Scott Hanselman

I'm starting to resent Apps like I resented CD-ROMs.

I started playing this evil little game called Tiny Tower last week. It's effectively a Sim-Tower-heroin-clone-resource-management game. Every few hours I return to feed the beast make sure the little "Bitizens" are OK. Moving things, managing resources, restocking virtual shelves with new virtual goods. Mindless and addictive, but pointless.

The Update Beast

I realized that I'm doing the same thing with the apps on my phone. I'm always feeding the Update Beast. How often have you looked at Non-Technical Friends phone and showed them how they need to update their apps? All the time.

Installing Apps is like the old Flash CD-ROMs of the 90s. We couldn't do something on the web or over the wire so we used the ultra-high bandwidth of sneakernet along with native APIs to deliver richness. Then we'd endlessly download updates and patches (*cough* Diablo *cough*) until either a new CD-ROM was released or bandwidth increased enough to effectively deliver the whole CD-ROM over the wire.

If you had to install updates to Facebook, do you think you'd use Facebook very long? Auto-updating fixes only part of the problem. Sure, we'll get that feature one day, but the apps are still little islands of functionality that don't talk to each other. It's great that they talk to the Cloud and to various services, but few apps know they aren't alone on my phone. In fact, nearly all my apps live in the Tiny Tower of my phone but think they are alone.

Go Somewhere, like the Web

But as a user, more and more, I want to Go Somewhere and get functionality as opposed to Bring Something To Me to get functionality. Managing apps, updates and storage is as pointless as my managing my growing Tiny Tower.

If all these hundreds of apps were places I could go, link to, always updated, and always fast, would they still be apps? Would they just be bookmarks? I think they'd be something else. Web Apps are largely a hack today, no matter what browser you're running. But when what you can do in the browser matches what you can do outside the browser, interesting pressures will start to be applied.

Native Pressures push the Web forward, The Web pressures Native Apps

Native apps have the advantage of a richer experience right now.  But the water level is rising and every time I think I've seen it all on the open web someone goes and ports freaking DOOM to HTML. Yes, JavaScript, HTML and CSS is a mess and it's hard, but it won't always be. As browsers get smarter native apps will introduce new interaction models, hardware accesses and new features. Those will get folded into HTML 9, then HTML 10 and the cycle will continue. I agree with Dave Winer that the real win is linking. That's the one thing that the Web brings that apps have yet to replicate.

I would hope that users just see better experiences and developers have more fun using better technologies and one day I'd just notice that the "Tiny Tower" of my phone had become a self-managing and connected system. Kind of like a real tower.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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UPDATE: Listen to a podcast I did on Comics and the move to Digital Comics for Fanboy Radio.

Like most folks my age, I grew up reading comic books. I remember the first early printings of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the spring of 1984, long long before they were a big thing, toys, or a movie. Most of my favorite memories of "flashlight reading" (reading under the covers with a flashlight because I was supposed to be sleeping) were with early copies of X-Men or X-Factor.

But as with time, life happens, wife happens, and I moved away from my weekly visit to the comic book store.

Fast forward and over the last four years I've been reading digital books more than ever. Digital reading just totally works for me. I have one Kindle device to read on, which is convenient, but I've also (slowly) learned to trust the cloud. I realize that DRM is evil and that I'm not supposed to trust the cloud, but I do so far. Regardless, I've built up a nice little digital library of Kindle books that I've enjoyed very much.

A year or so ago I discovered that comics had made the leap to digital and I tried subscribing to Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited. It promised a reasonably priced annual plan and 10,000 comics online. Netflix for Comics. Sounds great, right? Sure, but you could only access the comics on a desktop computer. There is no access from portable devices like iPads. This is still the case a year later. What a silly limitation given the fact that a tablet device is tailor-made for comics.

Then I found Comixology. Digital comics done right, in my opinion. You buy them at reasonable prices (there's lots of 99 cents and most are under $3) and they are in your account in the cloud. The client application manages your local storage and you can always bring old comics back.

The most amazing part about Digital Comics is the "Guided View." I've told friends that they should check out comics before and they've said "meh" then I've brought out a reader and showed them how to really appreciate the art and detail with a panel by panel zoomed view and they immediately got it. "Oh, wow. THAT changes things." Here's what it looks like.

It's a brilliant way to make up for a relatively low resolution portable screen. It almost is like turning a standard paper comic book into a motion comic. The panels are smart and you never miss the text. It's optional, to be clear, but GuidedView is really worth checking out.

Comixology is a book reader, and as such has all the usual UX of a standard reader. Swipe forward and backward, but double-tap starts GuidedView. Embedded in the book is the correct direction to move, not only from panel to panel but also within panel. The camera always knows the optimal direction to move and ensures you can always view the text and appreciate the art. Additionally you can choose to show the whole page in full-screen either on enter, or exit of the page. The controls and interface stay completely out of your way. They aren't even visible in the tablet version. Surprisingly the GuidedView interface works extremely well even on a 3.5" phone screen.

There's Desktop, iOS, Windows Phone 7, and Android  versions of the application. It's a nice solid combination storefront and reader. It's quick organized and has a number of features that really showcase why digital comics are so clever. Of course, the experience is optimized to sell comics, but it's also optimized so that that engaged reader can continue reading.

The store interface is rich with metadata. You can view comics not only by the obvious Series, Title, and Author, but also more comic-specific things like Story Arc. Often comics have a multi-issue plot arc and just as we're used to seeing MP3s tagged with compilation metadata, these comics are as well. You can pivot from author to penciler, creator to story to story arc. It also includes collected editions which are the best "price per page" deal going.

For example, in this screenshot I'm at the end of a Compilation (many individual issues in one collected volume) and as I turn the last page I'm offered the choice to purchase and immediately continue reading the next. It's clean and seamless. Once the purchase is made, I can immediately start reading as soon as the first page is downloaded and the rest of the book streams in the background, buffered, similar to a video. I've actually burned through $20 this way reading entire story arcs of Superman and The Walking Dead.

Ironically my new digital obsession with comics also has me visiting the local library more often, checking out collected works and large graphic novels like Compendium One of the Walking Dead:

I've always been a big reader and I devour books on my Kindle but I feel like I've rediscovered comics with the convenience of reading them on a tablet. I've found that if you read the right ones and do your research, Comics (Grpahic Novels) are as engrossing and mind-expanding as a traditional novel.

My 5 year old recently discovered comics and we've used them to teach him how to read. There's lots of little kid appropriate books that are an inexpensive and highly engaging way to get kids stoked about reading.

My New Favorite Comics and Graphic Novels

Here's my favorite comics of the last year. Some of these like The Walking Dead, Invincible, Irredeemable and Chew are still continuing stories so I've used both the Comixology application as well as the local library to catch myself up and am now following them monthly. It's been so worth it.

• The Walking Dead - The definitive Zombie book. The world has ended and the story follows a small town sheriff as he wakes up in the middle of the end of the world, having slept through the entire thing while in a coma. It's now a great TV as well.
• Y: The Last Man - A story of Yorick Brown who becomes literally the Last Man on Earth after he survives a plague that kills every one with a Y-chromosome on the planet.
• DMZ - A gripping story of a near-future world that explores what would happen if America, while fighting wars overseas, neglected the home front and literally lost control of Manhattan. New York itself becomes a DMZ.
• Elephantmen - "In the year 2162, a madman named Kazushi Nikken creates giant hybrids of humans and animals - elephants, rhinos, camels, giraffes - and brainwashes them into an army of fearless killers. But the United Nations liberates the 'elephantmen' and integrates them into society."
• Invincible - Possibly the greatest superhero comic ever. It starts largely derivative but quickly expands to an homage to every superhero story ever. A young man is the son of the world's most beloved superhero and one day he develops powers. He eventually learns the story behind his fathers powers and the story moves to other worlds.
• Irredeemable - What happens when the greatest super hero the world has ever known finally cracks? If a Superman-type turned into the world's greatest villain and started killing millions, how could we stop him?
• Watchmen - Possibly one of the great comics of the 80s, if not one of the greatest graphic novels ever. A complex and clever a story as any novel.
• Chew -  "Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he's a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn't mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why." Irreverent and disgusting but always gripping.

What are you favorites comics, Dear Reader? Are you enjoying Comics' move to digital as much as I?

Sponsor: My thanks to DevExpress for sponsoring this week's ComputerZen feed. Introducing DXv2 – Welcome to the next generation of developer tools from DevExpress! Explore what’s new in the latest release.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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It all started in high school with Musical Theatre. Then it continued when I was teaching as an Adjunct Professor at a State University. I like talking to people. Now I've been doing it for 20 years (25 if you count "My Fair Lady").

While I've had an opportunity to share some tips and tricks for speaking over the years on my blog, I've never really felt the information was organized. I've presented on presenting, but never assembled courseware. I've written many posts on the subject, but never created an e-book. The information is here and there, but not well, ahem, presented.

Then Rob Conery came to me with the idea of a polished 1 hour video where he asks me to speak on an unfamiliar topic, I research and build the talk, then present on the spot. All filmed, all real, all legit. It was too good an idea to pass up. Complete with interviews, examples, demos, how I design story arc, my thought process - applied.

We did it.

I'm sincerely thrilled to share the results with you today. A lot of hard work late at night, hours of thought, more hours of editing, and a little TekPub magic later and we can happily bring you my first TekPub video (UPDATE: Now Pluralsight) "The Art of Speaking - with Scott Hanselman."

Perhaps you've given technical speeches at work and are considering a local user group. Maybe you've spoken at code camps and want to go national or international. Or, perhaps you'd just like to be more comfortable talking to the folks at your office and presenting to the boss.

It's included with your TekPub annual or monthly subscription or you can just buy the one video. It's packed with information and it's got that polish that TekPub is known for. Rob and I feel that this one hour documentary style video is a great introduction into the minds of a technical speaker with not only experience, but passion for the topic.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.

Scott Hanselman

Related Links

• Hanselman at TekPub - The Art of Speaking
  • http://tekpub.com/hanselman
• The Speaking category of this blog
• Hanselminutes on Channel 9 - Dozens of fun videos of me around the community
• Technical Presentations: Be Prepared for Absolute Chaos
• 11 Top Tips for a Successful Technical Presentation
• Tips for Preparing for a Technical Presentation
• Scott Hanselman's Original Tips for a Successful Presentation
• Presentation Tips PPT
• Developer Stand up Comedy - Coding 4 Fun
• How To: Convert a PowerPoint Presentation from 4:3 ratio to 16:9 without distorted or stretched images

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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It's probably not unfair to call me a Twitter Power User. I use it a lot, it's my favorite Social Networking site and I've written a number of reasonably popular articles on the topic.

• How To Twitter - First Steps and a Twitter Glossary
• Twitter: Let the Information Wash Over You
• Subtle but Very Important Twitter Tips and Techniques You Should Know (cause no one will tell you)
• A Social Media Brand Primer: Managing your (personal) brand with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
• Twitter: The Uselessfulness of Micro-blogging

I've used literally dozens of Twitter clients across almost every platform. Mac, iOS, Windows Phone, Android, and Windows. My current favorite is MetroTwit for Windows.

However, even though I've got a dozen Twitter clients installed, I keep coming back to the Twitter website itself. And for one reason: HotKeys. There aren't enough sites that use hotkeys in their web applications. Gmail and Remember the Milk come to mind as the best examples.

In Twitter you can press ? to get a Keyboard shortcuts popup. Take a few minutes and just try to learn four or five of them. I realize it's hard to hold all these in your head at once. These hotkeys have always been available since the first "New Twitter" but since "New New Twitter came out today, I though I share these little known features.

Some are easy, like F for Favorite and R for reply. These are context-aware hotkeys, though. That means they apply to the currently selected Tweet.

Replying to a Tweet with Web Hotkeys

Open up your Twitter and hit J or K. See how J and K move you up and down and select tweets? In this picture, you can see that Ken Jeong's tweet is currently selected.

I can reply to it at this point by pressing R at this point.

I can then hit Tab and Space to move to the Tweet button and press it. This is similar to Gmail.

So the process is, J and K to move up and down, R to reply, type your reply, then Tab, then Space. You'll be surprised at how fast you can get at this with a little practice.

Refreshing your Timeline

After replying to a few tweets, I might want to refresh my timeline and get new tweets. That's just the . (period) key to refresh and move to the top of the timeline.

Now the fun stuff.

Moving to other views, like Mentions

Some of the hotkeys are "chords" that are two keystrokes. They are really intuitive, though. G then H takes you home. That's pressing G, then pressing H. Don't press them at the same time.

My favorite three are:

• G H - Go to home
• G R - Go to replies (Mentions)
• G M - Go to DMs (Direct Messages)

Another great one is G U. That's Go To User, then start typing their name, then hit Enter.

More Advanced Hotkeys

A few more advanced ones now that you've got these down solid are:

• / for search

That's the same as ? for the hotkeys help, except without the Shift. Just / and your search time, along with Enter.

• Enter to open a Tweet Details

This one took me a second to understand. If I have a Tweet selected, like after using J or K to move around my timeline, I can hit Enter to see the current Tweet's details, like Ken's here:

Now I can see the Retweets, when it happened, who Retweeted it, etc.

A tweet's conversation view

The confusing part is that this tweet details will stay open in my timeline. I can have many Tweets "open" at once, and then use the L hotkey to collapse them all. It's a similar metaphor to Gmail's Expand/Collapse except it's all done on one screen.

When you are looking at a Tweet that is part of a larger conversation and you expand it with Enter, you'll be able to see Replies to that tweet in both directions, past and feature. For example, note this exchange with @VitaminJeff. You read top to bottom. Selected one of his tweets with the keyboard and hit Enter.

Above it shows the "reply chain" that started when he asked if I got my new laptop yet.

Twitter also found newer tweets than the original one I selected when we were being silly about our new words of the day.

What's nice about this is that Twitter is assembling the conversation neatly, again both past and future tweets, making it feel more like a conversation and less like a mess of tweets.

Spend a little time with the Twitter Website and really learn the hotkeys and I think you'll find it harder to move back to your 3rd party Twitter client. Even better, perhaps this will put pressure on the 3rd party Twitter client ecosystem to standardize on these same hotkeys. It would certainly lower the barrier to entry when trying out a new client.

See you on Twitter! @shanselman

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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Sometimes good UX is about being clever. Sometimes it's to make the user happy or smile. However, when the success of your product depends on new, possibly inexperienced users successfully downloading and installing it, good UX is the difference between success and failure.

I love what Dropbox has done here. I've noticed it for years and mentioned it in talks and to friends but I wanted to call it out here because it's so thoughtful.

When you go to download Dropbox, here's what you see on Internet Explorer. Note they've used a three step tiny screenshot sequence. Each of them isn't a real screenshot, but rather "evocative" of the thing an IE user would see. For example, the second User Access Control dialog isn't real, but it's close enough that it makes the point while still fitting into width of the page cleanly. Their Welcome to Dropbox Setup screenshot is the same way, distilling the essence of  what's coming while keeping the design consistent.

See below how the first screenshot shows what's coming and looks enough like the actual Save As experience that pops up seconds later as to guide the user to the next step.

Here's the attention to detail part. Here's what a Chrome user sees when downloading Dropbox. They see a Chrome specific download screenshot.

Here's the Dropbox download page when using Safari on a Mac:

In Firefox for Windows, they see a Firefox Save File dialog along with a different second step. In the second step Dropbox takes a chance and doesn't show the User Access Control screenshot, and is instead more concerned that the user will download the file but not run it. I've had this happen myself with Firefox a few times, where things get downloaded then forgotten.

Techies forget how something as trivial as downloading and running a file can be a huge deal for the average user. What Dropbox has done here is a nice touch over the standard big Download button. To accomplish something like this, not only did they need the initial idea but they needed to the will to do it. They thought it'd be useful and they made it happen. What can we do in our organizations, Dear Reader, to sell our innovated ideas up the management chain and make the happen? What kinds of things stand in our way? What do we tell ourselves? That's too hard, that's too involved, that's too difficult to test, and the list goes on.

We need to continue to push ourselves and our work groups to implement ideas that we know are right. We need to advocate for the Customer and always try to see things from their experience. I don't know anyone at Dropbox but I think it's a fair guess that not only did they have the will to implement this friendly download feature, but they also knew it was the right kind of attention to detail that their customers needed. What a nice, almost subliminal way to kick off your relationship with your users than a subtly customized download page.

Have you done something similar, Dear Reader? Share in the comments.

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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