5 Steps To Productivity.

You want to be productive. You want to be efficient. You want to get the most done in the least amount of time.

It seems there is always something "new" to make you more productive. You need to multi-task. You need to avoid multi-tasking. You need to clear things out as they come in. You need to wait and batch everything at once.

The funny thing about the "feeling" of productivity, is that I think it is easy to mistake productivity for what is really nothing more than a sense of new.

For example, person buys a new gadget to be more productive. Gadget is neat and new. User has a crush on it and feels more productive. The user has taken specific action to be more productive (bought device) and thus has an increased sense of control, adding to the "feeling" of productivity. Crush wears off and user realizes, this is just another "thing" cluttering up my life. I don't have more control over my time, I've given away a measure of control over my time to this gadget.

Furthermore, as soon as everybody buys into one approach or product someone will realize that if they come up with a reasonable argument to support the opposite, they can cash in on the change of tide.

So instead of washing back and forth with the fads, what can we do?

Basically the only way to know what makes you productive is to:

1. Define your current process
2. Record what you actually do
3. Analyze your actual results
4. Adjust to improve
5. Repeat

In my opinion this is the only guaranteed way. We all have slightly different brains and approaches, so it is unlikely that there will ever be a golden bullet that works for all.

The "gotcha" here is that following the above 5 steps requires a fair amount of discipline and work. It's much easier to buy a book or only check email twice a day and think you are increasing your productivity.

Technorati Tags: getting things done, gtd, productivity, small business, web work

Why bother to learn Ruby on Rails?

Quick context: 1995 - 2001 were the olden days of static HTML. I first started using server side programming with ASP back in 2001. In 2002 I started using PHP. In 2005 I started using Ruby.

So why is Ruby worth learning if you already have PHP or another server side scripting language under your belt?

First of all I would argue it is useful to learn other languages simply for exposure to different ways of solving problems. After all, programming is all about solving problems.

However learning the RoR (Ruby on Rails) framework offers some unique benefits. RoR is built around a number of programming best practices (DRY, MVC, etc..) and design patterns (Active Record, etc..)

I had tried to incorporate some of these in my PHP coding in the past with limited results. Not that it is impossible, just that it was easy to let the code drift away from those coding ideals. It can be a challenge to develop good coding habits.

After working almost exclusively with Ruby on Rails for the past year I have been working on a few PHP sites from my pre-Ruby on Rails days. What have I found?

My personal experience has been that after living in Ruby on Rails land where everything has a place and a somewhat enforced way of doing things, my PHP coding has improved. The RoR indoctrination, if you will, has made applying good coding practices easier. Instead of having to think about what would be the cleanest way to do something in PHP, it's a bit more obvious how to implement a nice clean design.

So even if you are a die-hard PHP coder, taking a little time to familiarize yourself with the Ruby on Rails framework will likely prove to be a good knowledge investment.

Technorati Tags: coding, php, web programming, web development, ruby on rails

Blogging 101: I messed up.

I have had a blog for about 6 months, but just this month I have put some real effort into getting things rolling.

Unfortunately in the excitement I totally messed up.

A number of ideas for articles came to mind, and so I wrote. I wrote and I published. The error? In doing so I was wrapped up in the writing and forgot my audience.

Forgetting your audience is a huge mistake.

So at the end of a month I looked back over my posts and realized, "Who would want to subscribe to this?"

While hopefully I have been able to produce some material that will be of interest to readers, it failed to address a single audience. My current or potential business clients would have no interest in the more technical articles, and fellow designers and developers would have little interest in the articles aimed at educating business owners about websites.

I made a mistake. Fortunately when working with the digital medium, it is not terribly difficult to fix mistakes - especially if caught early on.

Thus, what I have done is taken my single group of posts and split them into two separate blogs.

All articles which I think will be useful to businesses interested in creating, updating, expanding or improving their website will be kept at the "It's All In The Details" blog.

All articles which are aimed at the web designer & developer community have been moved to this blog "Just In Time".

I hope this separation will make it easier for readers to quickly find and subscribe to the stream of information most interesting to them.

The lesson of which I was reminded? Whatever it is you are doing, always stop and think about your audience.

Technorati Tags: blogging

Warm Usability For The Web

UX Magazine had a post entitled "Apple's pretty products work better" today.

The original article referenced can be viewed in it's entirety at Technology Review, which requires a login... unless you were to have a URL to the print version.

In particular the quote of interest is:

“Attractive things work better,” says Don Norman, who was vice president of advanced technology at Apple from 1993 to 1998. “When you wash and wax a car, it drives better, doesn’t it? Or at least feels like it does.”

This reminded me of a topic I have been meaning to write about for at least 2 or 3 years. I guess today is the day.

Usability without a doubt is a very important aspect of successful web design and development. If the site isn't usable, visitors will become frustrated and not return. If the site isn't usable the company behind that site will not see good results for their investment.

What is web usability?

According to Wikipedia:

"Web usability is a general approach: it is as much about the effectiveness of transferring information via the Internet, as it is about the smooth interaction of an end-user with online (and offline) software."

Jakob Neilsen is perhaps one of the most known and vocal web usability pundits. Mr. Neilsen has a great deal of experience in the field, with a Ph.D. in user interface and decades of experience. And yet looking at Mr. Neilsen's own website, one would have to wonder whether his formal education and practical experience in the field of large-scale applications have interchangeable application to the web.

I would say that Mr. Neilsen's approach to web usability, could be labeled "cold usability". It is methodical and solidly grounded in statistics.

Example for discussion: With the same goal, solution X allows the desired outcome in 1 less click and 5 less seconds than solution Y.

Which solution is more usable? According to "cold usability", solution X with 1 less click and 5 less seconds to accomplish the desired goal is the obvious usability winner. Numbers don't lie, right?

While having quantifiable metrics upon which to base your decisions is certainly desirable, I would have to say that "web usability" requires a broader approach. Why?

Humans are complicated creatures

Often our decisions and perceptions are not solidly grounded in cold facts. As mentioned in the the 1st of the 3 part Keyboard vs. The Mouse articles by Bruce Tognazzini (who happens to be a co-member of the Neilsen Norman Group along side the previously mentioned Jakob Neilsen and Don Norman), user perceptions and the numbers don't always agree. Specifically:

"We’ve done a cool $50 million of R & D on the Apple Human Interface. We discovered, among other things, two pertinent facts:

• Test subjects consistently report that keyboarding is faster than mousing.
• The stopwatch consistently proves mousing is faster than keyboarding.

This contradiction between user-experience and reality apparently forms the basis for many user/developers’ belief that the keyboard is faster."

The numbers don't always tell the whole story. If the success of your website depends not only on the ability of users to find things quickly, but also that they "think" they are finding things quickly - more than "cold usability" is needed.

The majority of websites are not applications

Desktop applications are very task oriented. A program is successful if it allows a user to accomplish specific tasks in an efficient manner.

The majority of websites are not quite so wholly task focused. Many websites also must accomplish things such as branding & marketing which are difficult to quantify.

Perceived usability

In designing and developing websites we must consider usability an essential part of the craft. But must remember the inter-relation of the websites various goals. We cannot dogmatically state that "cold usability" is always of greater importance than other design considerations.

Perhaps we need to warm usability up a bit. Perhaps in designing websites the perception of usability is equally important to the number of clicks.

Maybe the aesthetically pleasing website design, like the attractive car mentioned by Don Norman, really does drive better.

Technorati Tags: cold usability, percieved usability, jakob neilsen, don norman, bruce tognazzini, usability, warm usability, web design, web usability

Are your sites color blind friendly?

Color blindness is a fairly common vision problem (possibly as high as 10% of all males), and as designers we need to take that into consideration - but how?

Here are two tools that I came across that can help us to better understand what some of our users are seeing:

Sim Daltonism
This one is only for OSX, but simulates 8 variations of color blindness.

Color Oracle
This one only simulates 3 variations of color blindness, but that is probably sufficient. Available in OSX, Windows and a Linux (beta) versions.

Technorati Tags: color blindness, web design

Ever wanted to bounce something off someone?

As a web worker I find on occasion the desire to bounce an idea off of someone else. Being that I generally work by myself there often isn't someone physically there to discuss with. IRC and forums can help in that regard.

Today I found an interesting site that allows you to present a short question, and receive responses from the world at large. You have no idea who will respond, so responses should probably be taken with a grain of salt. Nevertheless it allows you an opportunity to tap into the "crowd" and see if perhaps it will give you a fresh outlook.

Site: BrainReactions

Technorati Tags: web work

Ruby on Rails vs The World

Ruby on Rails may not be perfect, but it sure lives up to it's tag line "Web development that doesn't hurt."

The guys over at Rails Envy are putting together 4 "Hello I'm a Mac" parodies for Ruby on Rails.

Enjoy:

#1) RoR vs Java
#2) RoR vs PHP

Check their website for the final two, which will be presented tomorrow (May 16) and Thursday (May 17).

Technorati Tags: rails envy, ruby on rails