An interesting thought experiment came up today. A company I know acquired another company for 8 figures. The purpose was Acqui-Hire. This is the practice of acquiring a company for the talent, not for the product. There were not alot of people in the company and the acquiring company immediately shut down the product. The…
I don’t need skype at work. So when my computer boots up, I right click on Skype and click “Quit” I was pretty clear of what I wanted, right? So why the heck does skype give me this window? Honestly, screw you skype! Stop bothering me. No other program does this. It’s annoying! As…
I was walking in the parking lot at work and a car alarm went off. The car was about 50 feet away. I could see someone with the door open, leaning into the driver’s side. I looked around me and saw about 6 other people. Each one walking nonchalantly towards the building. Not one of…
I was looking at design work I did over 15 years ago. Although I can see that the browser technology has improved and therefore my canvas of design has improved, I noticed that the quality of the work was not discernible from my current work. The thinking that went into the design is practically the same.…
The other day someone told me that typography was subjective. It set me off on a rant about how it wasn’t. I tried to explain about how typography affects reading and changes your mood. Different fonts will create different feelings in the reader. I tried to explain kerning, serifs and other typography topics. It was…
Nissan has a standard key fob system. You don’t need to take it out of your pocket. I love this system and find myself confused when I am in a car that requires the key to manually be inserted into the steering column. It is good, but has some terrible flaws. If someone knows…
There is a phenomenon that happens when you have lots of customers using your product and you suddenly change it. They get mad. Facebook is a perfect example. Every time they change something, their user base erupts in turmoil and dissatisfaction. Then an interesting thing happens about 2-3 months later. They get used to it.…
I was talking to someone about how UX works at Marketo and how it is different than other places. At Marketo, the UX team has specific responsibilities and ownership within the process of development that differs from the norm. Product Management defines WHAT the feature needs to do. They define it’s required capabilities. PM does not however,…
What does it mean to have a safe place to work? What does it mean to provide a culture where it is safe to fail? I hear these terms alot, but usually they are not backed up by specific actions. It’s more of a wish, like “we should not be a bureaucracy” or “we should…
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 foot rests, no pillows. The…
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. Internet access is not always…
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 HAY HAY HAY HAY HAY…
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 looks like now: I expect…
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 popular, I think it is…