introspectiveH

As Joel Spolsky explains in his post The Iceberg Secret, Revealed, the user interface usually represents less than 10% of the actual functionality of the entire application.

You know how an iceberg is 90% underwater? Well, most software is like that too — there's a pretty user interface that takes about 10% of the work, and then 90% of the programming work is under the covers. And if you take into account the fact that about half of your time is spent fixing bugs, the UI only takes 5% of the work. And if you limit yourself to the visual part of the UI, the pixels, what you would see in PowerPoint, now we're talking less than 1%.

As he reveals the different iceberg secrets, he touches on one that often affects many programmers. When you show something that looks too fancy, it sends a false message of how close the application is to being finished.  This is the illusion of completeness.

If you show a nonprogrammer a screen which has a user interface which is 100% beautiful, they will think the program is almost done. People who aren't programmers are just looking at the screen and seeing some pixels. And if the pixels look like they make up a program which does something, they think "oh, gosh, how much harder could it be to make it actually work?" The big risk here is that if you mock up the UI first, presumably so you can get some conversations going with the customer, then everybody's going to think you're almost done. And then when you spend the next year working "under the covers," so to speak, nobody will really see what you're doing and they'll think it's nothing.

Because of the rigidity that comes from this illusion, the application looks too complete to get useful feedback on the real functionality.  Instead, people will focus on superficial usability tweaks like screen layout, button placement, background colors, etc.  Kathy Sierra elaborates on this topic in her post Don't make the Demo look Done.

The more "done" something appears, the more narrow and incremental the feedback…Show them something polished and pretty, and you'll get feedback on font sizes. The reviewers make incremental tweaks, blinded by what's in front of them. But show a napkin sketch, and they don't just see what's there, they see what's possible.

Kathy is a master wordsmith and I heed to her expertise; I couldn't have summed it up any better.  We need to ditch the fancy mockups and powerpoint presentations and instead, be honest with our customers and embrace the sketchy prototype.

Bonus

Adobe Flex is a great framework for building quick prototypes; however, because it's so fast and easy to build nice looking applications, it's easy to fall into the completeness illusion.  It would take about 5 minutes to create an application like this one that I snagged from an On Reflexion post called Napkin skins in Flex.  Click the image below to run the application.

Flex makes it really easy to apply styles to your applications.  By simple applying a new style, eyes are opened, illusions removed, and truths revealed.  Again, click on the image below and run the same exact application, just with a different skin.

If you are a java person, you can use the open source Java Swing Look & Feel called Napkin Look & Feel

I found the napkin skin and other cool Flex skins at scalenine.  Check out these other "sketchy" skins.  Run the app by clicking on the images.

Edding (my favorite sketchy skin)

Flekscribble

Popularity: 8% [?]

Since developing Majority Desk, I have really been appreciative, intrigued, and amazed by the potential of using simulated physics as the engine for allowing objects to interact in games and other software. For Majority Desk, we used the open source Open Dynamics Engine, and it gave us all we needed and more to simulate a fully interactive, 3D environment.

Today, I came across some news about the new, upcoming game from LucasArts, Star Wars: Force Unleashed.

The Star Wars saga will continue in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, a videogame developed by LucasArts, which casts players as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice" and promises to unveil new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy.

Yes, like any self respecting geek, I am a Star Wars fan, and the evil thought of being Darth Vader's secret apprentice, is more than a little exciting. However, this isn't what interested me the most.

As its name implies, The Force Unleashed completely re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force by taking full advantage of newly developed technologies that will be seen and experienced for the first time: Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), by Pixelux Entertainment, and euphoria by NaturalMotion Ltd. Paired with the powerful Havok Physics? system, these new technologies create gameplay only possible on the new generation of consoles. DMM incorporates the physical properties of anything in the environment so that everything reacts exactly like it should - wood breaks like wood, glass shatters like glass, plants on the planet Felucia bend like plants on the planet Felucia would, and more. Meanwhile, as a revolutionary behavioral-simulation engine, euphoria enables interactive characters to move, act and even think like actual human beings, adapting their behavior on the fly and resulting in a different payoff every single time.

This stuff is so freakin' cool that I had to search around a little more. After looking around, I stumbled across this baby, which will set your geekiness levels through the roof. No matter if you are a gamer or a Star Wars fan, this is six minutes of video that you have to watch. The trailer shows and explains the three technologies they integrated for the game. This will not only change gaming, but it also opens up whole new worlds in areas that involve real life simulations for both entertainment and business purposes. Geek overload warning ahead.

My favorite quotes from the trailer

• Havok Physics 2 SDK - Continuous Physics engine:
  "allows us to move a great number of objects on the screen at any given time."
• NaturalMotion euphoria - Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS): "[the game characters] have a sense of self preservation, a sense of self awareness…"
• DMM by Pixelux - Digital Molecular Matter - Game Asset Synthesis Technology: "is a way of simulating the substance of objects, sort of pretending that their molecules"

Bonus footage #1 - Euphoria Engine Tech Demo

Bonus footage #2 - Digital Molecular Matter Tech Demo

Popularity: 23% [?]

My top issue in the upcoming U.S. presidential election is our focus on science and technology. Currently, we have an increasing attitude of entitlement, complacency, and whininess about our jobs being outsourced and our dollar value declining. Instead, we need to increase motivation and resources to be technology innovators and world leaders in science, math, medicine, and engineering. The lack of debate content around these issues has been disappointing for me, as I would love to see where the candidates stand on the wide range of issues on this subject matter.

Enter the Science Debate 2008

Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment, Health and Medicine, and Science and Technology Policy.

Do you like apples?

Despite attempts in recent years to bolster education in fundamental areas, a major international study released today found that youngsters in the U.S. still lag behind their peers in the developed nations when it comes to the technical disciplines. Sponsored by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study found that in standardized tests conducted in 30 industrialized countries American kids performed near the bottom of the ranks.

How do ya like 'em apples? If reports like this concern you, as much as they do me, then hop on over to the Science Debate 2008 site, sign up, and show your support.

Not convinced? Here's a little bonus footage, that will surely have you signing up double time.

Thanks to fellow Enterprise Irregular, Vinnie Mirchandani, for passing this along.

[UPDATE} Denis Browne from SAP Imagineering is down with Science Debate 2008. He sent me this gem as another forewarning about our future…ouch. Thanks D!

Popularity: 7% [?]