The UX of leftovers.
One of the few disagreements my wife and I regularly have (well, one of many if you’re my wife) is around leftovers. I grew up in a family where leftovers were a part of life. And a welcome one at … Continued
The horror of hotel room usability.
Hotels have been renting rooms to weary travelers for years, and while they tend to be pretty good at the hospitality business, on the whole, it can be particularly maddening when they fail at the small details. I am confident … Continued
Storms a comin’. Quick, call the Waffle House.
One of the most serendipitous design accomplishments anyone can achieve is discovering a new and useful application for an existing tool or artifact that is equally as functional as its original intent. Every good designer needs to be good at … Continued
If you can’t use your head, use your finger instead.
I’ve been unreasonably haunted by this Reddit post for a long while now. I remember when I first saw it, and I struggled to comprehend how the person posting the picture could not comprehend what it was they were actually … Continued
There’s three kinds of uncertainty: confusion, utter confusion, and data visualization.
Title: How to Get Better at Embracing UnknownsContext: There are a million ways to visualize data. Maybe it’s time we stop using pie charts for 999,999,999 of them.Synopsis: We live in the age of big data where no decision is … Continued
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign! (Now, good luck figuring out what the heck they mean.)
Title: What UX Writers and Designers Can Learn from Street SignsContext: It is the foolish user who ignores signage. It is the even more foolish designer who relies on nothing but.Synopsis: How often do you pay attention to the signs … Continued
Attention shoppers, hope your in-store experience today isn’t so boring that you decide to leave us for Amazon.
Title: The Man Who’s Going to Save Your Neighborhood Grocery Store Context: OK, so it’s a story about grocery stores…or is it? Synopsis: What do grocery stores have to do with user experience? Well, just about everything as it turns … Continued
Just because you can use something doesn’t mean its not gloriously useless.
Title: The Inexplicably Fascinating Japanese Art of Being Useless Context: From the people who gave us Pokemon, karaoke, and Godzilla comes a whole philosophy of uselessness. Synopsis: Designers spend far too much time worrying about utility. How will this be … Continued
#ux iota: If a product doesn’t have any physical buttons for you to push does it make a sound?
Title: Conserve the Sound Context: The more digital we become, the less tactile—and by extension, aural—we sadly remain. Best Bit: I’m partial to the comforting childhood memories triggered by the sound of the View-Master myself. via conservethesound.de
Ugliness is in the eye of the beholder.
Title: Ugliness Is Underrated: Ugly Design Context: Form only need follow function if you are a design snob. Synopsis: We get so caught up in the overwhelming prejudice favoring “good” design that we often fail to see the equally important … Continued
You cannot be a problem solver if problems do not first exist.
Title: Why Paper Jams Persist Context: How boring would the world be if everything worked exactly the way it was intended? Synopsis: Failure is merely an opportunity to make something better. When things fail (printers, automobiles, software) we justifiably get … Continued
Parlez-vous Alexa?
Title: Inside Amazon’s Painstaking Pursuit to Teach Alexa French Context: If localization were easy, everyone would be doing it. Synopsis: As shocking as it may sound to us Americans, not everyone in the world speaks English. It’s true. There are … Continued
Ever been on an elevator where some kid pushed the button for every single floor right before hopping off? Yeah, I hate that kid.
Title: Five things elevators teach us about design, psychology and hats Context: Elevators can teach us a lot about psychology, such as how psychologically painful it is to be locked in a tiny space with strangers. Synopsis: Of all the … Continued
#ux iota: The glorious video history of the most magnificent tech products ever conceived.
Title: Techmoan – Featuring the best & worst of new and old technology. Cameras, HiFi, RetroTech. Hunting out interesting and unusual devices to demonstrate. Context: Just because you can make something is absolutely the only reason we apparently need to … Continued
Non-designer: “How hard can it be? Use some common sense.” Designer: “I hate you so much.”
Title: User Experience And Common Sense Context: If UX were easy, everyone would be doing it. *Sees everyone doing it* OK, if UX were easy, everyone would be doing it well. Synopsis: Of course, the primary call to action should … Continued