Changes:

• Added: Defaults preferences to set various options.
• Added: WideMailPrefs application in the dmg for user friendly setting of defaults.
• Added: Relative date formats for “Today” and “Yesterday”.
• Fixed: Second row in WideMail Column does not change text color when row is selected and therefore is hard to read.

Read the original post here: WideMail 0.1.2 Released.

Working with really smart dedicated people make projects so much more enjoyable. I get really excited to know that there is no problem that someone I work with cannot figure out. The current team working on a Facebook application really rocks. It shows when people really care about what they are working on. I have worked with may smart individuals in the past, but right now, I feel like its everyone. It’s awesome. Everyone is super excited to work together, and do whatever it takes to get it done.

I recently attended the Phoenix Facebook Developer Garage, there were some great presentations. Dave Morin from Facebook talked about the platform, Chris Johnson talked about Marketing Applications, and Joel Neubeck talked about Application Development.

One of the guys I have learned the most from recently is Joel Neubeck. He recently wrote about Link Tracking in Facebook (which blew my mind, because of what data he was able to track). Joel has done a ton of Facebook work lately, and I find myself daily saying ‘Dude, that’s awesome’, in regards to some of the stuff he has figured out how to do.

So to celebrate the awesomeness, I snapped the photo above. This is the group working in our main office, a mix of Production and Development. From left: Steve, Mike, Rob, April, Ritchie, Myself, and Justin.

Blue Beanie Day? Yeah, I know it’s super geeky, and lots of people will think its weird. But today I am supporting web design done right.

Check out the Facebook Group, as well as the Flickr Pool.

Yay for web standards.

On the other hand, I’m enjoying Todoist quite a bit. As a relatively new product it’s far from perfect and it’s missing a few key features, to be sure. At the same time though, it’s a sparingly designed, lightweight online application that takes literally moments to understand and master. And its interface is not only pleasingly minimal but the design also smartly eschews the ‘Web 2.0 look.’

The tool is Todoist, and its awesome. I just started using it about 20 minutes ago, and I am really loving it. Maybe I will touch base in a couple weeks and let you know how its going. Well, go check it out. And let me know how it works for you, or if you use anything else to do the same thing.

Dave Morin started the night off with some great facts about the facebook users and some of the facebook apps including Photos and Events. It was amazing to see the numbers of users using these apps. Dave also talked about the Platform and how it has grown.

Chris Johnson from Terralever talked about how to market your facebook application.

And one of the highlights of the night was Nate Warner from Red Bull talking about the ‘Roshambull’ application. It was great, Nate did not hold anything back and was vary candid. The most interesting part to me was to hear about what things they did wrong/right with the app. I was really nice hearing about what things did not work, and how that information made them rethink, and build the app even better.

Tempe Center for the Arts.

Dave Morin from Facebook.

A bunch of Terralever employees.

Our aim is to inform our readers about the latest trends and techniques in web-development - clearly, precisely and regularly. We don’t try to convince you with the quantity, but with the quality of the information we present. That’s what makes us different. In fact, we smash you with the information which will make your life easier. Really. About Us

If you have not visited yet, DO IT. Some of my favorite posts are the ‘Best Of’ for each month. There is always a few things they put in that I missed during the month, and get so excited they highlighted.

Check out the past 3 months worth:
Best Of October 2007
Best Of September 2007
Best Of August 2007

Give them a read and let me know what got you excited.

Just a quick note - The Facebook Developer’s Garage is tonight!

More info: Facebook Developer’s Garage - Phoenix, and the Facebook Group, previous post.

Update: It’s Over - Phoenix Facebook Developer’s Garage

I have to say they are a challenge, but a fun challenge. One of the developers, Justin and I were chatting today about this one new app we are working on and we both realized that we are learning so much about Facebook applications during every piece of function we write. Funny. But awesome too. There is so much to learn about the platform and how to use it, its so powerful.

One of the cool things that I found out today was collecting information about a user when they uninstall an application. I have never really wanted to collect any info on the users before, but the client we are building for right now wanted to collect a bunch of info about the users when they uninstall their app.

What we really wanted was the uid from that user. So, in the facebook documentation Post-Remove URL, they list all the POST variables. But I was having a hard time getting that info. Even watching with fiddler, I could not get the fb_sig_user. Finally, we just had to believe it was there, and sure enough it was.

uid = Convert.ToInt64(Request.Form["fb_sig_user"]);

There it is the C# used in the Post-Remove page. Awesome, I wish all facebook stuff was that easy.

Next up, the Fb:dialog. YAY.

A common misconception among web designers is that good design delivers good user experience by default. Too many of us focus on the visual design and so-called “accessibility”, without paying sufficient attention to what really underpins UX. mpress

I do believe that UX is one of the most important aspects of building a site or app, but I also think that good design is even more important. I do think that good design leads to better UX, in most cases. I have worked with designers that have been educated in using the tools to produce a design, BUT they don’t really have the creative eye or attention to details. I don’t think that design is a skill can be taught, I think it can be honed, but its just something that is part of someone’s makeup.

During my time at one of the greatest universities ever (U of Arizona), I spent a couple of years in the Architecture department. It was so obvious that you could not teach someone to be a good architect. Without the basic understanding of spacial relationships it just doesn’t work. I believe its the same with design. You can teach someone to be better with layout, typography, and color, but without the basic understanding and chemical makeup, they just don’t get it. Ok, I got a little bit off topic, back to UX.

I also just read a good article - The Five Competencies of User Experience Design. It talks more about the process and deliverables, but still very interstings.