EveryJoe » Dabble DB

Dabble DB helps you pick the right check box

Tris Hussey — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:12:07 +0000

Dabble DB continues to help their users use Dabble DB better with all their applications. Today’s tip/tutorial is–Checking the right boxes–more on getting your UI just right in your application.

Might be simple, but if your users can’t use the application–then everyone’s time has been wasted.

Post from: EveryJoe

Dabble DB helps you pick the right check box

Canadian companies in the Webware 100

Tris Hussey — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:25:50 +0000

Checking out the list of the Webware 100 Finalist list I noticed several familiar names…

ConceptShare
Productivity
CoverItLive
Publishing & Photography
Dabble DB
Productivity
Flickr
Publishing & Photography
Flock
Browsing
Mobivox
Communication
StumbleUpon
Social
WordPress
Publishing & Photography
Source: All the Webware 100 finalists in one place | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

Okay I know that Flickr, Flock, StumbleUpon, and WordPress aren’t Canadian per se, but Flickr and SU were born here and both Flock and WordPress have folks up here.

Still this list is very impressive. CoverItLive is one of my new fav online apps. If I have a solid net connection at a conference, be sure I’ll be using it to cover the sessions.

There are also several companies on the list who aren’t Canadian, but are ones I really like:

BlogTalkRadio
Audio

Carbonite
Utility & Security

Delicious
Social

Feedburner
Publishing & Photography
FeedHub
Browsing
Firefox
Browsing

Gmail
Communication

OpenDNS
Utility & Security

Picnik
Publishing & Photography

Scrabulous
Social

Skype
Communication

Techmeme
Browsing
Technorati
Search & Reference
ThinkFree Online
Productivity

Twitter
Publishing & Photography

Congratulations to all the finalists … this is a great time to try a new app or three. Sure some of the folks (IE, Yahoo, and all the Live services) are nothing terribly new or innovative, but they do influence the Internet and how we use it.

Update: Thanks to Greg at TechVibes for pointing out that I missed Toronto-based Octopz in my list of Canadian companies. Cool, another company to check out!

Post from: EveryJoe

Canadian companies in the Webware 100

Dabble DB Improves their combo boxes

Tris Hussey — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 06:56:42 +0000

It’s a simple thing, but user interface is so important and when developers care about that it makes a huge difference for users. The folks at Dabble DB have a post on their blog about combo boxes that is a good read. Why? Because it shows, to me at least, that they are thinking about what users need:

Today’s blog post isn’t about a new feature to Dabble DB, but to me, the user interface designer, it feels just as significant.
Interface design on the web can be both simple and complex. The simple path is often the wisest. Don’t deviate from what everyone else does and people will figure out your interface. That’s why you see blue links everywhere on the web: not because there’s anything special about blue, but because that’s what everyone is used to.
Sometimes though, the norm doesn’t quite cut it. Or worse, there is no norm to do the cutting in the first place. One example is the combo box widget. A “combo box” is what we design nerds call it when a text box has a drop-down menu attached and they interact. (And a “widget” is interface-design-speak for a thing that you interact with, like a text box or a button.) In theory, when you start typing in the text box, a drop-down menu appears below, and shows choices related to what you’ve typed. Ideally, it changes quickly as you type. Source: Dabble DB Blog: Building a better widget

Simple. Elegant. Important. Love it. Props to them.

I still haven’t used Dabble DB, to be honest, but that’s only because I’m not generally a DB guy. I’ve talked with Avi a bunch, last time was Office 2.0. I think I need to touchbase again and see what’s up with Dabble.

Post from: EveryJoe

Dabble DB Improves their combo boxes