I was looking at design work I did over 15 years ago. Although I can see that the browser technology has improved and therefore my canvas of design has improved, I noticed that the quality of the work was not discernible from my current work. The thinking that went into the design is practically the same.…
I had been testing for a couple of weeks and the winner seems to be ASmallOrange.com. Performance I used some ping services as well as anecdotal evidence from colleagues around the world. Orange performed consistently better. Price Orange is half the price of MediaTemple. It’s not THAT much money, but it’s enough to make a…
For the past few years, I have been hosted on MediaTemple. However, I kept noticing that the site would get slow or even fail to load sometimes. I kept trying customer support, but they blamed some issue that they claimed was outside their control. I don’t know if it was true or not, but I…
The other day someone told me that typography was subjective. It set me off on a rant about how it wasn’t. I tried to explain about how typography affects reading and changes your mood. Different fonts will create different feelings in the reader. I tried to explain kerning, serifs and other typography topics. It was…
The art of making great APIs has become a key skill in a technology organization. Whether it’s the protocol or the naming scheme or the functions or even the error logging, the API has a UX of it’s own. Make a bad developer UX and you will have fewer technology partners. You can see great…
Nissan has a standard key fob system. You don’t need to take it out of your pocket. I love this system and find myself confused when I am in a car that requires the key to manually be inserted into the steering column. It is good, but has some terrible flaws. If someone knows…
UX Candidate Design Challenge – v1 UX Candidate Design Challenge – v2 UX Candidate Design Challenge – v3 UX Candidate Design Challenge – v4 UX Candidate Design Challenge – v5 When I interview someone, I usually give a written design challenge and spend about 20 minutes on it with the candidate. Unfortunately, people weren’t doing…
The Marketo 2014 Summit has grown to enormous proportions. It’s doubled and doubled so many times that over 5,000 people packed into the Moscone Center this week. It funny how much work goes into it and exhausts us, while at the same time fills us with enthusiasm and energy. Our customers really are something special and…
What happens when you die? What if all of this is meaningless? Why do parents says to their kids, “In the REAL world, blah blah”? What is the real world? Does high school matter? Should one go to college? What does success mean? Why won’t that other person like me? My kids are wondering what…
I’m giving a presentation at this year’s Marketo Summit. The topic is how to give a great presentation. This creates a conundrum. If the presentation is not great, then the content will be considered suspect. How can one trust that the lessons are solid if the presentation wasn’t awesome? It certainly puts the pressure on.…
There is a phenomenon that happens when you have lots of customers using your product and you suddenly change it. They get mad. Facebook is a perfect example. Every time they change something, their user base erupts in turmoil and dissatisfaction. Then an interesting thing happens about 2-3 months later. They get used to it.…
In my lifetime so much has changed. In these changes, I have lost and I have gained. Some examples: Communication As a teenager, I would stay for hours on the phone with my girlfriend. (When I was lucky enough to have one!) The phone wasn’t a bother and the sound was crystal clear. I could…
Why do most cars lack character? They look like they have all been designed by the same person. All sedans look alike. All SUVs look alike. It’s a conspiracy to make us all into automatons. Good little soldiers in our little boxes going to work in our cubicles and staring at rectangle screens. Well, to be fair,…
We are interviewing for some VP positions and it has me thinking about one trait that I look for in a candidate, regardless of position. Does this person have a strong point of view? Not all leaders are managers and not all managers are leaders. However, leaders usually have a strong point of view, a…