I just thought I'd share some amazing good reading/videos that have come my way.
One of them is http://www.azarask.in/blog/ which is a blog by Aza Raskin who is the Creative Lead for Firefox. Truly one of the most impressive blogs I've read regarding User Interface (and all things innovative in Software) in my opinion.
Perhaps the blog post of his that stands out currently for me is the one with respect to ALT-TABBING. This is something that I've experience painfully on the Mac as it operates differently than on Windows.
On the Mac Alt-Tab (really Command-Tab) works only by switching between completely different applications and will not cycle through additional instances of the same application. The latter is done through the use of Tilda-Command. Although this is just a migration issue (of me switching from Windows) all the issues Aza harps on remains. There is no real proper implementation of ALT-TABBING that goes beyond MRU (Most Recently Used) and after reading the post, you are more aware of the dis-functionality of the feature. It's always impressive about how stagnant some places of computing/software we've become.
There seems to be a general consensus to allow people to adapt to an improper implementation than fixing the problem at hand within Software in general.
Finally check out,
This is a great talk regarding choice, something which as a software developer largely interested in User Interface design I find fascinating. Perhaps the most startling part of the talk was how in certain countries (those that were previously communist), have citiziens who are actually afraid of choice and that the ability to choose is not something innate but rather something learned (and mastered in North America).
This could be perceived easily into perhaps removing choice in Software that is distributed in those countries , such as in install options. Overwhelming install options may actually hinder/frighten users in those countries.
