Month: February 2009

UI design for a better user experience. I found a goodie…

I’m currently doing UI analysis on several apps. Hopefully some of them will be migrated.
Being a core developer I must confess I get a little bored if I don’t see code or try a new framework, or implement a pattern; but I guess this is a good opportunity to put myself in the end user’s shoes and easy their lives, if I can…
Coming from a Windows environment, my first apps were always MDIs. Now most development efforts are moving away from MDIs as they are considered very complex and overwhelming, requiring a high learning curve. See most disadvantages here.

I found a free goodie and wanted to share it: Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design

I hope you find it as interesting as I did.

There is also this very good website that documents most of the GUI design patterns, with emphasis on Web: Patterns in Interaction Design

Enjoy!

And wish me luck so I can go back to try new development frameworks soon and they bring the usability expert and designer on board :-p

Have fun while learning, are you certifiable?

I got this ad from a marketing person. I wasn’t going to post it as I’m not very fond of sales and marketing people.
I tried the game and found it cute, it’s similar to the contest that MSDN Canada launched a few years ago, the Last Developer Standing. I was eliminated quite fast on that one :-p

If you like games, you might enjoy this one.

Check out the game at www.areyoucertifiable.com. Enjoy!

Second shot certification exam and discount on e-Learning…

I just got this from a Microsoft marketing representative. I know I’ll make use of the second shot quite soon, hope it helps you too:

Register for Second Shot today and get an up to 90% price discount on one Microsoft Official E-Learning Collection
Second Shot provides a free retake if you fail your Microsoft Developer Certification exam. And from now, until June 30, 2009, if you register for Second Shot, you get any Developer E-Learning Collection for just USD $35 (usually priced up to USD $349). That’s up to 90% off.

But hurry! Once you have activated a discounted E-learning collection it will only be available for 90 days.

Sign up for the Second Shot offer today