User Interface Design

Designing Great User Interfaces

The third part of the User Experience presentation.

User Interface Design

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: user experience)

Click here to download the presentation

Feynman Problem-Solving Algorithm

I am a big fan of Richard P Feynman, an American physicist, scientist, teacher, raconteur, and musician.



Whenever I come across a complex problem , I follow the Feynman's Problem Solving Algorithm.

The Feynman Problem-Solving Algorithm:
(1) Write down the problem
(2) Think very hard
(3) Write down the answer

You know, what's the hard part ? Write down the problem.This looks very simple but try it out. You will find your thoughts scattered.

The moment you write down the problem clearly, your mind starts thinking over the problem. It takes few hours to few days(sometimes). You have to sleep on it. If the problem is tricky sometimes it takes few days. But if you think hard, sooner or later you will find a solution. the moment you get the light bulb moment, Write it down.

I think this is a Simple and effective approach for solving almost any kind of problems. And Mr. Feynman, a great inspiration for all times.

Web Usability

Tips on Designing great web pages

The second part of the User Experience presentation.

Web Usability

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: user experience)

Click here to download the presentation

User Experience - An Introduction

I gave a presentation on User Experience, lately . Here is the slideshow

Let me know what you guys think

Creating Vista Gadget: Published - 15th May 2008

Most of you know that I was working on a book for last one year "Creating Vista Gadgets using HTML, CSS and JavaScript - Sams Publishing" Well the result, the book got published recently and is available from today 15th May 2008 in all major book stores.


Creating Vista Gadgets
using HTML, CSS, & JavaScript

Front Cover   Back Cover   Author Photo



More about the book at http://www.innovatewithgadgets.com

Get the gadget book free 
--------------------------------------
If you are in United States and are interested in getting one of the complimentary copy from my publisher please send me your address and I will send you a free copy. this is limited to first 20 people who send me the address :) [UPDATE] All 20 copies are gone, buy it from the link given below.[/UPDATE] 

http://www.innovatewithgadgets.com/2008/04/get-gadget-book.html 

It's Time for Silverlight

So finally I gave the long awaited Silverlight Presentation

Its time for Silverlight , Lots of discussion, Everybody liked it, I thought they will be overwhelmed and I will get a chance to start working on some "cutting edge" and "compelling" Silverlight projects. Not that much impressed ! Check the Slide Show

 

Here is the gist

Slide 1: Microsoft Silverlight An Introduction Rajesh Lal

Slide 2: What is Silverlight? Technology Overview Architecture Silverlight & Flash Silverlight Media Business Model Creating a Silverlight application

Slide 3: What is Silverlight? Definition Why it’s time for Silverlight Silverlight Background Difference between 1.0 and 1.1

Slide 4: Definition Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications(RIA) for the Web

Check the Slide show

View | Upload your own

E. B. White - quotes

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world
and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the
day."

Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the
frog dies of it.

Be obscure clearly.

It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good
writer.

One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.

Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get
the facts.

When I was a child people simply looked about them and were moderately
happy; today they peer beyond the seven seas, bury themselves waist deep in
tidings, and by and large what they see and hear makes them unutterably sad.

Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.

Writing is hard work and bad for the health.

JumpyForum: Inspired by Code Project Forum / Discussion / Message board

A very simple forum with the functionality similar to code project discussion
board where user can view multiple messages in a tree view, done in C Sharp,
ASP.NET, SQL Server and JavaScript.

This article describes a discussion board inspired by and similar to Code
Project Forums. I am sure, you all will agree the discussion board at Code
Project is one of the best out there. I tried searching for similar projects in
CP and everywhere but all the examples given were in classic asp / php and were
highly complicated. My effort is to leverage ASP.NET, javascript and SQL Server
to create a very simple and easy to understand forum with the same
functionality.

Before you get carried away, i just want to give a heads up on the strength
of JumpyForum, this is a very simple (beginners level you can say) version and
you might have to consider a lot more to actually have a forum with the CP like
quality, scalability and durability. JumpyForum will only give you a start which
is easy and workable after that the horizon is yours to explore.

Link

Globalization of Windows Application in 20 Minutes using C#

Describes the essential features required to enable multiple languages in a
windows application using resource files

There was once a time when multiple language support to a windows application
used to be a three to six months call, but with the advent of .Net not anymore.
Here is a 20 minutes crash course for globalization / Localization of a windows
application. I think you'll find it as useful as I do.

Globalization in simple terms means enabling an application so that it works
in different national, similar to how a global company operates in different
countries. For a windows application globalization means, it is intended for
worldwide distribution. There are two aspects of the Globalization:

Internationalization : Enabling the application to be used without language
or culture barriers, i.e. language and cuture information comes from a resource
rather than hard coded in the application Localization : Translating and
enabling the product for a specific locale. Based on the resource file
translating the application into that language and culture

Technology Quotes

Technology is dominated by two types of people: Those who understand what
they do not manage. Those who manage what they do not understand. Putt's Law

For a long time it puzzled me how something so expensive, so leading
edge, could be so useless, and then it occurred to me that a computer is a
stupid machine with the ability to do incredibly smart things, while computer
programmers are smart people with the ability to do incredibly stupid things.
They are, in short, a perfect match.

Bill Bryson

Lovers of problem solving, they are apt to play chess at lunch or doodle in
algebra over cocktails, speak an esoteric language that some suspect is just
their way of mystifying outsiders. Deeply concerned about logic and sensitive to
its breakdown in everyday life, they often annoy friends by asking them to
rephrase their questions more logically.

Time Magazine in 1965

A hacker on a roll may be able to produce, in a period of a few months,
something that a small development group (say, 7-8 people) would have a hard
time getting together over a year. IBM used to report that certain programmers
might be as much as 100 times as productive as other workers, or more.

Peter Seebach

A Windows Explorer in a User Control

Functionality of Windows Explorer in a user control using C#

Idea: Functionality of windows explorer wrapped up as a control. User can
browse through all the folders in the computer including network folders and
select the path.

The Long story, while working on a photo editing software i frequently needed
to test different images from different folders. i have to call an open dialog
then browse for the folder and then select the file. 4 clicks well not too much
but if you have to test 10 images in the same folder same process have to be
repeated for all of them, more if you have 10 images in different folders well
10 X 4 clicks, i call it Multiple Mouse Clicks For Single Operation (MMCFSO).
Explains why the whole software world relates reducing MMCFSO with the ease of
use.

MMCFSO is not just needed for a imaging application. Where ever you have to
select multiple files from multiple destinations you need this. So i think an
effort to create a windows explorer user control is worth it.

Link

Ajax Rating System

Rating Demystified: Ajax Way, Amazon
Way*
Ever wondered, how the amazon rating system works with
multiple items in the same page, here is a simple article to describe the basic
bare bones needed to create an asynchronous rating module using ASP.NET , SQL
Server and ..... AJAX

This article describes an ASP.NET web module along with some chunks of
Javascripts and ...Ajax to create a Rating System. This can be added
/customized for any table to add a rating/score module. I was
quite amazed, when i first saw the capability of rating multiple
items at amazon website without refreshing the page. That nice piece of
functionality followed me like destiny, till i needed to implement it in a
web application.

Well ! putting it in a live scenario needs much more than just
javascript. I started with a bit of frenzied hacking. To understand how
exactly it works, by scanning the javascript from online asynchronous
rating websites. That was just the beginning, on the way i learned much
more than earlier imagined. Here is the result of the
effort.

Link

Universal Database Administrator for ASP.NET and SQL Server

A dynamic web application needs an admin section for CRUD actions on the
records/tables in the database. Wouldn't it be nice to have a database admin,
which can be plugged to any web application? Just give your SQL connection
string and it dynamically manages all table operations in just five pages.

Here is an article describes an ASP.NET web module which can be added
/customized in any SQL driven web application as a database administration
module. When I first started with an admin section for a web application, I
thought why not try to make something more general, a plug-n-play admin section
which can be used for any SQL driven dynamic web application, and here is the
result of the effort.

Link

The Experience Granth

---- The enriching experience GRANTH 1.0 ---

Experiences with Granth Project as a step in learning Object Oriented
approach to Software Engineering.

Instructor: Ayman Abdel - Hamid

Dept. of Computer Science

Lamar University,

Team: Anjali Singh, Rajesh Lal, Bhaskar Reddy, Nivedita Despande, Srinivas
Vandraj.

Introduction

The Project Granth 1.0 is all about building of an online library system. The
project was not just an assignment project for us. It was more of an excitement,
a challenge, a unique opportunity to implement the object oriented paradigm in a
live project. During the different phases of the project we learnt and grew with
the project. We would have to give the name of Anjali here, without her complete
dedication and hard work and quick learning ability this project could not have
been how it is today. And most of all we would like to thanks Mr. Ayman Abdel
Hamid who started us thinking in object oriented and changed the complete notion
of our programming approach. And now because of that we know how important it is
and how object oriented concepts helps a team at the later stage of software
life cycle where most of the work is required.

Granth has helped us to become software engineers rather than programmers in
the real sense.

(A typical early stage of granth - hold on
anjali J )

The
Experience

The
first day when we heard about the project Library Management system we formed a
group and the notable thing was we were just acquaintances. We hardly knew each
other. But we all had one thing in common the eagerness to implement what we
have learned in the class, and to make a world class library management system.

srinivas
and we all looking high

The
first meeting

The
first day of our meeting was just our formal introduction and the vision we all
shared for the library management system. Our dream what we want to do what we
want to achieve the goal was set informally. And that day Nivedita (the
most creative person in our team) gave the name GRANTH to our project
(which means a sacred book). And that’s how granth was born. And out of
enthusiasm I devoted a day to create a logo which everybody simply
loved.

Analysis Phase:

We
met and decided to do the project with all our dedication. We started with the
analysis phase given to us where we made some use case diagrams, state diagrams,
and scenarios. Let me tell you that Anjali and Nivedita took the
lead of designing the Scenarios Srinivas , bhaskar and me took the other
responsibilities like class diagram, state diagrams etc. at that time the
documentation we came up with is entirely different what we have now. We learned
in each and every phase. We tend to improve in each and every phase. We made a
strategy a full proof plan by dividing the work

Division of work between
the groups:

Scenarios:
Anjali and Nivedita

Use
case diagrams:
Anjali and Bhaskar

Class
Diagrams:
Nivedita and Rajesh

State
Diagram:
Nivedita and Srinivas

Logo
and Database design:
Rajesh

Test
Cases/Inspection:
Srinivas and Bhaskar

Follow
up:
Entire Team of granth

every
thing went like a clock work , After so many hours of days and night . during
the phase. we completed the phase .

Nivedita thinking hard on Objects Granth
J

Design Phase:

Okay,
let me continue then we were given the design phase where we made the sequence
diagrams, detail design, detailed class diagram etc. By this time we were
knowing each other and now we were buddies. and during this time we all were
spending a lot of time on trying to get the idea of our the object oriented
concept is applied to the real world application. It took a real tough time to
start thinking in Object oriented.

Because
most of us has experience in procedural programming. and that was real hard time
when at every stage we used to get confused why objects and what is the
implementation, And a lot of things we were doing in the design phase we
didn’t had the slightest idea about its implementation and how we will be able
to do it.

During
this phase we knew Bhaskar better, Who speaks the least among us but
whose Quality of work was so consistent that you can rely on him
completely.

Rajesh,
we got everything for the design?

Distribution

Sequence diagrams:
Anjali, Bhaskar

Detail Class Diagram:
Rajesh

Detail design: Nivedita,
Anjali

Client object: Nivedita,
Rajesh

Written report of
inspection teams: bhaskar, srinivas.

Follow up : Entire
team

Black box test
cases:

Then
came up the test cases where we came up with the black box test cases and
functional analysis. Black box test case was all about bhaskar, he was
the leader for this phase we all were following him. Srinivas was
took the active responsibility in this stage.

This was the foundation
of the coming applications we tried to identify each and every equivalence
classes and each test cases and all the possible range for all the inputs and
outputs and A regression analysis testing was done by bhaskar. the consistency
of Bhaskar’s quality work was remarkable

Entire team of granth.
But final done by bhaskar and srinivas.

Bhaskar
you are coming too hard on Granth

(Testing ………….)

We also made a blue
print of how we are going to implement all the test cases in a modular
way.

Implementation and
Integration phase:

This was the most
crucial stage of the Granth when we all first decided the language the platform
and the database. After a lot of discussion and looking into all the pros and
cons we came to conclusion to try the new technology ASP.NET and C# with
Microsoft SQL server as database. since it was supposed to be a rapid
development tool. When srinivas also tested the Mono Compiler for C #
cross platform compatibility. we were sure that we are going in the right
track.

The best performer here
was Anjali, knowing a little bit of .net myself I was suppose to learn as
well as guide everybody what to learn and how to implement things. But the
constraint of time as well as quality needed more people to dive into .Net
technologies and there came the anjali into picture. Her total dedication
and quick learning ability had surpassed all of us. in just few days she was
able to not just know all the technical details but was smoothly started making
classes and became quite comfortable with the whole environment.

.Net was just a hand away but it was not easy

That was a real boost up
for the team now we had two people knowing .net. Then we all again decided
together how exactly the classes will be implemented based on our previous phase
documents. this particular step took a bit of time when we made a transition
from the studies we have done until now and implementing into a programming
language in an object oriented way. after this work was distributed into slots.
Nivedita, Bhaskar and srinivas took responsibilities of
different classes. I was mostly working on things which needed some research and
which took more time and anjali was handling all the coding for whole of the
project.

During this time
the most remarkable thing was our friendship from mere classmates we have became
best friends , we were spending 12 hrs atleast every day on Granth all of us
together.

Who said we never
fought?

There were time when we
had friction among each other like I used to give more stress on User Interface
and Anjali wanted me to put time on functionality we used to fight like
kids. When some of the Nivedita’s brain swinging ideas resulted in, we
all busy arguing for hrs.

We agreed to disagree
J

there were even times
when we used to fight with each other over Linux and Windows the famous
Microsoft and Anti-microsoft platform wars. Where our Linux guru and geek
Srinivas was in the Anti Microsoft side and me leading the Microsoft
team. Our conversation were very educating for both and we respected each others
opinion.

Final
Documentation:

Hurry
up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No time now for any
documentation or preparation for presentation. Last few days we have to divide
the work no time for any strategies. Nivedita back tracking and
re-correcting the use cases and Scenarios, Srinivas working on the user
manual and the administrator manual, anjali busy implementing validation
controls in each user interface and testing each of them. Bhaskar Testing
finally and working closely with anjali preparing for the power point
presentation adding each and every quality points. myself creating the setup for
the project taking the backup of the database, creating Installation manual and
Read me file.. Hurry up every body we were working from 1^st evening
and this scene was at 2^nd morning 6:00 o clock . 3 hrs to go for the
presentation. documents still not ready.

Anjali what
about the validations – done, srinivas user manual is looking very professional,
Nivedita each and every particulars taken care. bhaskar ready with the
PowerPoint as well as final test cases me ready with the setup installation file
and DB in a Disk. whats the time now, oops its already 9:25 Run
!!!!!!!!!

we are in the class 5
minutes late at the last moment decided srinivas can go ahead and give the ppt
presentation and me the demo of the application. we all were into granth for so
many days that we all knew each and every details of the project so it doesn’t
matter who gave the demo. We were happy.

Granth will be able to come
up to mark ?

Now that’s what we call
a Life time experience J

Thank you

The Granth
Team.

Group 2