“Just in time for the New Year! At long last, we can share with the world a taste of the Tagged Tanakh (TT) prototype!” JPS Interactive

We spent the better half of 2009 working with JPS to develop the Tagged Tanakh prototype and at long last, we can give you a sneak peek.

The Tagged Tanakh prototype has a pretty healthy base of core functionality that we hope will compound under future development. The prototype allows users to interact with the English version of the Jewish Bible, by adding remarks, using tags to contextualize the relationships between their remarks and their selection from the Tanakh, respond to remarks left by other users and create custom feeds to follow the users and/or topics of interest to them. In addition, we have also developed a fairly intricate rank and moderation system, that will help users find discussions and topics that are relevant and of interest to them.

Social networking features, integration of third party data sets, Hebrew text, and the release of an API are all in the pipline and we’d love to get your first impressions. You can read more in our working case study.

If you are interested in supporting the Tagged Tanakh, you can make a donation directly to JPS.

Object Adjective is please to announce the launch of Change the World for Ten Bucks. Once again, Chronicle Books approached us to help them build an community website, this time to help change the world.

“We Are What We Do is a new kind of movement inspiring people to change the world one small action at a time. It’s not just politicians, institutions, and big business that change the world – it is also ordinary people like you and me.”

The opening paragraph on changetheworldfortenbucks.com alone, sums up our feelings on the matter and we were incredibly delighted when Chronicle Books asked us to develop the community website for this campaign.

Ready Case Study

The project we’ve been working on with the JPS, called the Tagged Tanakh, entered the early development stage at the beginning of the year. We are now rapidly approaching our the internal prototype release and the excitement is buzzing in the air.

The Tagged Tanakh will create digital versions of the ancient Hebrew text. It will allow visitors to expand the discussions around this text, by adding remarks and contextualizing the relationships between the original text and the surrounding discussion, through the use of tags.

JT Waldman writes more about the Tagged Tanakh and some of the early user group testing scenarios on Yavnet.

Patrick examines what makes an application indispensable to users and why companies mistake incremental improvements for innovation. In this examination he hones in on the real hurdle for developers, which is trusting in your own ideas and following through with them.

Read: Why We Bend Lines

Semantic Web Trending in 2008

If Web design and development were fashion, linguists would be the new black in 2008. Beyond the confines of traditional Web vehicles, the need for smart applications is staking its’ claim. Leading this push, are the fledgling efforts of several Web applications, now touting something akin to good old Sci-Fi artificial intelligence.

In a sense, we’re seeing the beginnings of a quasi-Marxist ai, finding more and more space on the web. I’m guessing we’ll see an explosion (poof) in semantic web applications in 2008, even if only from behind the private beta curtain. A fair number of semantic applications are well into development and a few have even made the break into the public domain. But are we ready?

Understanding Communication

The key to the semantics in the Web applications I refer to, is meaning. The theory of signs, as put by the Vienna Circle, can be broken down into 3 parts:

• Semantics: The relation between signs and the things they refer to.
• Syntactics: The relation of signs to each other in formal structures.
• Pragmatics: The relation of signs to their impacts on those who use them.

Web design inherently and irrevocably depends on all three of these disciplines. Where as traditional web applications, and programming for that matter, looks to apply meaning through signs, semantic Web applications attempt to extract meaning from signs. This is normally the part of semiotics left up to us, the humans, the “thinkers,” if you will.

The Algorithm Killed The Cat

Now, the game is to take some of the burden off us over-worked, poor slobs, and let the applications do some of our thinking for us. I kid, but the fact is, I’m all for it. The smarter the team, right? And from where I’m sitting, the Web is most definitely part of my team. You may remember a rather plaintive ad campaign, started by Ask.com sometime in the spring of 2007. The attempt, on behalf of Ask.com, was to distinguish itself from other search engines, by identifying it’s unique algorithm as the source for better results. In a sense, they are crafting the beginnings of a semantic search engine that understands both what the user queries and the available pickings, to return the best matches. This goes beyond a simple or even complex keyword search engine, such as Google. Does it work? Beats me.

The real question is, what was Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, the agency behind this campaign, thinking? The ad campaign slings slogans from “The Algorithm Killed Jeeves” to “The Algorithm Constantly Finds Jesus.” As the Jeeves version adorned billboards in San Francisco, it only struck me as a kind of apology from Ask.com for sucking. In any case, what does this tell the layman? And more importantly, how do you explain a technology that is supposed to think for you?

Thinking so you don’t have to.

Perhaps up and coming semantic Web applications can learn something from our friend Ze, and tout slogans modeled around his famous sign off for the Show, “..thinking so you don’t have to.”

Thinking may be a stretch, but understanding is the challenge (at least from a developer stand point). Semantic applications open the field of Web development to new territory. One of which, being linguistics.

Deriving contextual meaning from text and images is most definitely a task that can produce results nearing that of intelligence and thought (at least on the surface, when done extremely well). To get these results, requires thorough understanding of language, syntax, grammar and how all these constructs are broken. So, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing an increase of linguists on development teams. And maybe this isn’t such an unnatural thing.

As an example, one of San Francisco’s very own semantic application start ups, Powerset, has been working on a natural language search engine for some time now. The idea is that meaning and knowledge are extracted by Powerset, as apposed to keyword based queries. The results reflect something closer to a database of knowledge, rather than a listing of what’s available.

Powerset is currently in private testing still, but I have a feeling we will be seeing this type of application making a huge impact this year.

I’m so accustomed to lying about personal information when I create online accounts…

How many online accounts does a person need?

After designing what feels like my bagillionth registration form, I have to ask the question, how many online accounts does a person need? More accurately, how many accounts can a person have before maxing out on e-turgor? I’ve got a bad habit of signing up for accounts, poking around and then never letting them see the light of day again. I have more online accounts than a person should be legally allowed, no question. None the less, it all seems worth while when you find that amazing new tool that you, henceforth, couldn’t live without.

Given the phenomenal and ever-growing profusion of application offering online accounts, I had to stop and take a look at the doorway, the registration form.

I came across Christian Watson’s fantastic showcase of this, the banalest of banal web design elements as I was working on this article. There is a much more impressive collection of registration form screen shots over there, than I’ve put together at the end of this article.

In amassing the few screen shots of registration form I put together for this article, one thing stood out as clearly and cleverly bizarre. Most of the forms I was looking at, asked for birth dates! Why? To keep minors out? As a security measure? I’m so accustomed to lying about personal information when I create online accounts (which will undoubtedly be cause for great confusion on my death bed), that this question is just waisted pixels, wasted energy. Someone, please calculate the waste. Does anyone ever tell the truth when asked questions like this? Anyway, just curious.

A Usable Way to Design

The next stop in my quest to understand the registration form, was to head over to the Official U.S. Government Website on Web Usability.

Yes, we actually have one of those. It’s the official fuel station for information about website usability, by the U.S. Government. As one might expect, it’s one of the poorest designed sites out there, for usability. Not to mention, if you take a gander over to the section on online forms as I did, you’ll notice at the bottom of the page, under test results, they kind of muck up the data. Specifically, they muck numbers 5 and 6, ironically labeled Reduce Cognitive Load

On that note, let’s let the forms speak for themselves (and remember, humans don’t think like a database

The Forms

Continue: User Experience and the Registration Form Pt. 2

Today, I receive an email from Cameron Moll, reminding me about the (almost, August 28th) release of his long awaited Mobile Web Design book. Perfect, I thought. I’ve been waiting for this almost as long as I was waiting for the release of the iPhone.

One of the reasons I’ve been waiting in such anticipation is that, for the last 10 months or so, two of the biggest projects I’ve been working on, directly relate to mobile web. Not so much in the sense of mobile web design, but in the sense that both of these projects make use of mobile technology to extend the web beyond web browsers. I’m very pleased to say that one of these, KaDoink, just launched into limited public beta.

This is Delivery

This was extremely exciting news. Lauren and I have been working with KaDoink for the better part of the year and we’re continuing to work with them to better define this branch of web development and design.

On May 31, 2005 CNN reported on the “not far away” Smart Homes:

The entry “home” in your mobile phone address book will have a whole new meaning in a few years — your place of residence is likely to be clever enough to send SMS messages directly to you, and you will do the same to it.
Julie Clothier for CNN

It’s kind of funny, looking back. Computer’s that can SMS you, hardly seems novel. But the fact is, these are the baby steps that are seriously changing the landscape for web development. Today we’re talking about web browsers, but we’re already seeing the erosion of differentials between stand-alone applications and web applications. In fact, if you consider the necessity for online software updates, there really isn’t any. What does this mean for web design?

Mashable.com probably said it best, when they reviewed Kadoink.

If Twitter Were On Steriods, You’d Have Kadoink
Kristin Nicole on Mashable.com

Well, almost . . . aside from misspelling “steroids”. Come on guys, it’s the title of your article! Anyway, I digress.

Mobile web design in 5 years?

I touched upon some of the set backs for mobile web design in my post media=”handheld”, and again with iThumb, but what I didn’t talk about was what all this means for mobile web design in the years to come.

KaDoink is a good example. They’ve extended the traditional web 2.0 social networking beyond the web browser and translated it for complete mobile integration. Egad! If Second Life subjugates the real world as a virtual fantasy, KaDoink liberates the technology of the virtual web, into our daily lives. Well, that sounds a little too profound, but it is the breaching of these boundaries that will shape the world of web design in the coming years.

So, where do I see mobile web design in 5 years?

I’ll put it this way; We’ll all have jet packs, so Google Maps will be obsolete. We won’t need online project management applications like Base Camp, because dodgeball will take over and we won’t need to sleep anymore, because there will be sleeping pills. Oh wait, we already have something like that. Not sure what that has to do with mobile web design anyway. The point is, I haven’t the slightest idea. But I’ll say this, how we think about the web is always changing. Web browsers were designed for computers, to access the web. Why should we expect the same thing for a mobile device?

Judging the book by its cover

Creating expectations is what a designer does. We tell you what you are looking at, before you make a decision to read more and delve deeper. We are asking you to “please, judge this book by it’s cover.” While this may not be the best practice in life, it’s a commanding force in our consumerized society and it is the way of the trade for designers.

For good or for bad, we designers carry a responsibility. At Object Adjective, we dedicate a good portion of our time developing web applications. The question of how true the cover should be to the book, is one that comes up often when we’re designing applications targeted for early beta. There are two general considerations we make. The first being, and this is typically the one a favored by designers, is the need to create an enticing and marketable design. The second, which is primarily a consideration for the end user, is to avoid creating false user expectations by designing something much slicker on the outside, than the insides can live up to. In other words, making sure the cover fits the book.

A. Beta on Beta

As an example, let’s look one application we’re working on. Sidereel was a fast paced, on your feet and run kind of project. We teamed up with some expatriate developers from Guba and set out to roll the new application out to the public in an early beta, and it all in under 2 months. The goal was to get it out there as quick as possible. This included, coming up with a name, designing a logo, developing branding and language, and oh yes, designing a functional user interface that would satisfy the needs of the user and the application.

From the eginning we knew many of the more advanced functionality in development would have to be phase 2 features, we decided to approach the frontend design in a way that would be consistantwith the current state of the backend, as it evolved.

Sidereel 1.01

Sidereel 1.02

This approach for rolling out a “Beta Design” to match a “Beta Application” may seem a bit unorthodox, and maybe it is. It’s the first time we’ve ever tackled a project in this way, but the results may shock you. Contrary to what we as designers thought, the beta on beta release has actually seemed to work quite well, or so the numbers seem to tell us.

B. Spit on Polish

On the flip side, we have a more traditional way of thinking. It’s an “if it looks like you built it, they will come,” kind of thinking. Don’t get me wrong, good design and solid branding are cornerstones to a successful product, but in the web industry, we may want to rethink the tradition. Is image more important than accuracy? If the image is misleading for the current state of an application, users may be more likely to get frustrated with it.

In the current state of mass application frenzy, perhaps the super glassy trend in web 2.0 design has more to do with Emerald City, than with cool new design trick. Just a thought.

Make it shiny enough, and maybe all users will see when they come to your site is their own reflection. And maybe that’s all there is.

That muck aside, I’ve got some exciting news I wanted to share, even at the expense of my right hand. For those of you following the development of Sidereel, you may have noticed our recent beginnings of integrating the skin for the site.

Well, the exciting thing is there is much more to come. First and foremost, we are starting the process of integrating the NEW and Improved WatchBox. No more crazy-ass lists!

Launching an early Beta for a new application has both advantages and disadvantages. The first being, getting your name out there. The second being, discouraging return users with a very primitive product. We chose to launch with an Early Beta, having faith in our users, but the challenges are still the same. It’s been a learning process indeed, but it’s also put us in a position where things are only better. 1,000,000 and counting.

The new, improved Watchbox will be comprised of a much “prettier” layout, designed by none other than Lauren “I play with my food, I play with my code” Scime and a pretty kick-ass Ajax interface. Stay tuned fellow Reelers. Things are about to get all Chuck Norris around here.

The buzz around town for the last year or so has been all about mobile web and for the first time, we’re really starting to see some interesting things in this area of web development. In December of 2006, Read/WriteWeb published their predictions for Web Technology growth in 2007.

Among those predictions, they listed that 27% of people surveyed thought that Online Video and Internet TV would take the lead in growth, while 22% thought Web-based Apps would continue to lead and 15%, Mobile Web. With Companies such as Google, Yelp and YouTube all optimized for Mobile use, the number of people accessing the internet via their trusty hand phone is rising rapidly.

I’ll take mine to go

I wanted to take a look back at these predictions because over the last 6 months I’ve found myself more and more inundated with web application work, that specifically takes advantage of mobile technology. Not necessarily mobile website, but applications that are bridging the gap. In fact, the top 3 areas from the Read/WriteWeb predictions pretty much fill my plate these days.

Despite past claims that Asia is years ahead of the U.S. and U.K. in mobile web use, a recent survey taken in March, by Online Publishers, claims that mobile web use in the U.S. is actually higher now.

The fact that more people are accessing the web from mobile devices, means designing for mobile web is increasingly important. The conundrum for us designers is, “how do we do that?”

I can certainly relate. Design for mobile web? A joke right? The support for CSS among mobile web browsers is abysmal at best, but there are things you can do and things you want to consider, when designing for mobile devices. If you are tasked with designing for mobile devices, the first thing you can do is jog over to Patrick Grifith’s mobile media test page and see what css media types your mobile device supports. This, of course, wont give you an accurate overview of mobile devices at large, but you can see what options are available. The key to designing for mobile devices is simplicity. Regardless of the advances in technology to come, when your workable real estate is smaller than a business card. The second thing you should do is read Cameron Moll’s series on mobile web design. He provides an excellent background and very useful tips.

However, if you need something quick and dirty, to just make your website more accessible from mobile devices, Google has a bare-bones tool that will make your website, a mobile website in a click (and it’s not that bad, at that). If you want to see it in action for this site, go to http://www.google.com/gwt/n?u=http://www.repeatpenguin.com/ on your mobile device.