Yammer use took off in our workplace late last year, but since everyone has returned from the Christmas break interest seems to have dropped off somewhat.   Maybe something like TeamBox, with its richer toolset, might be more attractive.  Teambox organizes communication around projects.  Users are members of projects, and a project has communication divided into conversations, task lists, pages and files.  The concept seems to have similarities with Google Wave, but at first glance the user interface seems a lot more familiar.  And TeamBox is open source allowing installation on your own server — so you can own the data.  And can customize the app (built with Ruby on Rails).  Now I just need a project to test it with… Read the rest of this entry »

Visualizations are really essential for application design.  Flow charts and wireframe mockups in Visio work well, but I’ve never found a tool for mocking up the actual interface.  Visio isn’t flexible enough, and something like Illustrator takes too long.  Balsamiq, only in production for less than a year, offers a very well executed bit of software to fill in the gap.  Balsamiq offer a selection of objects targeted for user interfaces, streamlining your work.  Check out their samples page to get a better idea of the types of objects available.

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I am sold on the value of a simple, web based project management tool.  In my survey last spring I landed on WebAsyst, attracted by its PHP/MySQL backend.  After a testing period I purchased the software which we now host on our own department server.  It is really helpful to get into the habit of having a project team use this type of tool.

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It isn’t hard to find ways to improve processes in the workplace — but why does it always feel so hard to get people to use it?  I’m going the the NYC Web 2.0 expo this week, and have been thinking about the adoption rate of new technologies around my office.  It is not hard to get interest in something — recent initiatives include SharePoint, Project Management, group document editing, wikis — but after initial interest from users practices revert back to the old way of doing things. 

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I think the term Social Media is starting to take over what has been referred to as Web 2.0 — maybe its a reflection of the maturing of the technologies. They are certainly starting to come more into main stream use. And I am starting to have more users ask to use these technologies for business and educational uses. How to respond? Are a collection of WordPress blogs requested by a faculty member for class use better than our course management system? And can I support them? How about the student interns request to use google apps for document management for one of our administrative department? Will our documents be secure? Will we still be able to use the system once he leaves? What about support?

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In Web design projects it is the content that really counts, right? In time allocation, I normally figure planning the content inventory, organization and functional needs is easily 60% of the work. Another 20% on front-end goals, and the final 20% on visual design. So why do most clients seem to only want to focus on the visual look? And never seem to get around to the content?

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