Built on the Gecko engine, "Pencil" is a Firefox 3 plug-in that has a light, 400 KB installation. Its goal is to be a forever free and open source tool for making diagrams and doing GUI prototyping, yet also easy enough that everyone can use it. For mock-ups, Pencil makes it easy to spin the look you want, then output PNG for record-keeping and distribution:

http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil 

On October 2, Shannon and I attended the STC Austin presentation on Embedded Help by Paul Mueller, President of UserAid ("Delivering information when and where users need it").

Embedded Help systems seek this ideal: to answer users' questions without requiring them to ever ask for help, by making information available exactly when and where they need it. Users get the support they need without leaving the task they are working on. This presentation reviewed UI and technological strategies for embedding user assistance in both web and non-web user interfaces.

Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen makes some compelling observations about the current trend of Web 2.0 design (which includes frequent use of mash-ups) in an excellent BBC news article from yesterday. In case the target of this link ever becomes defunct, I've included a reprint of the entire article below the break.

From my own perspective as a technical communicator involved with web site design and online information architecture since the inception of HTML, I could not agree more with Mr. Nielsen's observations and warnings. Even though I consider myself a fairly advanced user of the newer Web 2.0 technologies, I have sworn off several sites entirely now, such as Amazon and eBay, because they've become extremely cumbersome and hard to use. Nor do I even bother with My Yahoo! anymore. I'm an avid blogger and wiki contributer, but you won't find me anywhere near sites like Myspace, and there are certain wikis I never use because there's no central editorial oversight keeping the wiki organization streamlined and usable. If I can't "get in, find the information I want, and get out" I never return to a site again. (Which is exactly one of the points Mr. Nielsen makes in the article.)

Anyone who has read "Rapid Development" or "Code Complete" by Steve McConnell will know he is an excellent author and writes from a lot of experience in the computer industry.

His latest book is "Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art" and is a great read, full of important insights and ideas. McConnell argues that whilst the average software organization can struggle with project costs that run double their original estimates, some of the more sophisticated organizations achieve results with estimation errors as low as 5-10%. However these best-in-class organizations use scientific techniques that are not cost-effective for most software development organizations.

On March 10, 2007 STC Austin hosted a seminar by STC Associate Fellow Whitney Quesenbery (www.WQusability.com). The seminar, "Using Personas", had us write scenarios, walk through sites using personas, and derive design/documentation ideas. While I was happy to learn about persona usage, I was discouraged by the requirement to amass user research data so that it can be distilled down into useful personas (with what time and resources will this happen?). When she mentioned the shortcut of "surrogates", I immediately connected with the conclusions of a book I just finished: Stumbling on Happiness.

Article on keeping data safe in a SaaS CM model -

http://thecontentwrangler.com/article/web_based_content_management_is_yo...

I recently ordered a pair of clogs from zappos - don't laugh, livng in sweden would hook you too. This morning, about two weeks after my purchase I received an email again thanking me for my purchase and asking me to comment on my purchase so that others could benefit from my experience. None of which is really out of the ordinary in today's market. My interest was raised once I followed the link...i know this isn't rocket science but, they took the time to not only allow me to comment free form - but prompted me with questions regarding the the product quality, look, comfort, and fit with survey style questions.

So i recently have been trying to find someone to fix a window in my 'historic home' - which is really difficult since these days everyone wants to replace windows (i'll stop because this is a topic which could become lengthy)..in frustration I turned to Angie's list after hearing an ad on NPR which jogged my memory about this resource. What can i say, i found it super easy to use, and very informative in terms of learning about other's experiences. Not only that, but i found a contractor who specializes in older homes and does just about everything under the sun ... and the best is, he never advertises, only gets business word of mouth. A great example of the web as connected network that can seem small and local. It works on so many levels, the business model, the perceived benefit and of course the overall UI and experience.

Links from a friend in the biz: "How to Design a Good API & Why It Matters", presentation by Joshua Block, Principal Engineer at Google, and designer of numerous Java platform features.

video: http://www.infoq.com/presentations/effective-api-design

slides w/o video: http://lcsd05.cs.tamu.edu/slides/keynote.pdf  

Went to session with Bradley Horowitz - VP of Technology Development Group for Yahoo! and heard him talk about the acquisiton of flickr and how to lower barriers to partipation in collaborative environments...all very interesting...but then he started talking about Yahoo! Answers.

As product manager for eSeries/eCM, i am on a daily basis both intrigued and haunted by search. It's the inevitable siren calling - the lure of a better and more precise search experience. I hear it from customers, partners, anyone who does anything on any website....My favorite from back in my consulting days has to be the inevitable comparison to google where I would hear...