ui

Google tests: What a difference a few pixels make

In the old days, designers often had little more than gut checks and rules of thumb to determine the efficacy of creations such as advertisements or newspaper layouts. Later came expensive eye-tracking tests that showed how people scanned pages or computer screens. Now, though, Google, has the benefit of millions of users using its Web site to get things right.

The company, which in May began describing the split A/B tests it uses to see which of two alternative Google interfaces fares better, offered more details Tuesday. The theme: seemingly imperceptible differences are in fact perceptible.

"We test … Read more

Intel's Classmate PC adds some Sugar

The inventor of the Sugar user interface used in the One Laptop Per Child's XO says his company is developing a version for Intel's own low-cost laptop.

Walter Bender said in an interview Thursday with PC World that "a community volunteer is working with Intel on Sugar for the Classmate PC. Sugar Labs helped to expedite the relationship."

Bender is the inventor of the kid-friendly interface, which sits on top of a computer's operating system. His company, Sugar Labs, was spun off from OLPC in May. At the time of the announcement, Bender said Sugar … Read more

Interesting search experiments at Viewzi

We first covered Viewzi, the creative service that offers unique front-ends to search engines, back in April. Monday night, the service is ending its private beta and opening up to everyone. Try it at Viewzi.com. It's a fun site if you like looking at search in new ways.

It looks like there are a few new search visualizers on the site now, including a graphically intensive 3D "photo cloud" viewer (PicLens is better) and a useful "shopping view" that lets you compare prices on Amazon, WalMart, Target, and eBay.

Goosh: A retro Web app with cutting-edge interface

If ever something was neither fish nor fowl, it's Goosh, a Web-based command-line interface for Google.

On the one hand, Goosh creator Stefan Grothkopp shows off the power of Web 2.0 applications, with the browser becoming much more than a mere vessel for surfing from one hyperlink to another. People type into the browser window, and Goosh interprets their requests, runs them through Google's services, and displays the result.

With Goosh--short for Google shell--typing "web asparagus" retrieves a textual listing of the top four Google search results for the vegetable. Typing "translate en de … Read more

Featured Freeware: Tweak UI

There's no doubt that the freeware Tweak UI is a tool designed for people comfortable and confident with mucking about in the guts of their Windows XP installation. If that's not you, we strongly caution against using this program capriciously.

However, if you're the kind of person who likes to get your hands dirty with XP, read on. Tweak UI can alter most of the routine behaviors of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but it also can affect some of the more advanced ones, too. The basic interface belies the features, from customizing the Alt-Tab program … Read more

Viewzi launching visual search platform [invites]

I have written unkindly in the past about Redzee, a search engine with a too-cute-by half search results page. But I like the new visual search experiment Viewzi, which brings more variations to search interfaces.

Viewzi gives you different options to visualize search results. There is one that's very much like Redzee (and Apple Cover Flow). Its design is a little less frenetic, though, so it's easier to get a picture of your search results. In a way, Viewzi validates the Redzee concept by making visual search usable.

My favorite Viewzi view is the 4 Sources View, which … Read more

The Office 2007 ribbon redesign (on video)

I've already written positively about my experiences at Microsoft's MIX08 conference in March. It had a wholly different feel from any Microsoft event I've attended in years.

There were lots of interesting sessions but I wanted to draw your attention to one in particular: The Story of the Ribbon, given by Jensen Harris. The video is online (requires Silverlight). The reason I liked it so much is that Jensen gives a really great historical tour through the evolution of the Microsoft Word interface and explains why and how Microsoft decided that they needed to start with a (… Read more

Google Docs: Now with more Word 2003

Google today updated the menu structure of the word processor in Google Docs. Gone are the menus that change the toolbars underneath. Gone are the useful but unusual "revision" and "tag" items. What we have now is familiar to anyone who's used Microsoft Word 2003. In fact, the five menu items have the same names as items on the menu bar of Word 2003.

Google is saying that Microsoft got it right in 2003. Ironically, with the 2007 Office suite, Microsoft itself has moved on to a prettier, but not universally loved menu structure that … Read more

Hitachi giant multi-touch interface

At the Consumer Electronics Show, Hitachi is demo'ing a product called Starboard that is a multi-touch interface at a very large scale. You can use it to control a regular PC, and they've also got some custom apps for it. One of those is shown in the video.

What's interesting is that this is a projected interface, so it's untethered from the need to have a touch-sensitive LCD. This allows it to scale very large relatively inexpensively. They were also showing a wall-size version.

The projector in both cases was a very short throw Hitachi model … Read more

Four new car stereos from Sony

In all the brouhaha of Sony's announcements on Blu-ray burners and Internet-connected TV, it's easy to miss the real news from the technology giant at CES: the unveiling of four new single-DIN stereo head units. Following the trend to USB inputs we've seen elsewhere, three of Sony's new stereos come with USB 2.0 ports built into the faceplates. Although, unlike new stereos we have seen this week from Pioneer, the Sony players will only play back files from a thumbdrive or from a digital walkman (not from iPods, Zunes, or other digital music players, according … Read more