billso.com

This New York Times article describes a software project called Viewfinder. The goal is to help Internet users post pictures of buildings and landmarks directly into an application like Google Maps, or into a web mashup application. I discussed mashups in two billso.com articles in 2007:

• 12 February 2008: More web mashups
• 8 February 2008: Web mashups

The usability issues in mashup design can be tricky, as programmers are taking data and applications that might be related but aren’t directly compatible. An app like Viewfinder has to deal with location data, the map images, the user’s image, and a variety of visual issues including perspective and orientation.

See the official web site at the University of Southern California for more details. Here’s a video demo from the site.

I rarely see the New York Times mention a Firefox extension, but it happened Sunday. John Markoff wrote an article about PicLens, a browser plugin developed by CoolIris. Browser extensions are small programs, written by third-party developers, that add or extend features in the web browser. Developers use an application programming interface (API) that includes hooks or connections to various browser features. Firefox has the broadest range of extensions available, but Safari and Internet Explorer each support their own families of extensions.

PicLens lets a web site take over the entire computer screen, displaying a seamless interactive slideshow of images from a specific web site. The user interface is minimal, and tucked away on the edges of the screen. Users move around the screen with the direction keys, or by grabbing and throwing the display with the mouse. Click or highlight a photo, and it zooms to full screen.

The experience resembles the CoverFlow interface on the iPod Touch, iPhone and the new Mac operating system, Leopard. The web version is as fast as any disk-based image viewing program I’ve used, and its a fine demonstration of how user interfaces are already changing.

“I’ve wondered for a long time why the computer interface hasn’t changed from 20 years ago,” said Austin Shoemaker, a former Apple Computer software engineer and now chief technology officer of Cooliris. “People should think of a computer interface less as a tool and more as a extension of themselves or as extension of their mind.”

Extension software is an important part of these changes. Users can customize their computer by adding highly specific features. The original browser software is still available, but the user experience becomes more personal and possibly more productive.

The PicLens browser plugin works with a small set of web sites: Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, Yahoo, Friendster, and a few others. Web publishers have to add code to their site that lets PicLens download a gallery of images. Blog and site publishers can add a server-side package to enable PicLens support on their web sites. WeSeePeople has an excellent discussion of how users might benefit from the extension.

PicLens has a demonstration site that uses WordPress, the same software that powers my blog. I am experimenting with PicLens as a PowerPoint slide viewer, but I haven’t posted any demos to my blog yet. PicLens doesn’t support audio or text notes, which are two helpful PowerPoint features.

Tomorrow, I’ll post a broader discussion of widgets, the general family of software that includes extensions.

Download and install PicLens for free for the following browsers:

• Internet Explorer
• Safari
• Firefox (also see the Firefox extension library)

From the New York Times, G. Paschal Zachary presents a brief discussion of the risks of innovation. if consumers are motivated, they may accept tecnological changes more readily. Professor Zachary uses the Toyota Prius and its unusual user interface as an example.

BoingBoing had another post on a similar theme. Joel Johnson is glad his father replaced his old Windows computer with a Mac. Johnson describes how he uses the Mac’s features to help his father by remote control.

I was rereading a student paper from last fall and came across a citation for this excellent comparison of the BlackBerry 8800 and the first generation iPhone. The reviewer compares the two devices from an enterprise user’s perspective. The BlackBerry carried the day with better syncing, real-time push email and WiFi connectivity, but the reviewer admits that the iPhone is a nicer looking product.

Rumors persist of a touchscreen BlackBerry model, possibly called the 9000 or the 9100. The keyboard is on the screen, similar to the iPhone. Executives would leap on these models, just for the “shiny new toy” factor alone. Mobile carriers would have a fresh weapon against iPhone carriers. An on-screen keyboard would certainly solve some interface problems for international BlackBerry users. Looks like the virtual keyboard is becoming a new key success factor for mobile devices.

I have several articles about the BlackBerry available. Just type “blackberry” in the search box or use this link.

The New York Times ran an interesting critique of the mobile Web yesterday. Michael Fitzgerald identifies some of the major obstacles to mass-market adoption of mobile websites, including the following items.

1. Inconsistent user interfaces on mobile devices – new users have difficulty finding the address bar and bookmark features. Fitzgerald fails to mention that, on some mobile devices, the font sizes are too small for most older users to read. Managers, who make media placement and Web development decisions, tend to fit an older demographic than their customers.
2. Poor formatting on small screens – RIM, Google, Bloglines and other service providers include reformatting and filtering technology in their mobile portals, but many web sites do not resolve well on a small screen.
3. Lack of support for Flash – as more Web sites adopt Adobe’s Flash technology for animation and other features, Web developers often fail to provide a low bandwidth or text only version that will work well or at all on a mobile device.
4. Slavish duplication of the desktop web model – this can also be seen in Microsoft Windows Mobile, which includes a Start button as a key part of the user interface.

For the most part, I agree with him – but I still use the mobile Web every day to check Gmail and read other web sites. The mobile Web isn’t a smooth experience yet, but it’s better than toting around a full computer, as my previous post about the US Census suggests.