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Month: June 2016

  • Margaery Tyrell is an Idiot

    I was so annoyed with her on the Game of Thrones finale. I had to tweet about it six times. https://twitter.com/glenlipka/status/747537149440864256 https://twitter.com/glenlipka/status/747537403829587972 https://twitter.com/glenlipka/status/747538241075634176 https://twitter.com/glenlipka/status/747538969668128768 https://twitter.com/glenlipka/status/747539577921904644 https://twitter.com/glenlipka/status/747543931282350082 I could have worked on the photoshopped one a little more and made her hair tumble across Admiral Ackbar’s face. Craftsmanship is lacking a little, but I didn’t have…

  • The Moth in San Francisco 2016

    I am planning on talking at the next Moth meeting in San Francisco. The Moth is sort of like an open mic night at a comedy club, except it doesn’t have to be funny, it’s mostly stories. They give a theme and each person is supposed to talk for 5 minutes. The theme on Tuesday,…

  • Analytics Design vs. Interaction Design

    Interaction Design is easy for me. I can see the big picture and architect the system with all of the right patterns. When it comes to Analytics Design, I find my inner muse drags its feet. I am not talking about designing a BI tool like Tableau or Good Data. These have some interesting interactions.…

  • Obfuscated Rebate Programs

    So this weekend, I went to the Verizon store. I have never gone into that store and left in less than 2 hours. It’s ridiculous how long it takes to get stuff done in there. The reason I was there was to get my youngest his first phone, plus to upgrade my father-in-law. He had…

  • Random Thoughts 2016

    Hillary Clinton should choose for her VP, Michelle Obama. Two former first ladies! Plus, Michelle is a serious customer. I have no idea who would win, but it sounds good. Despite winning the most games of any team ever, the Golden State Warriors will not be considered even in the top ten basketball teams of…

  • Most Viewed YouTube Videos 2016

    Out of curiosity, I looked at the most viewed YouTube videos. The distribution looks like this: That first one is Gangnam Style. This is a song, I am very familiar with. Why is it so much higher than every other? Good question. I do not have a good answer. In fact, you get music videos for almost the…

  • Design Principle #13: Give Feedback

    This should go without saying, yet apparently it doesn’t. Design Rule #13: When a user gestures or fills out a form or clicks a button or speaks their audio input or whatever…give them appropriate feedback. Of course, the word appropriate is subjective. How do you know how much feedback to give? Let’s look at the…

  • Not Going Viral

    Nothing I have done has ever gone viral. I am talking about Charlie Bit My Finger viral. (840 million views, 500k comments) Ok, maybe even something with a few thousand likes. This is the kind of viral that usually happens in numbers similar to winning the lottery. Very few have done it and usually it…

  • Learn Fast and Get on with It

    I hear the phrase “Fail Fast” all the time. At heart, the sentiment of this is “Get on with it.” (Which is a good thing) The problem with the word Fail is that it assumes that the effort is going to be negative. Why can’t the message be “Learn Fast“? Fail fast makes me depressed. Failure is…

  • My Favorite Comedians (2016)

    These are currently my favorite comedy acts: Flight of the Conchords I love these guys. They have live acts plus an HBO series. They are brilliant. So many different styles, each funnier than the last. Here is my favorite live show from them: Garkfunkel and Oates They are like the female version of Flight of…

  • Collecting Design Principles

    UX design principles 1-10 Over the years, I’ve picked up certain rules that I use as design proverbs. At Engagio, I put them on the wall to remind me and to decorate my area. I just added my 11th and 12th design principle. 11. Vertical Space is Expensive. This refers to the fact that most…

  • Social Network Connection Categories

    I have Facebook friends, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections and Google contacts. If you put most of them in front of me, I would have no idea who they are. Why am I connected to all these people? I actually know about 5% of my social connections. How does that help me or anyone else? Think…

  • Confident or Intelligent?

    My world has just been rocked. At the end of the movie, The Wizard of Oz, the scarecrow receives his diploma. He then immediately rattles off what I thought was the Pythagorean theorem. Until this morning, I thought was he was saying was correct. Today, on NPR, they disabused me of that notion.  Here is…

  • Silicon Valley Product Marketing

    I am not officially trained in anything in particular. I’ve learned from practice for the past 22 years. Over the years, I have headed UX, Product Management, Training, Documentation and Product Marketing. Each area has a different set of mental models and techniques to do a good job. I have seen people who were masters…