INTERFACE MAFIA ANNOUNCES NEW WEB SITE
New group provides free software interface review for Macintosh developers
September 10, 2001 – The Interface Mafia, a non-profit group dedicated to
improving interface design, today announced the opening of its web site at
(http://www.interfacemafia.org/). In addition to providing articles, links
and other information related to interface design, the group offers
software developers free reviews of their software.
“We are passionate about user-friendliness,” said Toby Rush, coordinator of
the new group. “Our hope is that we can help developers make their programs
easier to use by reviewing their software, and then help educate the public
by posting those reviews.”
By filling out a form on the web site, programmers can submit their
software for review by one of the group’s volunteers. After a review is
completed, it is published and made available for comment on the web site.
Software reviews are limited to the program’s interface, which may include
windows, palettes, menus, dialog boxes and even documentation.
Programs are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis by the group’s
team of reviewers. “We have no idea what kind of response we’ll get. Since
it’s a free service, we anticipate building a backlog of submissions fairly
quickly,” Rush said. Only Mac OS software is currently being accepted for
review, though the group hopes to expand to other platforms in the future.
The group hopes that the site will attract non-developers as well. In
addition to including a public-comment capability at the end of every
review, the web site features articles on interface design that are written
with the public in mind. The site also includes links to other
interface-related web sites.
“We hope to gradually influence the software world by raising the standard
for well-designed programs,” Rush said. “We look forward to being a helpful
resource, but we also plan on being a force to be reckoned with.”
For more information on The Interface Mafia, visit
(http://www.interfacemafia.org/).
Contact:
Toby Rush
Coordinator
toby@interfacemafia.org
www.interfacemafia.org