Finally some new things building up in the User Interface Navigational Design field

Exactly when you think there isn't a lot of things that can wow you in terms of user interface and interaction design ...well here is one ..Its called ZUI ....Zoomable User Interface
Obviously its not completely revolutionary but its really interesting direction to explore and not just for mobile applications ...so here it is
P.S. I also recommend looking at the PS3 navigation system

Let an intelectual property lawyer enlighten you about industry trends

Today I've learned more stuff from an Intellectual Property Layer about the Industry trends then from any of my recent conversations,blog readings or news sites.
Yes the truth is, this is not a regular lawyer but the top patent lawyer of IBM but never the less, the analysis that he is laying out on industry trends, the level of understanding and the simple and understandable language he uses to explain complex problems...I think we all need to learn from him besides listening to what he has to say and he has a lot. Kudos again to Robert Scoble about his relentless pursuit of amazing video interviews with smart people.
Here is the link to the video.

List of books for Software Architecture related to Design Patterns

While browsing the Boston Flash Platform Group. I found a reply from the LA Flash Platform group that had suggested their list of books for software architecture in the context of Design Patterns. Yes these guys have a user group and actively discuss the application of Design Patterns for the Flash Platform.
And they even have Brightcove host the next meeting. Can you imagine what it would be to have the opportunity to be a part of such group...
I wonder why we have not tried to create such a group in Bulgaria so far. Is it because no one in the Bulgarian Flash Community does not use Design Patterns in their projects or just because Bulgarians don't like to share their know how :)
Let me know if there is anyone interested in such a discussion?

The list of books:
Refactoring to Patterns (The Addison-Wesley Signature Series) (Hardcover)

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture Volume 2: Patterns for Concurrent and Networked Objects

Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions

Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design

Българи нямат право да кандидатсват за Adobe Max Awards!

(това е небуквален превод на пост-а ми на английски за българската аудитория)
Ако сте българска компания занимаваща се с разработка на софтуер или решения за Интернет, работеща с продукти на Adobe, има всички шансове да сте чували за световно известното съзтезание Adobe Max Awards. Ежегодното съзтезание MAX Awards припознава най-добрите от най-добрите в света на интерактивни приложения, създадени с продукти или технологии на компанията Adobe

О, бихте си казали , световно състезание, и аз мога да участвам и целия свят да разбере за работата ми. Представете си какво би било дори само да достигнете до финалния кръг. Разбира се, човек би трябвало да е направил нещо наистина значимо преди дори да си помисли да участва на такъв форум.

Това се случи и със нашата компания Gugga. Отне ни 4 години и стотици проекти, сравнение с проектите на други компании участващи в съзтезанието преди дори да си помислим че имаме шанс да участваме.

Нито за момент не съм си и помислял, че е възможно да има списък със държави, които да имат право да участват!?
За наша най-голяма изненада бързо стана ясно, че ние нямаме право да участваме защото сме компания от БЪЛГАРИЯ!

Правилно сте прочели, в 2007 година, след като вече сме член на Европейския Съюз, Българите нямаме право да участваме във Adobe Max Competition.

Но нека за момент погледнем списъка със държави, които имат право....по-голяма част от държавите в ЕС могат, дори наши съседи като Хърватска и Турция имат право.

Ето и официалната позиция на Adobe (в превод, оригинала е в статията на английски):
" Благодария ву за интереса ви към MAX Awards. В отговор на вашето запитване, МAX Awards приемат номинации от много страни по света. В някой случай обаче, поради местни правила и ограничения наложени върху съзтезания и програми с награди ние не можем да отворим наградите за някой държави. Ние продължаваме да работим с нашите екипи по света в тези държави с надеждата да можем да включим техните проекти в бъдеще.

Я почакайте за момент. Какви местни ограничения?
Това е състезание което се провежда в USA. Няма парични награди, не можеш да вземеш пари от състезанието под никакава форма. Всично за което говорим е да получиш признание на такъв форум и е въпрос на чест да бъдеш припознат от колегите си в целия свят.

За целта аз реших да попитам малко по конкретно, и да получа обяснение за какви местни ограничения и правни проблеми става въпрос, ето и отговора на Adobe:

Нашето намерение не е да дискриминираме, а наистина да покажем иновативните приложения и проекти на нашите клиенти. За съжаление, на базата на определени правни ограничения ние не можем просто да отворим програмата като световен конкурс а сме задължени да предоставим списък със държави които нямат никакви ограничения за участие. Например определени държави имат изисквания, специални такси и т.н. свързани със провеждането на състезания, които ни забраняват да включим тези държави в списъка.

Това е първия път в който получаваме заявка за участие от България и ние определено ще препоръчаме на нашият правен отдел да я включи във списъка със държави имащи право да участват за в бъдеще.

Съжаляваме за причиненото ви неудобство и оценяваме вашето разбиране и гъвкавост по този въпрос. Благодарим ви за усилената ви работа по вашите проекти и се надяваме че ще обмислите кандидатстването си следващата година или участието си в програмата Adobe’s Site of the Day"

Колкото и учтив да е този отговор, най-вероятно написан от някой много образован служител от правния отдел на Adobe, всъщност това е обижда българския ни интелект.

Gugga е компания, която си е купувала продукти от Adobeосвен това е Adobe Solutions Partner.

От една страна Gugga е припозната като компания, която носи стойност за продуктите и технологиите, които Adobe разработва от друга само защото сме компания от България ние не нямаме право да участваме в това съзтезание.

Направих си труда и проверих, че няма правни проблеми, които да ни пречат да участваме в състезанието. За какво става дума тук въобще след като състезанието се провежда в USA. Най-общо казано нашите адвокати ми казаха, че това е смешно и че най-вероятно става въпрос за вътрешен проблем на Adobe, който няма нищо общо със правни проблеми в България.

И за това ви призовавам скъпи Български колеги да застанете зад нас и да ни подкрепите в това да променим тази абсурдна ситуация. Защото днес сме ние но утре ощетените може да сте Вие. В сучая не говориме за дискриминация на конкретна компания, а за индустриите те на цяла една държава.

Всеки, който се интересува от това да помогне за разрешаването на този проблем моля да се свърже с мен. Мисля че Българите заслужаме нещо по добро. Нашите продукти, нашата работа заслужават повече.

Bulgarians, forget about Adobe Max Awards you are not eligible!

If you are a Bulgarian Web agency or a software development company working with Adobe products chances are you have heard about the world famous Adobe Max Awards.
The annual MAX Awards recognizes the best of the best uses of Adobe software for creating engaging experiences.

Wow, you would think a world competition, and you can submit your work for recognition in the whole world. Imagine what it would be to even make it to the final round. Offcourse you must have done something really significant before you even consider submitting a project to participate in Adobe Max right?

This was the case with my company, Gugga. It took us 4 years and hundreds of projects, comparison with other companies projects that have been submited in MAX before we even decide that we feel eligible to even try.

Never would have cross my mind even for a second that there could be a list of countries that can submit!?
Much to our surprise it became evident that we are not eligible to submit because we are from BULGARIA!

That's right, in year 2007, when Bulgaria is already a member of the EU, Bulgarians are not allowed to submit their work for Adobe Max Competition.

But let's take a look at which countries are ...well most of the EU countries are , even our neighbors that are not even in the EU are allowed, for example Croatia and Turkey.

Here is the Adobe official position:
" Thank you for your interest in the MAX Awards. In response to your question, the MAX Awards accept nominations from many countries around the world. However, due to local rules and restrictions on contests and awards programs we are unable to extend the MAX awards programs to some countries. We are continuing to work with our global teams, and these countries, in the hope that we can include their projects in future years."

Now let's step back for a second here. What locale rules and restrictions?
This is a competition that takes place in the US. There is not money involved, you are not winning a price that you can cache so all we are talking about here is just a matter of honer and to be recognized inside the creative community arround the world.

So I decided to ask for a bit more specific answer, one that actually explains what are those locale rules and this is the follow up:

"Our intent is not to discriminate but truly to highlight our customers’ innovative applications and projects from around the globe. However, based on certain legal restrictions we are unable to simply open this program as a worldwide competition but required to list individual countries that do not have any restrictions about participation. For example, certain countries have requirements, special fees, etc. regarding contests that prohibit us from including those countries.

This is the first request we have received to include Bulgaria and will definitely recommend to our legal department as a country to add to the MAX Award eligibility list going forward.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding and flexibility with this matter. Thank you for all your hard work on your projects and hope there is one you will consider submitting for next year or consider for Adobe’s Site of the Day Program."

As politly this answer is , probably written by someone very educated corporate person from the legal department, this is really insulting our collective Bulgarian intelligence.

Gugga is a company that has purchased products from Adobe not to mention we are an Adobe Solutions Partner.

Gugga is recognised by Adobe as company that adds value to their products and technologies, but only because we are in Bulgaria we are not eligible to participate in the competition.

I took the liberty and checked and there is no legal issues that prevent us from participating in the competition. What are we talking about here since the competition takes place in the US. Basically our legal advisors told me this is rediculous and is probably only an internal corporate matter that has nothing to do with legal.

So I urge you fellow Bulgaria collegues let's make a stand and make this rediculous and insulting situation go away. Because today its us tommorow its you. We are not talking about something that discriminates a particular company we are talking about discriminating a whole country and its industry.

Anyone interested in pursuing this issue until its resolved please contact me. I think we as Bulgarians deserve better. Our products and efforts, our work deserves more.

What kids are becomming...

I'm stunned. I mean I'm speechless ....You have to see this to believe it
If this is going to be my daughter when she is 14 oh boy ....how do I keep with her.
Look at this kid ....the way he speaks about technology , economics , products , user experience ....Most of the people I know with a technology background do not have that understanding of the world of technology.

Why Technologists don't listen to people that actually try to use their products?

I had an interesting experience with a new social networking service deployed in the Bulgarian web space called Tutmanik. I had the pleasure to experience first hand how professionals from the web industry do not listen to their end customers and actually dismiss their opinion as if you are an ignorant lamer and they have a divine intervention in what they do and how they do it.

I started to use the service because a member of my family had invited me to go and check it out. Immediately there were several problems but that is ok after all I did not expect a commercial product quality. I contacted tutmanik and we had a brief skype call in which I tried to explain my self as a user not as a fellow professionals because I had the stunning idea that they would actually be open to listening.

Most of the time they have been open to listen to, were the ideas that they actually had.
At the end of the conversation I asked if they had any more questions thinking that they might actually want to use me and ask me a few usability questions. Much to my surprise they said they did not had any questions!

What was I suppose to think when instead of listening to what I had to say as an end user, they interrupted me all the time and tried to explain why they did this or did not do that.
Frankly all I wanted was to share my experience with them and let them sleep on it and decide how they want to improve their service but no . Most of the time their reactions were as if I should be learning their site instead of their site to be natural and easy to work and comprehand.

I never got to the point where I was going to say what I thing about their interface which basically looks like a tutmanik ( for English language speakers this is a traditional Bulgarian dish)

A people Hire A people

After a consecutive yearly research in the Bulgarian web space looking for A people that actually have something meaningful to say, this time I found an interesting post about hiring new people for a company that pushed me for this post. The quintessential of it was that "A people hire A people, B people hire C people".
There is something religious about this sentence besides the fact that its painfully true.
Smart people like smart people around them. They like to work , talk , live around people that complete them. When I say smart I don't mean just intelligent and educated but people that are professionals in the good sense of the word. People that know their value and are not afraid that hiring someone as smart as them will take over their position.

Those type of individuals actually realize that there is no way a team or a company cannot progress unless it has the A people to support the philosophy of a company and to truly believe in it.

And since this whole thought started within the Bulgarian air space let's turn it around and ask, do you see your self as an A person and how many such individuals do you know. How many of them work in your office? What is the experience working with such people when things just click and happened and you have the confidence that you can turn the world around if all of your team was of such an alien kind.

Why is it that such people usually don't find the time to say publicly what they think and you can just find and click with them.