Posted by brandonthedeveloper at May 24th, 2008

I downloaded the NYT mac reader yesterday morning and I guess the most impressive thing about the experience was that it installed and ran on the first try. For me, the whole point of using a technology like the Flash Player or Silverlight is to engage the user and take advantage of the limitless ’space’ not normally available to most html based apps. If you are going to offer (basically) static content, there are easier roads to follow. If you are looking for an app to quickly scan the NY Times, this is not the app to use.

Some thoughts:
First, it’s not a true SL standalone app. The FAQ states, “Times Reader for the Mac is a native Cocoa application, which uses the Safari toolkit and Silverlight to render the pages.”. I’m not saying that’s bad but I don’t think that counts towards a true SL standalone on the mac.

It’s slow loading. Why would you try to load the whole paper at once? Seems like unnecessary bandwidth usage. It would be a lot faster to load in the section ‘home’ pages and then load articles as they are called by the user. Also, I expect to see the front page from the current date when I open the reader. Not the front page from the last day I looked at the reader.

I think its commendable that the Times devs go to such great lengths to preserve the layout of the paper in digital form. However, I think an option for a more *readerish* view would allow for faster scanning of sections/articles. The fact that you can only resize to specified sizes just reinforces my point about having a more *readerish* view.

Section dropdown menus are too narrow and wrap article titles making them harder to read. They also have no rollover effect to show the user their current choice. But, rolling over section dropdown items do fire rollover effects for the page articles underneath even though they are not the current target.

The navigation is different from the online NYT navigation. I don’t see the point in training users to go from a paper mindset to using the web and then changing the navigation on the desktop. Users have an expectation of how to use an app based on prior knowledge. Changing the navigation based on platform seems like a short road to frustration.

I do realize this is beta software and any or all of my usability comments could be in the process of being fixed right now. Nothing like a million users to find flaws you didn’t think were flaws. ;)

I’m not trying to bash SL here (I am curious as to what part of it is eating 140 megs just sitting there). Most of my issues are from a usability stand point. The Times reader for the mac is not what I would call a Silverlight showcase item but at the same time, it does reaffirm the big move in RIA development to the desktop.

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at November 23rd, 2007

[Update : this is not a Microsoft sponsored event. Tim Heuer's reply below explains that this is being put together by Microsoft Evangelists]

Wow. I gotta say. I got caught on the announcement of the Adobe On Air Bus Tour I mean Microsoft’s Code Trip. My mouth full of hot coffee went everywhere.

Everyone that went to the On Air Events knows that Adobe does not skimp on a good party. Great schwag, great talks, great food, great beer (and those ice cream cookies from S.F.) .. heck, everything was great. If Microsoft is going to copy that idea you would think they would be trying to ‘one up’ Adobe from the start and show that their event would kick On Air Bus Tour Event ass but there are subtle differences already that lead me to believe ‘The Code Trip’ is gonna blow.

I’ve been to Microsoft developer events and they were pretty lame. Schwag consisted of a giant plastic bag or a ‘man purse’ with a cheap VS.net shirt inside. Listen Microsoft, if Adobe can afford to hand out nice Hanes Beefy Tees, so can you. No one likes cheap schwag. The talks usually were centered around VB programmers in panic mode asking embarrassing questions. And bowls of M & Ms and soda do not make a catered event.

Second, The Code Trip site. Seriously. That’s the site to kick things off? Code Trip folks, if you are going to copy the tour, atleast try to copy the On Air Bus Tour site. BTW, the javascript popUps on the learn-more page throw errors in Firefox 2.0.0.9 on OS X 10.4 and IE7 on XP. I won’t mention how typical it is to see no form validation on submissions from the front page. Yeah, form validation is hard work these days. I know you all are in planning stages but the On Air Bus Tour site had way more stuff coming out of the gate.

Last, what’s with the RV? And (not to nitpick), that’s barely an RV. That looks like a big camper. I mean if you really wanted to copy the On Air Bus Tour bus, you would get a double decker bus. And what’s with sticking with only one section of the U.S.? [Again, not an MS event so it makes more since after talking to Tim Heuer that they stick to one section of the country]

Last thing. This bit of copy from the ‘learn more page’ (to me) really encapsulates that Microsoft wants these events to be like the On Air events – “One RV, bunch of geeks, lots o’ code. Hop on the bus!“. Oh man… what is it? An RV or a bus?

Anyone want to place bets on someone at Microsoft claiming they had the tour idea first? Or, saying “It’s not like Adobe invented the touring idea”. No they didn’t but once again, Microsoft did it after someone else. Coming in second has become a bad habit for Microsoft.

Maybe it’s not even a real Microsoft promo. Maybe it’s just a satirical commentary on Microsoft ‘pulling up the rear’ for the last few years.

Scratch that, if you ‘view-source’, that’s definitely an MS site.

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at September 6th, 2007

For the last few days I’ve attempted to install Silverlight 1.0 on a couple of OSs (2 x OS X, 1 x Windows XP).

Let me just get this out of the way, installing SL on the mac doesn’t work. It installs just fine, then you go back to the site you were trying to see and it asks AGAIN to install. Well.. so much for that. Windows on the other hand, was not much better. First SL tries to throw up some badge like Adobe Express Install but its not. You download, you install. No express anything. Next, same thing, I go back to the site I first attempted and nothing. No Express Install Wannabe badge, just black. This time I reinstall and then reboot Windows. That gets it to work so I start looking at SL RIAs (not that a clock is an RIA. Heck, Most of the stuff in the SL showcase is a GD video player. Way to use those imaginations!). Guess what? So not once did I think, “Wow. I can really see why folks might like SL. Here’s something you can’t do in Flash.”.

All in all, a waste of time. I really tried to keep an open mind with Sl these last few months but if you look at where Flash/Flex/AIR is at this point and where Silverlight is, why would you even bother?

[UPDATE]
I was going to post a link to the Microsoft Liquid Motion page but they’ve taken it down (after 10 years).

[UPDATE 2]
Thank you Google – Google cache Liquid Motion page

I’m betting Expression/Blend/Silverlight is going to be another Liquid Motion failure.

So yes I prolly sound like a real smart ass now but I owe that entirely to my total waste of time sponsored by Microsoft Silverlight – gg.

Posted by brandonthedeveloper at April 16th, 2007

Way back in the day, Microsoft tried selling Liquid Motion which was their animation program to compete with Flash. They still have a page up for it – http://www.microsoft.com/mind/1198/liquid/liquid.asp. I think they’d rather just forget it. :)

I’m hoping Silverfish Silverlight will do a little better.

*** if you want to watch the Silverlight video, you need the Silverlight plugin (and the site doesn’t alert you if you don’t have it). Also, I could only get the video to work in IE. No suprise there. Rebooted and it works in Firefox and Safari.
Good Luck Microsoft. :)