February 2012
3 posts
“When you are solving a difficult problem re-ask the problem so that your...”
– You Are Solving The Wrong Problem « Aza on Design
WatchThe MAO Model: Research for Behavior Change
“What are your favorite tips for getting team members to observe usability...”
– What are your favorite tips for getting team members to observe usability sessions? - Quora
January 2012
4 posts
“I ♥ working side by side with the developer to make a design happen vs handing...”
– Twitter / @uxnu
“Much of private-sector ethnography is as banal as it is ironic. In its bland...”
– Does corporate ethnography suck? A cultural analysis of academic critiques of private-sector ethnography (Part 1 of 2) | Ethnography Matters
“The successful web companies of 2011 and beyond are just simply better looking....”
– The ugly truth: why beautiful wins in 2012 — Tech News and Analysis
Are you being Screen Sucked? | Learning... →
A thoughtful reflection on technological inertia.
December 2011
2 posts
Google Circles and Path 2.0: How good UI design... →
How designers and engineers can play nice (and... →
November 2011
4 posts
“Real teaching is not about transferring “the material”, as if...”
– Some Thoughts on Teaching
“The lesson is this: Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, but make...”
– When Rebooting A Project, Throw Out The Bathwater But Keep The Baby | Co. Design
Week 46: QR or not QR | Urbanscale →
Field research helps us understand whether seemingly clever ideas, like QR codes, actually work in the context of people’s real behavior and motivations.
“When you are designing, how much time do you spend in your own head, applying...”
– Rosenfeld Media - Mental Models: How to Wield Empathy
October 2011
2 posts
When You Startup with UX | UX Magazine →
Paul Graham and others give their take on startup UX
“Why is Apple doing this now? Who put the company on this foul,...”
– Ugh. God. Why Is Apple Making Everything Look Like an Ugly Wild West?
September 2011
9 posts
“When Keith Wearne goes grocery shopping, checking out with a cashier is worth...”
– If you don’t invest in understanding and designing the user experience, self-service (in any industry!) will just be an expensive failure.
Supermarkets start bagging self-serve checkouts - Food - NewsObserver.com
Usability test viewing party! →
The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard →
Seabright: Experience Design and Product... →
I like how Seabright explains their work - almost like a set of design principles for their practice.
“The app we were testing was in personal finance, so the user researcher insisted...”
– » You Need to Make “Wanting” No Longer Free The Experience is the Product
Pyke - Webfont & Desktop font « MyFonts →
User-centered type design, with empirical testing of legibility.
“Last year Change.org wrote of Steve Jobs, “It’s high time the...”
– Steve Jobs, World’s Greatest Philanthropist - Dan Pallotta - Harvard Business Review
“People ask me who inspires me. This question often stumps me because I have been...”
– Caterina.net» Blog Archive » Make things
August 2011
7 posts
3 tags
“No one ever says: “Buy this machine at $500 more for a 10% productivity...”
– Transmedia Design for 3 Screens - Make That 5 (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)
“And you know what? Bullshit is bullshit. Bullshitters don’t ship, and they...”
– metacool: Intrinsic motivation, a killer input
“However, it’s very hard for a design studio to create digital products on a...”
– Subtraction.com: The End of Client Services
Interesting job title: "Lean UX Designer" →
Not “lead” - “lean”. Guess Lean Startup concepts are really having an impact…
3 tags
“Unlike the transformation of phones to smartphones, TVs have not become smartTVs...”
– Horace Dediu via Twitter
There may not be “smart” content on TV, but it seems that the delivery of that content is becoming a lot smarter. Hopefully, it will become smarter still. The question is whether TV manufacturers want anything to do with that.
Why OpenID Annoys Me
I recently re-re-re-discovered the UX site on StackExchange, and decided to try and participate a little this time. Of course, to do this, I had to survive the StackExchange OpenID log in process.
If you click on log in, you’ll see this screen like this one:
I use StackExchange sites pretty rarely. So every time I see this screen, I have to spend 5 minutes trying to remember how I logged...
July 2011
4 posts
I need your help!
Lately I feel like I’ve been stuck. Using the same tools in the same way to do the same things I’ve been doing for a few years now. So I’m trying to get myself out of this rut. To that end, I’ve set myself two goals for the rest of the year:
Improve my knowledge of graphic design theory and tools
Learn more about cutting edge web tools
A bit broad, I know. But I’ve...
Varsity Bookmarking: Dear Graphic and Web... →
pieratt:
You have an inherent need to solve problems, visually and conceptually. There is enormous value in this, but you may be misplacing your talents.
The internet, at this time in history, is the greatest client assignment of all time. The Western world is porting itself over to the web in mind and…
“Workflow design is a big issue in application usability. In many cases, a...”
– Solid analysis with practical redesign ideas.
Why WSJ Mobile App Gets ** Customer Reviews (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)
June 2011
3 posts
5 tags
Why Google Looks Good: Original Macintosh Team... →
The HCI nerd in me was pretty intrigued to learn that Andy Hertzfeld landed at Google a few years back, and did some significant portion of Google+ design.
5 tags
2 tags
“Release (as quick as you can).
Refine (by observing real use).
Repeat (design...”
– Luke Wroblewski via Twitter
May 2011
11 posts
“All I know is… I’m happy to be in the business of creating social objects. The...”
– Thoughts on social objects
2 tags
Getting Better at JavaScript →
TODO
4 tags
“Jumping in and immediately starting to build the product, even if it does get...”
– Bill Buxton, via Konigi
“We’ve all heard the classic “this is a mobile user so he really just needs...”
– LukeW | Mobile Context Revisited
“Personally, I think that mobile context is better thought of as device...”
– LukeW argues that “mobile context” is overblown, and has a lot more to do with device constraints than different user goals and needs. He’s right, but only in that context is always important. Mobile apps are just the first time a lot of people have noticed this.
“‘It just works.’ It’s a common phrase that Apple and its loyalists use — we all...”
– Just Works
Unsolicited Redesigns →
Like Lukas, unsolicited redesigns have always made me a bit uncomfortable. I understand the impulse, but never thought this was the right way to scratch that itch.
“It is understandable that design wants a seat at the table in corporate...”
– The ‘Science’ of Good Design: A Dangerous Idea - Ben McAllister - Life - The Atlantic
“It’s important to always state observations separately from your design...”
– Observations versus Recommendations
4 tags
Sketching in Mockups →
Nice post from Mike Angeles on using Balsamiq Mockups for exploratory sketching
April 2011
10 posts
5 tags
Where's My Post Going? →
Bagcheck wrote a post showing off a new design for their sharing dialog, and their users chimed in with their own ideas. The result is a great example of iterative design, and listening to your users.