The Jets won Superbowl III on January 12, 1969, almost exactly 41 years ago. It was just before I was born against the Colts and Johny Unitas. It was the first time they called it the Super Bowl. Joe Namath was the hero of the show, jogging off the field in the iconic…
Design is decisions. How do you make those decisions? There are many competing schools of thought. I’ll break them down and give you my experience with them all. A/B or Multivariate Testing Focus Groups Hallway Testing Consensus CYA Going with your gut A/B or Multivariate Testing Google tested 41 shades…
Big release of jQuery 1.4 today. This version has alot of new stuff and tons of optimizations. It should be a smooth upgrade for most people. jQuery was a central part of my daily life for several years. Recently, I have been doing more UX Design and have fallen off…
I bought my wife a Kindle for the holidays. Over the past three weeks, she has purchased and read, 10 new books. Previous to that, her reading habits were normal, a single book every couple of weeks. How did this happen? How did her reading (and purchasing) habits jump so…
Put your cell phone in your pocket. “Lock it” if it has that feature. Now walk around for a little while. If your phone has dialed three people and text messaged two more, then your phone has failed the Cell Phone Pocket Test. Just for full disclosure, my phone has…
Devices are going through an incredible period of experimentation on form factor. Some examples: Kindle: Super lightweight, fits in my wife’s purse. Highly targeted functionality. EeePC: 10″, lightweight, long battery life, Windows 7 laptop. iPhone: Fits in your pocket, uses your finger as stylus. Specialized OS favoring apps. Tablets: Swivel…
<rant> Last night, I upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.5 (from 6.1) on my HTC Touch Pro2. I have to say that I am getting really annoyed with this operating system. I don’t understand how they could achieve so little in so much time. Droid and the iPhone are so much…
It’s been a couple of weeks with the new car. I am still trying to get over the idea in my head that this car is too fancy for me. It’s a nice car and I like driving it. It was a good deal (I think) and we can afford…
My personal philosophy is that at the end of one’s life, you have approximately an equal division of good and bad things that have happened to you. This means that when something bad happens, I feel better knowing that a good thing is due to me in the future. My…
I’ve seen this in every company I have ever worked on. It starts with a meeting. The agenda is about cooking dinner (for example). You are invited to the meeting because you are going to be driving the car to the supermarket. Most of the meeting is about the ingredients…
One of my favorite values is transparency. The other day, I saw an example of this from Balsamiq, as they reviewed their year. This is probably the most powerful example of transparency I have witnessed on the web. They give complete disclosure including financials, hiring, problems and anything else they…
I’ve heard this story many times. The big boss is right in front of you. Normally, you never see him up close. You are in the middle of the organization somewhere and he is the leader. You start to feel butterflies in your stomach. Then, he asks that incredibly insightful…
This was the most stressful purchase I have ever made. Buying a house was nothing in comparison. My jaw is aching…throbbing. Hopefully, it will subside now that the battle is over. Why was this purchase so stressful? Because we tried to Maximize vs. Satisfice. Read The Paradox of Choice for…
Made to Stick has a great concept called the Curse of Knowledge. (Highly recommended reading) Here is a summary of the curse: Imagine a song (not Happy Birthday) in your head. A common familiar song. Then ask someone listen while you tap out the song on your desk. See if…