Paving the Way for Simpli5
Simpli5 is our new web application which debuted this month. It revolutionizes retail business through a new innovative approach to managing orders, products, inventory and customers.
We believe retail management is all about decisions and Simpli5 makes these decisions simpler.
IE8 – Trying to become a real browser?
Microsoft posted an article on their Internet Explorer blog earlier this week where they claimed Internet Explorer 8 passed the Acid2 test. Internet Explorer has been the cause of many web design headaches due to blatent disregard for Web Standards. Microsoft may finally be feeling pressure from Opera and Mozilla to comply with Web Standards.
Developing Embroidery-Academy.com
Over the past 2.5 years we have become active in a niche market that I never dreamed we would become a part of… Machine Embroidery. I am not by any means a “macho” guy. I always thought these sewing projects were done by conservative grandmothers in-between servings of prunes. I was naive and judgemental, but captivated by the charm and sincerity of these people. In fact, it’s been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.
Our most recent project in the industry, Embroidery-Academy.com has perfectly proven the values of iterative development.
Amazon.com Redesigned for the better?
For many years I considered Amazon.com to be the epitome of great ecommerce design. About 2 years ago, I changed focus. Amazon started to do too much, in my opinion. Cluttering the interface with elements that, as far as I could tell, we rarely used.
A few weeks back Amazon redesigned their site and made a number of dramatic changes. Some were great, some are more perplexing.
And a Good Time Was Had…
There comes a time in a small entrepreneurs life where it becomes beneficial to partner up with a larger organization. For us, this time came about 6 months ago when we partnered with Cox Communications. As a small business, we gained a tremendous reputation boost by affiliating ourself with one of the most trusted brand names in the industry, and Cox gained the networking power of a small business who talks to literally thousands of new business owners each year.
I boast about Cox for 3 reasons.
Google Penalizes Paid Links
The past few days changes could mean a dramatic change to the way professional SEO’s build links. Especially those with deep pockets. Many of the webs most popular websites and blogs watched their Google PageRank drop dramatically yesterday after the most recent Google Dance.
Clearing Gracefully
Clearing in CSS has always been a bit of a pain. The guys over at QuirksMode have let out a little secret used by the CSS experts to clear:both without an extra div or hidden content.
Bridging the Gap Between Compile Time and Run Time
As the lead systems architect here at Designing Interactive, I enjoy reviewing new code patterns to see if there are areas in our codebase in which they could be implemented. Recently I spent some time digging into Martin Fowler’s Active Record pattern. While a direct implementation of this exceptional code pattern doesn’t fit within our Sandstone Application Framework, I was inspired to review how we have implemented our business entity classes to see if we could implement some of the more fundamental concepts of the Active Record code pattern.
Flip3D vs. Expose
I’m trying to get my brain around the concept of Microsoft Vista’s Flip3D interface. Someone put a lot of time and energy into the concept to add value to their Operating System. In fact, Microsoft calls it a “Productivity Addon.” My question is: What is the value added?
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Latest Comments
- Nate Klaiber → “ The design industry is plagued with the misconception that product manuals are evil. These designers believe that your product should be intuitive enough to use without a manual. While there is a certain truth to this, there are many viable reasons for product manuals to be used. There needs to be a certain…”
- Joe Fiorini → “ The design industry is plagued with the misconception that product manuals are evil. These designers believe that your product should be intuitive enough to use without a manual. While there is a certain truth to this, there are many viable reasons for product manuals to be used. There needs to be a certain…”
- Roger F Carver → “ The Google Charts API is an excellent way to add high quality charting to your web application. We first started working with the API as part of the Simpli5 dashboard development, and were quite impressed with its functionality and ease of use. Wrapper classes were developed and added to our Sandstone Application Framework to make…”
- Nate Klaiber → “ The “I agree” checkbox has become an interface standard on registration forms. “I agree to the terms and conditions.” While it’s purpose is generally understood by the consumer, it is a key source of frustration for people registering for accounts. eBay's Registration, as an example Why it’s overlooked: Checkboxes are small, particularly ones which aren’t grouped…”
- Josh Walsh → “ Most of the value you gain from a usability testing session comes from the analysis after the session is complete. I have been involved in a few sessions recently where no formal analysis has been conducted. I believe this is a mistake. Traditionally, the analysis portion of a usability session takes quite a long…”