Tralfaz

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  • UX, an example of lousy design and usability

    While I am no longer in a realm that has to integrate with MFP (multi-function peripherals), I now use them more than ever.

    For the record, I am talking about the upper end HP office printer/scanner/facsimile machines.  The ones that integrate with an AD domain, and provide user based functionality.  So keep that in mind.

    First, the 1990’s want their processors and their displays back.  All of these devices run on a few different “engine” models.  All of them were originally designed in the early to mid 1990s (think RAM at $400 a megabyte).  The screen resolution is probably 50ppi – state of the art for LCD touch displays in 1998, and to add insult to injury, they are monochrome.  Ugh.  Ugly.

    The processor choice is important too.  The UI is largely event driven (I know this from my time in the realm of building connectors), and the processor has trouble keeping up even when a user is manually entering information.

    Second, the API’s are all littered with legacy calls and widgets.  This is tp provide backwards capability, so that a connector designed in 2002 has a fighting chance to still work, albeit as lousy as it did in 2002.  That this is a curse is not immediately obvious.  Who wouldn’t want to keep a wide range of legacy products alive?  But, it cripples what can be done.  Often connectors, and widgets are run slowly  on purpose to match the timing the device expects. … and this leads to users havng longish delays to respond to soft buttons pushed.  Which leads me to point 3

    Third, none of the major device makers has found a good tactile indication to signal to the user that their input was recognized.  If the user can’t see a state change, hear a “click” or feel a button change (a tactamorphic touchscreen, how cool would that be?), they are all to liable to “double push” the soft button, and then unintended consequences that often require a signtout/signin process again.  Groan.

    While I don’t expect the visual experience of Android or iOS, some significant improvements are needed. On a device that can cost $35,000 it seems like a reasonable expectation.

  • Using the wrong tool – Excel

    Few things make me scratch my head more than people who insist upon using lousy tools way outside their envelope.

    Case in point:

    Product Requirements Document done in Excel.  While there are a few positives, like easy to prioritize, and re-order lists, it is too constraining.  Not enough space in a cell to really explain what is needed (I know, you should break them into smaller pieces, but sometimes, something is so fundamental, it can’t)

    Competitive Analysis in Excel.  Again, there are pro’s:  Easy to create lists.  Easy to match across a row features that are related.  Can be formatted into a pretty table for insertion into a PowerPoint presentation.

    Meeting minutes captured in Powerpoint.  There is nothing worse than a 2K text file being blown up into a 2 megabyte presentation to capture the minutes and actions, then sent to the team.  Really, Microsoft OneNote is a perfect vehicle to do this.  Or Notepad. Or, if you are a Mac-phile, TextWrangler or BBEDIT.  Sigh.

    I wonder if anyone reads these posterous posts anymore.

  • White trash hotels

    I recently took a new job, a couple hours from my home.  While we are house hunting and preparing to move, I have been staying at a budget hotel (I have to pay for it, so it is really cheap).  This has been going on for about 8 weeks, and it works well.  Up on Monday, return on Friday afternoon.  

    However, it seems like I am always in a room next to a fighting couple.  One night around 2:00AM, it was loud.  This morning at 5:30AM.  

    Please, leave your domestic discord at home, and let a traveller get some rest…

  • Product Owner barely being ready with backlog to start planning?

    Just curious if I am unique.  I am the Director of Product Management, and have a staff of 6.  I am the product manager for our main product line (about 80% of our business), and I play the Product Owner.  Today was planning sessions, and as usual, I was working on my backlog until late last night.  It seems like I get it done in time, but it is always a crunch to get it done.  

    Does anyone else barely get the coming iterations stories and acceptance criteria done on time?  I am fortunate that I have a deep well of ideas, and a knack of pulling it all together as needed, but all effort to get an iteration or two ahead have been thwarted.

  • Some tasks really can’t be done Agile

    Sunday morning here, and I am working on my backlog in preparation for iteration planning tomorrow.

    One of the major tasks is that a recent architecture change (that was SUPER for performance) heinously breaks our old model of licensing.  By old, I mean from the early 1990’s.  Way before we had cool stuff like the Internet, and ubiquitous access.  We had bandaged this process along until now.  However, this new change turned it on its head.

    We could create a limiting mechanism to replace it with identical functinality (keeping the licensing tied to the server, and emanating from said server), or we could rip this wide open.  Create a special licensing service (either running on the main server, or on its own instance).  This is attractive for many reasons.  As time goes on, the concept of a single server, and a set of components that communicate with it is becoming quaint.  Fast WAN’s, intranets, geographically diverse deployments are becoming standard.  People expect to drop components where their business needs sit.

    Cool.  But even the most foundational sub component of this is way too large for a single developer in a single 3 week sprint to accomplish.  And there isn’t really a way for me, as a product owner, to break it down at a high level.  This is going to take our architect probably 6-8 weeks to get built, and with the minimal functional feature set done.

    I think we will make this work, but it will make for interesting planning poker tomorrow.

  • eBooks – Sony Reader & possibly the BEST SciFi novel of all time

    I am a prodigious reader.  Have been since early in my High School years.  Science Fiction is my chosen escape.  

    I have read most of the genre’s and deeply into some of the authors.  Heinlein, Asimov, Jordan, Pohl, Haldeman, and many many more.

    There is one book that stands out.  Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner.  I have probably 3 copies of this book.  All of them are out of print, and I re-read it frequently.  It is the “near future” type of Science Fiction, and it is chilling in how accurately he predicted society about now.

    The problem with this as an eBook, is that Brunner was a master of using typography as part of the layout of the novel  There are sections where formatting is altered to drive a point.  Tables, coordinated paragraphs and sentences.  All these have fallen flat on the scans I have, um, ‘acquired’ from dubious sources.

    Now there is a real version, with the typographical performance pieces.  I am happy.  It was worth the $9.99.  Now it is on my Sony Reader, and my iPad.  

    Bliss.

  • Vacations What they are about

    I have been doing some R&R here in Sedona AZ, and one of the activities I have done was a jeep rental.  My wife and I rented a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, and did two moderate to advanced forest roads, one of them called “Outlaw Trail”.  Below is a picture from the trail.  Awesome.

    2011_sedona

    By the way, I can’t recommend highly enough Barlow’s Jeep Rental.  Great people, and top notch gear.  Will not set you on the wrong path.

  • American Exceptionalism, my ass

    If you listen to any politicians these days, they seem to be incapable of going more than 2 minutes without commenting on the veracity of “American Exceptionalism”.  Today, I am going to debunk that claim.

    I am currently vacationing in Sedona, AZ, part of the “Exceptional America” (and I will posit that the views, the food, and the relaxation options here are indeed superb).  

    To help with traffic flow, they have built roundabouts in many intersections.  This keeps traffic flowing, and reduces emissions, as cars don’t have to stop and idle waiting for their turn to go.

    However, “Exceptional Americans” seem to have a brain freeze when they come to one of these traffic flow control devices.  Many STOP and wait until the roundabout is empty.  BZZZZT you merely wait until you can merge in.  Often there is no waiting.

    Another thing I see is that there are tire marks where people have driven straight over the roundabout.  BZZZT You merge in, go around to where you exit, signal, and exit.

    I know, some of you will call this “communist tactics imported from Europe”, but the truth is, they are vastly superior to keeping traffic flowing, and reducing annoying waits at stop lights.  For the love of god, learn to navigate Traffic Roundabouts.

  • From the “How come…” files – Why do the females in a relationship have 2nd rate gear?

    I am on vacation here in Sedona, and I have noticed this twice so far.  We are out walking around, and a couple will come cycling by.  Invariably, the man has the uber cool, new, top of the line bicycle, and the woman will have the beat, old Trek that looks well worn.

    Why so much assymetry in the relationship?  My wife has a better bike than me (and she rides more to boot).  

  • My MacBook Pro is feeling its age

    Alas, as it nears its 3rd birthday, I have to admit that my trusty sidekick, my Macbook Pro (late 2008, unibody) is beginning to feel its age.  It has been through two OS upgrades (first to Snow Leopard, and lately to Lion) and a HD upgrade.  Working on the third battery (I believe this was the last iteration that had a user replacable battery.

    I am eyeballing either a 13″ Air, or the tried and true 15″ MBP.  It will probably be a few months (say Q1 2012) but the day is coming.

    Sigh.