User Interface

Design Thinking and Process – Practical Examples (2 of 2)

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 29, 2010 ⋅ One comment

So, design thinking can have a positive impact on how you do what you do, and it may very well be hidden inside, waiting to get out. Ok, you are intrigued, you might even believe you can release the designer in you. Where to next? How to get started? Practical Expressions of “Good Design” Like [...]

Design and Change Management

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ September 14, 2010 ⋅ One comment

I have developed a few strongly-held architectural beliefs, and one came up in conversation last week, during a spirited discussion on minimal quality requirements for a[ny] data mart. I hold that the data copied from source to destination must be provably correct and complete with little effort. When agile-ly rolling staged deliverables into production, I [...]

Managing Change: Inspiration, Art, Science, and Execution

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ March 15, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment

Often, when trying to figure out how to “make things happen”, your focus switches between multiple targets. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? And How can I get the others to understand what I am doing? Real change happens along a continuum that stretches from The Big Idea to Real Results, and [...]

Training and Learning: A Different POV

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ August 18, 2009 ⋅ One comment

The topic was training users for an upcoming project rollout, and the debate (as always) roamed back and forth between “traditional” (classroom training, scripts & workbooks) versus “experiential”, pairing existing users with their counterparts (who are new to the system), walking through the basics (screen navigation, terminology, and step-by-step instructions for the most common required [...]

Stretching Your User Interface Design Muscles

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ April 16, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

A follow up to my previous post on innovation in user interface design: If you want to keep up with cutting edge thinking on technology – in a very approachable, effective format – ReadWriteWeb is a must for your feed reader. I’m constantly amazed by the number of solid articles they generate every week. Here’s [...]

The Innovation Generation and User Interfaces

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ April 10, 2008 ⋅ 2 comments

I don’t intend for all my posts about Millennials joining the workforce to be anti-youth. There are some significantly good things this new generation can bring to established organizations – ways of thinking that foster innovation and forward-progress in how organizations use information. For example, let’s talk about user interfaces (UI). I’m not an old [...]

Why are those Old Programmers so slow in picking up on the Intarweb?

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ April 6, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

A significant difference between us old-line IT coders and the new graduates is the variety of our platforms and tools. I’m not talking about the large number of languages and tools learned over the course of a career – we all have a healthy collection of certifications and acronyms peppering the bottoms of our resumes. [...]

Thoughts on Why Tech Folks Hate Documentation

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ July 8, 2006 ⋅ 4 comments

I’ve had some flashes of insight on why technical folks don’t like to document stuff. Currently, I’m thrashing thru a skunkworks project that is evolving into something that will need to be reasonably available, robust, etc. I’m also trying to lead by example; I ask my teams to build for sustainability and document so they [...]

The good and the bad about being a hands-on tech manager

By Jim MacLennan ⋅ January 25, 2005 ⋅ Post a comment

Interesting project that I have to take a deep-dive on this week – has to do with automating a piece of barcode printing software, and integrating it with a newly developed labeling process out in the shop. Project was hitting some significant snags, and I was asked to step in. Here’s where hands-on software development [...]

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