Author Archives: savolai

How to always get maximal debugging output for SQL queries in Qt

I tend to always forget how to use prepared statements, so I generated this little helper function that always does what I typically want. (TODO: retest this, 2023-09-04) #include <QSqlQuery>#include <QSqlError>#include <QVariant>#include <QMap>#include <QDebug>#include <QSqlDatabase>/** * Executes an SQL query with placeholders. * * @param sqlString The SQL query string with placeholders. * @param placeholderMap …

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The Why and the How: Usability testing

When creating a digital service, there is often a rush. Often we also want user-friendly experiences where users can interact with your product without a second thought. You want to make sure that your customers can find your service, and that things go smoothly. But there may not be much time or resources available. So—often …

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Conceptual Modeling: A key to better communication while building complex systems

Understanding the core concepts and their interrelationships is the foundation of any software system. Misunderstandings or misconceptions about these concepts can lead to system failure. To avoid such pitfalls, it’s crucial to communicate the conceptual system using a model. This model serves as a common language for professionals from different fields to discuss the core …

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Sincere words about impact + practice

Surrender Coronavirus has meant that I haven’t swam in months. It was warm today in Helsinki. So I decided to go to the beach. I took a few strokes, but didn’t really swim. I found myself watching the waves coming at me, feeling into what that was like. Feeling the forcefulness of the sea. Though …

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Desktop: JPEG Autorotate photo rotating app

“Ever had the problem of pictures taken in portrait showing up in landscape in emails, on your blog or on your mobile device? JPEG Autorotate is the solution. It’s quick, it’s simple, it’s free.” -Raquel JPEG autorotate: read reviews & download to try it yourself Published around 2005, still has 5-10K downloads per year in …

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The Risks of Modal User Interfaces: A Deep Dive

I love how much power understanding the fundamentals of UI/UX design can give you to build experiences that really flow smoothly! One of these fundamentals is modes – and how to use them well. Modes are sometimes necessary, but they can be a risky choice in a user interface. This is true especially if the …

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Product & framework thinkers: Case studies. And how about AI?

2023-06: Updated to include concrete examples and to discuss AI/Large Language Models (LLMs). Developers and UX professionals often seem like beings from different planets. I’ve found that shared understanding about software project goals can sometimes be hard to achieve. Have you ever taken a moment to consider how software gets designed and developed? You might …

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Design and Learning theories: Giving a workshop on UX

I got my original education in the field of HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). In educational learning theories, some of the same fundamental principles are central. A product designer, like a teacher, cannot assume much about the recipient of the experience they create. A product proves to be good only when a real person has demonstrated through …

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Rethinking Usability Education: Bridging Theory and Practice

Introduction During my working life I’ve taught some trainings and lectures on UX and courses on software development. Here’s some reflections on what I found central. Usability or User Experience (UX) education plays an indispensable role in bridging the gap between the theoretical principles of design and their practical applications. This post explores the essence …

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Qt: Adjust QTableView height according to contents

In my layout, my dynamically generated QTableViews seem to get resized to only show one row. I want to have the container of the table views to have a scrollbar instead of the individual table views, which should show full contents. Qt doesn’t have anything built in for this apparently, you need to calculate and …

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User Experience Design in Open Source: Inviting the Users

In any software project, we need to understand the people who will use the product. There are many different points of view onto what approach we should take. Spool: Vision, feedback, culture Some promote approaches to usability practice alternative to User Centered Design (UCD). Spool (2008, 2009) calls the attention of the usability community to the …

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Getting Twincat XAE to function on MacBook Pro

I finally got sick and tired of all my windows laptops breaking physically one way or another. First there was ThinkPad Edge, then there was the ultrathin Sony Vaio (bought just before Sony sold the business and discontinued the thing). Developers, Linus Torvalds included, online seemed to agree that MacBooks are the best hardware on …

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UX Design Concept: Learnable Regular Expressions (2016)

Reach: 91K~1700 recommendations (Hacker News, Reddit, Twitter & Medium) Regular expressions you can read: A new visual syntax (and UI) Regular expressions are a technical tool, not unlike a domain specific programming language. It is intended for situations where you need to match patterns in text, in order to filter or manipulate it in various …

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Test driven development and usability testing

See also: Usability and being human blog Robert Martin spoke charismatically about test driven development in RailsConf in 2009. (Video link expired) He promotes the idea of having automated tests (unit tests) and running them all the time to prevent your code from becoming an enormous, unholy mess. When you have tests, you are not …

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Learning and state machines

Guiding learning can be a deceptive thing. Where an expert might think something is simple, the student’s journey toward understanding is filled with twists and turns the expert no longer even remembers. This is really the core challenge of teaching: how to communicate the complex when your own mind has already largely automated those early …

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