RJ Owen
RJ Owen is a Senior Developer at Effective UI. RJ was the lead developer on projects for Dow Jones, Random House and the Discovery Channel and contributed to ebay Desktop and the Adobe Video Workshop. In late 2007 RJ was featured on the Scoble show discussing RIA development and is passionate about the way that software affects and can improve people's lives. He is certified as an Adobe Community expert in Flex and co-authored the O'Reilly shortcut "Flex 3 Early Evaluator." RJ runs a flex blog called A Better Experience and while it's not as popular as Rich's, it's still pretty good. RJ holds a degree in Physics and Computer Science, generally does well on standardized tests, and lives in Colorado with his wife Marty.
Recent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts
RJ blogs at:
"The Web is a Customer Service Medium" by Paul Ford
January 24 2011
I recently ran into an interesting article titled "The Web is a Customer Service Medium" in which the author (Paul Ford) makes a very compelling case that the Web is specifically "for" the purpose of letting people express their opinions. This article has really had me thinking the past few… read moreBook Review: Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton
January 24 2011
I recently read Sketching User Experiences by Bill Buxton and it's become one of my favorite books explaining the value of design to non-designers. Buxton wrote the book specifically with business audiences in mind and does an excellent job describing both the value and method of design. This is no… read moreThe State of the Web 2010: Net Neutrality and the FCC
December 30 2010
If the Holiday season has had you too distracted to notice, the FCC made an important ruling that impacts net neutrality last week. The full text of the ruling (warning: big PDF) was only recently made available late last week and so in-depth analysis on the ruling has taken some… read moreJuly 28 2010
Luke Wroblewski, or LukeW as he's known on the web, is a self-described "digital product design & strategy guy" who's been pushing the idea of designing for mobile interfaces first for a while now. He thinks that designing for mobile first works best because 1.) mobile is more important than… read moreJune 05 2010
If I had a dollar for every time I've heard the phrase "make it a game" or "make it like a game" or "give it some game-like features" in my career, I'd be retiring in luxury next week. Games provide an important proving ground for interface methods that drive technology… read moreJune 05 2010
If I had a dollar for every time I've heard the phrase "make it a game" or "make it like a game" or "give it some game-like features" in my career, I'd be retiring in luxury next week. Games provide an important proving ground for interface methods that drive technology… read moreiPad app Ideate promotes sketching, collaboration
April 02 2010
At my company we've always given out a piece of collateral that remains wildly popular with designers and developers: sketch pads containing basic web-design templates in the background. Ideate is an application that brings the sketching experience to the iPad in a way that is simple and provides just enough… read moreThe Differences between Usability and User Experience
January 23 2010
The rapid growth of RIA technology into the lives of every day people just a few years ago has carried both the usability and user experience industries to a new high in popularity. The success of software (particularly on the web) has driven both of these terms into our vernacular,… read moreSeptember 04 2009
You've been looking into the world of Rich Internet Applications for a while now but how do you make the jump? Whether you're a developer working in Java or C++ looking to get on the web or a designer working in an art department wanting to do more interactive, the… read moreFlash vs. Silverlight on Smashing Magazine
May 11 2009
Earlier this month Smashing Magazine posted a broad review of Flash and Silverlight. The review covers the way the two products handle things like animation, publishing to the desktop, scripting, small file sizes, socket connections, capturing web-cam content, etc. read moreMarch 13 2009
I hear a lot of talk about "best practices" these days, and I'm sure you do too. As design has become a more visibly important differentiator for web development professionals and companies, understanding the "best way" to accomplish any given task has been a big deal, leading to a plethora… read moreRecent Posts | All O'Reilly Posts
