Work

20 Jan 2009 2224H

My experience working in Windows apps

Working in Windows apps is a bit different from working on the web. We deal more with modes and modelessness than the web does, and the kinds of widgets or controls we can apply is a bit more diverse, but the tools and general rules of thumb remain the same. 
The details are not important but [...]

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06 Jan 2009 0839H

Why Steve Jobs is so important

They use a technique called genius design for high profile products at Apple. At Apple, that means it has attracted the attention of Steve Jobs, who pushes the design to the level of his satisfaction, which can also be a bad thing. Now with this year’s keynote disappearing, not to disparage Ives and all the [...]

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21 Nov 2008 0734H

Big change ahead

When I first started as a designer in this field about 12 years ago, one of the first things I remember wanting to design was the information displays on medical devices. It looks like I will finally get my chance!
After a few grueling months of interviewing and constantly running into jobs being placed on hold, [...]

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12 Nov 2008 0918H

Lumping & splitting among information architects, user experience people, and interactionists

Of all the lousy times to be looking for a new gig, there’s a recession and a marriage banquet and an election and all these things with starting a new life. But I really can’t complain because at least the interviews keep coming, so that signals to me that the market is still fairly strong.
So, [...]

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17 Aug 2008 1710H

Alan Cooper tries to set the record straight

You’ll remember an infamous debate between Kent Beck and Alan Cooper re: XP vs. interaction design waaaay back when. Alan tried to set the record straight at Agile 2008 in Toronto last week.

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17 Aug 2008 0647H

Biting the hand that feeds you

Seems a recent post at grokdotcom has inflamed the information architecture community: hardly worth mentioning really but for the strident responses drawn to that flame. I don’t think it’s wrong to say that interaction design or information architecture is faulty or point out how they are incomplete, and most mature disciplines at some point in [...]

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07 Aug 2008 1216H

Research driving UX projects

We’re in the production stream of a project now, and I’m looking back on an affinity diagram I put together after we’d had a group of about four or five users tell us their loves and hates (such strong words, I know) about a particular online service we offer. Hadn’t looked at it in a [...]

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05 Aug 2008 0800H

In re: interaction design v. information architecture

At one time, before the dotcom world ended, people would put out these crazy job descriptions where they wanted what used to be called a webmaster: someone who coded, designed, researched, and managed the web services for a company or an organization. They wanted someone who was familiar with major scripting and programming languages, someone [...]

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30 Jul 2008 0641H

Brulant + Rosetta: crazy delicious?

Well, not quite. Since the dotcom days, I have always been somewhat suspicious of firms that have grown by merger and acquisition. In those days, rolling up firms for their assets and clients seemed to be the predominant exit strategy, and all the equity built up by the talent within went for naught as they [...]

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02 Jun 2008 0624H

UX-dojo-storming PotteryBarn.com

Oh. Looks like W-S brands’ UX & Dev teams down at the north end of Van Ness have been hard at work lately. Let’s look the numbers:

#21 on the Internet Retailer Top 100,
$1.1 billion worth of stuff sold online last year, up 19% from the previous year,
7.1 million visitors a month,
6% conversion rate,
Average ticket of [...]

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