the Hammer Project

So I like Dropbox.. Ok not true- I love Dropbox! But not enough to put up with these creepy ads that seem to be able to follow me all over the intergoog:

… yes! Everywhere!

And what bothers be more than the stalking is: how do they know I’m not a customer already? Maybe we use Dropbox for Teams at my work (soon we actually might. not kidding)?

If Google or AdChoices or whoever they are can get all this info on me, they should be able to leave me alone when I sign up for one of these products right? I mean, it’s only the advertiser and the advertiser’s client loosing out- they could be serving me other ads. I’m not exactly going to sign up again.. at least not on the say so of an ad who likes my smell.

Clarity is quality communication. Being able to communicate ones explicit intent to another is not only a building block of family and business, but software too.

Unless your software is simple, easy and clear you’ll be fighting an uphill battle with users. Apple understands clarity, as does the tumblr login page.

You’re going to suffocate your friends and colleges with extra words, bad grammar, long emails and fluff. So why do the same with your app? Focus on the core of what you need to communicate and hack the rest out until the gold virtually stands alone.

Strive for deep understanding- you know when the gaze focuses or the head just tilts like “yeah, I get it”? That’s what you want. Produce that in your conversation, produce it in your copy and produce it in your app, the faster the better.

This is clarity.

Edit: Metahint is not active any more :(

As web matures, conventions emerge. We generally accept that we can find a main navigation set of links up the top of a page. Generally, a logo click should return one to the home page and since using Google, we more or less expect that when we type text into a “search” field, we’ll find what we’re looking for if it’s there.

So.. if we’re not Google, how should search work? What result do you expect from a search input? And now that live search is becoming much more mainstream, how should we expect that to behave?

The reason I ask is because this is what us designers/developers/UX people should care about - what the user expects to happen. If we are to get value from a convention (something that is widely understood to work a certain way) then we need to make sure it’s the correct [expected] implementation.

I’ve just started trialling a cool new search tool for blogs/sites/etc called Metahint - you can test it out to search my blog. But one thing I’ve noticed is that it doesn’t seem to behave the way I expect. I think this is important because if you want something that is useful and usable, then users need to be able to figure out how to use it pretty well instantly.

I think basic search, whether “live” or not should include these three primary functions:

• Sub-string matching - None of this “beginning of word” business. I need to be able to start typing part of a persons name for example, starting at the front, back or middle (in the event I don’t know how to spell it properly) and get a match.
• Multi-word matching - Just like Google infers a logical-and (not logical-or) when a space ” ” is inserted between words. This is expected now, so all search should do it.
• Relevance - or at least some form of it. Now I won’t try to define explicitly what this means but it’s pretty clear we need ordered results in some form. Whether it’s frequency of occurrence; weighting based on order of search input; or more slick Google’ly chops - I don’t want 10 results back and the one I need at the bottom of the list.

Tell me what you think. How do you expect search to work? What are great examples of simple, yet well implemented search features?

Isn’t it great to hear when Auzzies do well? Well I think so. Following the US/SF/SV startup world is kool but it’s better to hear how business kick ass here in Oz.

I’d like to draw your attention firstly to a Perth design firm bam creative. Ok, so I don’t know much about bam but that’s kool. Why? Well because their site is damn slick for a start. But what makes them different for me is the 10 Reasons page. Why does a company need a manifesto? Well because these days people want to know what you value and that you care. A bad site, generic stock photos and no life (content) not only says “we don’t care” but it means it too.

The second company I just need to brag about is 99designs. Now 99designs have been around for a few years now but what I only recently discovered was that this killa product is an Australian invention. Sik! 99designs do crowdsourcing so good it’s beautiful. Great UI and clever UX is not everything, you have to make money too right? Well these guys are pulling the bucks and prove a great model for money-up-front web3.0(?) services.

It’s really inspiring to see fellow auzzies bringin it when it comes to tech business. Who says you need to move to the valley?

Hammer was the only thing I could think of when I was trying to find a parallel to what I’m trying to do. A hammer is simple right? Everyone knows how to use one, and not because they know how, but because it’s obvious. Or rather, it’s intuitive. There’s no manual for a hammer. It explains itself.

Hammer is what I want for software, in particular the software that’s typically boring and dull. Apply the hammer transform- simple, intuitive, useful. Throw in a bit of “Dood! I might actually stay awake while I’m using this” and you’ve got something that people actually like.

The Hammer Project is my container for products and solutions that innovate what’s dead about software. Good and clean design will be primary goals. Things like standards based web design, simplicity, low-cost-of-entry and great customer service are of core value to me.

Hang out here for my tech thoughts, business opinions and news about what the Hammer Project will bring to the web.