A Post-fact World
While we are now awash in digital communities which foster constructive dialogue between widely varying groups, so too are we at pains to distinguish truth from propaganda and outright fantasy.
Read MoreOn User Requirements
An axiom of website or app development is “know thy user for they are not you.” It’s easy for an experienced designer to assume that she knows what the end user needs. Even worse, a designer might assume that the end user will be forced to accept what’s given to them, particularly if it’s believed that they have no alternative.
Read MoreA Trip to Iceland
And now for a break in my usual blog fare. No web design or user experience topics in this post, just a video I made of my recent trip to Iceland.
You say you want feedback…but do you really?
In the age of the corporate intranet, one of the most obvious methods for taking the temperature of the staff is the online comment forum or discussion board. It is precisely because the solution seems so obvious that the decision to adopt it is usually made without a thoughtful consideration of the consequences. The manager who asks for employee feedback may get more than she bargained for. Save yourself some aggravation (and unpleasant surprises) by being honest about how much feedback you're really willing to accept.
Read MoreWhat Design Is
I think this might be the truest statement about design that I've come across. Who better than Milton Glaser to say it?
Slide by @Colly
Your Driverless Car is (Almost) Ready
People are the weak link in the automobile ecosystem. If we weren’t part of the control loop, things would be safer. A lot safer. It’s estimated that 94 percent of the world’s yearly 1.2 million automotive deaths involve human error. We’re uncorrectable bugs in the system, you and me. We get into accidents once every 500,000 miles, and cause fatalities once every 1.3 million miles. But the software that’s driving autonomous cars? It was performing at levels equal to or better than that error rate three years ago.
Read MoreFaceted Search: a Real World Example
Faceted search allows a user to narrow their choices down when searching for something online. This type of search is easy to understand if we look at a real world equivalent. Let's use the example of a car purchase I made in 2012
Read MoreDifferent Approaches to the Search UI
Different designers solve the same common problems in different ways. I was interested in looking at how a popular website handles its search interface. I decided (for no very good reason) to look at The Atlanticmagazine.
Read MoreAwwward-winning? Not So Much (Pt. 2)
Let's take a look at website judged by the good folks at www.awwwawards.com as having an excellent navigation system. Does it stand up to a detailed UX analysis?
Read MoreAwwward-winning? Not So Much (Pt. 1)
Let's take a look at the site of winemaker Chateau Yquem, a website judged by the good folks at www.awwwawards.com as having an excellent navigation system. How good is it?
Read More