Mozilla Labs has announced its latest “Labs Design Challenge” today. The task is to create a better upload widget than what’s currently in use. The Labs team realized that uploading files from a web page is serviceable at best, so they want something better to replace it. This challenge comes on the heels of the very first (and more wide-ranging) design challenge that closed at the beginning of the month.
Mozilla Labs has this to say about the current upload widget:
Ever made a website that requires a file to be uploaded? Then you know how much that file upload control sucks. Why does it suck? Because there’s no drag-and-drop; Flash or server-side hacking is required to provide any kind of progress indication; you can’t upload multiple files; if you know what you want to attach you have to navigate there again with the OS file picker; you can’t even enter a path into the widget because of security issues; and the list goes on.
Fair enough, what we currently have is slow and painful and could stand a lot of improvement. So how can you submit your idea? Easy, post it on the Web and tweet the location to Twitter account @mozconcept anytime before the afternoon of March 16, 2009. At that time, Mozilla Labs will be hosting a SXSW party where they will review the submissions and dig up the real gems.
If you can make it out to the Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill in Austin on the 16th, besides the beer and food, there will also be some interesting people to meet, such as Brendan Eich, javascript creator and Mozilla CTO, Atul Varma (@toolness) and/or Aza Raskin (@azaaza), Ubiquity co-lead developers, and John Resig (@jeresig), jQuery creator. We are thinking this is one SXSW gathering we can’t miss. Plus, Moonshine has an awesome atmosphere and great grub.
