Solving the Alt-Tab Problem

Switching between applications, windows, and tabs is a fundamental action of modern computers. As people browse the web, we know that an average user will switch tabs more times in a day than they click on a link. Think about that. Much of your time using a modern browser (computer) is spent in the digital equivalent of shuffling papers.

Every major OS provides an “alt-tab” interface: a keyboard shortcut for quickly switching between windows and applications. To use it, you tap alt-tab and you are jumped back to the last focused window. Tap multiple times to cycle through all open applications. It seems simple enough, but there’s a interface gorilla in the room: What order should the applications be shown and cycled through?

Continue Reading » | RT @azaaza Solving the Alt-Tab Problem

Collaboration Made Simple with Bracket Notation

While writing, I like to keep things simple. While I don’t go to the extremes of Khoi Vinh’s punishing Blockwriter, I generally use an editor that can’t even make text bold. When I write, it’s just the raw text and me, mano a mano. By using a bare-bones editor, the text can’t fight dirty by throwing frivolous fonts and formats in my eyes. At most, I use Markdown to add style to my text.

Must of my collaborators are the same way. We are often editing each-others’ work, but many hands in the copy-editing cookie jar means edits fly like popcorn kernels on the griddle. How do we keep collaboration simple, especially now that Etherpad is about to reach the end of its life? We need a robust method of keeping track of comments and edits. Standard revision control is too heavy weight, and most diff programs operate on a too-course line-level granularity. We needed another solution. Text interface design to the rescue!

Continue Reading » | RT @azaaza Collaboration Made Simple with Bracket Notation

Letting Firefox Move Faster: Solving The Innovators Dilemma

With nearly 400 million users, the changes we make to Firefox must be made with care. The cost of change for fiddling with a commonly used feature can be high for any one person — and when that cost is multiplied by 400 million the cost-at-scale is oppressive; even causing 10 seconds of confusion can waste over a million collective man hours. Change comes at a cost and it must be outweighed by change’s benefits. Yet, we can’t be better without being different.

The nearly 400 million current Firefox users is a testament to our ability to make those tough calls and change towards the better. As our user base continues to grow, those calls will only get tougher. We need to find technical and cultural ways to overcome the innovators dilemma and lower the cost of experimentation.

Continue Reading » | RT @azaaza Letting Firefox Move Faster: Solving The Innovators Dilemma

The Seduction of Simple: Hidden Complexity

Simple often isn’t. Spacious interfaces with few controls, artfully placed, may look comforting and inviting (and they often are), but they can also front for a mafia underground of hidden interaction complexity.

I recently heard a respected designer (who shall remain nameless) speaking of what he called an exemplar of simplicity in interface design: the garage door opener. That’s the seduction of simple in action, because it isn’t simple at all. We all make numerous errors using the garage door opener — moving the door in the wrong direction first, pausing the door accidentally, or hitting the button too many times after the door doesn’t respond quickly enough. It’s actually a resoundingly bad interface masquerading behind the innocence face of a single, simple button.

Continue Reading » | RT @azaaza The Seduction of Simple: Hidden Complexity

Know When to Stop Designing, Quantitatively

Interface design is more than hand waving and color preferences. When you design anything to be used by humans, there are some fundamental tools which can tell you if one interface is better than another. Quantitatively. Don’t believe me? Answer this:

Which of the following two sentences contains more information?

Cogito ergo sum.
Shoes smell bad.

Continue Reading » | RT @azaaza Know When to Stop Designing, Quantitatively

The 7 Things That Matter Most in Privacy

In late January we held a workshop that brought together some of the worlds leading thinkers in online privacy, with everyone from the FTC to the EFF represented. We spent the day working to answer the question: What attributes of privacy policies and terms of service should people care about? If you are new to the project, please read the original blog post, as it will answer a number of the probable nagging questions (like how to make icons enforceable).

Continue Reading » | RT @azaaza The 7 Things That Matter Most in Privacy

Leaving Labs, Joining Firefox

I’m happy to announce that I’m moving to the Firefox team, where I’ll be taking the role of Creative Lead for Firefox to help in designing and guiding the future product path for Firefox. I’m excited by the new role, excited by the team, excited by the possibilities, and excited by the potential to make nearly 400 million people’s lives demonstrably more rad.

Continue Reading » | RT @azaaza Leaving Labs, Joining Firefox

A More Readable (Pythonic) Javascript Syntax?

While I’ve come to love Javascript, I miss the syntactic beauty of Python. The stark modern minimalism of the language causes the meaning of code to float on the syntax like a feather on water. There are no extra braces, brackets, or parenthesis to saturate your visual bandwidth. In comparison, Javascript’s syntax is like the cluttered boudoir of a Victorian house: elaborate, ornate, and unnecessary. You can be left with half a dozen trailing braces and parenthesis, with no clear owner; their balance in an unstable equilibrium.

Note that I am not arguing that Javascript isn’t a beautiful or powerful language, just that its syntax is a vestigial meme left over from a time when we didn’t know better.

I’ve often wanted to bring Javascript and modern minimalism together: to strip the language of parens, braces, and semicolons. So that’s what I’ve done. I wrote a little parser for a slight modification of Javascript. I call it Pyscript.

Continue Reading » | RT @azaaza A More Readable (Pythonic) Javascript Syntax?

Is A Creative Commons for Privacy Possible?

There was a lot of great feedback for my post Making Privacy Policies Not Suck. We are now in conversation with a whole slew of industry leaders and deep thinkers in the area of privacy (Lorrie Cranor, Jonathan Zittrain, Lauren Gelman, Ryan Calo to name a few).

With all of the work that’s been done before us, I wanted to touch on some of the way our thinking and position breaks from the mold.

Continue Reading » | RT @azaaza Is A Creative Commons for Privacy Possible?

Identity in the Browser (Firefox)

Identity will be one of the defining themes in the next five years of the Web. Nearly every site has a concept of a user account, registration, and identity. Searching for “sign in” on Google yields over 1.8 billion hits. And yet, the browser does nothing to make this experience better save for some basic auto form filling. The browser leaves websites to re-implement identity management, and forces users to learn a new scheme for every site.

Most current solutions involve lots of redirects or iframes, which leads to a confusing and phishable experience.

Besides the poor user experience, we are seeing market-moving effects of the identity/log in problem. Facebook Connect and Google’s Friend Connect both let you use your pre-existing identity and social graph to super-power other websites. The problem?

Your identity is too important to be owned by any one company.
Your friends are too important to be owned by any one company.

Continue Reading » | RT @azaaza Identity in the Browser (Firefox)

I'm Aza Raskin @azaaza. I make shiny things. I simplify.

I am the cofounder of Massive Health.