Archive for the ‘Usability’ Category
Friday, September 5th, 2008
I’ve been using Google Chrome for a few days now and I must say, I love it. First and foremost, it is faster than anything I’ve ever used. It is also better laid out, easier to use and the whole process containment for each tab is fantastic - no browser crashes yet, even when certain tabs have crashed. But the more I use it, the more little details I find. The little details that really show that time and thought went into developing Chrome.
Take this one for example:
When you first load up a page, the space to the left of the page title in the tab shows a little animation of a spinning line. At first the line moves counter-clockwise and is colored gray.
After a second the line changes color and direction, to blue and clockwise.
Intrigued, I paid a little more attention and, I’ll be damned. The line is gray and counter-clockwise while the browser is waiting on the server to respond to the initial request, then changes to blue and clockwise while loading the actual content.
Nice touch. Not only that, it functions as a subtle visual indicator of what is going on behind the scenes without being in your face. If you look close you will also see a small dialogue box in the lower left corner that gives you the same info, but the text is so unobtrusive that I didn’t even notice it until I started looking.
Hats off to Google. Nice browser; now, please, just get us a Mac version.
Tags: browser, google chrome, Usability
Posted in Design, Usability | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
Uhh, yeah Google now has a browser. It’s based on Webkit (the engine behind Safari) and it is blindingly fast. I guess running each tab in its own process did work pretty well. Nice one Google.
Download it here.
Tags: browser, google chrome, open source, webkit
Posted in Usability, Web Standards | 2 Comments »
Thursday, August 28th, 2008
Those of you long-time readers (sorry, I can’t help but poke fun at myself) will remember an image I posted from IE8 beta 1. The image, of Google Maps, showed that even in standards compliant mode the beta 1 release left much to be desired.
Well, 8 beta 2 came out today, and lo and behold, Google Maps works, it passes the Acid 2 test and even does a pretty good job of rendering most CSS 2 standards. I would like to almost say good job to the boys at the big MS. IE might finally catch up to the first release or two of Firefox 2. Seriously though, they are coming along and I’m glad that the IE boys and girls are doing their best to bring IE up to par.
For a full browser comparison check out QuirksMode.
Tags: IE8, standards, Web Standards
Posted in Design, Usability, Web Standards | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
I find it hard to fill you in, I must admit. Perhaps it is because I, as a human being, feel that my words are useless if there is not someone there to listen. Perhaps it is because you, as a faceless form field, do not have any qualities that I can identify with. You lack a face, you lack a name, you lack even the basic mechanism of response to action. You can only submit your contents into the void upon completion. Let’s face it, that’s not much; even HAL was blessed with a persona, however cold.
Maybe one day there will be a better you, perhaps one day you will evolve. You may even be given a name someday, by someone that cares for you, someone that loves you. But until that day, faceless form field, I will continue to be listless in the face of your lack thereof. And I will continue to pray to your creator that you be blessed with a face, perhaps even a name.
Tags: rant, Usability
Posted in Design, Usability | 2 Comments »
