in dark. Preferably provide a dark mode.
Yes, just roll an empty screen with a blinking cursor3. Nothing more. Let the writers fill it up their imagination.
I understand it is Wordpress and hence there is a plugin for everything. But the point isn’t if a clean writing interface can be plugged into a platform. Point is why should there be a need for one.↩
Ghost is not an easy publishing platform to work with. You either need the technology inclination of a developer to self-host and roll your own instance of Ghost or pay way too much to get access to their managed platform (Pro) service. For comparison, it is cheaper to get a website with Squarespace with E-Commerce setup than to get an online blog with Ghost. That’s just not competitive enough.↩
Svbtle does it well. So does pen.io. Not sure why these services struggle to exist. They have understood what writers need the best. But they just couldn’t convince many to join them. Wish Medium and others learn from these and roll out some more writer friendly interfaces on mobile.↩
A good round-up by Quartz on why Microsoft failed with Windows Phone; an attempt is also made to run with an alternate reality where Microsoft has avoided that. Its based on Microsoft declaring “Windows Phone is free”.
Compared to Google, Microsoft has much stronger connections to hardware OEMs on the one hand and software developers on the other. Its products are widely used and respected by business and consumer customers alike. By offering the Windows Phone platform for free, the company sacrifices licensing revenue, but this unnatural act is more than compensated for by the expansion of the Windows ecosystem. Windows PCs become more attractive, more compatible with the outpouring of mobile devices and applications created by enthusiastic hardware makers and eager app developers.
Biggest problem there? Microsoft just didn’t have a competitive solution in 2007-08. They were still rolling out devices with Windows MobileOS1 and were struggling to come up with their own alternative which would be distinct from what Apple and Google had on offer. Of course, they attempted and failed, before they finally launched a good enough solution with Windows Phone. But this was around 2010 - good 3 years after iPhone was launched. It just was too late.
So, I really think it would not have mattered if Windows Mobile was free. It just wasn’t good enough against iOS and Android. What Microsoft needed was a quick relook at their mobile strategy which their success with Windows just didn’t allow. Quartz does a good job to summarise the attempts Microsoft made to turn the tide. But abstracting it to “Windows Phone failure was easily preventable” is simply a stretch.
It wasn’t the culture. Microsoft failed because there just was no space to play between the killer duo of “open” Android that different OEMs combined owned the larger market share with and the “closed” iPhone that gobbled up the premium market.
One, that had a Start button, a taskbar, a tool bar, a file system and even Internet Explorer. To get an idea of how lagging it was behind what iPhone OS and Android, just above is how it looked like in 2008.↩
A writer who also is a technology enthusiast is a worst combination. Every now and then there is a constant fight between the writer and the tech guy to divert the limited focus. The writer wants to write. The tech guy wants to evaluate the place, the setting where he is writing from. It is constant struggle. It needs to be well defined when the writer needs to be suppressed and when the other guy.
Suppressing writer is easy — rather writer does not need suppressing. He rarely shouts or fight backs. He is the simpleton; he gives up easy. The tech guy? Not him. He keeps popping his head every so often, questioning the person on how the writer is spending his time.
“Is this really the best platform you would be writing at? Look at that writing interface. It is so clunky. How the hell can you write here. I bet there are a lot of better options out there. Why won’t you just fix this? Why write when it is just not right?”
It is so difficult at times to keep the writer focused, to keep the tech guy far away from pestering. Only way I have found this to work is to give him no distractions. Nothing. Leave him with just a screen, a blinking cursor and a keyboard.
No mobile devices around, with screens constantly lighting up on every notification. No laptop devices with multi-window. No music. No television. Lock the two guys down — more often than not, the tech guy gives up and goes into a deep somber out of sheer boredom. The writer prevails.
