Don’t you just hate interactive voice response systems?  You know, the automated voice that asks you for all kinds of information so it can “better serve you.”
One of my least favorite aspects of these systems is that they pretend to be an effort to better serve me, when in reality they are first, and foremost, [...]

I’ve often marveled at the naivete of designers that are so excited about their cool new web interface, or developers who are so proud of their shiny new service or method when, in reality, their creations are only novelties because they don’t solve a real need.  Cool for cool’s sake is not good design (or [...]

Good design requires understanding. And true understanding (of customer/user and business needs, constraints, opportunities, etc.) doesn’t just happen. It requires probing, studying, and questioning.
So, when one stops asking questions, for whatever reason, good design becomes much more difficult. Through the years I have repeatedly seen one key reason that people stop asking [...]

A few years back I worked on a project to build a web-based application to replace a very unwieldy Oracle Forms application that tracked the purchase and sale of all properties owned by a large international organization.
While the developers were digging into the guts of the old system I started talking to the users and [...]

Wow! Apple’s announcement of the iPhone sure has generated a lot of buzz. In just a few days I’ve probably seen well over 100 articles, blogs, or posts about the iPhone. What is it about the iPhone that is garnering so much attention? There really isn’t anything new here. I’ve seen [...]

That simple question — what’s the motivation? — is one of the most useful things I learned in college. I was taking a TV directing class and we were learning about using camera moves wisely. The simple, but powerful lesson is this: when contemplating a camera move (or some other effect), stop [...]

I’m old enough to remember the first laser printers (and the Apple ImageWriter). Before laser printers typists and computer users didn’t have to worry about what font to use. They generally only had one option (usually Courier). With the advent of laser printers they were free to choose from a number of fonts, and [...]

I love being part of the new field of experience design (and related fields like interaction design and information architecture). Like many others, I find it exciting and fulfilling. But why do we do it, really? Why is this new field becoming so popular? It isn’t for the short working hours. [...]

Yesterday I came across an online video of a talk Bill Buxton gave last year for the Alberta Ingenuity Fund/ Alberta Ingenuity Centre, entitled What if Leopold Didn’t Have a Piano? Wow! I’ve listened to it several times now, and I’m still gleaning pithy insights. (I’ll follow up with more insights from [...]

In the late nineties great advances were made in the storage and retrieval of information. This new access to information brought new opportunities in all areas of our lives. Information was the buzz word on everyone’s lips: information age, information super highway, information workers, etc. Indeed, it was the promise of easy [...]