Usability vs User Experience
Last night Betsy Weber, TechSmith’s Chief Evangelist, dragged me to MI UPA meeting which I had mixed feelings about going into–I tend to battle some usability folks who seem averse to aesthetics and...
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Uncanny Valley? Nah, Most Software Just Sucks
I was reading about Sam Ruby’s experience as an OS X switcher and he mentions the phrase uncanny valley which is an interesting theory on the emotive response of humans to technology (robotics...
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Simplicity – The Holy Grail Of Software Development
Simplicity. A word to live by. An unending quest. The holy grail of software. As software makers our raison d’être is making complex tasks easy. We’re back to that elusive word–simplicity. In a...
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Synesthesia, Gestalt And Visual Communication / Learning
As any hardcore gamer will tell you, GPUs rule and it turns out our brain has one monster GPU feeding it data and forming impressions. The importance of visual communication / learning was reinforced...
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Users Are Not Aliens: Why Usability Testing Often Fails
Somehow we’ve lost sight of the fact that we’re more alike than different. Our basic knowledge of self is core to our understanding of others. Humans wouldn’t be so adept socially if we were so inept...
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In g-speak, UIs Getting a Minority Report
The amazing human-computer interaction and user interface illustrated in Minority Report lives! It turns out that the science advisor behind Minority Report’s gestural driven UI has been developing a...
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Latest Silverlight Experience
Call my experience with Silverlight fate, karma, or a vast Microsoft conspiracy… I’m clicking both to see how smart the installers are… *Update* For any MS chaps who stop by – after installing, I’m now...
View ArticleSoftware So Good You Can Feel It Through Your Eyes
I’m deeply appreciative when I use software that continually simplifies complex tasks. Lightroom is one such application and deserves huge props for much of its user experience. This software gets me....
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Users Are Not Idiots: Questioning Usability Testing And Design Assumptions
There’s a damn good article on pcworld (yes I’m aware of how dubious that sounds) that articulates some of my ideals for software design and reservations about usability testing. In the past I’ve...
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Sometimes You See More Clearly When You’re Blind
Snatched up this little gem via a JD tweet: I love standing a problem / argument on its head. Leave it to a blind guy to take a different tack that helps us see a universal humanist approach to...
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Another Obfuscated Auto Launch Behavior
It drives me nuts when software menus aren’t logically ordered. Sure no one is perfect and I’m guilty of some super bonehead moves, but it sure feels like some of the design decisions made in some...
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