Psychology is sometimes obvious, yet people make the same psychological mistakes over and over again. Last year, the Jets acquired Tim Tebow from Denver. Although Tim is a poor quarterback, he is a “winner” and helped Denver go far in the playoffs. The Jets started the first game using Tebow effectively, putting him during short…
When I was a kid, a million dollar house was a mansion. People in million dollar houses were rich, very rich. Now, a million dollar house (in the SF Bay Area) is nothing. It’s a 3 bedroom, 1,700 sq ft house in San Mateo. San Mateo is not a rich neighborhood at all. Someone owning…
Still perfecting the new TV. I tried plugging in a USB 2.0 thumb drive into the USB port to watch a 4gb movie. Voila! It worked and played without flaw. The remote control worked properly. Only problem was that the thumb drive was too small to hold ALL of my movies. So I upped the…
When designing something, it is critical that you understand the domain. This means that you understand the context the design will be used and the underlying subject matter the design is used for. It includes many factors: The People Who are the people who will use your designed product? What are their personalities? What motivates…
Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand. – Confucius, BC 450 Sounds good, right? Confucius had a way with words. However, reality is more murky and messy. How exactly do you involve someone to achieve the best results? The goals are pretty straight-forward: (I…
Almost two years ago, I wrote up a UX critique of the Occupy Movement. Sadly, I was right. The movement faded away and hardly anything has changed. Banking is the same, the 99% is still the same. Corporations are still considered people with rights. Nothing substantial changed. There were some conversations, but no laws. On…
Design needs time to develop properly. You can whip out stuff super fast, but it probably won’t be very good. Design can have logic bugs, sub-optimal flows, unintended consequences, poor usability, unhappy customers and other nasty results. The worst case is the design hampers your business growth in the future. What do all of the…
46″ is just not big enough for our living room. We moved the couch forward, but that wasn’t a satisfying answer. I wanted more screen real estate. Here are some of my findings: Buying Experience I purchased from Best Buy even though I could get it for $100 cheaper from Amazon. I just wanted to…
User Experience is bad without User Interface is drop-downs and pop-ups and menus and icons and accordions, etc. It is important, but will be bad without Information Architecture is the arrangement of data and controls so that they are easy to find and manipulate. It is important, but will be bad without Graphic Design is…
I recently had to fill out a “Self-Review” for work. Evaluate yourself for the year and write down what you think. The hard part is deciding how much to stick your chest out and how much to pick on your weaknesses. If you write it too “puff-piece” then the management will not trust your point…
There has been alot of movement in “responsive HTML” over the last 2 years. Basically, responsive means that the page will morph as the screen gets smaller. It changes to use the available space more effectively. All the way down to the phone browser level, it changes fonts, image sizes, padding, etc etc. All to…
I am hiring multiple UX Designers here at Marketo. First, I do a short phone screen for candidates. Then, if they pass, a 3-4 hour interview with lots of people. Maybe this is cheating, but here are some tips to help you do well with me on the phone. Let Me Hear You I can’t…
sa·cred cowAn idea, custom, or institution held, esp. unreasonably, to be above criticism. In UX circles, testing is above reproach. It is a self-evident good. Anyone who doesn’t test is a moron. Test early, test often, test even more, test all the time. Killing a sacred cow is a time-honored practice. It gives you the…
I don’t like getting a ton of tweets, so I don’t follow anyone. For a while I followed Brittany from Glee. She was hilarious. My favorite tweet from her: This two shall past. — Brittany (@BrittanyGLEE) March 6, 2012 Genius. But I was bored. Too few tweets. I need a little more. So I decided to…