UI = you (utility) intelligence
As a social media user who’s experienced UI in all manner of shapes, forms and functionality over the years my observation would be that there’s yet to be developed the utopian UI for smart collaboration or even regular sharing. On blank white pieces of paper, we can all draw reasonable diagrams about how the utopian UI should look like and what it should do but, code-side, several challenges rear their heads.
These are:
(1.) scaleability;
(2.) server load capacity;
(3.) security;
(4.) synchronous access; and
(5.) seamless integration (aka straight through processing, STP)
For non-technical readers, synchronous is what Twitter does: real-time feeds. STP is what preoccupies technologists of institutional trading platforms. A trade bid / offer / execution occurs and there are legal requirements to fulfill those obligations and account for them within a certain timeframe, so the entire information-transaction-payment loop has to be seamless.
That’s another advantage of my experiences with trading platforms; gaining some insights into the blueprints of system integrations that work and can bulk process from those which are buggy and have bottlenecks.
Let’s comment, though, specifically on front-end UI.
Much has been written about UI aesthetics over the years but what matters most is that it needs to be functional, dynamic and flexible. Obviously, a UI should be visually engaging but if there’s no option to customize features in the way a user prefers then the UI designer hasn’t really taken into consideration user navigation, imo. There’s actually an entire science that’s been built up around the positioning of certain features like log-in, advertising banners and user interaction panels which can make or break how quickly a site attracts advertising and is monetizable.
I recall suggesting (even “showing and telling” via diagrams) all sorts of neat and dynamic navigation tips to one particular SemWeb play in the hope of catalyzing monetization — only to have their UI designers completely ignore my reasonable user requests and helpful strategic tips. Instead they persisted with non-dynamic, uninspiring, rigid page structures that took eons to load and increased user frustration.
To add insult to their myopic disrespect towards users generally, they also claimed I knew nothing about UI design; in fact they defamed me all over the Internet. That was somewhat funny since the e-Intelligence service in the big bank was designed and coded according to my specifications and I still have the original strategy proposals on how I wanted the UI to look and feel, and importantly WORK.
This was critical since (as well as being the creator of the e-Intelligence service) I was its Editor and its strategic navigator, and I needed my publishing dashboard to be user-friendly and to be able to track traffic metrics. So there we have it, I was blogging, publishing, tweeting and collaborating in Web 1.0 a full decade before today’s social media tools.
Anyway, that SemWeb play example of UI designers and developers basically being difficult and unhelpful towards users is the reason I dusted down my code skills and created this UI:
This is only the initial iteration but already it’s clear that flexibility is key. Users can customize, drag, drop, populate, interact and share their content with others to their hearts’ content. They can also close panels of advertising if they don’t want to be bothered by it and, at a later date, will be able to launch what will be a smart collaboration sphere via a navigator.
At the moment, I won’t disclose how the smart collaboration sphere is going to work. Suffice to say that it will be super-cool and super-smart.
INCIDENTALLY, THAT SEMWEB PLAY IS NO MORE (DISTRESSED FIRESALE APPARENTLY); NOT A SURPRISE GIVEN THAT THEIR UI DESIGN WASN’T USER-FRIENDLY, THEY WERE UNABLE TO ATTRACT REVENUE, DIDN’T KNOW THEIR TARGET AUDIENCE WELL AND LOST THE RESPECT OF THEIR CORE USERS.
Meanwhile, I’ve been busy with my own ventures. What I learnt from that SemWeb experience which was upsetting as a user was this:
* DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME GIVING ARROGANT, MYOPIC AND UNGRATEFUL PLATFORMS YOUR VALUABLE AND HELPFUL FEEDBACK WHEN YOU CAN ALLOCATE THAT TIME TO CODING A PLATFORM MUCH SMARTER AND MORE MONETIZABLE THAN THEY CAN EVEN IMAGINE.
* FORTY THIEVES LOST OUT AGAINST ONE OF ALI BABA’S SLAVE GIRLS (so forty heads are not necessarily better than one good, smart, female one — lol).
Ok and this weekend I have to figure out additional dimensions of the art fund-of-fund in Project Art. Yes, in addition to being able to write the business plan, code the UI and analytical engine, raise financing, implement rollout etc for a dotcom……….I can also structure investment partnership agreements, write with both hands simultaneously and wear fantastic fuschia colored heels!
LOL.
