If you haven’t yet seen it, it is well worth your while to take a look at Buzzword, Adobe’s newly-aquired, still-in-beta, Flash-based online word processor.
It’s a very slick, desktop-feeling web app.
Accounts are free, and fun to try. Especially given its import and export to MS Word format, it might be a nice solution to group editing.
It’s the little things that matter in interface design.
For instance, I just discovered this amazing little detail in Mac OS X’s Dashboard. The World Clock widget (by Apple) that is installed by default has always offered a slick little display of the time in a chosen time zone, but at some point between Tiger’s release and now, (perhaps with the release of 10.5 Leopard?)1, they added one of the little details that makes Apple… well, Apple.
Now, when choosing a new time zone from the back, when the widget flips over, it animates the clock hands, moving from the currently set time zone to the new ones, including changes in day and night — and even gently accelerating from the start and decelerating into the finish!
As soon as I can get a decent video screen capture, I’ll post a glimpse of the animation.
No, it was not part of 10.5.2 — it was definitely there in 10.5.1, at least. ↩
Mac OS X, version 10.5.2 is out. It’s a great, meaty update, addressing most everyone’s complaints about the UI changes that Leopard introduced.
I do have one small question though:
A fun idea, well executed.
In case you feel nostalgic, or have never seen it, you might want to jump back half a year to coverage of the release of the ‘Street View’ function on Google Maps. I’ve got some comments and links in a post right here on Dialog Box, as a matter of fact.
(Thanks, Google Earth Blog)
Watch this space for more! The blog hiatus is almost over! :)
Some minor changes in the works, and then some actual posts will be on the way!
In the meantime…
How to tell that your user interface needs some work:
When even the box your product comes in requires instructions to open.
(Thanks, Daring Fireball)