Oracle's Java chief calls for faster innovation: A top Oracle employee in charge of Java says it is time to hit the gas pedal on the language's development by moving to a much more frequent release cadence. The changes are necessary to ensure Java remains competitive over the long term, chief platform architect Mark Reinhold said in a blog post.
For more than 20 years, Java SE and its counterpart JDK (Java Development Kit) "have evolved in large, irregular, and somewhat unpredictable steps," he wrote. "Each feature release has been driven by one or a few significant features, and so the schedule of each release has been adjusted as needed — sometimes more than once! — in order to accommodate the development of those features."
While this allowed the delivery of major, well-tested features, it held up the release of smaller ones, Reinhold added. Back when Java was one of a few platforms that evolved at a similar pace, this was acceptable, but the current landscape is much different, with many more nimble competitors, he argued:
Java 9 will ship this month. Java 8 was released more than three years ago. Reinhold proposes that going forward, there should be a new Java feature release every six months, quarterly update releases and a "long-term support release" every three years.
POV: Reinhold's proposal has been met largely with support from Java developers. It comes shortly after Oracle announced its intention to move Java Enterprise Edition to an as-yet unnamed open source foundation, a move that would significantly democratize the language's oversight.
The new release cadence for Java SE, which remains a widely used programming language, is thoughtful in that it keeps in mind the needs of early-adopter developers as well as more conservative enterprises, thanks to the inclusion of the long-term support release. It's always a good idea to balance innovation with stability and on its face, Reinhold has outlined a plan that delivers both.
Research pokes holes in flat design's efficacy: Flat design has been a preferred UI method for quite some time, first introduced broadly by Microsoft's Metro in the early 2000s and dramatically popularized with its introduction in iOS 7.
It turns out—according to one study, at least—that flat design may have a clean, minimalist appeal, but it has a negative impact on a user's interaction with web pages and application screens.
That's because flat design downplays the use of signifiers—elements that clearly indicate they are clickable or otherwise an interactive element of the page. UX consultancy Neilsen Norman Group decided to determine just how much. In a recent study, they wired up 71 users with eye-tracking equipment and presented them with the following:
We took 9 web pages from live websites and modified them to create two nearly identical versions of each page, with the same layout, content and visual style. The two versions differed only in the use of strong, weak, or absent signifiers for interactive elements (buttons, links, tabs, sliders).
In some cases, that meant taking an already flat page and adding shadows, gradients, and text treatments to add depth and increase the strength of the clickability signifiers. In other cases, we took a page that already had strong, traditional signifiers, and we created an ultraflat version. We were careful that the modifications we provided were reasonable and realistic.
NNG determined that users spent 22 percent more time on the web pages with weak signifiers, a finding it equated to slower task performance.
POV: It should be noted that NNG doesn't conclude that flat design is a bad idea in all cases. Rather, it will more likely raise usability problems if a web page is crowded with many discrete elements. The full study is well worth a read and is particularly timely as enterprises refresh legacy application UIs and build next-generation applications.
Accenture snaps up another boutique consultancy: The run on specialized tech consulting firms continues with Accenture's move to buy IBB Consulting, which provides services to communications, media and technology companies.
Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. After its completion, Accenture will gain about 160 consultants in North America and Australia. The move will help Accenture deliver strategy services "around key industry issues such as networks, digital video and IPTV, digital transformation, next generation mobility, internet of things (IoT), M&A, cloud, advanced advertising, data analytics and insights, marketing optimization, and international growth," according to a statement.
POV: Accenture has made a string of niche acquisitions over the past year in order to better position itself as an enterprise partner for digital transformation. As with other deals, IBB is not about adding rank-and-file IT talent, but rather to bring in seasoned advisors who can help enterprises conceive a broad-ranging digital transformation strategy. IBB has worked with some of the biggest companies in its space, including Comcast and Verizon, so it certainly fits that bill.