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Good writing tips for developers forced to write marketing content

There is a good article on A List Apart about how to generate interest and describe the business value for software. What I like most is the use of examples. A lot of web copy is written by copywriters who aren’t trained in writing for the web—and much Read More...
Posted Friday, June 01, 2007 11:38 AM by Clint Covington | 6 Comments

The spiral of complexity and feature creep - New Yorker article

James Surowiecki has written a nice article Feature Presentation about why companies build complexity into their products and more importantly to you--why you buy into it. People want all the bells and whistles but overestimate their ability to use all Read More...
Posted Tuesday, May 29, 2007 10:23 AM by Clint Covington | 3 Comments
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Driving good profits through design and customer feedback

Culture of Design In the last three years, I have seen Microsoft’s design culture shift to tackle hairy design challenges that are rooted in legacy tradition. Business Week recently acknowledged the positive changes at Microsoft in the article, The Soul Read More...
Posted Monday, May 28, 2007 6:48 AM by Clint Covington | 1 Comments
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Design inspiration resources

The folks at web design from scratch have recently posted a list of their 10 favorite web site designs . The sites make up good sources of inspiration. I particularly like the IconBuffet . For about $300 you can get a great set of icons that will make Read More...
Posted Monday, May 21, 2007 9:01 PM by Clint Covington | 2 Comments
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Toyota business lessons about humility, elegant solutions, and simplicity

I came across a couple of good articles about Toyota improving its designs and innovation process. Business Week, for example, recently published " Fighting to Stay Humble ". "To be satisfied with becoming the top runner, and to become arrogant, is the Read More...
Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2007 7:24 AM by Clint Covington | 2 Comments
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Open and respectful cultures create better designs

It’s not uncommon in the halls of Microsoft for a passionate Program Manager and brilliant Developer engage in verbal combat over design ideas. Anyone that has worked with talented people on a tough design problem knows that innovative design is hard—really Read More...
Posted Saturday, February 17, 2007 6:37 AM by Clint Covington | 3 Comments

The Craft of Design and Jonathan Ive

A couple months ago Business Week published an article about a talk "The Craft of Design" given by Jonathan Ive at the Radical Draft conference. http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/chi-0701300508jan31,0,4213554.story I found this paragraph about Read More...
Posted Tuesday, February 13, 2007 11:58 AM by Clint Covington | 0 Comments
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Good Experience blog post "Innovation and customer experience basics"

I'm a frequent reader of the Good Experience blog. These guys do a great job making me think about focusing on the simple things that customers really appreciate. A good experience is so much more than flashy UI--it is about knowing how your customer Read More...
Posted Thursday, February 01, 2007 8:19 AM by Clint Covington | 0 Comments
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Principles of MicroFormats and simplicity

I have been reading a bit about MicroFormats these days. I came across these principles that were published on http://microformats.org/about . I like the clarity of the principles and the underlying statement about keeping them simple. Most of us could Read More...
Posted Friday, January 26, 2007 11:51 PM by Clint Covington | 4 Comments
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7 Rules for Productive Brainstorming

Yesterday I was kicking around campus, dropping off fliers about my wife’s resume service on bulletin boards. My 3-year-old loves to go to work with Dad and drink chocolate milk, write on the whiteboards, and play chase through the halls. Anyway, she Read More...
Posted Sunday, January 21, 2007 4:03 AM by Clint Covington | 2 Comments

Interactive chart/form filtering code sample

One of the most enjoyable design challenges I have had over the last couple of years was redesigning how users can filter inside Access and Excel. The new filter dropdown menu and context menus were lots of fun to explore different designs and think creatively Read More...
Posted Friday, December 22, 2006 5:45 AM by Clint Covington | 0 Comments

Softer datasheet visuals in 3 simple steps

Yesterday I was looking at one of our templates and noticed the grid felt pretty busy. I wanted to come up with a design that softens the harshness of the gridlines yet was very readable. Here is what I ended up with... There are three easy steps to create Read More...
Posted Thursday, December 21, 2006 11:05 AM by Clint Covington | 0 Comments

My favorite software book of the year "Get Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application"

For some time I have been a fan of the work done by 37Signals. They have a great understanding of the value of building simple software that people fiind useful. They recently self published Get Real: The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful Read More...
Posted Saturday, December 16, 2006 10:42 AM by Clint Covington | 0 Comments

MSDN article "Ribbon Extensibility in Access 2007"

A couple of months ago I spent a few days learning how to write XML for ribbons. I got pretty excited about the types of new interfaces that users can create without any code. I think you will find it is easier than you might think. This paper is the Read More...
Posted Friday, December 08, 2006 2:46 PM by Clint Covington | 0 Comments

Thoughts on Zune

First off, I want to say that I'm a big IPod fan--listening to my second player right now. I even have a copy of the original ipod packaging in my office because I though Apple did such a nice job with it. I'm not ready to buy a new Zune yet but I do Read More...
Posted Tuesday, December 05, 2006 3:12 AM by Clint Covington | 1 Comments
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