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Yahoo! User Interface Library

The Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) Library is a set of utilities and controls, written in JavaScript, for building richly interactive web applications using techniques such as DOM scripting, DHTML and AJAX. The YUI Library also includes several core CSS resources. All components in the YUI Library have been released as open source under a BSD license and are free for all uses. Download the entire library, its documentation and examples from Sourceforge.

http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/

John Markoff just published a story in the Times about the future of the web, suggesting that “From the billions of documents that form the World Wide Web and the links that weave them together, computer scientists and a growing collection of start-up companies are finding new ways to mine human intelligence.” If you’ve been reading this blog, you know I totally agree that building systems that combine human and machine intelligence is a huge part of the oncoming future.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/business/12web.html

What is the purpose of this site?
Usability.gov is the primary government source for information on usability and user-centered design. It provides guidance and tools on how to make Web sites and other communication systems more usable and useful. Topics include:

• a step-by-step guide on how to plan, analyze, design, and usability test a highly usable Web site;
• quick access to the latest usability methods;
• an introduction to usability, how to get started, and what it costs;
• the latest research-based Web design guidelines;
• templates and examples for assessing audience needs, writing a usability test report;
• and much more

Who is this site designed for?
This site was developed to specifically assist Web managers, designers, usability specialists, and others create Web sites that are highly responsive, easy-to-use, and useful.
Who manages this site?
Although this is a collaborative effort involving many federal agencies, the Web Communications Division in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs has primary responsibility for managing this Web site.

http://www.usability.gov

Photosynth is a very interesting software from Microsoft that takes a large number of photos from a place and tries to combine them into a 3D model of that place. Photosynth lets you understand the relation between your photos. Using similar photos from the Internet, the program can improve the rendering of the model.

“Each photo is processed by computer vision algorithms to extract hundreds of distinctive features, like the corner of a window frame or a door handle. Photos that share features are then linked together in a web.”

Photosynth has the ability to process large collections of pictures fast and also uses Seadragon technology to ensure a smooth zooming.