Nigel Fernandes

 

Things every software developer should know.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

If you have not read Jono on Not the users fault, stop whatever you are doing ...and go read it.

Maybe you wont agree with it, maybe you'll smile at it, but in all cases I guarantee you'll be smarter for it.

He essentially condensed into a single crisp page all the core values of a product developer. I agree with him on all his points except one. I am more inclined to Aza Raskin's view on point number 6: User Interface (interaction?) design and marketing.

Labels: inspiration, usability, user interaction

 

Self-refine your product idea.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Evan Williams, former Googler, and the man behind Blogger and Twitter among other things had this to say after the recently concluded TechCrunch50:

"I find most of the implications of a product or company, if it's really interesting, aren't immediately obvious. You need to have some time to sit with it."

Think it over. As someone who tends to easily excited about an idea its something I would do well to remember. Besides, taking a few minutes to stop and reflect about a idea, usually helps the out-of-box thinking process. There's a risk you tun with this process though. Make sure you watch out for the Kathy Sierra defined : Death by Risk Aversion

Bouncing your ideas off other people is another simple technique with similar benefits. Anybody willing to listen will do. Sometimes they'll tell you that they don't have the necessary knowledge to be of much use.

My former colleague Anjali Gupta once told me, that it is not about the input you bring to a discussion, it is where the discussion ends up going. The mental process of revisiting your idea and talking it out with someone usually helps you see past a mind block you may have. It certainly can stimulate your next brainwave.

Labels: inspiration, product ideas, startups, thoughts

 

Is Miro the future of the browser?

The dominance of YouTube and growth of Hulu in the online video sphere has been amazing. Internet video whether user generated or syndicated is here to stay. The question that some including myself see as the next to be answered is:

"What is the future primary channel of consuming video content going to be"

That is the question Miro is trying to answer. The unique freely available RSS powered product aims to Turn your computer into an internet TV. Whether it will succeed is questionable. Currently its doing duty on my system monitoring several YouTube category feeds. I certainly think it has promise and rather noble intentions on the surface. A lot will depend on whether the open source community will pick it up and run with it.

At any rate the presence of an open source product like Miro exposes a wealth of opportunity for start-ups in the E-learning sphere. I'm picturing a corporate training center with thin clients running Miro...etc etc.

Everyone's gunning to be the video platform of choice. Mozilla however is the only player in the game yet to pick a side and that has me very intrigued.

Labels: internet video, Miro, web products

 

Hicks and Fitts for better software

Sunday, September 14, 2008

It does not fail to amaze me, just how many software developers have not heard of Hick's law and Fitt's Law. Yet these very same developers probably make several decisions a day on software product interfaces. Scary.

There are exceptions of course, but the point I'm trying to make is that we (and I certainly include myself here) as developers need to focus a great deal more energy understanding the science behind interface design. Usability as whole as well.

Traditionally Usability and user experience design as been the domain of the Information Architects and other such defined positions. Both those two terms encompass much more than just the interface of a software application.

I, however shall argue that the developers are the folks responsible for the actual implementation of the application interface. Given the amount of time and money spent on interface design iterations in software projects (especially Agile ones), even a shallow understanding of interface design principles is likely to yield savings.

In the world of web products, understanding interface design becomes even more critical for a developer. Often the only differentiation between a product that succeeds and one that fails, is the user experience.

Once you have understood those two basic laws, you will discover they apply to nearly every single application you have ever built. Next go understand Information Theory and Shannon and enlightenment will follow.

Labels: general design, thoughts, usability, user interaction, web products

 

The power of content pull: Ubiquity and Deckkr

Saturday, September 13, 2008

The majority of content on the world wide web is push based. Bloggers push content to their blogs, Google pushes information to Google maps, Ebay and Amazon push inventory information to their respective websites.

What this means, is that to consume all this information, users need to run from site to site, adapting to different interfaces each time. I liken this to shopping in the real world. Each site is like a department store and your search engine of choice is a combination of directory and taxi service.

I personally like the TV model of content delivery, where the content is brought to you, all of it, and you need only stay stationary and pick. It certainly has a better appeal. In some ways one could argue that the internet is essentially the same thing. Its the medium that bring the content to you. I'd agree but the task of selection is where the big difference lies.

There are several efforts afoot to make the user experience of consuming information on the web a whole lot better. Deckrr RollScreen (pictured along side) is trying to make browsing essentially a pull service. Information comes to you rather than the other way round. Ubiquity from Mozilla has similar plans.

Such approaches are not entirely new. Mashup's have being trying to this for a while now, but as Aza Raskin puts it:

"Mashups are largely site-centric rather than user-centric"

The interesting bit about tools like Deckrr and Ubiquity is that they are user behavior centric. Which one is the better product, is hard to say. I personally believe that Ubiquity is got the better prospects. The support of the Mozilla community, in addition to Mozilla's brand value, cannot be discounted.

Are there other such initiatives that could change the way we interact and consume content on the web? I would expect so.

Labels: mozilla, thoughts, user interaction, web products

 

Head south to start your company

Thursday, September 11, 2008

According to a recent survey by CNN the best places in the world to start a company are Singapore followed by New Zealand.

If you are Indian, its relatively easier, not to mention cheaper to actually attempt to start a business in either of those two countries as compared to the USA.

The big drawback, is that for most online business, the biggest market is in the USA, followed by the EU. Given my preference on proximity to a target audience, its a no-brainer that I'm not packing bags and heading out tomorrow. Besides, neither will be as cheap as India, or provide the support network that family and friends and start-up community here provide.


But I'm not ruling either of them out yet. I will keep in mind, especially for New Zealand, that the standard of living there is better, its a nicer place to raise a family, and competition is lot a less fierce. The local market may not be teaming with opportunity, but with Internet giving us access to global markets, that is set for a change.

I think the we are only beginning to see the effects of a globally connected world. I like to believe that sometime in the next few years I would be able to launch a startup on the internet targeted at North America and Europe, funded by India, and all from within the pleasant surrounding of sub-urban Auckland.

Labels: new zealand, singapore, startups india, thoughts

 

Its a product not a website

I'm guilty of what I think is a product marketing sin. I sometimes refer to my product as a dot com. Don't know what I'm talking about? Lets say I have a web based product called "Hoozit". I just know that when talking/pitching this, I will have referred to the product as hoozit.com.

At such moments I must remind myself of the key reasons why I do not want to be doing this:

A product is about so much more than just the website. It needs to be. Its about an empowering user experience, after sales support, reliability, innovation, brand value and message, and the many other little thing that go into a successful product.

In this "attention as a currency", world it is highly likely that your product will evolve several public faces. Social networks, SMS channels, the IPhone application platform, desktop widgets are all combining to give your product more public facets, all in a bid to garner more users. Stop talking about just the website.

Regional markets are huge. Think global reach, and the ability to tailor your product for regions far beyond your own. I need to make sure that as I speak, I'm thinking beyond my borders, thinking about a hoozit.co.uk, hoozit.cn and a hoozit.nz. More importantly I need to convey that I'm thinking this way to potential customers, investors and advisers.

Its harder to build brand recognition. It is quite possible to let such verbal slips find their way into your marketing and advertising branding. That printed poster once distributed is really hard to get back.

Finally I need to remind myself that the web is not the only place for my ideas. Maybe this is less a product sin, more a entrepreneurial one.

Labels: mistakes, Product marketing, thoughts

 

Now is time to hike fuel costs in India.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

It is rare that the newspapers here do not carry a story related to the Indian economic juggernaut and the effect of international oil prices. The news is always gloomy and filled with ominous warnings about our reliance on imported crude oil.

Today I ran across this article that for the first time gave me reason to believe there is a workable solution. The article quotes the Danish Prime minister, head of one of the most energy efficient countries in the world:

“The cure is not to reduce the price, but, on the contrary, to raise it even higher to break our addiction to oil. We are going to introduce a new tax reform in the direction of even higher taxation on energy and the revenue generated on that will be used to cut taxes on personal income — so we will improve incentives to work and improve incentives to save energy and develop renewable energy.”

Its sounds crazy perhaps, but then so do most radical ideas. A good deal of radical ideas fail, but the ones that succeed have the potential for greatness, the potential to change lives, the course of history and the world around us. We see this happen over and over again in the startup world. It would be foolish to believe that such things happen only in the journey from startup to company.

There's plenty to fault our respective governments for. While we criticize politicos for their failure to execute, we should also recognize that they do occasionally get it right. I can not help but wonder if the someone can do to the petroleum ministry what Sam Pitroda did to telecom. Maybe I'm just dreaming.

Labels: india, thoughts

 

Eric Schmidt vibes on products and product teams

Monday, September 8, 2008

In an interview back in January this year, Marissa Mayer, Vice President at Google for User experience, had this to say about Eric Schmidt's evaluation of products:

On being asked what he looked for in when pitched a product idea, he said:

"Sometimes, it really comes down to the vibe in the room. I'll just sit there and when a really good team comes in, I just get this visual image in my head of someone trying to take the mountain. I literally will see the presenters there, and I feel like they're just so fired up that in my head I unconsciously get this image of that team really charging the mountain and no one is going to be able to knock them back."

Do you give that impression every time you talk or pitch your idea? Its hard to maintain high energy levels and a positive approach when people around you are picking apart your idea. The only way to cope with the negativity is to really believe in your idea. Refuse to accept no for an answer. The rest should follow from there.

Labels: google, inspiration, startups

 

Confused product identity leads to Bad marketing ?

I came across this advertisement from IBM for Lotus Notes 8 recently:

I cannot help but think that the marketing team was inspired by the confused identity of Lotus Notes. Notes 8 attempts to be so many things at once, it ends up being a strange and somewhat comical failure at all of them.

While the advertisement is capable of producing a laugh, my last six months of working with Lotus Notes certainly brings no smiles to my face.

What were they thinking...

Labels: advertisements, IBM, Product marketing