Amazon is getting into the content business and their first two comedies are absolutely brilliant. Alpha House This show is about a group of republican senators in Washington DC who share a brownstone. It stars John Goodman. The writing is crisp and the comedy is nuanced. The republicans are portrayed…
I’m looking for awesome new people to join my team. Check out the UX Help Designer job description: What’s a UX Help Designer? At Marketo, the UX team is responsible for the way a feature works. We collaborate with engineers, product managers and other various groups. When we are ready…
I have a few new designers starting at Marketo in the next 30 days. One of the most important, but neglected, aspects to having new employees is giving ample training time before they are asked to do critical work. I can’t even count the number of times I saw someone…
It’s worse than ever. Who is looking out for the experience of customers? It’s pathetic. Security screening is horrendous and slow. Chairs are uncomfortable in the terminal. Everything costs a fortune. The plane itself is built for little people. We are packed in like sardines with no leg room, no…
I understand the economics of streaming movies. I know Netflix and Amazon and everyone else wants to get me to pay monthly to watch movies. However, there are two problems. I don’t want to pay every time. I already pay for DirecTV and don’t want to pay for another service.…
Good decisions are always based on the point of view of those judging. “What is better?” all depends on what you are optimizing for. In the book The Power Broker, by Robert Moses, there were two plans to create Central Park in New York City. One was to leave it…
I’ve had this mild allergic rash for a while on my neck and elbow. I’m having trouble figuring out exactly what I am allergic to. It could be the dog, but hopefully not. One person suggested it could be something in my diet. This led me to try an experiment.…
How do you help users find the information they need? How do you emphasize particular information. One mistake often made is putting what they need in the middle of a bunch of other stuff. Take this example: Find the needle in the haystack. HAY HAY HAY HAY HAY HAY HAY…
I am considering sending my kids to a private school. In researching such places, we found the Nueva School. (nice site) We recently went to a little seminar they held explaining the school. It had teachers, administrators and students. The Campus There are actually two different schools. The one we…
Years ago, things were getting smaller and smaller. This is what we thought phones would look like in the future: However, things have changed. BIG is making a comeback! The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the H2 Hummer of phones. It is massive. This is what talking on the phone…
I hear the phrase Minimum Viable Product quite often. Wikipedia defines it: A Minimum Viable Product has just those features that allow the product to be deployed, and no more. Product Managers are often looking for the minimum amount of investment to get the feature launched. Although this strategy is quite…
Cute 4 year old My son Matthew at 4 years old Clearly, 4 years old is your maximum cuteness level.
We have a family dog named Leroy. (Named after the hero from the cult classic “The Last Dragon”) He is a 18 month old black Labrador Retriever with some other breed mixed in; maybe a greyhound? Leroy is obsessed with running after a thrown tennis ball. He can do it…
The design process Marissa Mayer utilized for Yahoo’s new logo was pretty awful, but I don’t really think that is the primary concern. It is this article on Techcrunch, where Marissa defines Yahoo as a personalization company. WTF is a personalization company? To be clear, the job of “fixing Yahoo” is…