The grapevine

This morning, the media outlets were all blasting how Apple had been secretly creating their own "Flash alternative" as a means to circumvent their reliance on Adobe products on their platform. I only started reading up on it when someone mentioned "Gianduia".

Apple's Gianduia project is not new. It has been around for about a year and was never a "Flash alternative". It's a framework meant as a tool to assist web developers in building AJAX-driven, rich internet applications. Had these reporters investigated further, they would have uncovered the inaccuracies of the headlines. This isn't journalism; this is gossip. Facts were not checked before publishing.

This is a frightening approach at how media outlets are reporting information; essentially just writing about other writers' articles. There has been a longstanding debate on whether bloggers should be classified as journalists and thus protected by the legislation meant for journalists. This is a prime example against it.

Online Tutorials

I'm always weary of online tutorial websites that teach you how to effectively write HTML/CSS. Although the bios of the authors often refer to the amount of time they've spent working in the web industry, neither does it refer to the type of exposure they've had to different projects, nor does it mention their intentions.

If I were to develop CSS with a strong focus on browser compatibility, it would be far different from developing it with a focus on browser performance (read: Steve Souders). The same goes for CSS intended for longterm use and CSS written to support accessibility. These things are all different.

Websites like Smashing Magazine offer great tips on how to approach the technical issues inherent with web development, but the tutorials should be seen as just that; references. There's no such thing as a one-solution-fits-all. If there was, it would probably be one that far exceeds any clients' budget.

Techno dance!

My programmer buddy who works at Electronic Arts was telling me how he doesn't feel creative directors provide projects with much value and, in fact, are a detriment because they drain the project's overall budget. I completely disagree. Did you ever see that Jet Li movie where he was in jail and during some of the fight scenes, they made a CGI "x-ray" view of the opponent's bones breaking? This is where a CD comes in.

When a movie --having nothing to do with computers, technology or electronic gadgets-- decides that they want fight-scenes to contain high-tech CGI animation and techno-rave styled music in the background, it rarely ever adds to the story. In fact, these things often feel so out-of-place, it makes the overall experience of the movie unpleasant. I can understand if these things were in a high-tech action flick, but not a drama!

Creative directors are the guys that meld these aspects together and ensures that the film has the appropriate eyecandy that coincides with the story. Now, if you're a creative director and are under the impression that rave music can work with *any* film, it's probably a good time to re-examine whether the audience will accept that vision.

Btw, might I add, Donnie Yen is the new Jet Li of North American-approved Asian martial arts films.

Font substitution, services & branding

I'm well aware of the different methods in replacing fonts on webpages because designers are always looking to add more tools to their design arsenal. sIFR has had limitations, but the recent methods such as cufón, typeface and Typekit have been gaining attention and I thought I'd mention some issues that are uniquely inherent about technical solutions involving 3rd party services such as Typekit.

Some immediate issues -- if their services go down:

1. How will this affect the client's site?
2. How will this affect the client's brand?

Relying upon any third party's services means your client's brand is susceptible to those services. I was on the Bank of Canada website when this error appeared. The service that provided BOC's date/exchange rates failed and produced an empty page with a horrible error message. Aside from a confusing message which a normal user would never understand, what should a user be thinking?

Not only does this error concern me, it doesn't make me want to trust BoC's online services nor does it give me faith in the BoC brand. There will always be a risk when dealing with external services, Javascript libraries or font-replacement services; the question is whether the gains offset the risks? After seeing this error, how much are you more willing to trust this online bank with your money?

Practical applications to reverse-engineering

I find myself spending a lot of time reverse-engineering other people’s work. That is, it’s rather typical that clients have existing systems and frameworks where the amount of documentation is tragically inadequate. The trick is to learn as much as you can about the author(s) and then emulate what they’ve done. And although it’s rather cliché to say this, you really can learn a lot about a person by sifting through their code.

I was working on a project last year which involved developing work specifically targeted for the Nintendo Wii browser. Even though it is powered by Opera, it doesn’t behave the same way as its desktop cousin. The issues are compounded by the fact that there is no official documentation from either Nintendo of America, Europe or Japan; thus it was necessary to break down the issues myself. The full list is a lot more explicit so I’ll simply fire off some of the most glaring facts:

1. There lacks metrical data to gauge the user's environment. The following issues remain unresolved:
   • There are different Nintendo Wii browser versions and they’re linked to firmware patches.
   • There are different versions of Adobe Flash for the Wii browsers. While one version of Flash can handle video well, the other doesn't.
2. During the initial launch of the console, the Wii browser costed $5. Someone found a hack to enable one of the apps –which then allowed for a modified version of the onboard browser to run: The legitimate $5 browser had a different resolution than the hacked. In 2009, the decision was made to offer the Wii browser at no charge, but the divide was already set.
3. What are the dimensions one can work with on the Wii browser? 800x600? No. An obscure width to the likes of 813px. What’s even more strange is that when the <BODY> has a CSS width of 100%, any <DIV> set to “100%” will be locked at 813px.
4. The Wii has a feature that allows users to zoom in and out of the page. This feature – coupled with the onscreen menu — throws Javascript haywire because the viewable screen height constantly changes.
5. Anchor tags <A> as well as tags which can be clicked (ie. adding the Javascript function "location" to a div) will always have a visible border around it. I've yet to find a CSS or Javascript solution to this unsightly issue.

From this experience, I can only conclude that web development experts weren’t initially consulted by Nintendo before the browser was integrated onto their console. Since I don’t personally own a Wii, the likelihood that I'd develop personal work for such a platform is very slim. In any case, good luck to all those who have an interest in it!

A question of usability

Vancouver’s public transportation, Translink, has low-rider buses with confusing doors. That is, those who ride the bus are already familiar with the idea of pressing a button to open the exit doors. Bombardier (the makers of these buses) has broken convention and nicely camouflaged pressure-sensitive strips at the edge of the doors. When pressed, these strips will cause the doors to open. Some immediate problems about this new method of interaction:

1. The trigger to open the doors is both unconventional and hidden.
2. Those who cannot read English will not understand how to proceed.
3. As an accessibility issue: the elderly and mentally challenged riders with visual impairments are directly affected.
4. After pressing the trigger, no indication is provided to a user that their command was accepted by the system.
5. Activing the trigger produces different results because in order for the door to open, the bus driver needs to "enable" the doors first.

I will be blunt in stating the most immediate and obvious flaw of this design: There is no reason for a door to be so complex that instructions need to be made. If this were a website, it would be unacceptable. Websites built with usability in mind would never have a “how to use this website” page because the site should be intuitive enough for it to be unnecessary.

Although I tend to be quite critical with my coworkers and colleagues about maintaining a certain level of usability, I will admit that the technology sector is one of the industries putting a lot of effort in pushing for better usability standards. For companies like Bombardier, their work needs to be scrutinized to an even higher degree because their footprint in society often exceeds that of any website.

Metrical data and Vancouver’s housing market

Just recently, a staff reporter from The Vancouver Province wrote an article detailing his opinions on why the Vancouver housing market is inflated. In it, he cited Asians from China as being the primary reason. Now, aside from the reporter blatantly writing a speculative piece and trying to push it out as “fact”, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a lack of professionalism from a newspaper reporter. This was the first time I’ve ever written a formal complaint and I’ve yet to hear word back from TVP.

To recap the article:

1. The reporter cold-called different ReMax realestate locations and asked for imprecise and approximate statistical data about ReMax sales.
2. The reporter did not get any “official” ReMax sales statistics regarding the percentage of homes being sold in Vancouver in relation to the number being sold specifically to Asians from China. (I know for a fact that ReMax does not in any way keep track of this information in any official manner.)
3. This reporter did not state the credentials he has to make an assessment or conclusion of the housing market or what is the determining factor causing such inflation.

A reporter with an unknown realestate background, gathered his information from conversations, tallied data from just one segment of realtors, did not check the accuracy of what was said, postulated and then blamed a group of visible minorities for the pricing increase –- a group who most probably would not have the capacity to defend themselves from such accusations.

For the housing market to increase, there needs to be a number of different factors; not just that homes were sold. What was the percentage of buyers who were Chinese and the percentage of those who weren't? Those who purchased homes, did they pay above or below market value? How did the reporter derive that the purchasing of homes from Asians equated to an overall price increase in the market?

What I found upsetting about this article was that it was written in a way to put Asians in a negative light. The title of the article could just have easily stated "Homes in Vancouver a prime asset for Mainland Chinese" or "Mainland Chinese are investing in Vancouver homes". Such titles state FACT. Forming an opinionated hypothesis is anyone's prerogative but to do so on print and without any concrete evidence? Disappointing.