Two hours with Dr. Vassil Roussev

David Lago is a 3rd degree blackbelt in Google-Fu. I really have no idea how he is able to find the information that he comes up with on a nearly constant basis.  Last week for example, he began feeding me a new line of papers, publications and research centering around collaborative software systems.  I stay very much on top of emerging trends in collaborative applications and groupware, but I must confess that I rarely delve into the type of information and data that academia has produced and is currently producing.  The one common denominator in the majority of the research that David had provided me with was a name.  Vassil Roussev.  As is often the case with these documents and slides, you have to work pretty hard to get your hands on them all.  As an aside, Dr. Roussev has a new site that is being put together as we speak, so check here from time to time.  I will also be attepting to consolidate his work on collaborative systems and software, but in the mean time you can find 4 of his papers here for sure.

With a little additional digging, David discovered that Dr. Roussev is currently a professor at the University of New Orleans, a stones throw away!  Given the nature of our company, our mission, and our forthcoming platform, we were stoked at the possibility of showing Dr. Roussev what we are working on.  Fortunately, after a bit or correspondence, Dr. Roussev agreed to sit down with us.  Unfortunately, David couldn’t make it.  Boy did he miss out   I was intent on not consuming too much of the Doctors time and I had a clear cut agenda.  3 questions.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Dr. Roussev was kind enough to answer my 3 questions, and then provide me with nearly 2 hours of unabated honesty in the realm of collaboration, software development, and a litany of other areas in straight stream of consciousness style.

I will devote the next few posts to sharing some of this insight.  Granted, some of these things may seem obvious,  others are very insightful, and others raise more questions than they answer.  This is in the first person as I heard it.  I have broken my notes down into some loose sections.  One of the areas that we discussed was user interface design and I think that I will start there.

Roussev on UI design:

1.  Human beings like to use something pretty. There are a large number of people that will not use an app strictly on the basis that they do not find it attractive.   Keep it sexy, but keep it simple.

2.  Eye candy IS important, but it is a fine line. Be careful not to overdo it.  Remember!  Simple things just tend to work well.

2.  Everything that the user sees must have a metaphor. Every action and visual effect needs a reason.

3.  Successful UI is never an accident. Never.

4.  Do not incorporate visual effects because you can. You will be cute for about 5 minutes. Then you will be hated. Think Clippy.

4.  Everything makes sense now while it is small. How do yo display the information when this thing gets huge?  This is the challenge.  Even mid-sized enterprise will result in huge.  Solve this when it is small or you will never be able to.

5.  Think about how you organize your stuff on your desktop.  Ask around, you will uncover both innovation and consensus.  Leverage this data to create filtering options for your users data.

6.  Piggyback what works now. An Icon with mouseover preview may be more than enough. Whatever you do, don’t be microsoft office 07.

7.  Resist going for the wow factor.  Cool wears off rather quickly. Cool is hollow.

8.  Did I mention keep it simple?

Next:  Application Development