Yearly Archives: 2013

Top posts of 2013

2013 has been an intense year for me, having left Clearleft in April to start my own business as an independent UX consultant. I’ve got to say, I’ve been loving every minute of it. When you’re running your own business … Continue reading

Dark Patterns and Sports Direct on BBC Watchdog

This is probably of greatest interest to UK readers, but the sneak into basket dark pattern was featured on BBC Watchdog last week. This dark pattern is going to become illegal in the UK next summer, as our implementation of … Continue reading

UX Brighton 2013: the psychological foundations of design (10% off!)

Design is a branch of applied psychology. If you don’t know the first thing about the psychological foundations of design, then you’re not likely to be a good designer. I’m going to UX Brighton on November 1st, and you should … Continue reading

Deadly set: how too much focus causes mistakes.

Aviation Psychologist David Beaty on the phenomenon of ‘Set’ (1991): ‘Set’ is a survival characteristic we have inherited. The human brain evolved to help individuals live and survive circumstances very different from our own. It predisposes us to select our … Continue reading

The slippery slope

A paraphrased transcript of my talk at SMX Munich 2013 Let’s start with a little game. In iOS, there’s an ad tracking feature that allows advertisers to identify you (albeit anonymously). It’s turned on by default. Let’s see if we … Continue reading

Are you in a teflon-coated UX role?

Maybe you’re a UX researcher, passing choice insights into the product development machine. If what comes out the other side doesn’t seem right, you feel free to bitch and moan. “Didn’t they listen to the findings I gave them?” Maybe … Continue reading

Sneaking responsive in under the radar using an mdot site.

Let’s face it, there’s the right way to do design, then there’s the pragmatic way to get things done within your organisation. The two are often not the quite same thing. Let’s say you want to create an elegantly minimal … Continue reading

The drunkard’s search

“There is the story of a drunkard, searching under a lamp for his house key, which he dropped some distance away. Asked why he didn’t look where he dropped it, he replied ‘It’s lighter here!’. Much effort […] in behavioural … Continue reading

Powwowapp: for scheduling research

This is neat. Powwowapp is free little app to help you schedule research appointments. If you work in a UX agency then you’re probably used to paying about £70-£100 a head finders fee for some recruiter to trawl their database … Continue reading

Assumptive Personas

It seems that assumptive personas are getting fashionable again, thanks to Lean UX’s Proto-Personas and Gamestorming’s Empathy Maps. Getting stakeholders to think about their users is a good thing, but it’s dangerous when you start treating them as facts rather … Continue reading