• The UX of the Long Tail

    The long tail should be familiar to everyone. Every project I have every worked on was like this.  Here is the breakdown: 1. The Logos. Greek word which is defined as “Meaning”.  We all have experienced the boss who comes in and says, “I want you to design a widget…

  • Office 2010 Activation (Update 2)

    Well, the modal has changed.  The program still works though, so my downgrade punishment is deferred again.  I wonder if it will keep working?  Of course, none of the links go anywhere. I am anxious for the next build of Office 2010.  My beta clock is ticking.

  • Office 2010 Activation (Updated)

    Interesting.  This morning, I was fully expecting my Office 2010 to stop working.  Inexplicably, it shows me the exact same activation window as yesterday.  It says, “1 day left to activate”.  Maybe Microsoft put a little bug in their own activation wizard to stop it from imploding? Who knows?  However,…

  • Nothing Lasts

    Possibly the defining characteristic of life as we know it.  Change is the only constant. Whether it is pain or joy, it won’t last forever.  I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button tonight.  Medium movie, I liked it.  However, the line, “Nothing Lasts” really stuck with me.  My kids…

  • Office 2010 Activation

    Hi, My name is Glen and I am addicted to beta software. My latest fix comes from Office 2010.  Even before the official beta program, a version of it was leaked to the web.  Waht does Microsoft expect me to do?  Ignore the leaked version!?  Are they insane.  Of course,…

  • The UX of upside-down pavement signs

    You know when you are driving and you see a sign that is written on the pavement itself.  The interesting thing is that the sign is written from top to bottom so you can read it one line at a time while you drive over them. Although I often find…

  • The UX of a Great Software Review Site

    Most software review and analyst sites miss the mark for me.  There is a fundamental reason why…I want to see the software in action!  Why can’t these sites follow this basic formula: Standard Use Cases in clear language. Reviewer comes up these.  I would even ask the software companies to…

  • Local Max Island

    I heard this concept from Victor Cho at Intuit a few years ago and just read about it again this morning in Small is the New Big by Seth Godin.  The basic concept can be described in this picture. Let’s say you live on the little mound at the bottom…

  • The Big Five of Interaction Design

    There are 5 ways that a user will guess how to do a certain function. Buttons/Links Menus Right-Click Drag and Drop Keyboard Shortcuts Each of these ways is more or less comfortable for a random user.  Personally, I am a right-clicker.  I right-click on everything and am usually disappointed.  However,…

  • The UX of Geni

    This morning I received an email from my cousin that I was added to his family tree on a service called Geni.  It said it was private and I was intrigued so I clicked on the link.  It showed a segment of my family in Flash and immediately satisfied me…

  • Crop rotation on the soil of Creativity

    I don’t know if this is something that affects other people.  However, I find that if I spend too much time on a single thing, my creativity levels go down.  I start to run out of inspiration and general energy.  When I can rotate my crops, and work on different…

  • The UX of the word “Bing”

    Microsoft named their new search engine “bing”.  I don’t think they realize how lame that sounds.  Every time I hear it, I think of this scene from Groundhog’s Day. (Great movie) I imagine Steve Balmer saying, “Yeah, i love it.  They search for something and BING! they found it!”  This…

  • The UX of Presentation Zen

    I just finished reading Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds.  It should be mandatory reading for anyone who presents anything, ever.  There is so much goodness in this book about communication and it’s so short.  I would classify it similar to Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug.  A quick read…

  • Miracle Tree Saves World – Almost

    I just love, love, love the ingenuity and creativity of the human mind.  Well, I also hate, hate, hate the ingenuity and creativity of the human mind when it’s applied to torture and cruelness, but that is another issue. In this case, it is applied to something dear to my…