After decades of GUI development and inspiration from Google and other search engines, Mozilla suggests the command line is again part of the interface discussion.
On the Mozilla Labs blog, Alexander Faaborg, a user experience specialist at the Mozilla Corporation, has posted several mockups of possible interface improvements for the Firefox Web browser.
Faaborg stresses, “[W]e currently have no official plans to implement these features for Firefox 3,” even as he concedes that a prototype extension may eventually be released through Mozilla Labs.
After elaborating on the respective merits of command line and graphic user interfaces (GUI), Faaborg laments that interfaces combining the best aspects of these two approaches “have gone largely unexplored by interaction designers,” and he proposes several possible Firefox actions that could be implemented using just such an interface.
The fact that the command line is again part of the interface discussion, after decades of GUI development, owes a lot to Google and other search engines.
As Aza Raskin, president of interface and software design company Humanized, observed earlier this year on his company’s blog, “The move back to language started with Web search engines in general, with Google placing the capstone when its name became the house-hold verb for ‘typing to find what you want.’ In fact, Googling is almost always faster then wading through my bookmark menu (which says there is something wrong with using menus as a mechanism for accessing bookmarks).”
So it is that Faaborg has suggested a keyboard-based Web search interface mockup, to hasten online searches. And he provides examples of how switching between browser tabs and navigating through browser history links might work using an interface that relies both on text input and mouse interaction.
“Just because the command line predated the graphical user interface doesn’t mean interfaces based on windows, icons, menus and pointers are always superior to interfaces based around using the keyboard for input,” said Faaborg.
The command line: It’s the new black.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Design, Mozilla, Software | No Comments »
Time Warner Inc. plans to launch a test of its overhauled news portal on Tuesday, drawing influences from the uncluttered design of popular Internet blogs.
The online division of the world’s largest media company said it aimed to keep readers returning and to introduce a new generation of media consumers to the site by offering more interactive features such as polls and voting features and user-created news on one page.
AOL news can be found at http://news.aol.com/.
“I truly believe that when you go to most news sites, it’s a Web 1.0 world,” Lewis D’Vorkin, senior vice president of AOL News and Sports, said, referring to the first generation of Internet sites. “They have rearranged the furniture. We have built new furniture.”
AOL’s sports site will also relaunch later this week following a similar design model.
D’Vorkin’s work has included introducing a blog-like format about a year ago to celebrity gossip Web site TMZ.com, now one of the most closely read sites in Hollywood. TMZ is a joint venture of AOL and Warner Bros.
Like some, but not all, of its mainstream media rivals, AOL News faces a decline in visitors in the past month, according to comScore Media Metrix figures for May.
Even as top news site Yahoo News’ traffic rose 8 percent to 33.7 million unique visitors in May, AOL News traffic fell 12 percent to 19.1 million. The New York Times brand site also fell 9 percent to 8.3 million visitors in May.
AOL overhauled its business model last summer, when it decided to give away most of its services away for free to boost online advertising by focusing on its free portal.
The new design divides the page into three vertical columns, with the heart of the programming at the center column. There, AOL’s editors and producers update and select top news stories, videos and photos in one place.
Much like a blog, new stories push older ones lower as they are posted.
The right column is occupied by wire feeds from major news sources from the Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News and others. AOL News bloggers entries will also appear on the right column.
The left side of the page will feature user-submitted news and top stories voted on or commented on by viewers.
D’Vorkin said the ability to personalize the news page will come in the next two to three months, using technology the company acquired from Relegence, a financial news services company.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Design, Internet | No Comments »
Teleporter
The problem: Everyone wants to get where they’re going, faster, with less time in airplanes and security lines.
The solution: Make like Spock and beam yourself there.
Ten-year odds: Vanishingly small. Yes, scientists have managed to teleport information using the principles of quantum physics. These techniques could one day transform communications, but they won’t transport a human.
A Go-Anywhere Phone
The problem: Dropped calls. Lack of network coverage. Incompatible systems from country to country.
The solution: A phone that works everywhere.
Ten-year odds: Very high. If you have the bucks, you can already use satellite phones pretty much anywhere you can see the sky–but good luck in the London tube or downtown Manhattan. The closest thing currently in existence is probably Thuraya’s combination satellite/GMS mobile phone, which rolls over from one system to the other depending on your location. But so far, its service doesn’t extend to the Americas, East Asia or Australia.
Electronic Paper
The problem: Paper, paper, everywhere–but you can’t download the news (or search the Web) on it.
The solution: Electronic paper as light, readable and flexible as regular paper, but with the capabilities of a computer.
Ten-year odds: Fair. Companies including Xerox, E-Ink, Philips, and Apple are rumored to be working on it. Then again, companies have supposedly been “working on it” for more than decade now.
A Household Chores Robot
The problem: No one wants to clean house.
The solution: Robots.
Ten-year odds: High. There’s already the Roomba, iRobot’s automatic vacuum cleaner. So how hard can it be to invent one that also makes the bed, does the dishes and scrubs the toilet?
The Universal Gadget
The problem: Too many gadgets to juggle.
The solution: One that does it all.
Ten-year odds: Very high. Apple’s new iPhone, for one, promises to roll a music and video player, e-mailer, telephone, Web browser and camera into one.
Smart Head Implants
The problem: Our brains may be creative, but they lack the power and speed of computers.
The solution: Implant chips in your brain.
Ten-year odds: Very low. Scientists have implanted chips in rat brains, but we are very far from “jacking into the net” like the cyber-punks of science fiction.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Design, Ideas | 2 Comments »
