I have been getting tired of my WordPress theme. I have zero time to do anything about it. However, I saw a theme that I kinda liked. It’s called Lemon Twist. It uses PNG files very nicely. It’s got jQuery and jQuery UI built in. The mouseover effect on the right is nice. Rounded corners,…
I have been compiling some UX rules in my head getting ready for my AjaxExperience talk in October. Here are some that I have. Not too much detail here, I will expand on them at a later date. Don’t bend your users. Given 10 users, you will get 8 different ways they try to succeed…
I use Powerpoint 2007 to do all my prototyping and requirements. It’s a great tool. Much much better than PPT 2003. Over the last 18 months, I have used this technique to great success. Check out these two examples. One is an older style and the other is newer. The newer one has animation, so…
I just ran into a problem that is a real pain in the ass with Internet Explorer 7. Start with a blank page with a patterned background. Put an absolutely positioned 24-bit transparent PNG file (like a fade) on the page and make the width=100%. You can see an example of this on sparkt.com at…
There are lots of people who can do a particular job. Sometimes, however, one gets a new idea. The idea is how you can do that job better, more effectively and more enjoyably. The idea is important. Most companies make that idea difficult to implement. It stays on the shelf with lots of other good…
Someone asked me today what the difference was between UX and Product Management. I explained with an analogy. User Experience (UX) is like being Willy Wonka. The chocolate factory was the ultimate in UX Design. Not only was everything awesome, but it was easy to use. No one had to ask how to eat in…
Something went wrong with my machine at home. A popup started saying things like, “Your license is about to expire, backup your stuff because this machine is about to become a paper-weight.” I was really annoyed. I purchased Vista for a reason. So I wouldn’t have to deal with that crap. Microsoft tech support was…
I was working on a friend’s wedding site using WordPress as the base. He is a graphic designer and has excellent taste for these things. At first, I started with a theme that was close and tried to modify it. This is what I did on my own site. However, I realized pretty quickly that…
Google Maps and street view is getting scary. For a while, Microsoft’s Maps, was the closest look at my house. But the Street View for Google is just crazy. It’s a digital photo from the street of every house in my neighboorhood. Interestingly, I can’t make out any of the license plates on the cars. …
WordPress 2.6 is getting ready to go into beta. I’ve said this beofre, but WordPress to me is just a fantastic program. The design of the UX including the UI, IA, upgrade process, plugin process, html editing, is just world class. I am continually inspired by how a program can work in such a smooth…
This might sound stupid, but I was struggling to find out what font Microsoft used in their menus in Office 2007. I thought it was Calibri, but that was incorrect. It turns out to be Segoe UI. Google sort of let me down there. I googled and googled and couldn’t find a post with the…
John McCain has proposed a 300 million dollar prize for a better battery. Although I certainly am in favor of a significant increase in funding for batteries, I don’t understand why this is a prize. Why not just invest 300 million in R&D grants for better batteries? Is it really a “prize”? So one company…
I recently upgraded my DirecTV so that I get HD and DVR in one box. It took a week to get it actually working. Some technical problem, lets skip that. The device has an ethernet port so I bought a special ethernet to wifi connection. It took a little while, but I finally got it…
I don’t have a Blackberry. I appreciate it’s UX very much for the primary user. It’s downright addicting. However, the UX of the person WATCHING the person using the Blackberry isn’t nearly as good. Hold on a sec. Click. Spin ball. Type. Wait. Wait. Ok, I’m back. How lame is that? Every person with a…