A blog about User Interface, User Experience, Design, Flash, Product management and all that goes in between.

Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror extracts from Jacob Nielsen’s latest book Prioritizing Web Usability, it is interesting how flash is still listed as a problem, a “two skulls” problem! this comes out in 2007?I respect Jacob Nielsen very much, though he is a problematic card to use with clients, as it tend to explode in your face.. I rather consider his guidelines as yet another professional reference, a way to evaluate aspects of my work, a severe and rigid one.So many Web UI standards are tied to circumstances that are no longer relevant, not only flash, take the default blue link color for example: today, that most of the rational web sphere has digested the need to differentiate the links from normal text, using colors, sometimes also underline, comes the question – does it have to be blue? are we still in a reality that most users are not familiar with hyper text and its behavior? I think not.As a designer I learned that no pioneering comes from just following rules, you should always have a doubt, never loose the curiosity and exploration. I think that In terms of UI, each time has its own trends, innovations and other factors that change the usage habits and acceptance. Therefore each project should have its own definition of the UI standards that match the usage cases for the target audience in this time.

I was working the other night, and then I simply left my macbook pro on without hooking the AC cord on, same as I do every night. Since it was a holiday the day after, the computer had another day and night to rest.. it went to sleep, and apparently drained the battery completely.Now the battery indicator went to “X” and it wont recognize the battery. The AC connector has a constant green light, and unhooking it causes immediate power down, loosing any unsaved data.
A short googling brought that this is a common – common phenomenon, and it happens under perfectly normal use, the macbooks (and pros) simply let the battery discharge to a point of no return, killing the battery.so my battery is dead.I am still under first year warranty so I guess I can replace it, but this is very disturbing because it can happen again. as a professional one of the reasons I use a mac is the reliability, no crashes, no hardware issues, no surprises. I payed good $ for my mac and I have very low tolerance for such problems. The minimum Apple could do is publish a warning or instruction to avoid this phenomenon.One bad point added.