The design process Marissa Mayer utilized for Yahoo’s new logo was pretty awful, but I don’t really think that is the primary concern. It is this article on Techcrunch, where Marissa defines Yahoo as a personalization company. WTF is a personalization company? To be clear, the job of “fixing Yahoo” is ridiculously hard and Marissa is…
All day long, I see ideas and plans. Whether it’s something big that changes the course of the whole company or something small like a new icon. My job, as the head of UX, is to know shit from Shinola and hopefully steer us towards the good stuff. Here is where I first learned the difference:…
So many people hesitate. So many people over-think the problem. The first secret to getting things done is to dive in. So many projects stall because the first steps aren’t taken. It’s like pushups. Getting down on the ground is the hardest part. My brain is begging me not to even get on the floor.…
I am recruiting for more UX Designers on my team. One thing I keep seeing, surprisingly , is that people’s LinkedIn profiles are private. If you are looking for a job, this is a bad idea. How can you tell? Open a Chrome window in Incognito mode. This will let you see the world through…
Achieving Over-Achieving 1. Coming in on time Coming in early 2. Leaving on time Staying late 3. Doing what you were asked to do Doing what you were asked to do AND something you weren’t asked to do, but needed doing 4. Personally doing well Helping other people do well 5. Following the leader Being…
When I was a kid, a million dollar house was a mansion. People in million dollar houses were rich, very rich. Now, a million dollar house (in the SF Bay Area) is nothing. It’s a 3 bedroom, 1,700 sq ft house in San Mateo. San Mateo is not a rich neighborhood at all. Someone owning…
Still perfecting the new TV. I tried plugging in a USB 2.0 thumb drive into the USB port to watch a 4gb movie. Voila! It worked and played without flaw. The remote control worked properly. Only problem was that the thumb drive was too small to hold ALL of my movies. So I upped the…
When designing something, it is critical that you understand the domain. This means that you understand the context the design will be used and the underlying subject matter the design is used for. It includes many factors: The People Who are the people who will use your designed product? What are their personalities? What motivates…
Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand. – Confucius, BC 450 Sounds good, right? Confucius had a way with words. However, reality is more murky and messy. How exactly do you involve someone to achieve the best results? The goals are pretty straight-forward: (I…
Almost two years ago, I wrote up a UX critique of the Occupy Movement. Sadly, I was right. The movement faded away and hardly anything has changed. Banking is the same, the 99% is still the same. Corporations are still considered people with rights. Nothing substantial changed. There were some conversations, but no laws. On…
Design needs time to develop properly. You can whip out stuff super fast, but it probably won’t be very good. Design can have logic bugs, sub-optimal flows, unintended consequences, poor usability, unhappy customers and other nasty results. The worst case is the design hampers your business growth in the future. What do all of the…
46″ is just not big enough for our living room. We moved the couch forward, but that wasn’t a satisfying answer. I wanted more screen real estate. Here are some of my findings: Buying Experience I purchased from Best Buy even though I could get it for $100 cheaper from Amazon. I just wanted to…
User Experience is bad without User Interface is drop-downs and pop-ups and menus and icons and accordions, etc. It is important, but will be bad without Information Architecture is the arrangement of data and controls so that they are easy to find and manipulate. It is important, but will be bad without Graphic Design is…
I am hiring multiple UX Designers here at Marketo. First, I do a short phone screen for candidates. Then, if they pass, a 3-4 hour interview with lots of people. Maybe this is cheating, but here are some tips to help you do well with me on the phone. Let Me Hear You I can’t…