Visual Studio UX Taskforce, Office UX Taskforce... etc.

Long Zheng's Windows UX Taskforce is amazing.

In the space of a few days, what started as a blog post has turned into a web phenomenom. He put together the digg-like site in a couple of days, apologizing all the while how long it was taking. (It's actually based more on a site from Dell called IdeaStorm but calling it 'digg-like' gives it an instant familiarity).

The amount of content now available is stunning. Long is awesome -- but so are the people who follow his blog. The recurring theme is that little things add up.

This is a point that Joel Spolsky makes over and over on his website (when he's not telling you to learn C)

"Another tiny frustration. These things add up; these are the things that make us unhappy on a day-to-day basis. Even though they seem too petty to dwell on (I mean, there are people starving in Africa, for heaven's sake... ), nonetheless they change our moods."
--Joel Spolsky in User Interface Design for Programmers

I think we need more of these UX Task force sites. What I'd love to see:

• Office.UXTaskForce.com

  a community site for improving usability in MS Office

• VisualStudio.UXTaskForce.com

  improve Visual Studio

• IE.UXTaskForce.com

  improve Internet Explorer

...and so on for any software that has sufficient surface area to maintain its own independent site for focusing on user experience.

Obviously my own needs are too limited to the microsoft realm -- such is my burden in life.

I checked if the UXTaskForce.com site was available, with the idea of donating it to Long (he's a fellow Australian after all)

The website has been registered, and only a few days ago -- hopefully it's Long himself who grabbed it.

Domain Name: UXTASKFORCE.COM
Registrar: ONLINENIC, INC.
Updated Date: 08-jun-2008
Creation Date: 08-jun-2008
Expiration Date: 08-jun-2009

If there was a community-backed Visual Studio UX Taskforce (rather than the paltry connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio), here's something I'd contribute (from the last few minutes). It's really small, but... well, little things add up.

Close button on Trial Dialog should be called 'Continue'

Submitted by secretGeek on June 10, 2008

Problem: The 'Trial' nag screen offers two choices: register and close. As a user you pause and think Close will cause the application to shutdown. But actually it doesn't, it just allows you to continue.

Severity: Low

Impact: Low

Status: Not fixed

'Zooba' on Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:46:54 GMT, sez:

Great. Now you've gotten me addicted.

Hopefully Microsoft will notice this - I really don't see how they will miss it. Even if there's never any official recognition of it, it would be great for some of this stuff to get fixed.

'Don2' on Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:48:45 GMT, sez:

It is standard to have the close button in lower right.

'Peter' on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:36:20 GMT, sez:

I'm going to break convention and just list my complaints as their own taskforce.

why-does-my-cd-take-a-full-minute-to-fire-up-autorun.uxtaskforce.com

notepad-word-tokenizing-code-die-die-die.uxtaskforce.com

ie-new-tab-2-second-wait-you-explain-that.uxtaskforce.com

I-never-want-to-use-the-web-service-to-figure-out-to-open-the-new-file-type.Seriously-when-has-the-web-service-ever-worked.uxtaskforce.com

preloaded-IE-favorites--arent.uxtaskforce.com


Ahh, I feel better now.

'lb' on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:28:20 GMT, sez:

@Peter

Hey I get that 2 second wait when opening a new tab in IE as well. The entire application locks, basically. Sometimes for longer than 2 seconds. I thought it was specific to the network I'm on. As a result I only use IE for sites that are broken in other browsers.

Totally agree that: I-never-want-to-use-the-web-service-to-figure-out-to-open-the-new-file-type

I don't know what is meant by:
notepad-word-tokenizing-code-die-die-die

but i like your enthusiasm around it.

'Cath' on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:37:30 GMT, sez:

Don2: Yes it is standard to have the close button in lower right but in this case you can be mistaken for thinknig it means "close the application" when it just means "close the dialog".

It could say "OK" or "Continue..."

'Will' on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:47:18 GMT, sez:

Leon, looks like the owner of uxtaskforce.com appears to be this guy -> http://www.kharsim.net (Kharsim Yousef)

According to the whois contact details anyway (http://whois.domaintools.com/uxtaskforce.com, down the bottom of page).

'lb' on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:27:21 GMT, sez:

okay - it looks like Kharsim Yousef is a microsoft UX guy -- so hopefully he's helping Long.

'lb' on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:25:32 GMT, sez:

Update on the Kharsim Yousef question.

I googled him and Kharsim.net, then twittered this message to Long:

secretGeek @longzheng is Kaz from Kharsim.net a friend of yours? And will you work together on *.UXTaskForce.com ?

here was long's response:

longzheng @secretGeek not a friend, but i know of him and he's contacted me. haven't made any decisions yet. will write a blog post about taskforce

Long has since posted about taskforce.

Can't wait to see what happens here!

'Peter' on Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:10:42 GMT, sez:

Yeah, I realized that my notepad complaint was awkwardly worded...too late.

Anyway, I'll do this by example:
1. Load up code of any kind. For fun and profit, I'm going to use PowerShell. Let's say our cursor is at the beginning of the following line:
[reflection.assembly]::LAODwithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")

There's a typo you need to fix. QUESTION: how many "CTRL+RIGHTARROW" keystrokes do you need to get to the misspelled word "LAOD"?

THAT WAS A TRICK QUESTION! In notepad, it treats the whole line as a single word. Thus, attempting to use semi-advanced (standard!) text editing features in Notepad will only bring you pain. Thus, the whole "die die die" thing.

'lb' on Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:43:02 GMT, sez:

@Peter
Ah! I'm with you now!
I use ctrl+arrow key for moving one word at a time, and i can tell you that i feel your pain.

i think the rules of conduct for word-tokenizing are always specific to the way a textbox is used.

Hence, there's slightly different optimum rules in SQL Query Analyzer, versus the address bar in IE, versus a subject line in an email program, versus the text box shown when editing a file name in explorer.

But surely notepad is over zealous in this regard, and eats too many characters.

Fully agree.

'mahir' on Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:30:24 GMT, sez:

i need a help i want visual basic software

name


website (optional)


enter the word:
 

comment (HTML not allowed)

All viewpoints welcome. But the right to delete any post for any reason is reserved. Don't make me do it. Comments may be republished, emailed to your loved ones or printed and used as toilet paper. Who reads this legal bit anyhow?

TimeSnapper_{Know thyself!}

TimeSnapper is a life analysis system that stores and plays-back your computer use. It makes timesheet recording a breeze, helps you recover lost work and shows you how to sharpen your act.

TimeSnapper won last year's Developer Competition at Larkware.com, and is used by over 10,000 people.