What is the likelihood of raising your hand in class, or in a meeting, or at a conference? Some people raise their hands all the time. I have this policy where I try to say absolutely nothing at all in meetings. However, I have such a big mouth, I inevitably can’t hold back and comments pour out…
After trying JustinMind Prototyper 3.0, I felt that it definitely was time to move the designs I have been working on to the next level of fidelity. We needed to be producing realistic looking prototypes for sales and research uses as well as deliverables for engineering. This is similar to when, at Marketo, I changed from PowerPoint…
This weekend I had the opportunity to use JustinMind Prototyper a little more. I had previously reviewed it for initial impressions. This was a real project I was using it for and I got at least 6 hours in of real-world usage. Here are my findings: The first thing I noticed is that the application is kinda…
There is a ton of software out there that is SaaS (Software as a Service). This doesn’t mean at all that it is easy to use. What it means is that there is no CDs or servers to install. You go to a website and login. Example of Managed Service SaaS: Eloqua. Eloqua was in…
I have seen this effect first hand my whole life. Some examples: I tried to convince my parents that homework was stupid. The more I tried to convince, the most entrenched they became. I tried to get a girl to love me. The more I loved her, the less she loved me. My cousin treated…
From Wikipedia: “Any intervention in a complex system may or may not have the intended result, but will inevitably create unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes” The key part of this is that there are MORE outcomes than just the one that is the goal. They might be unfortunate, sometimes they are actually very beneficial. This…
User Research is an important part of User Experience (UX) Design. However, you have to be careful to use this tool in the right way. A hammer is a good tool, but you don’t use it to cut a 2×4. The biggest misuse of User Researching is to validate your existing ideas. In other words,…
It’s a conundrum. To be a successful company, you need customers. To get customers, you must build something great. Most people say, “Go to market quick, then learn and iterate.” I think people are missing a key factor about what it means to have customers. I saw this first hand at several different companies. Many…
As a designer, I often and working on something and wondering how it will be received by the decision-makers. I know how the intended audience will receive it. (That’s my job). However, how the non-intended audience will react is more complicated. Many designers get depressed with this issue and just try to make the internal…
A friend of my family is looking to re-enter the workforce after raising three kids. She is over 40 and hasn’t worked in a dozen years. Probably, it comes as no surprise that she is having trouble finding the right job. Putting my UX hat, I started thinking about her plight. There was a period…
Follow this trail. I want to watch the New York Jets football games. The problem is that I live in California. So I chose DirecTV with their NFL Superfan package to get the games. (Crazy expensive) DirecTV doesn’t have internet access so I got DSL from DSLExtreme. I also have to pay for a basic…
In the course of your life, you will outsource a bunch of things. Mechanics, accountants, programmers, copy writers, lawyers, handymen and more. You try to get a referral, but often you are on your own, trying to guess whom to grant your business. There is one common experience though, that we all share. When we…
It took a few days, but I am no longer the #1 result for “Windows 7 blue screen of death”. Yay. Here is what happened to my traffic in the last few days: That decline is pretty much Windows 7 Google traffic. One funny thing that is messing up my test is that Smashing Magazine…
Justinmind Prototyper 3.0 is released and they state on their blog that a UX review of the product gets you a free license. I was contacted by someone at their company as well. A positive review is not required, so I feel free to be completely open and objective. No conflict of interest, I think.…