Ode to Katie
Katie is Crescent Fresh. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=crescent+fresh #4 adj; Of great kick-assity.
Book Writing – Knowing when to start over
For a while I was writing the book, but the more I worked on it, the more it was looking like a regular old programming book. I really don’t want to write a programming book. I want to write a User Experience or Interaction Design book. That is what I…
OXO for the Web
I recently described what I do as “OXO is to kitchen utensils as I am to Websites.” Oxo has awesome designs. Check out their description of universal design. I love their stuff. They are fun to use and make me feel like the product cares about me as a human…
What is easier for you?
I find it fascinating how people react to responsibility and ideas. Some people, like myself, find it easier to avoid responsibility. Although, when I take on responsibility for something and achieve it, I feel a great sense of accomplishment. But it isn’t “easy” for me. I struggle to do the…
Sacred Cows of the Web
Brad Neuberg’s brainstorming technique yesterday was called The Sacred Cow. You put on the white board all your assumptions about “sacred cows” of the browser. These aren’t hard and fast rules, but rather they are things that people assume. Of course, there are current innovative examples that break many of…
Browser Possession
I am reporting on a break-through idea. I have to describe it. It will change the world. Ar at least change the World Wide Web. It’s not “my” idea. It was a result of a brainstorming session. I’ll explain: It’s the last day of Ajax Experience. It started off with…
Ajax Experience Part I
Today is day 2 of AjaxExperience 2007. It is the first conference I have attended since Usability Week 2006. I have met lots of great people, like Bill Scott from Yahoo. He worked on their design patterns site, which I think is something every good designer should read. Also, Brian Cherne of…
Logos
Logos are so tough. Every group needs a logo to hang its hat on. You need it for t-shirts and mugs and business cards and letter head. There are hundreds of companies out there, as well as freelance designers who will make a logo pretty inexpensively. However, only some logos…
Hats and Tennis
I used to hate wearing hats. They would feel uncomfortable. I never used one while playing tennis until this year. At some point, I bought a can of tennis balls that came with a nice looking hat from Wilson. I wasn’t wearing it, but while playing tennis I started to…
The UX of Aquariums
I have had a fish tank for a few years now. I have progressively increased the size of the tank over the years, but it’s still not huge, as fish tanks go. Its 29 gallons. Still, that’s actually alot of water. It’s very heavy too. You need serious furniture underneath…
Huey Long Book Review
I woke up early this morning. I didn’t want to wake up early. I have no idea why it happened, but once I am up, there is no going back. So I did some chores. I cleaned the fish tank. I added one additive that I am hoping doesn’t kill…
Wierd Firefox Cursor in PHP Admin
What is this? It’s like a little cursor nose. [image lost – sorry] UPDATE: John Resig of Mozilla and jQuery fame has provided the answer. To Firefox this is a feature when you mix right-to-left or left-to-right text-directions. The little tick tells the user which direction the text should go.…
Does it have to be perfect?
I just read a blog post by Ben Nadel stating “Don’t let great be the enemy of good”. At work, I am constantly struggling with “What can we do quickly and what would be perfect?” As a UX Designer, I know that even the slightest flaw can be a pimple…
I am not a usability professional.
Katie printed out an article for me, from the New York Times entited: Technology’s Untanglers: They Make It Really Work. There are several misconceptions here. Ones that I think are fairly widespread. For the record, I am NOT a usability professional. I am a UX Architect. If you prefer UI…