User Experiences

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Cloud responsibilities

December 12, 2009 in User Experiences, User Interfaces by hugo.mag | No comments

New applications developed under the all-in-one cloud umbrella (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, etc.) have several responsibilities that are often referred by IT specialists: They need to be more agile, create new markets and reach far more customers, help lowering Total cost of ownership (TCO), create new business models, etc, etc, etc. than their Off-the-shelf older cousins.

In this large umbrella I’m specially interested in business applications that are used by normal users (non techies). These type of applications have another responsibility: They need to change the way non-IT users perceive and use business software.
I state this because when I talk to friends, coworkers and even family about their use of business software I always have the feeling that they hate working with them (ERPs for example). These users too often become angry users that avoid working with software for as long as they can. Many times they tell me that these business aplications are difficult to use, have too many options (that clutter the user interface) and fail too many times. Some of them even have found ways to taken advantage from software bugs so they can get around some limitations in this systems.
Besides being an IT guy, I’m also an user and to be honest too many times I have the same feelings.

In the cloud ecosystem we already see some players that serve as a good example of transforming these angry users in happy ones. One of them is 37 signals. Their release of basecamp some years ago helped users to move from big systems (like Microsoft Project) to a clean and simpler approach of “less is more” in the project management area.

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Lets start controlling the Internet…

July 30, 2009 in User Experiences, short-thoughts by pcalcada | No comments

Controlling the Internet is not on the plans of CloudViews.Org, but if we were allowed or have the opportunity to do it we will definitely choose to do it as Rives is planning.

This is very off-topic, but at the same time it’s a very thoughtful presentation, specially for those who are planning vacations… :)

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Cloud Computing: The “low cost” arrived to IT business?

May 31, 2009 in CloudViews, User Experiences, short-thoughts by Maria Spínola | No comments

The low cost products and services are here, either at supermarkets, airlines, holidays, automobiles, hotels, food-chains, etc., and we use them because, sometimes, we really don’t need all the features of the non low cost products and services.

In my opinion, the Cloud Computing, in a way, is the “low cost” for IT business.

Let’s take the example of Traditional CRM software versus CRM as SaaS:

  • Traditional CRM software : They earned a bad reputation by bringing with it integration and customization demands that easily spiraled out-of-control. So as a result, there was the feeling that CRM software was a huge head-heck and a huge waste of money with no practical results.

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  • CRM as SaaS: what have SaaS vendors done? they provide just-enough customization in a very easy way, and they shifted integration responsibility from the clients. So as a result CRM as SaaS is simple to use, economic and with practical results.

Or the example of infrastructure such as Amazon’s S3 and SimpleDB versus conventional enterprise counterparts (distributed file systems and relational databases) : they can’t be compared to their conventional, however they offer the basic features that everyone needs  (and also one huge advantage: vast scalability)

In other words, we can say that the use of the 80/20 rule is actually a common theme across cloud technology, and what might appear to be a limitation is actually a secret to success: it gives customers what they actually need in a very easy and cheaper way.

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Cloud computing: changing the way we work

April 21, 2009 in Basic Views, IT Departments, User Experiences by acc | No comments

Quoting an article in the ACM TechNews, Monday, April 20, 2009, bulletin:

«Cloud computing has the potential to create irreversible changes in how computers are used around the world, says David Carrera, director of the Cloud Computing (CC) research team at Spain’s Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC). Carrera says cloud computing technology’s objective is to move any applications stored on a computer to a remote location, eliminating all the standard components, including operating systems and hard drives, which are necessary in today’s computers and make them accessible online through a standard browser. Traditional computers will become obsolete, and instead of traveling with laptops, users will be able to rent a computer and access all of the information and programs online. Carrera says the ultimate goal of cloud computing is to mix and manage applications in an intelligent manner. For example, cloud computing could be used to create software that monitors the response of a machine or appliance in real time and controls its power supply, optimizing energy use and saving money, Carrera says. The CC team is researching systems for coordinating the thousands of terminals and nodes that compose the cloud, a major concern of technology companies. “By applying artificial intelligence to the cloud, we are hoping to develop a system through which computers can manage themselves,” says UPC professor Ricard Gavalda»…

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Cloud Gaming, would it be possible? – I believe it will!

March 30, 2009 in News, Technical, User Experiences by pcalcada | 2 comments

In a recent post, JC Fletcher talks about the service promoted by onlive.com gaming platform. In this post he talks about some subjects on which the Cloud Gaming could have problems, namely the video encoding process and the latency on communications. In previous posts I already have talked about some of these questions and also about the projects developed by AMD on this field, but the information provided by the JC’s post will help introduce some new thoughts on this matter.
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Moving forward in the PC Webization process

March 6, 2009 in CloudViews, User Experiences, User Interfaces by pcalcada | No comments

As many of us are defending, and  many of us are heavily criticizing (ex: blog 1,blog 2), the process of PC webization will be one of the greatest achievements of the Cloud Computing paradigm. Despite the fact that we can’t even call it a process, in my perspective, a process must be something with a well defined starting and with an predictable ending point, preferable with a developing plan or study. The PC webization is already happening, and  directly or indirectly, is already potentiating great technological developments.
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Can he live in the cloud for more than one week?

February 28, 2009 in CloudViews, User Experiences by hugo.mag | No comments

Don’t know about you guys, but I’m looking forward to see what Christopher Dawson will write after he spends one week living in the cloud and if he will remain in the cloud or return to his normal e-mail client and word documents saved in his hard drive. This is an interesting experience because he will tell us, from his experience, if the online scaled down versions of software like Office and others are sufficient (and maybe even better) for most documents we write.

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