A passing thought regarding Office users on one grey morning in November
How many people are being sent .docx files every minute of every day only to find themselves unable to open them?
Yearly Archives: 2007
Wanted: a different kind of event scheduling tool for personal life
I was flipping through Allan Cooper’s classic “The Inmates are Running the Asylum” just the other day, and I noticed how in one section he has a little rant about how calendaring software is broken. “Many calendar programs are available … Continue reading
Press the ESC key to cancel saving the …
In Office 2007, you sometimes get shown this funny little dialog box when saving a large document. Have you ever noticed it? So what happens if you click cancel – does it cancel saving the document? Or does it just … Continue reading
Zune.net: 8 serious design mistakes, and how they could have been prevented.
Before I start I’d like to say I’m not a Microsoft Hater. I’m actually very, very impressed with Office 2007 – the UI design is great. And when I saw today’s splurge of blog posts about the new Zune, I … Continue reading
Origin of the name flickr: flicker.com was taken
This isn’t really hot news, but it was news to me when George Oates mentioned it in passing during her piece at Dconstruct 07. In an age of curious-sounding Web-site names, “Flickr” came largely by accident. The domain owner of … Continue reading
The difference between good and bad writers.
A great quote that sums up the art of User-Centered Writing: “Bad writers worry about whether the reader will understand them. Good ones are more concerned about how well they understand the reader.” – Paraphrased from Lindsay Camp (2007)
The journey IS the destination
This should be the mantra for user experience designers everywhere. Image stolen unashamedly from Jonny Baker’s Photostream. The concept came up in a chat with Simon Johnson today over lunch.
Are ‘Cheap Flight’ websites missing a trick?
I’m looking for a flight at the moment. I know the following: Where I’m going from (well I’d actually like to see results for all London airports listed in an order of my choosing) When I want to go (give … Continue reading
An example of deliberately obtuse industrial design
I was in Finland a few weeks ago, and this was the control panel of the lift in my hotel. Imagine this scenario: you get in the hotel on the ground floor, you press a button, nothing happens. You try … Continue reading
Facebook vs Flickr image tagging
Has anyone else noticed how great Facebook image tagging is? Granted, it is only for putting names to faces, but it’s incredibly quick to use (say 5 seconds per photo), and it’s really satisfying. Your friends see you’ve tagged them … Continue reading