Why is this man smiling?
I'm sorry, but the fix is in at Rolling Stone. A USA today report on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums (It's certainly a thrill: 'Sgt. Pepper' is best album) is at pains to tell us how this list was arrived at -- special group, large sample, people from all over the music industry, Ernst & Young point system, etc. But it is all balderdash. Anybody who has spent any time watching publsher Jann Wenner over the years knows that the following list is derived from Jann and Jann alone. After all, that's one of the things you can do when you're a publisher. Here we call a cigar a cigar and this is:
Jann Wenner's Best Album List
1. The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds
3. The Beatles, Revolver
4. Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited
5. The Beatles, Rubber Soul
6. Marvin Gaye, What's Going On
7. The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street
8. The Clash, London Calling
9. Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde
10. The Beatles, The Beatles (The White Album)
Cynical types might also observe that this list is top-loaded with the unrequited loves of Jann, but we're not that cynical.
Posted by Vanderleun at November 17, 2003 8:36 AM
You Must Promise. To call your mother, to help old ladies cross the road, and to turn your cell phone off at the movies.
Posted by: Ferdinand at January 12, 2004 5:29 PMIf an application is designed well, the reward for users is that they will learn it faster, accomplish their daily tasks more easily, and have fewer questions for the help desk. As a developer of a well-designed application, your returns on that investment are more upgrade revenue, reduced tech support, better reviews, less documentation, and higher customer satisfaction. The rewards of building a good-looking Aqua application are worth taking the extra time.
Posted by: Edi at January 12, 2004 5:29 PMOther examples of these animations might be to show the status of an FTP transfer, the progress of media being digitized, or an updated time signature. And don't forget that users may want to have some control over this, so give them plenty of options, including the ability to turn these functions off.
Posted by: Adlard at January 12, 2004 5:30 PMSo far in these articles, I have only dipped a toe or two into Aqua's pool. I have covered basic aspects of building an Aqua-compliant application, including the building of photo-illustrative/3D application icons. Now it's time to address other components of our Mac OS X application.
Posted by: Marian at January 12, 2004 5:30 PMFor my Paint application, I created a series of icons to simulate a rendering algorithm. While the application is performing this CPU-intensive task, you can always see the status of the document by the icon changing in the Dock.
Posted by: Walter at January 12, 2004 5:30 PMBut limit your animations to whatever is required to communicate the necessary information. Avoid annoying animations that discourage ease of use. Ask yourself, "What do I need to show the user, and what is the cleanest way possible to achieve that?" A good example is the Mail application for Mac OS X. Whenever a new message arrives, the Dock icon changes appearance to indicate a changed state.
Posted by: Paschall at January 12, 2004 5:31 PMOther examples of these animations might be to show the status of an FTP transfer, the progress of media being digitized, or an updated time signature. And don't forget that users may want to have some control over this, so give them plenty of options, including the ability to turn these functions off.
Posted by: Noe at January 12, 2004 5:31 PMIf an application is designed well, the reward for users is that they will learn it faster, accomplish their daily tasks more easily, and have fewer questions for the help desk. As a developer of a well-designed application, your returns on that investment are more upgrade revenue, reduced tech support, better reviews, less documentation, and higher customer satisfaction. The rewards of building a good-looking Aqua application are worth taking the extra time.
Posted by: Martha at January 12, 2004 5:32 PMThis is the first thing your users see, and probably the single most important visible part of your application. It is the first chance you have at making an impression and the best chance to help establish your brand.
Posted by: Augustine at January 12, 2004 5:32 PMAdhere to System Appearance. Does your application use all the sweetly colored buttons, delightfully shaded windows, and all the other "bells and whistles?"
Posted by: Benedict at January 12, 2004 5:33 PM
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