One of my favorite topics is the influence of business decisions on interface design. It's an unfortunate truth that the underlying business structure and decisions will invariably affect the interface. It's important to recognize this fact and work to improve both simultaneously.
Comments: 6 (view/add your own)Last time, I went into my vision of a simpler bug and issue tracking life-cycle. This time, I want to focus on one of the manifestations of a simpler process—the status bar.
One of the easiest ways to improve an interface is to use ambient indicators to help set user expectations and effectively communicate and reinforce simple concepts. OS X does this rather elegantly with its close buttons on windows.