I’ve seen two advertisements leveraging this Donald Trump meme. One was a billboard on 101 that stated “Make your data great again!” and today, I got this email that proclaimed, “Make your events great again!” Both times I saw the ad, Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan came to mind along with a bunch…
My title at Marketo was Mayor, Awesome Town. I requested it on a lark, as a joke of sorts. They let me have it. Since then, I loved giving my cards to people. I figured I should leave Awesome Town behind with my new gig at Engagio. Now my title is Head of Magic. I…
I just got this email. It has several major UX issues. Problems: Alignment. It is harder to read centered text than left-justified. Contrast. Gray on white is hard to read. Size. Text is too small and hard to read. Serif. Serif is harder to read than sans-serif, especially when small. Disconnect. The words reference things…
There have been many business software platforms over the last 20 years. Usually, these things go in waves of popularity. Some examples that were very popular: Novell Windows 3.1/95 Netscape Flash (short lived) IE6 iPhone/iPad Android Facebook Salesforce I see a new platform gaining in popularity: Browser Extensions. I have been compiling more and more.…
It’s slow and steady progress, but you can almost see the diminishing returns. Getting to that green line is going to be difficult. Whenever I see data, I want to visualize it. I hate looking at tables of data. The line shows a trend, the numbers are harder to understand. There is a UX lesson…
I have not had an easy time adjusting to Google Apps. GMail is ugly, Inbox is pretty but severely limited and Google Calendar is deeply frustrating. More and more, I have been missing the power and elegance of Microsoft Outlook. I decided to try and use Outlook on top of Google Apps. At first, I…
Based on a quora question, I was inspired by Bert Green‘s answer. For the purposes of this blog, I am going to make it shorter (20 min) and possible to do in an office. Here is the question: Show me how you would build a 6″ wooden box. Show me the design and the steps.…
CAVEAT: I design B2B Applications, not marketing websites. The following is specifically targeted at that kind of project. I’ve been using PowerPoint since 2007 for UI storyboard design with much success. I’ve posted several blog posts about it: Using PowerPoint for Storyboards Suggestion for MS PowerPoint PowerPoint 2007 for UX Design Storyboards or Prototypes? UX…
No matter how long I live, no matter how big they get, my kids will always look like this to me: It was taken in 2009 during our infamous Tahoo trip. It’s funny how kids get frozen in that moment. This one picture of pure boyish joy was the moment they stopped growing in my…
I’ve been helping my sister with her resume. Here are a few good rules of thumb: Make it look nice visuallyBefore anyone reads it, they look at it. The first impression happens in less than 2 seconds. Make it look nice. I downloaded a free template and then modified it. If you aren’t sure, ask someone…
My wrist adventure has just been a nightmare. I want to chronicle it so far. Date Doctor Prognosis Sep 2014 Me I hit a tennis shot funny and my wrist hurt. I said, “Ow!” – Unbeknownst to me, I tore ligaments in my wrist. 1 week later Doc #1: Kaiser She said it was a…
Both are needed. However, direct manipulation should be used way more than it currently is. Whenever I look at UI Designs from other designers, I am struck by the plethora of indirect manipulation cases. Here is an example to clarify. Case: You have a table of data (columns and rows) and you want to reorder…
Sometimes I’ll write a whole post and throw it away. The post made more sense when I started than when I finished. It happens in startups as well. The company starts off in one direction and then changes. It is called a Pivot. A pivot is actually great in a way. It lets you build rapport…
I like Calendly alot. However, some parts of their UI are not very good. They bury functionality in strange places and use a few anti-patterns. Plus, it’s a little bit ugly. One thing however, is a serious UX no-no. Do you see the problem that causes confusion? UX Rule #81: Never use the word Cancel…