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I'm visual by nature. I think and communicate best with a pen in my hand.  I work through ideas by drawing - mixing mindmaps, components, parties, flows, interactions and layers. I grasp concepts best when visual elements are present.  More often than not, I ask people to show/draw me a picture.  I recently bought a Tablet PC, and wonder how I survived previously.

No surprise then, I'm extremely interested in the visualization of information and intuitive interface design.  On the latter, Irving WB recently posted his thoughts on human oriented design:

I really believe that one of the most important and exciting areas of innovation is to rethink IT applications around the humans that use them not the computers that run them.  In fact, I feel that we do not have a choice -- if we want to stay one step ahead of the growing complexity of the IT systems around us.
    
When one examines the characteristics of successful IT applications – those that appeal to large numbers of people -- it is clear that they appeal to us because they are intuitive and thus easy to learn and use.  What makes applications intuitive is the fact that they are designed around objects from the real world that people are generally familiar with, and thus we can bring our real world knowledge and intuition to bear on the applications - they have a point of connection, as it were. 

The applications are then developed for the virtual world of computers, including the realistic simulations of the physical world objects on which they are based, along with added features which good designers will also make as intuitive as possible.  Since our interactions with the physical world are so visual in nature, it is not surprising that the more visual an application, the more intuitive it is likely to feel.

Are you thinking, "Ok, interesting.  But what's the tie to SOA Testing?"  Last week, I was briefed by SOASTA on the alpha version (yes alpha) of their SOA testing product, Concerto.  Concerto is designed on the visual metaphor of digital media creation - think iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand.  You work with visual elements for messages, clips (groups of messages) and compositions (groups of clips).  Compositions are your test scenarios.  You can run (play) multiple compositions (concurrently, staggered) on a timeline based mixing board.  Below is a screen shot of the mixing board (composition editor) captured from the SOASTA Concerto Quick Tour.

As part of SOASTA's launch, they are introducing the team and product through video podcasts.  The first one was about the team.  The second, to be posted, promises an introduction to the product.  Definitely a product to keep an eye on, for its visual innovation, and the power that comes with it - intuitive SOA testing for business analysts.

[Disclosures: Neither IBM or SOASTA are clients of my firm, Elemental Links, Inc.]

Posted by brendamichelson in SOA • visualization |Digg This|Add to del.icio.us

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Posted by: John Wright at September 6, 2006 05:57 PM | Permalink

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