Several examples came up of how very complex systems – be it a software application, a car, the human body – appear to be fairly easy to use by the user. A driver of a car does not need to be an automotive engineer, a baker does not need to be a mechanic to fix his mixer, nor do we all need to understand how a software application is built to make it work for what we need it to do. A user needs to understand what the tool offers and what they can achieve from using it. If one doesn’t understand the possibilities of how to use Photoshop or Illustrator, for example, then they will not understand the benefit of the tool. What a user doesn’t need to understand is how to get Photoshop setup on their Mac – set up should be simple and make logical sense, in layman’s terms. If every time we had to go into the shell account of our computer to install a software application, the industry of the web and software world would not be what it is today.

As web design, development and software programming professionals, we owe it to our users to make what we build as intuitive to the user as possible. If not, we’ve lost our user, a client, and the point. The most successful and appreciated products and software applications on the market are simple in the hands of the user.

The largest changes to the site are the design, the architecture and the way the content is presented. We went from 4000 pages to just under 700 currently, with a few more to come in as the site editors continue to build out the site.
My approach to this site was to tackle and present the navigation of the site from a users perspective – user-centered terminology as opposed to the old structure based on the org chart or generic terms. This did take some time for folks to get used to and at many a moment did we have site editors asking, “But how will users find content about my department?”

So we provided the “self-help” section of the site that’s included in the top-level navigation, as well as a location for individual departments to share their information about their division of Computing.

This project was a long time coming. We started the discussions 3 years ago and it wasn’t until within the last year or so did we get the buy in from the appropriate offices.

So here we are with user-centered architecture, clear and consistent design patterns for content and useful ancillary items, like the DartPulse alerts, that allow users to gather and view information as they need it all in one website. Overall a project well worth those endless discussions over terminology and appropriateness.

I have the apps I love on the iphone, but are not included here as they use the ‘location’ feature and may not work on the iphone.

. . .

You’ll have to check the write up in the itunes store if they work on an itouch – from my perspective there’s no reason they can’t, some you’ll need wifi access (I’ve noted these below*). Some are free, some aren’t but I can’t remember all.

Facebook app.* Great for keeping up.

Skype is available for the itouch to chat. * Also, you can use Fring to chat with any of the popular IM services (MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, AIM, Google Talk, etc).*

Fliq tasks is a simple task manager – to do list.

You can also check out Toodledo for to do lists – syncs with your itouch over wifi and you can add tasks by sending an email to a specific account, thru the to do list on toodledoo.com website or thru your iphone/touch app.*

Two shopping list apps – I use Grocery IQ for grocery items, and shopshop for items non grocery store.

Evernote is a great note taking tool which syncs with your computer thru an app there, their website evernote.com and on your itouch – wifi is needed for this.* Also works well as a scrapbook with snipets from the web.

TWC is the Weather Channel’s app and is very good.*

If you’re into reading RSS feeds, you can add them with the Free RSS app*

AP Mobile is good for news stories * as is NYTimes app*.

CheckPlease calculates the tip when going out with a bunch of friends and splitting the bill… but I think you’re able to do that no problem with your background, if I recall!

Compass Free is awesome in that it’s used like a real compass, based on the direction of the sun. Very low tech.

There are several apps that are great for getting movie listings, ratings, etc., but they may only work on the iphone because of the location feature – Showtimes, Flixster and IMDB.

PhoneFlicks allows you to access your Netflix account*

ACTPrinter allows you to print anything to your itouch – you do need wifi* connectivity to sync so it has the “printed” copy. Very cool. But only works with a Mac.

Public Radio TUner is great! Listen to any Public Radio station with a stream on the itouch.*

Also, Pandora is awesome for music* pandora.com

AppBox Pro is the swiss army knife of apps which you’ll probably get a huge kick out of!

Blowfish is a fun game – free too.

Carpenter is a cool tool too – some similarities to AppBox Pro above but also a plumb bob and level.

Labyrinth lite is a fun game – the maze with the ball and the wooden box.

If you can handle not getting motion sickness, Cro-Mag is a fun driving game where you “steer” with the itouch.

Quordy is the game Boggle on the itouch.

Kindle is the iphone/touch version for Amazon’s Kindle*

Ocarina and LeafTrombone are both great instrument apps which I think can work on the itouch…

Pac-man lite is, well Pacman.

Knitminder is great for keeping track of needles, projects, patterns.

Kayak allows you to search for flights hotels, etc. like on kayak.com.*

Meditator is a meditation timer.

WineSteward allows you to match your wine tastes with what you’re planning for dinner.

If you use getDropbox.com you can access your files on the itouch* use it as a “shared” file space between computers, and the itouch and access thru their website. This site saved my ass as I had all the printouts for my reservations for my Germany trip last year I’d left at home, BUT I had saved them all to my dropbox and could print them out from an internet cafe there! Awesome tool.

Dictionary – based off of dictionary.com = i think wifi is needed*

LUAN gives you the phases of the moon*

Magicball is free and it’s like the magic 8 ball. need i say more.

Stanza allows you to download and read books from various book sharing sites like the Gutenberg project, O’Reilly Ebooks, etc. * Books are free, as opposed to the Kindle app where Amazon books cost and you’ll find current popular titles there and not with the sources on Stanza, most likely.

Papertoss is a goofy game. Tossing paper at a trash can in a cubicle. Free.

IFfoundPlus allows you to add a phone number and email address to the wake up screen on your touch so should someone find your itouch and it’s locked, they’ll know how to contact you. I lock my iphone as it’s got my life info in there, for the most part.

That’s it for apps – to get sound out of the itouch, you might want to invest in mini speakers like the ChillPill (EMS sells them) as does SmallDog Electronics. Handy for listening to audio off the itouch sans earphones.