I've announced our staging site for localize.drupal.org two weeks ago, and some people did take on the opportunity to test out the site and provided valuable feedback. Fixes and improvements are rolled out continually on the site. Since the staging site was set up with a completely revamped user interface to translate text, the following changes made their way onto the staging site:

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@digitalkulcha So, it's a lost cause then? Don't the people at the #D7UX project ;)

We will be at the SXSW Interactive festival in Austin March 12 -16

We will be posting updates on our SXSW activities at: 

http://uxmag.com/sxsw2010

UX Magazine's Managing Editor, Jonathan Anderson, and Contributing Editor, Whitney Hess, will be on the ground looking for interesting UX stories and professionals.

We're looking for suggestions of who we should talk to, what companies we should meet with, and what stories we should cover. There's also an overwhelming number of exciting parties, so we're trying to decide which ones to check out. If you have any suggestions for us, or if you're at SXSW and see something interesting we should capture on tape or video, please send us an email:

sxsw@uxmag.com

For occasional updates from UX Magazine, make sure you're following our Twitter feed @uxmag.

For more frequent on-the-ground updates, follow Jonathan (@first_day) and Whitney (@whitneyhess) on Twitter.

Jonathan will also be trying out Foursquare while at SXSW: http://foursquare.com/user/first_day

Want to contribute?

We're going to be stretched pretty thin, so if you're going to be at SXSW and want to help us cover the event, please email us at the above address.

 

RT @gillesdemarty: .@leisa @markboulton Blogger says #d7alpha usability great. better than wordpress, lacks media manager http://j.mp/abmHvQ #d7ux #drupal

.@leisa @markboulton Blogger says #d7alpha usability great. better than wordpress, lacks media manager http://j.mp/abmHvQ #d7ux #drupal

By Greg Nudelman Published: March 8, 2010 “Designing a mobile finding experience requires thinking in terms of turning limitations into opportunities.” Thinking of porting your Web finding experience to iPhone, Android, or Windows Mobile? Just forget about the fact that these devices are basically full-featured computers with tiny screens. Having gone through this design exercise a few times, I have realized that designing a great mobile finding experience requires a way of thinking that is quite different from our typical approach to designing search for Web or desktop applications. To put it simply, designing a mobile finding experience requires thinking in terms of turning limitations into opportunities. In this column, I’ll discuss some of the limitations of mobile platforms, as well as the opportunities they afford, and share a few design ideas that might come in handy for your own projects. Understanding Mobile Platforms One of the challenges of mobile application design is understanding both the capabilities and limitations of each platform. Let’s use the iPhone finding experience as an example. On the plus side, the iPhone has a high-resolution screen, Multi-Touch controls, accelerometer, persistent data storage, cool video transitions, push content delivery, GPS, and a device ID. The benefits of these features have been pretty much beaten to death in advertisements, so I will not discuss them here. On the other hand, the problem constraints and limitations of mobile devices are much more interesting. I have found few sources that discuss these in detail, so in this column, I’ll attempt to describe the most important challenges of designing for the new generation of smartphones—at least as they pertain to finding.

By Demetrius Madrigal and Bryan McClain Published: March 8, 2010 “Usability testing is one of the least glamorous, but most important aspects of user experience research.” Usability testing is one of the least glamorous, but most important aspects of user experience research. Over the years, it has also been one of the forms of user research we have performed most frequently. In doing so, we’ve learned quite a few best practices and encountered some potential pitfalls. We think it’s important that we share what we’ve learned with the many stakeholders, designers, and engineers who might find this information helpful. DO: Get involved and observe usability test sessions. Both designers and stakeholders can get a lot out observing usability test sessions. Witnessing participants’ reactions to a product and its user interface can help you understand product and usability issues that might be extremely difficult for researchers to communicate through reports, meetings, or presentations. If you have the opportunity to observe a few test sessions, you should definitely take advantage of it.

By Joe Lamantia Published: March 8, 2010 “Technical barriers to delivering augmented reality (AR) experiences on a broad scale are falling rapidly.” As the recent launches of Google Goggles (see Figure 1), Bing Maps (see Figure 2), Junaio, and the Unifeye SDK have demonstrated, technical barriers to delivering augmented reality (AR) experiences on a broad scale are falling rapidly. Separate advances in technologies for practical and commercial-scale, cloud-based speech and language processing; real-time search; computer vision; accurate geolocation and device awareness; AR commerce and development platforms; as well as high-bandwidth, sensor-enhanced mobile devices are coming together to form a first-generation infrastructure for augmented reality. With the exotic, mixed realities that futurists and science-fiction writers have envisioned seemingly just around the corner, it is time to move beyond questions of technical feasibility to consider the value and impact of turning the realities of everyday social settings and experiences inside out. As with all new technologies as they move from the stage of technical probe to social probe, this AR transformation will happen case by case and context by context, involving many factors beyond the direct reach of UX design. However, as a result of the inherently social nature of augmented reality, we can be sure the value and impact of many augmented experiences depends in large part on how effectively they integrate the social dimensions of real-world settings, in real time.

By Daniel Szuc and Josephine Wong Published: March 8, 2010 “The theme for this conference was ‘Design in Asia,’ a hot topic as China looks to shift thinking from ‘made in China’ to ‘created in China’.” In November 2009, the UX community of China gathered in Shanghai for User Friendly 2009, the sixth User Friendly event. The theme for this conference was “Design in Asia,” a hot topic as China looks to shift thinking from “made in China” to “created in China.” We were very lucky to have such a quality group of both local and international speakers, including our invited keynotes: Jared Spool of UIE—who spoke about “The Dawning of the Age of Experience” Bill Moggridge of IDEO—whose topic was “What’s Next for Design in Asia?” Marc Rettig of Fit and Associates—who presented “Design for Life” The keynotes were complimented nicely by speeches from UPA President Silvia Zimmerman and UPA China President Jason Huang.

This is an attempt to overcome the impasse over at Accessibility improvements for vertical tabs.

As I have already stated elsewhere the general problem with regard to accessibility and usability is that one size doesn't fit all.

So we should make some of the accessibility improvements more configurable. One way which even allows for configuration on an individual user level is a separate theme for accessibility settings.

I have created a Zen sub-theme which allows setting some options which affect the visual appearance of the Drupal site. This is only a very first stab and more of a proof of concept, though.

(Note: I had to add an additional file extension to the zip-file for attaching the theme to this post.)

AttachmentSize aczensible.zip_.txt139.17 KB AcZenSible_vertical_tabs_settings.png4.04 KB Zen Task Force

 

Am I going to ditch my iPhone for a Puma phone? No. I am, however, really impressed by how Puma has chosen to enter a space that’s already way over-saturated. In an industry full of me-too-ing, they clearly recognized that the only chance they have to make any mark is to come to market with something genuinely different and from the looks of these demos and screenshots, they’ve done just that. This is evident from the memorable (and very well-branded) UI, the playfulness that permeates the OS and even some of the hardware additions:

That might be thanks to some of the silly stuff like a calculator that teases you when you try an operation it deems too trivial, a pet puma on the device called Dylan (who shows up on-screen when you leave your handset untouched for a while), and an audio player with a turntable you can actually scratch—but the real draw is probably the solar panel around back.

In a lot of ways, Puma is showing up manufacturers that have been making phones for years by demonstrating how even the little guy can make a splash if he’s willing to take a chance.

Read more about it over at engadget.

Facebook has updated its Communication Channels Best Practices. A must-read for any developers who want their apps to be "streamlined, clear, and less spammy."

http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Communication_Channels_Best_Practices

One of the core profile issues is when a user is adding a URL to their page. They must include http:// in their link. don't know of any other site on the net that asks for this when a URL is requested. This issue existed in 6.x also. The error message doesn't even ask for htttp:// to be included just says: The value provided for "URL field-name" is not a valid URL. That's when a person includes "www" when filling out the form, so i definitely see this as an issue. This is for the User field: URL under "profile configuration".

I'm not even sure if this belongs here because it seems like it would be a simple mod and very much needed for a simpler drupal experience for both people trying to create useable websites, and for the people who join their sites.

Ideally the user could type in youtube.com/user/xxx (or equivalent), and it would become a link. i.e. no http or even www necessary, or at least just a "www". Either way error message should aid the user in filling out their profile page, rather than just tell them they are doing something wrong and not helping them through the course of action.

How does your proposal meet the stated goals of the Knight Drupal Initiative program?: 

It addresses the idea of making Drupal a straight forward experience for people of all abilities.

How long will your project take to complete?: 

I can't imagine very long

How will you implement and distribute your project?: 

Through people more knowledgeable than me on affecting change within the Drupal web tool

What is your total budget estimate and how much funding are you requesting: 

not requesting funding

Mark Boulton Design Drupal 7 Project

From Popular Science:

The future of touchscreen interfaces is: you? A project between a Carnegie Mellon researcher and a couple of creative thinkers over at Microsoft Research have created Skinput, a Bluetooth-enabled device that allows you to use your own skin as a peripheral input device for devices like cell phones, MP3 players or gaming consoles.

This is one of those things that's better shown than explained:

It's clearly a long way off from commercialization. But as they've demonstrated, this has a lot of potential for keeping devices in pockets and out of hands, allowing people to stay focused on their activity rather than on operating their devices. This also seems like one component of a potential future system that converts sign language communication to synthesized speech.

I have received tremendous respons on this subject until now.
50+ comments on the discussion on GDO http://groups.drupal.org/node/45468
100+ people attended the real life Event WordPress / Drupal http://jbingold.com/content/rencontre-des-deux-mondes-wordpress-et-drupal

And today a twiit from a WordPress strategist http://www.twitter.com/roprice

@JBingold That session proposal looks terrific.. there's no question of the need for a BuddyPress equivalent in Drupal. Thanks
@JBingold a Drupal evangelist who recognizes the value of WordPress and fosters non-childish discussions about the two. Nice to see that.

So please make sure you vote for our sessions :
http://sf2010.drupal.org/conference/sessions/how-and-why-make-drupal-ult...
http://sf2010.drupal.org/conference/sessions/communitysocial-networking-...

Vote for both sessions because I think blogging and social neworking / community are two differents use case.

And yes there in the bussiness perspective there is realy strategie to discuss about WordPress/BuddyPress and Software as a service.

Have look at the attached graph "wordpress + social" is rocking up

Jean-Baptiste Ingold
PS Still open to other panelist. Perhaps OpenAtrium of OpentPublish can be nice starting plateform to build on for this ready to use profile and service. The feature rocks...

OpenPublish

The Paris Drupal Commerce Sprint has been a huge success for the project. AF83 has been an incredible host, granting us use of the conference room for the full week, the espresso machine throughout the day, and of course DamZ. I flew out with Mike to represent Commerce Guys, and we gleaned some excellent advice from the folks who came in from i-KOS. It was super helpful to have Bojhan and fago join us to better plan our IA / User Experience and Rules integration. What a great team!

Unfortunately, the end of the week has come too soon for me to spend more than a few minutes on a wrap-up post. We're still in the process of moving our discussion notes into the forums and issue tracker. Those notes will communicate our proposed implementation of Orders / Carts and Price handling on Drupal 7 / Rules and hopefully garner some global feedback.

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Test drive with us!

We suggest you read the details and tips here, but if you'd like to go ahead and try this out now, just go to http://localize.staging.drupal.org, enter drupal/drupal for the HTTP authentication prompt when requested, then log in with your drupal.org username and password and play around. Have fun and provide us feedback! Thanks for your help.

Looking back a bit

The main translation user interface of localize.drupal.org as we know it today is a result of collaboration between myself and the amazing Young Hahn of Development Seed. His work with the user interface covered making a previously unsexy interface more appealing and useful. However, given how early that was done, we did not know the actual user scenarios of language teams having contributors of all levels.

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As Git becomes more popular and widely used a GUI becomes even more important. This was especially important when Drupal recently looked at what version control system it was going to switch to. (If you're interested in the Drupal (unofficial) decision checkout Angie Byrons post on groups.drupal.org)

When I surveyed the Git GUI landscape SmartGit stood above the rest for your standard user.

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Just got to look a little deeper at the #Drupal 7 backend. Lookin' nice. Definitely more useable. Good job #D7UX

@markboulton Milk, no sugar thanks. Also, I've just discoveed the joys of Drupal. Can see the direction you're going with #d7ux