December 19, 2008
Tagging is selfish
The requirement for having tagged content is one that comes up pretty often in my part of the web world. People want to have the community tagged content. That means that “The Crowd” helps organize content by entering keywords that describe it. This feature suggestion is nearly always flawed because people are selfish.
December 11, 2008
What you need to consider, if you’re considering rating widgets
You see ‘em everywhere. They’re on CitySearch; they’re on Yelp; they’re tucked away in the footers of knowledgebase articles. Content ratings. Those little 5-star widgets and their kin. For such an innocuous little widget, the decision to put them on your page brings up all kinds of philosophical questions.
July 27, 2008
Ipod 10 GB 3rd Gen is Dead at 5.
My old systems analysis teacher once said that, whenever you make a tech purchase, it should last at least 3 years. On Saturday, July 27th, my iPod failed to respond to resuscitation. It was 5.
May 22, 2008
Google Notebook vs Evernote
Both Google and Evernote offer an online tool for managing notes. This isn’t a review of each product’s capabilities, but an observation on their UIs.
May 20, 2008
Seen on the web: link dimensions as a function of popularity
I just came across this on www.dusteddesign.com. In their tag navigation, the length of the link tag is proportional to the number of articles it contains. I can’t say this works, or that I’d employ it, but it’s interesting and I applaud their thinking.
April 4, 2008
Hire Your Users: a brainstorming tactic
As I was preparing for a brainstorming session, I started thinking about how to start discussion about a business’ users without explicitly asking “who do you think your users are?” That approach seemed rife with canned answers; I was looking for something different.
March 21, 2008
Lazyweb Request: An RIA Wireframing Service
Something just struck me–something that I’d really like to have. Can someone create a RIA tool that allows me to quickly create a low-fidelity sketch of a site, along with a service that allows these to be published, annotated, and shared online? Off the cuff, my base requirements for this would be:
March 16, 2008
Who would ever click this?
An ad for Wendy’s Baconator radio station on Pandora.com. You know, ’cause all the kids are into subscribing to your hamburger ad radio grooves.
March 9, 2008
UX and the Art of Espresso Making
When people asked me what a “user experience” designer was, I usually gave them the following answer: “I try to make software easier to use.” Simple and approachable, and without the arm-waving, chest-puffing that we UXes use to justify what we do. After reevaluating that canned response, I realize I was wrong.
Does somebody have a towel? My face just melted over my keyboard.
PicLens, a Firefox plugin, just reaffirmed how much I love the web.
March 7, 2008
Pidgin: wireframes for designers and developers
A few days ago, I wrote a post on the Capstrat blog about this idea I’ve been working out. It’s called Pidgin, which is a diagramming tool to accomplish two goals in tandem. One, Pidgin is aimed at providing definition to what a UI needs to encompass. Second,…
March 1, 2008
The Stage: a shared, persistent space for persona development
At work, we’re always looking for ways to better bring personas to the creatives and the developers. One idea that we’ve been tossing around is a physical moodboard for personas. I’m calling this the Stage.
Dog-Eared Links for February 29th
Links for today, lovingly scoured from the walls of the Tubes.