Podcast: About Agile And Scrum With Michael Vincent | Usability Counts | User Experience, Social Media
I have been a huge fan of agile development and the Scrum methodology ever since I first started working with it years ago. The iterative nature of Scrum development lends itself so well to both obtaining and implementing user feedback that it’s hard not to like it. I just finished listening to a great interview with Michael Vincent over at Usability Counts where Michael and Patrick Neeman discuss how the use of an agile methodology like Scrum can enhance usability. Here are some of the key topics, but you should definitely hit the link below to listen to the podcast:
- How Scrum decreases the time between finding and correcting usability issues.
- The increased visibility into the development process given to users by teams using Scrum.
- The increased level of buy in for a project that can be obtained using a Scrum methodology.
Handy Tweaks To Make GIMP Replace Photoshop | How-To | Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine just published a great guide to help those of us using GIMP to get it to act a little more like it’s much more expensive conuterpart, Photoshop. For those of us that have been using GIMP for a while; some of these tips may be old hat, but even the most seasoned GIMP users may find something helpful. The tweaks they cover are listed here, but hit the link for more details.
- Add the PSPI Plug-In - Allows GIMP to use Photoshop plug-ins.
- Install Layer Styles - Add Layer Effects to GIMP such as: Drop Shadow, Inner Glow, Outer Glow, Gradient Overlay, Stroke, Bevel and Emboss, etc.
- Add CMYK Color Separation - Invaluable if you need GIMP for processing for high quality prints, etc.
- Install Liquid Rescale - Helps eliminate distortion when altering an image’s dimensions by eliminating unnecessary pixels in certain areas.
- Add Essential Brushes - Add new brushes to GIMP.
- Anchor Windows - Dock those free floating GIMP windows.
- Install Animation Package - Create animations in GIMP.
- Enable GEGL - Image library. See GEGL for more details.
Handy Tweaks To Make GIMP Replace Photoshop | How-To | Smashing Magazine
Don’t Forget The Basics
My wife is completely addicted to Top Chef, which more or less means I’m completely addicted to Top Chef as well. One thing that perpetually frustrates me when we watch the show together is how many people get knocked out of the competition due to a simple lack of preparation. I could understand the first season or two when people didn’t quite know what to expect from the show, but after five seasons it’s just crazy. Hearing something like “I’ve just never had to prepare something under these time constraints before”, or “I’ve never cooked Cajun food before” when the show is in New Orleans just drives me nuts! That may or may not be an actual quote from that season, but something like that happens every year. I honestly think they could do a season in Italy and someone will show up having never made lasagna before. And don’t even get me started on the people that send food out without tasting it first…
Come on people! You are going on a cooking show that is looking for the best new talent out there. You know they are going to throw some crazy challenges at you. Get some of your chef buddies together, have them toss random ingredients at you, give yourself 10 minutes to make something wonderful, then serve it to them and have them critique you into the ground to give you a head’s up about what you need to work on. And please, please familiarize yourself with the local cuisine of the city the show will be taped in. The people that are consistently successful aren’t the people who know how to cook every possible dish that might be thrown at them because that person doesn’t exist. The successful people are the ones who have done the basic preparation to be ready for whatever gets thrown at them and have the ability to be flexible enough to deal with whatever that is.
It’s funny, but people do this all the time in our professional lives, too. How many meetings have you been to that dragged on and on because the person that called it had no real agenda set out before you got started? I’ll bet somebody at one of those meetings showed up without a pen and paper, then failed to follow up on whatever they were assigned as well. Sometimes we just get caught up in the hectic nature of our work. Sometimes we’re just plain lazy, but it doesn’t change the fact that basic preparation and knowledge of the situation you’re dealing with is a fundamental requirement for success.