As a designer I am well aware that I suck, I am one of the people responsible for Scott Good’s quote of “The worst applications that people use are the ones they use at work” (from his Lotusphere session “BP202-There’s no fixing ugly How to make a great first impression with your applications” an amazing session which left me ashamed of my sub standard design work but determined to do better).

My bible to this end is Steve Crugs book “Don’t make me think” or as I like to call it “Amazon got it right”, a truly fabulous book (my one is dog-eared having been passed round colleges and even family), this morning much to my excitement i discovered he has published a new book called

“Rocket Surgery Made Easy:The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems“,

I purchased a pdf version and ploughed into it.

This one has the same easy feel and readability of his first book, but for me has a slightly different target audience, its one of those books that you place meaningfully on a project managers desk, or read your self, but not to actually use just to have the tools to hand to fight the good fight and guide your wayward manager/user base when they skimp on testing, it also shows you what to do with any test results you might get (chapter 10 “debriefing 101” is a particular gem which I intend to print out and take to the next meeting in which we “address functional issues” / “listen to the users bitching”), with plenty of pertinent FAQ’s, it can flicked through for a quick fix, or read cover to cover with out falling asleep (rare for any IT based book), very much recommended.

Back from Lotusphere and this is what i brought back

1) If your sticking with Notes for dev then learn xpages (best place is with Matt White at http://xpages101.net/ or at the http://xpagesblog.com/).
2) Mobile device support Android/iphone/blackberry, do not leave them out of ANY apps.
3) Flex is the RIA of choice.
4) Learn how to use Amazon s3 storage*.
5) Give lip service to dojo but use Jquery really.
6) Learn how to hack xml raw code (for Xpages/Websphere/Flex).
7) Ugly is out Out OUT*.
8) Tweak what ever your doing to sound like REST services.
9) Platform wise: for the client, Windows beats Mac, but Mac beats Linux (Eclipse is the future in all cases), server side: Redhat is the way to go.
10) Oldy but goldy: if your not learning Java, hurry up!!.

Well cloud computing really, but so far the only bit that is really cloud seems to be the storage, processor renting has not changed, however there is a bit more integration with other services.

**and Web 2.0 is in In IN (well thank you for that IBM)

There is other stuff like “we have gone API crazy, please integrate everything with everything”, but i recon that is the main points

LotuSphere Disclaimer: I have no intention of giving you any serious or useful information this lotusphere (well while not while im actually here at least, as there are too many people doing that already, go to planetlotus to find them

Now sharing a room with someone is a fab way of cutting the old LS costs down but after 2 days of sharing a room with the wretch, the cracks are showing,

what has he done you ask, well i tell you, he is tidy and reasonable, which is as far as im concerned is a crime against all that’s conference!!, i present exhibit A:

look at this bed!!, it has been slept in by a drunk person!!, where is the vomit, where is the ripped sheet and pillows on the floor, it a travesty, but there is worse to come:

he folds and lays out T-shirts before passing out, its wrong i tell you, tomorrow night i would not be surprised if he started hoovering, now THIS is how a hotel room should look

somewhere between a nest and a pit, with the sheets on the floor, socks should craw around the fetid air, growling gently.

P.S. I also attended a very good session Mr Tim Davis on blackberry and IPhone apps, but i turns out that i committed a number of terrible faux pas, that include asking question during the session and sliding out once i had got all the info i wanted, (i feel shamed)