ERGOSIGN Blog

Qt just released a technical preview of its new, cross-platform development environment called Qt Creator. Since the primary goal is the facilitation of fast and easy development with the Qt application framework the design of its user interface is considered crucial.

ERGOSIGN supported Qt in conception and design of a user interface that allows every developer (from newbie to professional) to work productively from the beginning.

The final release of Qt Creator is planned for early 2009, the technical preview can be downloaded now at Qt’s project website.

At XTOPIA - the Microsoft conference for business, web technology, design and UX - developer, designer and decision makers will gather from Monday, November 17th to Tuesday, November 18th at the International Congress Centrum (ICC) Berlin to discuss the future of the internet for consumers.

Prof. Dr. Dieter Wallach - founder and CEO of ERGOSIGN GmbH - will debate the “great challenges of usability” with the leading heads of the German UX scene on the 17th of November at 3:30 PM. Additionally he will hold the presentation “Interaction Design: UX and Rich Internet Applications” on the 18th of November at 3:30 PM.

Furthermore, ERGOSIGN will inform you at booth #16 about the services offered, especially in regard to the design of innovative user centered web interfaces.

By popular demand here are the slides of ERGOSIGN’s presentation, held today at Internet World 2008 in Munich.

You can find the community “Earthfaves”, which was featured as a case study, here.

ERGOSIGN joined Open Usability in the efforts to improve the user experience of the open source user interface KDE (K Desktop Environment) for the operating system Linux.

KDE is Open Source, a movement that plays an undeniably crucial role in the development and improvement of software these days: Developers create - partly in cooperation with the industry - an added value, in which however the focus is not always on usability.

Internet World is the yearly meetingplace for all professionals and decision makers in the field of internet. It takes place in parallel to the Systems trade fair in the ICM (International Congress Center Munich) from October 21st to October 22nd.

Besides the trade fair itself a congress is held with presentations, case studies and live testings. Part of this will be Prof. Dieter Wallach, founder and CEO of ERGOSIGN GmbH, as well as Jan Groenefeld, who will participate by tackling the topic “social commerce” from the UI design perspective (Wednesday, October 22nd, 11:15 AM, Track 3).

Case study in this presentation is the community earthfaves, which will be launched in parallel. earthfaves allows users to find interesting places by facilitating personal networks of trusted people.

Hope to see you there!

The open source project qooxdoo is an innovative AJAX application framework that enables the development of rich internet applications without sacrificing amenities known from desktop applications. qooxdoo powers huge online applications such as the GMX webmailer.

A week ago qooxdoo 0.8 was released, a long-anticipated update featuring a complete rewrite of the GUI toolkit part.

The qooxdoo developers and ERGOSIGN collaborated closely and created the new default theme. The theme was designed to give a modern, pleasing look for qooxdoo applications to use but also to demonstrate the new UI capabilities introduced with version 0.8.

Head for the Demo Browser to check out the amazing UI (and other) features qooxdoo has to offer. The best of it all: it’s open-source - everyone  is welcome to use qooxdoo in their own projects!

(This post is only available in German.)

Mit Mozilla Labs ist jüngst eine Initiative gestartet, in der jeder - von der renommierten Designfirma bis hin zum Informatikstudenten - aufgerufen wird, mögliche Zukunftsvisionen der Web User Experience zu skizzieren oder gar in Form von Prototypen umzusetzen.

Den Anfang macht dabei das Aurora Konzept von Adaptive Path, der Firma von Jesse James Garret (wohlbekannt durch das Standardwerk “The Elements of User Experience“).

Aurora wird durch vier Konzeptvideos vorgestellt, die jeweils einen konkreten Use Case in den Vordergrund stellen sollen. Dem ersten verfügbaren Video liegt dabei der Austausch zweier Farmer via Web über Wetterprognosen zugrunde.

(Video am besten in HD ansehen: “Play” drücken, “HD” Button klicken, auf “Full Screen” zoomen und “Scaling off” schalten)

Um den Content (in diesem Fall die Website der New York Times) gruppieren sich dabei
- am oberen Rand Thumbnails der am häufigsten besuchten Objekte
- am linken Rand Thumbnails der zuletzt besuchten Objekte
- am rechten Rand eine Art Zwischenablage für Objekte und
- am unteren Rand ein Dock für die aktuell offenen respektive verbundenen Objekte.

Neben dieser offensichtlichen Umsortierung bekannter Elemente bietet Aurora auf den ersten Blick auch einige Neuerungen:

Durch einen Knopf (links oben) wird der “Spatial View” geöffnet. Hier werden - ähnlich der Time Machine von Apple - ehemals verbundene Objekte in einem dreidimensionalen zeitlichen Kontext dargestellt: Je älter das Objekt, desto weiter verschwindet es in den Hintergrund. Faszinierend dabei ist die These, dass sich die Objekte - im Zuge des vielzitierten “semantischen Webs”- automatisch zu homogenen Clustern gruppieren. Beim Browsen durch die verbundenen Objekte am unteren Bildschirmrand wird dabei das passende Cluster hervorgehoben.

Aurora trägt außerdem der Entwicklung des Webs hin zu einer vollständigen Trennung von Darstellung und Daten Rechnung. So kann Alan im Video eine benutzereigene Visualisierung (Linengraph) aus der Zwischenablage per Drag&Drop auf eine Tabelle in einer Website ziehen, um die Information personalisiert aufzurufen.

Insgesamt ist das Aurora Konzept - dem ersten Video nach zu beurteilen - eine sehr interessante Studie, auch wenn sich spontan Zweifel an der Effizienz der (ausschließlichen) Bedienung durch das radiale Menü aufdrängen. Vielleicht wird hierauf ja in den folgenden Videos eingegangen, vielleicht ja auch mit Jills Eingabegerät, dem haptischen 3D-Controller Novint Falcon.

Ebenfalls spannend könnte die Integration in die User Experience des restlichen Betriebssystems werden, die hier nur im Hinblick auf Kommunikation und Kollaboration angerissen wurde.

With the goal to improve the services for South German clients, ERGOSIGN opened a branch office in Munich on June 1^st 2008. ERGOSIGN’s existing client base in the Munich region and the neighbouring states (as there are for example the European Patent Office, RTT AG, UC4 GmbH, SALT Solutions, Adito, C4B, TechnoAlpin) do already benefit from the new office’s proximity.

The central location of the Munich office in the Maxvorstadt, Augustenstraße 73, two subway stops from the central station and only a stone’s throw away from the Munich Technical University (TU München) ensures for excellent accessibility. Via subway and rail connection, you can get to the “Franz Josef Strauß” airport in about 40 minutes.

ERGOSIGN expects the opening of the Munich branch to give similar positive impulses as the founding of the Hamburg office at the end of 2006 did. 

The success of ERGOSIGN’s expansion strategy shows up after half a year already.

Apart from new client companies which are located directly in the city of Hamburg like the telecom corporation Freenet AG or the publishing specialist SoftCare, ERGOSIGN managed to acquire clients from the Northern German and also Northern European area like the IT provider GuideCom, Lufthansa Technik, Becker Marine Systems, Goalscape and B+M Informatik.

“With the new Munich office, the branch in Hamburg and the head office in Saarbrücken, ERGOSIGN ensures an ideal accessibility to our clients in the most important IT centres of Germany’s southern, northern and western regions. Furthermore, the Munich office is a vantage point for accessing the Austrian and Swiss market”, as Dr. Marcus Plach, CEO of ERGOSIGN, points out. 

A new case study describes how ERGOSIGN helped the company Scheidt & Bachmann with the design of their new generation of software. The focus was on the creation of a modern Look & Feel for the parking management system entervo both on the desktop and at the pay machine.

By popular demand here are the slides of ERGOSIGN’s presentation, held last week at Webinale 2008 in Karlsruhe.