Well the results are in, and the Turbotax test did not lose. It actually won by a little. But it didn’t win by enough to justify changing so radically, which would have meant rethinking all of the tests coming up in the next few weeks. It’s a bummer. It was a good design. I don’t…
My first big test at Intuit is a new homepage for TurboTax.com. I am very excited and nervous. Take a look at the homepage now. If it has tabs on the left side in blue and gray, then it is the one we are testing. I am very nervous about it. Lots of analytics and…
I was recently, at work, given the book, The Paradox of Choice, to read. It confirms many anecdotal stories and observations I have had about human behavior and decision making. A long time ago, I heard a report on NPR about a study that said, “People who research decisions and review many alternatives are usually…
I bought the new Gillete Fusion Razor with battery. I didn’t have high hopes, but I had to know, would a battery powered razor be any better than a normal razor? The answer, I can answer from this morning is yes. The thing vibrates, so it feels like it is much harder to cut myself.…
I realized something interesting about books I was reading in public. Some books I would hold high and almost invite people to see what book I was reading. Some books, I would hold low and cover the spine. This pride and embarrassment syndrome was almost unconscious, but I noticed it. I definitely think a book…
Flickr is going well. I forwarded http://pictures.kokopop.com to our Flickr address so you dont need to remember a new thing. So far I have uploaded 1042 pictures taken from 1999-2003. I have about another 1500 to go from 2004 and 2005. I think. I have been looking through the pictures and making sure the dates…
I am pleased with Flickr.com in general. The capabilities are pretty diverse and robust. The only complaint I have (and of course, this is the one thing I would pick on) is the UI. There spread all kinds of features around the page in seemingly random fashion. I found some pretty useful features completely by…
A dated, but good presentation about RIA using Macromedia products. I still think Macromedia Flash is the best avenue to build real RIA business applications today. However, I see clearly the problem with choosing this technology. In many organizations, the engineering group dictates the technology used on the client-side. It takes alot of management risk…
Quick article from Psychology Today. June, 2003. This is exactly what I was discussing with Katie. Our brains react more strongly to negative stimulus. Having a positive attitude is harder than having a negative one. This is the exact opposite of “It takes more muscles to frown than to smile.” Fascinating.
Donald Norman wrote a few lines in his book, Emotional Design, about Instant Messenger. He proposed that the main function of IM is to provide emotional connection between people and not to communicate specific information. Most of the IM traffic around the world can be summed up with the following exchange: Person A: Hey. Person…
For work, I need to edit a file originally made in Adobe inDesign. I have never used it before. I will report my findings. Speaking of Design, I just finished reading Donald Norman’s book, The Design of Everyday things. I also just started another of his books, Emotional Design. The books are fairly well written…
When people are having a conversation really close to you, is it rude to eavesdrop? I mean if they are not being quiet and you were sitting there minding your own business, what are you supposed to do? I am sitting in this situation right now. Should I put on my head phones? Scream? Pretend…
Recently alot of movement has been seen on the User Experience side of the web. http://www.zimbra.com/ has a new Email client on the web using Ajax. It’s features and usability improvements over Outlook are impressive. Lazlo Mail is a flash Email client that is debuting on Earthlink. News.com has a new UI. Article on better…
Recovered from Archive.org – Apr 17, 1997 (One of my first design critiques) Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 3.0 is expected to be released in beta in just two weeks. The much anticipated upgrade to 2.0 will include many features Netscape holds a monopoly over. New functions will include Java support and an integrated email and newsgroup system.…