Rod Drury states that the ideal model for an early stage business is Design, Fund, Build. This sounds sensible to me. What I’m wondering is whether it’s ever too late to apply this simple logic. I suspect that Design is not just about the technology (or, the product), it’s about the Business too. So perhaps we should skip the Proof stage (right after/during Design) that so many get held up in (but don’t forget the research). It’s much more difficult to Prove something if you can’t Fund it. Stop at Design, or rather, Do the Design. Ever noticed how attractive architectural concept drawings are? I’d buy that.
Archive for October, 2006
The latest Unlimited magazine has an article on super vegetables. Super broccoli should be first on the shelves apparently. At 20% more expensive I’d like to know just how super they are. They claim it tastes better too. I’m curious whether every other vege producer could just buy these super vegies and use them to grow their own, saving millions on R&D. There’s probably a good scientific reason why that’s not the case…
Anyway, it got me thinking; I’m really keen on healthy food, or at least in understanding what I’m eating. I still enjoy coke, coffee, chocolate, cream and cheesecake, but I do like to know when there are nasties in my food (and then I might consider eating less of it). This has been discussed at Spikefin before, but it might be time to raise it again - perhaps we should build a standard calculator into Gobius so that we can calculate the expected nutritional value of any meal based on its ingredients. If we can already work out its weight, price, make and delivery time then it can’t be too hard to do. Hell Pizza’s website already provides standard nutritional stats which is a great start - but I believe we could take this further by providing these stats for a whole meal (including the trim latte with sugar), and to break it down by head and by adjusting the figures when we removes the cheese, or whatever. Of course this will all be more complex now that broccoli is not just broccoli.
Went along to the Deloitte Fast 50 Awards last night and had a great time. Really enjoyed seeing and meeting with so many talented people in one room. There really is a lot of interesting things going on in this country, and a lot of inspirational growth across a number of industries. There were loads of IT companies in the mix of course. Spikefin didn’t actually enter the awards, so I guess I was invited as a client of Deloitte. So I consumed a few pre-paid beverages and met some fantastic people. The winners are announced in the November Unlimited magazine (which we were all given last night), but are not listed on their website as yet.
The presentation itself was run very well, short and sharp. The interspersed voice overs and winner videos were somewhat amusing, reminding me of good old Lucky Luke cartoons when the narrator would say almost exactly what Luke would then say himself (Narrator: “Our lonesone cowboy was quite hungry by now..”, Luke: “I’m gettin mighty hungry about now..”).
All in all, a great event. I think we’ll make it an aim for Spikefin to enter and get a placement for next year.
Look how modular it is. I was able to have a prototype model working in under 5 minutes. Plug and Play. It even has a reflection. It must be Web2.0. I name it spikr.
Spikefin on Wheels.
I have been saying for quite some time that the next major feature I want to see on my mobile phone is teleportation. Finally, somebody is really doing it. Sounds more like they’re planning to use it to reinvent the internet than to give us NZers easier access to the rest of the planet.. but hey, it’s a great start.
So who has the fastest web development framework? A couple of local techos are willing to put their reputations on the line to find out… I’ve come up with the application concept, now they will race to provide the working technology. In line already we have Ben Nolan using Rails and Sam Minnee using Silverstripe. Can you beat them?
Ever found yourself floundering with too many partners to keep track of? (well, neither have I) If so, then this is the application you’ve been waiting for. Check out the competition rules. (Notice I’ve been playing with Google Docs. Works surprisingly well).
Recently I started using OpenOffice Calc instead of Excel, really just to try it out. I’ve found the Value Highlighting feature is invaluable. Formula results appear green, numbers blue, and text black. I can’t go back.
How many times have you accidentally typed a different number into a cell that had a formula in it? Somehow it makes it so much easier to look at a spreadsheet and understand how it works.
Screenshots are your friend
Follow them precisely as this will save you lots of time and tedious refinements later. It will also train the UI designer to give you exactly what you need.
Everything on the screen should visually line up with something else
Alignment is close to godliness. Well actually, it just has the same x position (to the pixel).
Consistency is King
This applies to margins, padding, colours, fonts, font sizes, font emphasis, text block locations, use of interface components (like dropdowns, checkboxes, radios etc), animation styles, button sizes… Consistent. CONSISTENT.
Use the prescribed colour palette
Colour approximations are NOT close enough. If you don’t know the correct colour, then just use something WAY OFF until you are provided with the correct colour hex number, which will be moments after the designer, manager or client sees bog standard magenta on the interface.
If the sentence or button label you are about to use is valid SQL then think again
It is difficult to think in English and in code on the same day. If the choice has been left to you, try to write something that will not insult, bore or frustrate the user, contains no “humourâ€, and then create a Trac ticket to get this wording reviewed when convenient.