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…

Values are things that help define you as a company or person.  I think it’s important to list them out and periodically review them.  I just updated mine.  Here they are: Transparency Take a look at this blog post by Balsamiq. I can’t believe how transparent he is about his company.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…