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Nathaniel Schutta

Author, speaker, software engineer focused on user interface design.

Nathaniel T. Schutta is a senior software engineer focussed on making usable applications. A proponent of polyglot programming, Nate has written two books on Ajax and speaks regularly at various No Fluff Just Stuff symposia, universities, and Java user groups. In addition to his day job, Nate is an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota where he teaches students to embrace dynamic languages.

Blog

Ajax: Tools of the trade

Posted Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Over on JavaWorld, you can see my latest article: Ajax: Tools of the trade. If it’s been a while since you looked at client side development and you still think alerts are the end all be all of web debugging, you mi more »

Good Ideas Aren’t Always New

Posted Tuesday, April 21, 2009

At QCon, Glenn Vanderburg, Michael Feathers and I (there may have been others, as I recall some ESB was involved…) were talking about Mike’s 10 Papers Every Programmer Should Read post (if you haven’t read more »

Test Infecting the Legacy Organization

Posted Wednesday, April 15, 2009

As Neal Ford explains, the NFJS Anthology series has been reborn as a monthly magazine and in the current edition, you can read my take on test infecting legacy organizations. I’ve been a proponent of the testing meme f more »

Vendors are Risky Too

Posted Monday, April 13, 2009

“We’re not a software company” is a common refrain these days; ever since Nicholas Carr’s “IT Doesn’t Matter,” it seems like more and more companies are bending over backwards to prove more »

Keynote 09

Posted Sunday, March 29, 2009

I’ve been a big believer in Keynote since shortly after it came out - at first I didn’t see what all the fuss was about, but after using it for a few months, I had to create a presentation at work and I was reminded more »

Speaking at TSS JS

Posted Wednesday, February 18, 2009

March is a busy month on the conference circuit - in addition to speaking at QCon London, I’ll be at TheServerSide.com’s Java Symposium talking about DSLs in JavaScript (yes Virginia, there’s a real programming l more »

Speaking at QCon London

Posted Saturday, February 7, 2009

Just a quick note to say I’ll be speaking at QCon London in March - I’ll be giving a talk on DSLs in JavaScript. Looking at the schedule, it should be a heck of a show and I’m really looking forward to spending some quality time more »

JavaWorld Podcast - Ajax developer’s toolkit

Posted Monday, January 26, 2009

A recent chat with my good friend Andy Glover (of “Jolt award finalist” easyb fame) has found it’s way up on JavaWorld’s podcast page. Andy has a good overview of our conversation over on the Disco Blog. I had a blast coveri more »

It Isn’t the Uniforms

Posted Sunday, January 18, 2009

If you’re a football fan (American style) this is a big weekend - the AFC and NFC championship pit (pun intended) a couple of six seeds vs. a two and a four respectively. Much will be made in the off-season of just how the Cardinals made a Gia more »

Speaking at CodeMash

Posted Monday, December 29, 2008

I’m a bit late in announcing this, but along with fellow Fluff Talkers Ken Sipe, Andy Glover and Venkat Subramaniam, I’ll be speaking at CodeMash 2009 this January! I’ll be talking about Dynamic Languages and the JVM as well as Test more »

Rewrites Are Like Moving

Posted Sunday, December 14, 2008

M more »
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Presentations

Pragmatic Usability (aka, Software Engineer's Guide to Usability)

While some companies have the luxury of a full time usability team, most of us have to make do on our own. Sure, it might be easier (and more comfortable) to focus on all the hip back end goodness, but if your user interface makes users yack, your produc more »

Designing for Ajax, part 1

So you've convinced the boss that your new web application just has to have Ajax... more »

JavaScript: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Thanks to Ajax, JavaScript is cool again and developers are taking a second look at this much maligned language. This session will give you an overview of this misunderstood language as well as opening your eyes to some of the excellent tools available to more »

Dojo: Getting Started

So you want to do some Ajax and you've rightly concluded that you don't want to build your own library. After some thought, you've settled on using Dojo - but you're not sure how to get going. This talk will introduce Dojo and discuss several ways that Aj more »

YUI: Getting Started

When Yahoo! released their User Interface Library (YUI), many designers rejoiced - one of the internet's leading properties was sharing their vast wealth of knowledge in a convenient open source package. This talk with show you how to get up and running w more »

Designing for Ajax, part 2

We'll pick up where Part 1 left off working in even more advanced approaches such as offline support with Google Gears more »

JavaScript 101

Like many developers, you've ignored JavaScript for years. Between the initial pain and the stigma of a "designers toy", it just wasn't worth your time. But with the rise of Ajax, JavaScript has been elevated to first class citizen. more »

Designing for Ajax

So you've convinced the boss that your new web application just has to have Ajax... more »

Deconstructing Prototype

By now, most developers have (re)discovered the much maligned JavaScript language and the plethora of top notch libraries have helped make this grey beard of web programming accessible to a new generation of developers. While many are content to simply re more »

Ext JS: Getting Started

Ext JS is an amazing JavaScript library that's filled with customizable widgets; if your customers have ever asked for "Excel in the browser," you need to look at Ext. more »

Dojo: Getting Started

So you want to do some Ajax and you've rightly concluded that you don't want to build your own library. After some thought, you've settled on using Dojo - but you're not sure how to get going. more »

Pragmatic Usability (aka, Software Engineer's Guide to Usability)

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
While some companies have the luxury of a full time usability team, most of us have to make do on our own. Sure, it might be easier (and more comfortable) to focus on all the hip back end goodness, but if your user interface makes users yack, your product is doomed.

This talk will provide an overview of usability from the perspective of the software engineer.

Designing for Ajax, part 1

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
So you've convinced the boss that your new web application just has to have Ajax...but now what? With dozens of libraries making even the most blinkish of interactions trivial, how do you decided where to sprinkle the magic Ajax dust? This talk will give a plain old boring "web 1.0" an Ajax facelift with a focus on improving the user experience providing you with a game plan for introducing Ajax to your world.

So you've convinced the boss that your new web application just has to have Ajax...but now what? With dozens of libraries making even the most blinkish of interactions trivial, how do you decided where to sprinkle the magic Ajax dust? This talk will give a plain old boring "web 1.0" an Ajax facelift with a focus on improving the user experience providing you with a game plan for introducing Ajax to your world.

JavaScript: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
Thanks to Ajax, JavaScript is cool again and developers are taking a second look at this much maligned language. This session will give you an overview of this misunderstood language as well as opening your eyes to some of the excellent tools available to ease the pain of developing in this dynamic language.

Thanks to Ajax, JavaScript is cool again and developers are taking a second look at this much maligned language. This session will give you an overview of this misunderstood language as well as opening your eyes to some of the excellent tools available to ease the pain of developing in this dynamic language.

Dojo: Getting Started

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
So you want to do some Ajax and you've rightly concluded that you don't want to build your own library. After some thought, you've settled on using Dojo - but you're not sure how to get going. This talk will introduce Dojo and discuss several ways that Ajax can improve your new or existing application.

So you want to do some Ajax and you've rightly concluded that you don't want to build your own library. After some thought, you've settled on using Dojo - but you're not sure how to get going. This talk will introduce Dojo and discuss several ways that Ajax can improve your new or existing application.

YUI: Getting Started

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
When Yahoo! released their User Interface Library (YUI), many designers rejoiced - one of the internet's leading properties was sharing their vast wealth of knowledge in a convenient open source package. This talk with show you how to get up and running with one of the finest libraries you'll find in the Ajax space. We'll also explore the incredibly useful Yahoo Design Pattern Library.

When Yahoo! released their User Interface Library (YUI), many designers rejoiced - one of the internet's leading properties was sharing their vast wealth of knowledge in a convenient open source package. This talk with show you how to get up and running with one of the finest libraries you'll find in the Ajax space. We'll also explore the incredibly useful Yahoo Design Pattern Library.

Designing for Ajax, part 2

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
We'll pick up where Part 1 left off working in even more advanced approaches such as offline support with Google Gears.

We'll pick up where Part 1 left off working in even more advanced approaches such as offline support with Google Gears.

JavaScript 101

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
Like many developers, you've ignored JavaScript for years. Between the initial pain and the stigma of a "designers toy", it just wasn't worth your time. But with the rise of Ajax, JavaScript has been elevated to first class citizen.

This talk will give you an overview of this misunderstood language as well as opening your eyes to some of the excellent tools available to ease the pain of developing in this dynamic language.

Designing for Ajax

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
So you've convinced the boss that your new web application just has to have Ajax...but now what? With dozens of libraries making even the most blinkish of interactions trivial, how do you decided where to sprinkle the magic Ajax dust?

This talk will give a plain old boring "web 1.0" an Ajax facelift with a focus on improving the user experience providing you with a game plan for introducing Ajax to your world.


Deconstructing Prototype

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
By now, most developers have (re)discovered the much maligned JavaScript language and the plethora of top notch libraries have helped make this grey beard of web programming accessible to a new generation of developers. While many are content to simply rely on others, we can learn an awful lot about how to write better JavaScript by taking a look under the hood.

This talk will explore the JavaScript language by walking through the widely used Prototype library.

Ext JS: Getting Started

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
Ext JS is an amazing JavaScript library that's filled with customizable widgets; if your customers have ever asked for "Excel in the browser," you need to look at Ext.


This talk will explore Ext showing off a variety of widgets helping you to get up and running with this excellent toolkit.


Dojo: Getting Started

close

Nathaniel Schutta By Nathaniel Schutta
So you want to do some Ajax and you've rightly concluded that you don't want to build your own library. After some thought, you've settled on using Dojo - but you're not sure how to get going.


This talk will introduce Dojo and discuss several ways that Ajax can improve your new or existing application.



Books

by Ryan Asleson and Nathaniel T. Schutta

Foundations of Ajax Buy from Amazon
List Price: $39.99
Price: $28.42
You Save: $11.57 (29%)
  • Foundations of Ajax presents a concise, down-to-earth explanation of the Ajax technology. Cutting through the hyperbole, this book focuses on what the Ajax technology means, how you start using it, and why it can make a difference to your products.

    The authors begin with a clear explanation of how the Ajax techniques work, presenting the "XMLHttpRequest" object, and outlining how requests to the server are handled. Then they demonstrate the techniques' strengths and weaknesses in a variety of environments, backing up their discussion with a multitude of coding examples and links to existing Ajax applications already on the Web. The authors put it all together and leave you with a solid understanding of how to use this new Ajax approach to its fullest potential.


by Ryan Asleson and Nathaniel T. Schutta

Pro Ajax and Java Frameworks Buy from Amazon
List Price: $49.99
Price: $31.98
You Save: $18.01 (36%)
  • As a Java developer, you want a guide that shows you how to add Ajax functionality to your web applications with a minimum of effort. Well look no further than Pro Ajax and Java Frameworks. In this book, recognized Java experts and authors of the best-selling Apress title, Foundations of Ajax, will show you how.

    The authors begin by recapping Ajax basics. Then they unveil a comprehensive Java/Ajax toolkit. Tools include JSEclipse for code editing, Venkman for JavaScript debugging, and Dojo Compressor for code compression. They also explain Log4js (and other tools) for JavaScript logging, JsUnit (and others) for testing, and various libraries like AjaxTags, DWR, and Script.aculo.us for rapid code development.

    The last part of the book shows you how to build up a series of professional Java/Ajax applications. These will incorporate some of todays most popular frameworksSpring, JSF, Struts, and Tapestrygiving you all you need to incorporate Ajax into your everyday work and become an Ajax expert!


by Nathaniel T. Schutta

Extreme UI Design: The User is Always Right Buy from Amazon
List Price: $39.99
Price: $26.39
You Save: $13.60 (34%)
  • You know about Extreme Programming, Agile cooperation, and continuous improvement, but did you know you can apply these to UI design? I'll show you how to make your end users happy all the time by applying what you already know about software development to the design and implementation of user interfaces. More and more, developers are being called upon to create user interfaces without designers. Extreme UI Design: The User is Always Right will show you how to use your well-honed programming skills to build measurably effective front ends.

    It's all about usability, the software equivalent of flossing; you know you should do it, yet sometimes there just isn't time. For developers, there often isn't money to hire a designer. In tough times, developers who can design become essential, but most software engineers are schooled in algorithms and compilers and rarely in the intricacies of user interaction. This book is for all of you who find yourselves working on the front lines of software development and want to create an application that respects the maxim that all users are right.

    • Discover best UI design practices for software engineers.
    • Maximize usability right in your code with a few simple tools.
    • Write software that works for the user!

    What you'll learn

    • Distinguish usability myth from reality
    • Give users both what they want and what they need (these aren't the same)
    • Use your application prototypes as test beds for usability
    • Apply rigorous heuristics to measuring UI effectiveness
    • See why CRAP is important to creating good interfaces
    • Identify and avoid common UI anti-patterns

    Who is this book for?

    Looking to get an edge in today's workplace? Worried about being downsized? As companies look to cut expenses, the developer who can do more has a better chance of survival. If the UI team gets the axe, can you step in and help run a usability test or whack out a paper-based prototype? After reading this book, you'll be more valuable to your software development organization, you'll have a more complete toolbox, and you'll create applications that don't make your users yack .

    This book is primarily aimed at software developers who are tasked with front-end development. Considering that almost all software has some kind of interface, it should appeal to a large audience. Depending on how the book is slanted, it should also interest the agile community.