There have been many analogies and metaphors used to describe the Goldman Sachs fraud case. I think alot of them are bad. John Stewart was very funny talking about them. Metaphors and Analogies are important tools for User Experience (UX) design. Not only is it helpful to explain to your…
Yes. I may seem cynical, but this wasn’t an accident. Apple purposely instructed that guy to leave his prototype at the bar. Apple is in the zone right now. They are dominating everything they do. The iPad is a runaway success, despite the menstrual name. The iPhone sales are through…
I’ve tried many different methods for font replacement on my site. I just can’t help wanting to use a fancy font. I just switched techniques, but here is the complete rundown. Cufon. A JavaScript implementation that uses Canvas tags to change the fonts of specified tags. It uses jQuery to…
It’s been almost a month of using Axure. It’s not all roses and sunshine, but it definitely is the best click-able prototype creation tool I have used. With that said, it still leaves ALOT to be desired. Here are some of the things that bug me on a daily basis. Labels Some background: If…
A conversation with Merlin: Me: Hey, can you conjure up a cow? Merlin: Sure [POOF]. Easy. Me: Cool! How about a purple cow? Merlin: Oh, hmm. That’s hard. Yes, but it will take a while. A conversation with an engineer: Me: Hey, can you make the data come back in…
Say hello to my little friend: And I thought the point of school wasn’t meant for learning.
At work, they hooked up with Waiter.com to provide lunch delivery. I just used the waiter.com site to register. I am not saying this is the worst site in the world. However, Waiter.com is freakishly bad. Look, if you are a website application/service, you have to understand how important it is that…
I wish someone had told me this as a child. The point of elementary school is not to learn. The point is not to train you for an adult life. The point of elementary school is to practice following instructions. Let’s jump to high school. The point of high school…
SME stands for Subject Matter Expert. It means that you have extensive experience doing tasks in a particular field. The question is “If you are looking for a designer, should you try to find one that is also a SME for the target domain?” The answer may seem counter-intuitive, but…
There is a technique I use alot when thinking about the architecture of a SaaS product. It’s called Main Street. It comes from when I visited Disney Land. The technique makes an analogy of building a product to designing a theme park. You have to decide where everything lives and how the…
What is the best method for a designer? Storyboards or Prototypes? Storyboards These are used to tell a specific story. You can not click wherever you want. It’s just a series of screens in a chronological order. I have used Visio, PowerPoint, Photoshop, Whiteboard, Paper and Balsamiq to make these…
When do you give up? Let’s put that another way, When do you realize you made a mistake and try something different? Yes, that sounds much better. Yet, it’s the same thing. I have seen so many companies refuse to acknowledge the truth of a bad situation and stop the…
I love April Fools. It is permission to have a sense of humor once a year. It takes time to come up with a good joke. It should be clever and not too mean. One year I told my dad that we were pregnant with our fourth child. He got…
I saw an interesting question on UXExchange about product testimonials. Are they good or useless? We all know that referrals are tremendously important to people in their decision making. An advertisement for a new restaurant is worth a fraction of a recommendation from someone about the restaurant. This is why Yelp and…