Measuring Usability provides a Brief History of the Magic Number 5 in Usability Testing

Apple also claim to be relaxing restrictions on the development tools used to create iOS apps, as long as the resulting apps do not download any code. This should give developers the flexibility they want, while preserving the security we need.

It’s too early to tell what this might mean for Flash on the iPhone and iPad.

You can view the guidelines in the Apple Developer Center if you’ve got access, otherwise there are some sites that are making it available as a PDF, and it’s also on Scribd.

Psychologist, Dr. Susan Weinschenk takes research and knowledge about the brain, the visual system, memory, and motivation and extrapolates UX principles:

1. People Don’t Want to Work or Think More Than They Have To
2. People Have Limitations
3. People Make Mistakes
4. Human Memory Is Complicated
5. People are Social
6. Attention
7. People Crave Information
8. Unconscious Processing
9. People Create Mental Models
10. Visual System

Read the full article over at Luke’s website Functioning Form.

Smashing Magazine’s freebie, Keynotopia, is a free set of interface elements for Keynote that makes it possible for anyone to create these prototypes in minutes. All elements are hand-crafted in Apple Keynote, and organised in nested groups for easier manipulation and customisation. The templates can be used in Keynote 09 and 08 and are designed by Amir Khella.

At first glance, this looks like it could be incredibly useful for all UX professionals out there. Download the OmniGraffle stencil direct from Information Architects.

This post from UXmatters discusses the Usability of mobile devices and the effect that they have (for better or worse) on our daily lives.

…And so in steps Adobe Fireworks.

Ok, ok, so I agree that the idea of “re-work” is a slightly heavily weighted if not clumsy argument and there is no such thing as a tool for all seasons, one-stop shop. Of course, I’m not suggesting that Firework’s CSS and HTML export functionality is anything more than a handy rapid prototying and user testing feature. Nor do I think Photoshop should take a back seat when dealing with web (subtle cough) “photography”. I do believe however that as part of an iterative workflow, Adobe Fireworks really stands out.

In a nutshell, Firework is a hybrid imaging application that includes powerful vector tools to create non-destructive scalable elements and tools to optimize graphics for the web by using the native PNG format to keep layered file sizes low. Interestingly, one of the original goals of the Fireworks development team was to create a program in which users could do all their work without ever having to jump to another application. Having said that, integration with other Adobe (previously Macromedia) products is seamless. With the advent of Rich Internet Application and Adobe’s commitment to Flex, Fireworks CS4 allows Flex components to be inserted into a design making it ideal for the design development of Flex (and Flash) based web applications. For those still not content with Fireworks out of the box, it can also be extended by those who are familiar with JavaScript or Flash.

Whilst long time users of Adobe Photoshop may find it difficult to migrate their workflow to Fireworks since Photoshop has been the web design tool for many over a decade, Fireworks CS4 now has improved support for import of PSD files and preserving all slices made in Photoshop.

In the end, yes, it is about choice. However, Adobe really has succeeded in creating a tool that can be integrated into your existing workflow, and enhances your productivity by functioning as both prototyping and design applications.

Useful stuff:

• Smashing Magazine presents: Adobe Fireworks Tutorials and Dowloads.
• Adobe Products: Fireworks.
• Adobe Fireworks Development Center.

This video does a great job of demonstrating the wireframing process from lo-fi to hi-fi wireframes.