InfoQ Homepage Useability Content on InfoQ
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User-Centric Development Approaches: What's Next?
On her Creating Passionate Users blog, Kathy Sierra recently envisioned software that's not just usable, but transparent, helping users achieve "flow" in their work without intrusive distractions, delays or constraints. Perhaps end-user "flow" is the next big differentiator - and if so, what will the development processes look like that support the creation of such software?
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Microsoft Announces Expression Studio
Microsoft yesterday announced Expression Studio targeted at designers or creative professionals. The Expression family of tools generate XAML which is easily consumed within Visual Studio enhancing the interaction between software designers and developers.
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Microsoft to Enforce User Interface Guidelines
In order to promote the ribbon design as a replacement for menus and toolbars, Microsoft has decided to license the Office 2007 User Interface including the new "ribbon paradigm " via a set of guidelines. And unlike previous guidelines and standards, violating a "mandatory" clause carries real legal repercussions.
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Return of the Rich Client - .NET 3.0 Meets the NY Times
Listening to all the Web 2.0 hype, you would think rich client applications have gone the way of DOS and dinosaurs. But it appears that the New York Times didn't get the memo, and they have the killer app to prove it.
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The Creeping Featuritis Chart
Creeping Featuritis is an insidious sort of product rot, reducing useful software into heaps of expensive widgets and aggravating help features. Peter Abilla brings us a chart by Kathy Sierra, capturing what it looks like from the customer's point of view, and reminds us to "focus on the customer and abandon the competitor-focused strategy all-together."
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Synergy: Agile and User Experience Design
Scott Ambler believes that User Experience Design (UED) is critical to the success of agile software development techniques, because it increases a team's chances of building the right software to meet customers' real goals. This article describes how Agile and UED communities can work together closely for project success.