A bit over a month ago, I came down with a nasty cold and things have been slipping since then. It’s taken me quite some to recover. This site, a number of personal projects and just about everything else has been neglected. Today is the first day in weeks I’ve been up to doing anything after work. I’ve finally started catching up on all I’ve missed.

Hopefully there will be more signs of life here in the coming days, as I dig out of the pile of thousands of unread items in my RSS reader. Once I dig through that pile, there are a couple articles I’ve planned that I believe will be of interest.

For those that missed it (like me), the Windows Vista User Experience Guidelines has been updated with some additional content. This update add content in the following areas:

• Software Branding
• Confirmations
• Warnings
• Toolbars
• Sound
• Icons

These guidelines are crucial to ensure the most consistent user experience possible. Though many don’t, this is a document that all developers should read. I firmly believe that consistency is the most important single factor in design, and following an established style such as this is a great way to ensure that a UI is as consistent as possible.

If you’d like some background reading, the XP version is still available.