Products I like and wish I actually used
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 Posted in Design, Gadgets, Usability, Web products | No Comments »Sometimes you see something that looks so cool that you want to use it, but quickly realise you don't have any actual compelling need or interest. I've raved a few times about products I'm using at the moment and really ...
Products I’m really loving right now
Friday, November 13th, 2009 Posted in Gadgets, Usability | No Comments »I realised tonight that there are quite a variety of tools and products I've been using lately that I've been really enjoying, including: Zipcar I live in Beacon Hill, where owning a car is both expensive and difficult. As such, I have ...
Will Craigslist’s dominance continue?
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 Posted in Usability, Web products | No Comments »One thing has always puzzled me -- is Craigslist successful because of its simplicity? Or is it because it was first? I've heard the "you can't be successful unless you're first" line bandied about a few times, but have never truly ...
Information overload
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 Posted in Usability, Web products | No Comments »One important usability principle is to manage complexity for the user. This means both the UI itself, and contraining the data to prevent overload. Brandon Walkin wrote a nice article about managing complex UIs, but didn't talk about managing complex ...
Google doesn’t stop iterating
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 Posted in Usability, Web products | No Comments »One thing you can say about Google is its search results page has been known for its consistency and simplicity. The most radical addition was the poorly-received (by bloggers anyway) search wiki. Most changes have been behind the scenes -- ...
The difficulty of simple design – part 2
Sunday, March 8th, 2009 Posted in Design, Usability, Web products | No Comments »In my last post about design simplicity, I touched on the difficulties involved in what does and doesn't make the cut for a design. Recently I noticed a forum post where one of the developers behind Plex (a really amazing media ...
The difficulty of simple design – part 1
Saturday, February 7th, 2009 Posted in Design, Usability, Web products | No Comments »The hardest part of being a designer is choosing what goes into the product. Deciding what should and shouldn't go in is actually a very difficult choice. You don't want it to be overcomplicated, but you want to have a competitive ...
Why I’m passionate about usability
Saturday, November 29th, 2008 Posted in Usability, Web products | No Comments »There was a great Schneier post about why he is so 'into' security, and how his mindset differs from so many other people. I was thinking tonight about why I'm so passionate about user experience and how to improve its ...
Ranking crowdsourced data with curves
Saturday, October 25th, 2008 Posted in Design, Usability, Web products | No Comments »I'm a big fan of user review sites. I've been using TripAdvisor since at least 2002 to help plan my journeys, and Yelp is my new favourite site since moving to the US. Crowdsourcing information is usually a pretty good way ...
Is something usable, or is something useful?
Friday, August 15th, 2008 Posted in Usability | No Comments »One thing I've been reflecting on lately is how often I will use something because I find it incredibly useful - and yet in a lot of cases it's quite unusable. A potential reason for companies overlooking the importance of usability ...
