Well over a year ago, I wrote an article on the regulated rigidness that is Apple’s product release cycle. I mapped out the next two years of Apple’s product launches down to the month, and it has been the most viewed post on my blog for the entirety of last year, even eclipsing Smashing Mag calling my bookshelf “rough”. nearly 40% of all page views were for that and over 80% of searches led to that page

So, looking back on what I wrote, was I right? Does it even matter?

Was I right?

Yes, most. Of the time. I predicted the iPhone, iPad, new iPods and 10.7 announcements very well. The iPhone 4 sdk announcement was spot on, but the ipad launch date was a bit off, as was the iPad 2 and iPhone 5 as well. I didn’t see OS X 10.7 Lion coming so soon after it’s announcement, given how long 10.6 took to release.

It seems that Apple have switched to an 18 month release cycle with it’s more mature products like the iPhone. The iPad is still new so innovation and new features are simple, the iPhone is more difficult as there’s very few extra sensors that they could add, so software and CPU/GPU components as well as the design of the device itself are the updates to be made. Significant changes like that take longer, so the 18 month cycle seems more reasonable.

What I got wrong or missed completely was more telling: I didn’t get the iMac refresh or te MacBook pro or air updates. I also got iWork 2011 out by 6 months. Not brilliant form, but let me explain why they’re out: Apple don’t control them, Intel do.

Intel’s processors are the main reason to get a new MacBook, they’re certainly the biggest update in every generation. The recent addition of Thunderbolt ports and a bit more RAM isn’t really a good reason to upgrade. Major design changes I.e. the unibody MacBook pro change or the nee design MacBook Air are harder to predict, but Intel makes it’s roadmaps very clear. They go in an annual tick-tock pattern, new architecture on the tick then tweaks and enhancements to that architecture on the tock. Then it continues (like clockwork) with a new micro-architecture every 2 years. This means you get an updated MacBook every year, at almost the same time of year. The only time it misses is if Intel miss a deadline, and they’ve not done that for years.

So, what’s the future? Pretty much the same as when I last wrote. Expect updates, regularly. As products mature, expect their release cycles to extend. New products get 12 months updates, then after a few years get 18 months updates until they are eventually discontinued. MacBook updates will continue to be in line with Intel processor updates.

And that is how Apple’s release cycle works. Any questions, Tweet me or write a comment below.

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On my way to see some friends in Sheffield, tweeting away on the train, Chris Murray offered me a ticket for Interesting North as a way out of going shopping with the missus and her friends.

Jumping at the chance, I had a great time, learned a lot and laughed a lot. I made some notes and sketches, so take a look. Have a laugh at the “daft novels about nazis” (morning sketch at the bottom), they were brilliant.

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I started writing this post about a month ago whilst sat in the back garden of a friend’s house. I wasn’t actually thinking of much, but the environment allowed me to think clearly and freely. For reference, I was in the garden pictured above, and there wasn’t just one of those gorgeous dogs, there were three!

Since that time I’ve been thinking more about workspaces, and I’ve come up with some golden rules for a good office for me. I must stress that this works for me, and may or may not work for you.

Rule 1: as few interruptions as possible

I had had a good afternoon in the garden, silent apart from the birds singing, and plenty of tea in the kitchen. I was getting a lot of good thinking done and I was starting to get it down on paper. My only problem was three lovely four-legged distractions. One of them wanted me to throw a stone every 5 minutes and would bark if I didn’t. The further I threw it, the longer a break I got. If I threw it out of sight, she’d come back with a different stone after giving me nearly 15 minutes of uninterrupted peace as a reward for my good throw.

The more I think about my workspace, the more important a lack of interruptions becomes. A place where a person can think, exclusive of noise and distractions is conducive to creativity and great work. Someone speaking to you engages the language part of your brain (the left hemisphere). This generally dominant part stops the creative half of your brain (the right hemisphere) in its tracks and it can take a few minutes to re-engage this half your brain.

Now, in my opinion, coding is a creative task like drawing, and not a language or logical task. I’ve noticed this recently as I’ve been reading “Drawing with the right side of the brain” in an attempt to learn to draw. The book describes giving the language center of your brain a task it rejects in order to engage the right, more creative, hemisphere. As I’ve been doing this with drawing, I’ve noticed I do exactly the same thing when I’m engrossed in coding. The book recommends as few interruptions as possible when drawing, and so I recommend the same when working.

Rule 2: a clear desk is a clear mind

Once again, on the subject of distractions, having too much junk on your desk is conducive to procrastination, the enemy of getting things done. I personally tend to tidy, play with my iPad, sketch something, all generally whilst I’m waiting for something to load (I’ll come to that later). This also relates to any application that sends you messages. I’m a sucker for having GTalk, DestroyTwitter and Outlook open on my laptop as well as the company messaging system. It’s a blessing that most of my e-mail is mailing list stuff that I can ignore and that DT has an “away” function that queues up tweets for when I need a break or I’d get nothing done.

For instance, look at the picture above. This is me in 2007, not long after I’d started working at my current employer. I’m not following any of my rules here and I’m amazed that I got much done at all. The following things are wrong:

1. My desk is a mess, there’s paper all over the place and I have to rummage through things to find what I’m after
2. I have two notepads in front of me, that’s one too many
3. There’s another laptop behind me with my work e-mail. This is so far out of my way for looking at my main screen that I disconnect from my task every time the laptop screen flickers

I’ve learned a lot since then and now my desk is a lot clearer with fewer distractions.

So, a new policy, my desk shall be clear and the only apps open shall be the ones that I am working with directly.

Rule 3: I must have a wall, it stores the ideas too big for my head

This one may seem odd, but I have to have a wall for me to put design work on. If I don’t get some place for me to stick my database diagrams and wireframes, even if it’s just the little partition between my desk and the next, I won’t be able to see the big picture.

One of my jobs back in 2009 was up in Sheffield, where a team of four were trapped in a tiny glass box in the middle of a floor of people. Crampt conditions and general overheating weren’t the best when all of us were in the room, but since we didn’t have any desk space, we all used the walls and shared ideas. The result was a well thought-out system which was hugely well received by the client, all because we could see the big picture.

On other projects where I’ve not had access to a permanent wall, I’ve simply worked from home where I have a whiteboard (which I’ve had since uni). Giving myself the freedom to work in large spaces always produces my most creative and thought-out work.

Rule 4: equipment is just as important as space

Recently my desk and office have been brilliant, I’m following my rules and they’re working. However, I’m falling into an old trap, doing something else whilst the system loads. Unfortunately for me, the system needs to take a 30 second break every time I move the cursor (no prizes for guessing what tech I’m using) and hence I’m taking 30 seconds out to do other stuff, like get distracted by twitter.

The rule here is that your equipment is important. If you’re having to compromise and work around issues which allow you to lose concentration, be it a rubbish laptop or running out of sharpies, then you have to correct that. I’d never dream of doing iPhone development on my 2006 macbook, it’s simply not fast enough and would annoy me more than the task would be worth. Get the most powerful computer you can afford, it will make your life so much easier in the long run.

Rule 5: keep yourself happy

This last rule is the hardest to achieve, but will do the most for your productivity. My team, my colleagues and with few exceptions my friends, are not only there to work with me, but to keep each other happy.

An example from a project in late 2009, this time 12 people crammed into a room for 10; desk space at a premium, we were all in the same boat, and we kept each other going. The team dynamic was good because we were all working on something that we knew was important to the client and we were happy to work all sorts of hours to make it work. We also had an assignment manager who bought chocolate and sweets by the boat-load whenever morale started to waiver. Lunch was taken together and trips to the pub were highly encouraged. We were happy, and so we worked hard.

It is important for your health, not just your productivity, that you’re happy at work. Take breaks when you want, not when you’re distracted by someone. Build up a relationship with your colleagues where you can talk about anything, not just about work all the time, and have some fun!

These are my rules that I’ve come up with for a more productive place of work. I’m not saying they’re right, but they work for me.

What are your rules for a productive workspace? I’d love to hear your suggestions and advice. Just leave a comment below.

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Today’s post inspiration comes courtesy of Matthew Solle (@solle) who tweeted this video of Campaign Monitor’s new offices

This video reminded me of my afternoon at my client. After a week of wireframing, data architecting and meetings, I finally got to sit down and code what I’d had in my head for nearly a month. Fellow geeks, you know how good a feeling it is to be in the zone and just do simply excellent work at what feels like breakneck speed, it’s great.

Except, I work in an open-plan office. There’s meeting rooms all around me and I’m right by the door, so people come and go all the time. I’ve also got two laptops and an iPad on my desk, along with a main monitor. Add to that an iPhone and my actual phone and things are pretty busy and I can easily get distracted without all the people around me.

This video showed me the absolute joys of having space to sit and think. People can still ask you stuff, messenger is always on, and they can pop round whenever it takes their fancy, but you have a room all to yourself with white boards and space to put all your thoughts on the walls. These developers, these lucky, lucky developers, will have the space to concentrate on what they do best, in an environment that they can tailor to their liking. It’s the joy of freelancing and having a home office, mixed with working with the best people around. Throw in guitar hero and I can’t imagine a better office.

So, why aren’t there more of these?

Simply, it’s money. In London, it wouldn’t make financial sense to have a kick-ass view of the river and all that space for only 20 people. It simply doesn’t happen. Open plan offices allow for people to be much closer together and still have some sense of space for themselves (just say no to cubicles).

I’d argue that the best people need this space, and if they can’t always have an office, then a project room for a small team. Failing that, just some space on the walls. As a developer, I value my space to think. As a designer, I value my space to create, and as a leader, I value my team.

Employers, give your people more space. A smaller office does not mean you save money if your workforce is unhappy. A smaller office does not equal more team spirit because you’re packed in together. A smaller office does not guarantee people talking to each other more just because they’re so tight up next to each other. Think about your office, think about your people, and create a space to work.

I’ve found a great post on cool workplaces. Get inspiration from these and make your office a better place to work: 10 Seriously cool workplaces on Chief Happiness Officer

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I’ve been asking questions about my blog on Twitter, and a few notable things have come back:

1. Text shadow on hover makes you feel seasick
2. Text shadow is fine on headers
3. Colours on the footer are hard to read
4. It all feels a bit busy

So, many of these things can be remedied simply, but I can’t get it out of my head that you just skim the content because it’s all bunched up. The white space for the text is compressed against two differently coloured, high-contrast sections which mark the edge of the world. Instead of helping you focus, I feel trapped when reading it.

So, I reach out again, what would help alleviate this? What would make you read more on this blog. It’s not a for-profit enterprise, it’s simply putting my opinion and some of my work onto the Internet.

Please, your thoughts in the comments or contact me steve at steveworkman dot com (or use the contact form on this site).

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XML Whitespace error, courtesy of @JonRowe

Since I started using Feedburner to add adverts into my RSS feed (there are now ads, let me know if they’re intrusive), I’ve been getting errors like the one above in my XML feed. Basically, there’s a few new line characters being output by several classes. This means the XML is invalid and services like Feedburner complain, as do some browsers (FF, Opera, Chrome).

In PHP, there’s a simple way to fix this, using a buffer and stripping newline characters off the beginning and end. WordPress have considered this before, and have rejected this method of fixing it because it’s generally caused by plug-ins which should fix themselves. Hence, their solution for 3.0: indicating when additional characters are output when the plugin is activiated.

So, I did that for all my plugins. I found that the following were giving me extra characters:

• AVH First Defense Against Spam (2)
• FeedBurner FeedSmith
• JR Post Image
• Last.fm for wordpress
• Tweetbacks
• Twittar
• Twitter for WordPress
• WP-Spamfree

So, I then removed the blank line at the top of each of these files. This got the number of blank lines from 12 to 2, which still isn’t enough.

I then re-installed wordpress, thinking one of the core files had become corrupted. Still no valid XML.

More research led me back to the output buffering solution. wejn.org has a pre-prepared file to resolve this issue. It’s a simple install and is well documented. Since putting this fix in, I’ve had no issues and my RSS feed is back up and running.

I’d still love to know what caused the single line, but I’m glad there’s a fix to sort it out.

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*Breathe deeply. Think.*

Has it really been that long?

Four years have passed since I started writing this blog. Since then I have written 88 posts (including this one) with 89 tags in 23 categories. There have been 94 comments, 31 of which were on the CSS3 Bookshelf. The site has been through four designs under three different names on two different hosts.

For many years, the site went unnoticed, getting less than 10 page views a day. With the latest iteration, a conscious effort to drive more traffic by writing good articles every week, and a bit of help from Twitter, this improved to 30 visits a day. A few good tweets from Bruce Lawson increased this to 50, with the odd spike around the 250 mark. Then I write about a technique to make a bookshelf with new CSS technology. A lot of pushing gets a spike of 300 visits. Then, whilst on a day off, Smashing Magazine posts it twice as part of a “what you can do with CSS3” compilation, which sends me 1000 visitors a day for the weekend. That’s more visitors than I’ve had in the last 3 years put together.

So, what’s next? Well, I’m going to keep writing. There’s so much more that interface design can help us accomplish and good design becomes more and more important every day. I’m going to blog more about design itself, and things that inspire me. At the moment, a lot of those thoughts are limited to my twitter stream, so I want to expand that. I’ll talk more about my after-hours tech activities, the interesting stuff that I don’t always get to do during the nine to five.

I’m also going to get more involved in the community, discussing more issues and attending more group events. London Web Standards is fantastic and I’m going to try and make it to every one from now on.

So, there’ll be more of the good stuff, some more tutorials and more discussion. If there’s anything else you’d like to see, please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading,

Steve

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You know those days, the ones that turn into weeks, and when the weeks can quickly turn into months you start thinking I really should have stopped the rot when it was weeks (and before that, days). That feeling, is what I have now. Over the past few weeks (actually, nearly a month), I’ve been rushing around trying to get projects sorted, doing extra projects and starting new ones. Therefore, I haven’t had a chance to post. My bad.

Good news is, I’ve found 10 minutes to write, so, here’s my last month:
1. I’ve been asked to write articles for UX Magazine from an industry perspective. I’ll be posting once every few months, with my first one due in a week or two. I’m really pleased to be able to write for these guys who are just trying to spread the word of UX
2. I’m at a new client, doing standards-based SharePoint work. I know, those two words don’t go well together, but just go with me on this one.
3. I’m finishing an iPhone demo too. This could be really big so fingers crossed
4. I’m going to buy an iPad. I had previously said that I won’t buy one til the 2nd generation, and, like with my 1G iPod Touch, I’ll probably regret it in the end, but I want one dammit!
5. Finally, if you didn’t know already, I’m now engaged to my girlfriend/now fiancee Emily. We had a very good party last weekend and even 8 days later are still not fully recovered

Here’s a promise that I’ll have an on-topic post for next week.

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I’ve found my use case for an iPad: working without wi-fi.

I’m sat on my sofa watching the superbowl and my Internet connection is down. I’m left trying to write blog posts on my iPhone, which, by the speed of my typing, is not going to be fun. At this point, I’d like an iPad. I’d like a laptop which isn’t quite a laptop, it just does what I need it to do. Thanks to lots of apps, the only thing I couldn’t do on an iPad would be code, and I’m sure that won’t be far away. All I want to do is write a blog post from the comfort of my sofa, without getting cramp in my hands or the battery running out.

The wi-fi only version is an interesting prospect, though wouldn’t solve my current internetless problem unless I could tether the iPhone to it. I wouldn’t be against the 3g version, though the data would have to be allowed to be shared with my current plan, or I simply couldn’t justify the expense.

I’d also love it if it was intelligent enough to use the home sharing feature that iTunes 9 introduced. Music over wi-fi seems like a no brainer to me.

Well, will I get one in April? Maybe. If the price isn’t as silly a conversion as Macs are, it may be worth a look. Otherwise, it looks like i’ll make do with my old laptop

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If you’re like me, with an eye on Google Reader even over the holidays, you won’t have failed to notice the upcoming Apple event at which the Apple touch-screen tablet, likely to be called iSlate or the Slate, will be announced. Such is the predictability of this event, given the number of rumours that have appeared, it is now completely without interest. Even the stock market takes more notice of Apple’s rumours, rather than their product announcements.

So, I’ve gazed into my crystal ball, looked at the last few years of product announcements, and have come up with the major headlines for the next two years of Apple products.

Apple product roadmap 2010-2011

The major events, spread throughout the year, all have very specific themes. January is iLife/iWork and major product announcements, March is a developers preview of new software, WWDC in June is a major product launch, September is a big iPod event and November is pre-Christmas product refresh time. For those reasons, the above list shouldn’t be too surprising to most people in the know.

I’m predicting next year will be the Slate’s year, rather than the iPhone. It’s too soon for a form factor change and it’s got all the features it could have at this time, so 2011 will be the next iPhone update. The Slate will fit into the iPhone’s product release schedule, now being Apple’s flagship product, with yearly updates for the first few years depending on its success. The Macbook Pro line will be somewhat ignored until the end of 2010 when it gains Intel quad cores like its iMac brother. At this time, I believe the first details on OS X 10.7 will come out, probably with a new UI paradigm, potentially merging with the Slate’s modified iPhone OS.

2011 will see “Westmere” Mac Pros, though it’s possible that this will be quite a quiet event, given i7 iMacs are more cost-effective than Mac Pros. An updated iPhone/Slate OS will follow in March, and a second generation Slate in June (which will be the one I’ll get). Some controversy to follow then with a new iPod on the horizon; my thinking goes that the whole product line there needs a kick to keep people buying them, and by this time, technology will be good enough for something amazing. Finally, after that will come Intel i9 iMacs, with those processors being available for Macbook Pros by the end of 2012.

Honestly, you could probably try and predict further ahead than that with some accuracy, but forecasts become quite hazy more than two years down the line. Still, if there’s any betting shops out there willing to give me good accumulator odds on this, drop me a line!

Update 1 (March 2010): I got the Slate/iPad right, though not the release date. Still, by the time it reaches the rest of the world it probably will be July. Not so sure about a March “Town Hall” event, though I’d still expect iPhone OS 4.0 with the iPhone update this year. Also, people keep going on about potential Core i3/i5 updates for the Macbook Pro line. This hasn’t happened yet and I still think I’m in with a shout of November. The problem will be power consumption and heat, which may need a bit more work to keep the 8 hour battery life promise that Apple have made.

Update 2 (April 2010): it seems I got the iPhone 4.0 OS announcement right at the town hall event, just seems that it was in April rather than March. Unfortunately, the i5/i7 Macbook Pro announcement was in April, not November as I said. Better luck next time for that one

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