multimap's new interface

At last Multimap has joined the fray against Google Maps' wonderful interface.

Unsurprisingly it has most of the same features (map / satellite / hybrid views, draggable map area, arrows and slider to move around), just positioned differently and styled in a very web 2.0-ish gradient-and-shadow- way.

They don't have the scroll-too-zoom feature which I love on Google Maps, and their images seem lower quality (when you zoom in they seem more pixellated than Google Maps, before the redraw), but the payoff is that the map images load lightning fast and seem more responsive.

I have yet to try to integrate it with a website, but it would be interesting to compare, especially since Google have apparently recently made mashing up their maps easier.

What about poor old streetmap? get with the program....

SMS and email (well done Yahoo)

At last a major email provider has integrated SMS and email messages into the same interface. RSS came before, but really there is no reason that these two technologies shouldn't be seamlessly mixed; we already do both from mobiles and one is just a handier way of reaching people on the move, while the other allows larger messages.

I want to see the app try sending an email and then, if there is no reply within say 20 minutes, sending the same message as an SMS.

Also, what about us in the UK? Where are our messages? Bring on GrandCentral....

Goal Directed Design

A really interesting interview well worth reading for anyone involved in setting up development of a new interface or system. Kim Goodwin tells UIE.com about Goal Directed Design (you may already have heard of it, but this is a quick way into what it's all about).

Multi-touch pseudo-transparent devices

This article explains how a new research project by Microsoft and Mitsubishi has made a prototype touchscreen device where you can use all digits - by having touch-sensitivity on both sides, and displaying the areas your fingers are touching as though the device were transparent.

This is great! another step towards computers acting just like real life objects which can be manipulated all over and not just by pushing buttons or clicking links...

Artificial Artificial Intelligence

OK this isn't exactly about usability, and it's also been around a while, but I loved the title.

Apparently Amazon are implementing HITS which is a system allowing computers to give individual tasks to humans to perform, if humans are better at those tasks (like identifying objects in images, for example).

Thomas Purves has an interesting post on his blog about how usability has evolved to robot-robot interaction which is worth a read, although the inclusion of 'AAI' is a little irrelevant :)

Quick Usability test

If you're looking to do a quick usability test on a project but don't want to spend months and thousands doing it, you could do a lot worse than to follow this guide. Concise and well written, it covers all the main points of a full-blown audit but is easy enough for any organisation to implement.

Usability for the masses!

Designing for Word of Mouth, and using Progressive Disclosure

I saw two new technical terms on this blog I was reading by Joshua Porter - Designing for Word of Mouth, and Progressive Disclosure.

Both are really useful; Designing for Word of Mouth encapsulates the often-overlooked point that word of mouth often doesn't just happen; you need to enable and facilitate it for it to really be effective as a part of your marketing strategy. Designing for it means things like giving people the facility to add contacts from wherever they are currently stored - webmail or desktop applications (like Facebook does).

Progressive Disclosure is a useful concept well known in Interface Design but I hadn't come across the term before. It encapsulates the kind of functionality shown by wizards; where the user only sees the information relevant at the time - so they see that there different ways to upload their contacts only once they have decided to upload them in the first place.