Section 4: Why do an RIA Designing an RIA

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Section 4 Why do an RIA Designing an RIA
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Why?

• Simply put because you can.
• There is very little should here
• Looking back at John Maedas Laws of Simplicity
• Always question the addition of anything, even if
  it leads to the reduction of something else.
• Lets look deeper at some good reasons why.

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Hello! Humans are Emotional

• Don Normans Emotional Design

Your emotional state when using a product will
effect not just your enjoyment of it, but your
effectiveness (at least perceptual) with it.
Attractive Things Work Better is the very
title of the first chapter.
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Location, Location, Location

• That works for real estate
• for UX Designers
• Context, Context, Context

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Intuitive ?

• Creating an intuitive application is all about
  matching expectations of the user.
• Understanding the context of use is the best way
  to come as close as possible to do that.
• The desktop is a constant. The Operating System
  is the heart and soul of the desktop experience.

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Legacy of the Web ?

• Strong legacy with web metaphors
• Back button (or just history)
• Hyperlink

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RIAs offer Hybridization

• Toyota cant have all the fun
• Big challenges for designers, but the end-game is
  worth the effort.

Yahoo Mail Beta Flickr
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Learnability

• Understanding where I was and where Im going.
• Having the RIGHT information at the right time,
  with the right supporting information.

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Security

• Using windowing enhances security
• I know that I really didnt leave
• I know when Im done Ill be going back to where
  I started
• Security allows for more risk taking

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Managing Complexity

• Discoverability
• Use scent to guide people
• Hide complexity to avoid overwhelming people with
  too much content
• Richness allows for fluidity and better
  invitations

Baby Name Wizard
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Power of Movement

• Sometimes contrasts in color, shape, alignment
  are not enough
• Moving objects catch our eyes and our minds
  attention
• Time is perception
• Motion (and change) activity
• Perception of system working if not faster, at
  least working for my benefit.

Yahoo! Maps (beta)
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Playful

• Using your hands in multiple ways
• Novelty through animation and discoverability
• Engagement leads to productivity

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Design (Big D)

• I design software
• Im wearing designer jeans
• interaction design
• design school
• That design looks cool

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What is design?

• Design as noun (I like that design)
• Is the result of a conceived idea, whether or not
  it was actually designed
• Design as verb (I design software)
• A process of creativity
• Non-linear
• Assumes there is more than one elegant solution
  to any single problem
• Considers the measurable and the aesthetic

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Making Design (verb) Work

• Divergent thinking
• Skew, bend, melt, tear change!
• Evaluation is separate from Ideation
• Put your judge on hold
• Multiple minds
• Model, Model, Model (AKA sketch, sketch, sketch)
• Taking the road least traveled can bring you back
  to the freeway
• Process ideas in disconnected ways
• Connect disconnected ideas in separate exercise

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Exercise Criteria From Section 1

• Criteria for the design
• Application Service (Hosted)
• Infinite Audience
• Business-to-Business community
• File Management System
• Moving lots of files
• Collaborative
• Media Centric
• Criteria for Development
• Old-school software engineering
• Highly formally educated group

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Exercise Moving forward

• Need to share corporate media objects across
  different enterprises
• Need to collaborate on these objects
• Annotate
• Version
• Append
• Need to publish out to 3rd parties
• Dont worry we arent doing this whole
  application

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Exercise Annotate

• Design a set of screens that make up one page
• Displays both a list objects and single object
• Allows the user to comment on that object
• Track commenting
• Annotate on media directly
• Create a collection and send that collection

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Things to think about

• Manage complexity through progressive
  presentation
• Motion aids learnability
• Prirotize information and tasks within a single
  context
• Do I need a new context? Why? Why not?
• What is the nature of my data for this context?

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Questions ?

• Resources
• Daves Blog
• www.synapticburn.com
• Bills Blog
• looksgoodworkswell.blogspot.com