Glitches with MS Visio

Hi,

Lately I found all dese while working with MS Visio :-
1. Every page needs to be aligned indivdually for the same view. If you have changed the view of a page to center with 75% zoom, it will not be consistent across the rest of the pages. This hurts my eyes and expectations.

2.When you copy paste common elements across a couple of pages it does not maintain its relative position across pages leading to unnecessary rework. I cannot keep on making backgrounds for everything till I get confused which background is for what.

3. The guides need - bring to front functionality. Y?? Arn't guides supposed to be on the front by nature?!

4. Evertime I click on a textbox to edit the text...the entire thing is erazed to enter fresh text. Then I have to press Ctrl+Z to bring it back...One extra unnecessary step.

5. There is no facility to duplicate a page which is required in case you are just keeping the primary page the same and making changes in the seconday windows only.

6. There are no group align buttons. If i select a couple of elements on the screen, i cannot simply press a button and align them left or right. Instead I have to specify the position of the elements according to the ruler in a text box and see the cahnges happening. y?!!

7. When i press F5 to view my screens without the toolbars and paraphanelia, i does fit to screen and does not show the actual size which is not right. Therefore, if I have made 800x600 wireframe on a 1024x768 resolution it streches the screen to full size.

8. Also, if I am frequently changing my mode of interaction from pointer tool to text tool, then why shouldn't there be short cut for the same.

9. Also, it should by default try and put all screens at the center of the screen where it is ergonically right.

10. If I select an item and change the view to 200% it zooms not on the selected item but at the center of the screen. Why doesn't it do that when it is supposed to:(

Anybody got any answers?

New Handloom Site
http://www.etsy.com/index.php

Colors in Motion
www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/colors/Colors.html

UI patterns

http://time-tripper.com/uipatterns/ by Jenifer Tidwell

Card Sorting

Card Sorting is a technique for exploring how people group items, so that you can develop structures that maximize the probability of users being able to find items.



It enables

• easy and cheap to conduct
  
• Enables you to understand how 'real people' are likely to group items
  
• Identifies items that are likely to be difficult to categorize and find
  
• Identifies terminology that is likely to be misunderstoo
  

Card Sorting can be conducted in a variety of circumstances using various means - one-on-one, during workshops, by mail, or electronically. The following is the basic process.

You can use cluster analysis to get a pictorial representation of the resultant groupings. An easy way to do this is using IBM's EZSort program

People vary widely in the amount of time they take to sort cards. As a rule of thumb, allow half-an-hour for a participant to sort 50 items.

At times,it may vary considerably for different user groups. Does not take into consideration the user tasks. Participants may just sort it according to surface characteristics.

For existing site - closed card sorting
For new sites - Open card sorting

Preferred for small sites with simple and homogenous content


http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/card_sorting_a_definitive_guide.php

Cognitive Walkthrough..hmmn

It is a 'review technique' where 'expert evaluators' construct 'task scenarios' from a specification or early prototype and then role play the part of the user working with that interface. ( esp. for pointing out learnability issues )

Goals -> tasks -> actions (cognitive + physical)

Orig: Code walkthrough by developers.
Established process by Wharton et. al (1994). Hence abbreviated occassionally as WCW.

Every step evaluated using
1. Will the users achieve the right effect?
2. Will the user notice that the correct action is available?
3. Will the user associate the correct action with the effect the user is trying to achieve?
4. If the correct action is performed, will the user see that the progress is being made towards solution of the task?

Outcome: Learnability issues, gap in design, design ideas, faulty task flows.

Constraints: Lengthy design discussions, Design Defensiveness and Time Pressure

See Also:
Rick Spencer, "The streamlined cognitive walkthrough method"

IDE(Integrated Development Environment)

Allows programmers to edit code,design user interfaces, compile code, debug code, and perform most other programming tasks within a single computer program. Therefore, it tends to be extermely feature rich.

For eg:
Eclipse provides extensible tools and frameworks that span the software development lifecycle, including support for modeling, language development environments for Java, C/C++ and others, testing and performance, business intelligence, rich client applications and embedded development. Built in Java.

JCreator is a powerful IDE for Java. JCreator provides the user with a wide range of functionality such as : Project management, project templates, code-completion, debugger interface, editor with syntax highlighting, wizards and a fully customizable user interface. Built in C++.

How to be a millionaire...!

Hi, I had recently attended a conference in my company and here is what i got to know.

If you have a vision then convert them into goals which you could further break down into targets. Get it!

Vision -> Goals -> Target

So use this to become watever you want to become..;)