created on Fri, 2007-05-04 12:51

With mobile devices becoming more common, and increasingly more sophisticated we're seeing a grater emphasis on mobile content. One of the most intriguing things with this is the ability to serve location based content.

Kinan Sweidan of ximda.com talked about the current state of Geo Location, how this technology can be used, and the current limitations of mobile devices.

So how do you find your location through a phone? Here are three ways that Kinan talked about:

1. GPS: This is very accurate and requires zero effort for the end User (devices always knows where you are). Limit: not everyone has a GPS enabled device. Limited audience.
2. Tower ID:This uses your connection to multiple mobile towers to find your location. Everyone connected to a network can have his or her location found. Limit:Not very accurate.
3. Wifi - Bluetooth: Through your connections to wifi networks with a Geo Location, and through blue tooth to the people around you, your location can be defined. Limit: You need to have software installed on your device to be able to use this kind of Geo Location finding. Additionally the accuracy is not 100%

Mobile devices are limiting. So usability is key in any mobile application. The more steps someone has to do to use your service the less likely they are to use it.

created on Thu, 2007-05-03 16:27

It's the end of day one here at Webvisions 2007, and we're at the David Pescovitz (BoingBoing.net co-editor and MAKE: Magazine editor-at-large) keynote speech.

It's been an exciting day full of valuable theoretical and practical information. It's always exciting when you walk out of a session feeling like you know more and are better prepared because of it, and that's how I'm feeling about today.

David's talk titled "Sensory Transformation: How to Sip from the Information Firehose", is about coping with cognitive overload, and staying tuned in to your networks without drowning in the sea of information that will become increasingly more complex.

created on Thu, 2007-05-03 14:15

Todd Wilkens (of Adaptive Path), talked about the revival of user experience, and going back to the fundamentals of user centred design. The bottom line, to create great user experiences you must understand people.

So how do we understand people? Typically companies oversimplify their views of people. Todd talked about concepts of the "highly rational user", or the "Goal Oriented" user. Concepts that have been used to shape design, and build successful projects, but that aren't a definitive approach.

He suggests that we need to evolve our processes and approach. We need to embrace the complexity of people. "Our lives out messy and complex", "your users have messy and complex lives".

created on Tue, 2006-07-25 08:26

Mike Davidson at Webvisions 2006 / Photo: Robert Scales

Webvisions was...
...inspiring, creative, fun, innovative, HOT, early mornings, late nights, full and fabulous days, well-organized, filled with friendly folk, reason to mark it on the calendar next year!

Thanks to all of the organizers and volunteers. Congratulations on having the best dang conference wifi EVER! This is something that is very much appreciated, goes a long way, is well-noted, and is something that other conferences could improve, so thank you. (More water on those 110 degrees Fahrenheit days would be pretty swell though!)

created on Fri, 2006-07-21 14:10 The lovely Matt Mullenweg, brilliant founding developer of Wordpress and Akismet led a session on getting those first 100,000 users.

A Few Tidbits:
• Wordpress.org gets 3 to 5 thousand hits a day.
• Wordpress.com is at 260,000 blogs
• Akismet has over 1 million spam blocks per day.
• Matt's only been programming for 3 years!?!

Mullenweg's 12 Rules:
1. You have to be the most passionate person involved.
2. Get off the computer - the act of writing things down on paper frees the mind, allows for the juices to really flow.
3. Obsess about the details, down to the space between two letters.
4. Do your own support. You have to be able to feel the pain of your users. Document everything. Make it as easy as possible for your users to contact you.
5. Blog every step of the way. Keep all of your users in the loop at all times - they will love you. Communicate with them and put them in the driver's seat.
6. Have a great tagline. If you can't describe what you are doing in less than 5 words, edit it, shave it down.
7. Frame everything you're talking about in a context for your users. What are you going to do for them?
8. Get out of version 1.0 as fast as possible. Most people make their successes on something different from where they started. Be flexible. User feedback is the most valuable asset. Don't let yourself be too led by your first users. Listen to the silent majority. Keep the majority in mind.
9. Track yourself.
10. Know what to do if you are successful.
11. Start strong, end strong. People don't often remember what was in the middle.
12. Be a pain killer, not a vitamin.


Tags:
• conference
• mattmullenweg
• portland
• raincity
• raincitystudios
• users
• webvisions
• webvisions06
• webvisions2006
• wordpress