–Engage

If this was just about ONLY writing docs, Buzzword is the best online rich internet app for composing documents I have used to date.

Let’s just start there. The level of graphical presentation, fluid transitions, great communication design, wondering discovery of advanced features, paper centric features, amazing spell check (yup, they upped the ante on spell check even), and wonderful iconography make for a much more enjoyable compositional experience.

Then there are the collaboration features. Unlike Google Docs which really only allows you to edit (in real time synchronously which is nice) , there are reviewer features that are ultimately much more useful and usable than anything that Google Docs has.

I really recommend it for anyone who is doing serious composition of documents like articles you want others to review and comment on before exporting to paper. It does have its bugs, but it really shows that you can do a full screen application in Flash/Flex that is more poweful and obviously more dramatic than you can with AJAX. It also really underscores to me the difference between a well engineered application and a well designed one. Google docs just doesn’t touch you at the emotional level the way that Buzzword does.

Here’s the catch. “If this was just about ONLY writing docs,” was how I started this post. But it isn’t ONLY about writing docs. I have a host of spreadsheets and presentations and email that are all interconnected through Google. And that interconnection or eco-system is designed well-enough that it has some tremendous tie-in value.

Google though is starting to annoy me mainly because of inconsistencies in the designs between the 3 applications and them with email & actually with Reader as well. Not enough to send me running to Zofo or anything like that, but enough to just make me keep an eye out for something better like Buzzword and for me to use it for specialized needs like larger compositions and where I think I might be printing at some point.

So yesterday, due to my really really hard work on help Dan Saffer bring Interaction08 to life, I have been given the title of co-chair of the conference. Yea!!!! Resume fodder for everyone!

This is a really big deal for me personally (so sorry if I came across as light in the above paragraph). Dan and I have been working closely together on Intearction08 | Savannah since the very first time we both got the board of IxDA to agree to doing this conference. Some thought it might be too soon for us. Dan and I felt that it was not only the right time, but the right thing for IxDA and we couldn’t have been more right.

Have we got everything perfect? Of course not!!! We are poor, so we buy what we can and build what we can when we have the time. We have gotten tremendous support from some outstanding sponsors: Microsoft, Intuit, Cooper, SAP frog design, Axure, Tandem Seven, Apogee, FatDUX, Motorola, AvenueA-Razorfish and Coroflot. With their support we have been able to afford our amazing new [url=http://interaction08.crowdvine.com]social network site (hosted by Crowdvine). We would also be NOWHERE without our host Savannah College of Art & Design. Lastly, we have 2 great media partners: Boxes & Arrows and Core77 who will be covering the conference for their respective communities.

But it is all about the content and we are so proud of the line up we have for you across just 2 days. From Deep in the weeds of IxD to tangential topics related to industrial design, architecture, game design, design research, information architecture, and more.

Anyway, yup, I’m a co-chair … I’ve been killing myself for this conference and really believe it is worth all the sweat I’ve ever put into IxDA. It is exciting that we are close to selling out. There will probably be a rush come Jan 2nd when new budgets open up, so register while you can.

Listen to me talk about interaction design’s foundations on Boxes and Arrows.

Listen to the podcast here.

I mean really? It’s been almost 3 years since Jesse James Garrett coined the term AJAX (even longer since Macromedia [now Adobe] started using the term RIA itself) and in so doing set us off on our parade down RIA lane. … Why is htis still considered a separate area of design and technology?

Seriously, I just read the title of a blog entry about RIAs going mainstream. I mean name me a GOOD mainstream site that doesn’t use some sort of richness. Amazon, Google, Yahoo, etc. Ok, my bank doesn’t use RIAs (and it is NOT good UI/IxD and so it really doesn’t fall under the GOOD category anyway).

Maybe we need to stop talking about RIA as something novell and just start taking about it as a normal part of producing networked based distributed applications–thick, thin or otherwise.

Can we move on please?