Moving on.
Yesterday I quit my job at Clearleft to become an independent UX consultant. I’m going to miss this place. What I’ve loved about Clearleft is that it’s just so different to any other agency I’ve worked at. There’s no company
Is User-Centered Design Broken – or is It Just Us?
Cennydd Bowles recently argued on A List Apart that User-Centred Design “may be limiting our field”. I don’t agree, and I didn’t agree with Jared Spool when he said the same thing at IA Summit 2008. Funnily enough, I agree
Dark Patterns Awards at SXSW 2013: Last Call for Submissions!
Image credit: Paul McDonald Which website would you nominate to win an award as the most deceptive, sneaky and manipulative of the last 12 months? I’m very interested in hearing from you, even if you feel it’s already common knowledge
Combining Reflector and Silverback for iOS Usability Testing
If you provide usability testing as a service, it’s pretty standard for your clients to expect video footage to be digitally recorded and piped into a viewing room. So what do you when you’re usability testing on an iOS device?
Submitting a Talk Proposal to a UX Conference This Year? Read This.
This year I’m curating one of the tracks for the Information Architecture Summit 2013 together with Leisa Reichelt. This has involved reading over 100 submissions and choosing just 15 of them. In doing this I’ve picked up a fair bit
Why Lazy Registration Sometimes Fails
This is the kind of UX design process article I like. No back slapping, no chest beating, just a good honest story. Maybe I’m turning into a scratched record here, but dead ends and mistakes are inherent to a good
Brasília: an excerpt from Urbanized
“In architecture it isn’t enough to just have the right building that works well. It can also be beautiful. It can also be different. It can create surprise. And surprise is the main thing in a work of art. […]
UX Brighton 2012 – 2nd November
All of a sudden UX Brighton 2012 is only a few weeks away. Somehow it’s been under my radar until now, but take a look at the awesome line-up! Mike Kuniavsky: Co-founder of Adaptive Path Jim Kalbach: Author of the
Imagine you’re clever
Here’s one of my favourite pieces of Educational Psychology research from the ’80s. The researcher took some kids, split them into two groups and gave them the same tests. One group was simply asked to “act as if they were
The Computer For the 21st Century
Sal awakens; she smells coffee. A few minutes ago her alarm clock, alerted by her restless rolling before waking, had quietly asked, “Coffee?” and she had mumbled, “Yes.” “Yes” and “no” are the only words it knows. Sal looks out
Another reason not to use reCAPTCHA
Is it just me or is reCAPTCHA’s audio test completely impossible to solve? I wonder how many sites are failing to comply with their local accessibility laws as a result. Try it for yourself: Can’t see the embedded item?
User Experience Euphemisms
It’s funny that the UX industry preaches plain english and transparency to our clients, yet so much of our documentation is riddled with jargon and euphemisms. Perhaps someone should put together a crib sheet? “The deliverable will be a high
Design as Detective Work
This is an excerpt from a talk I gave at ProductTank in July. For the different angle on the same design process, check out Alex Watson’s Business Case presentation.
Usenet – what have you become?
Usenet is 32 years old. You’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s a near-dead, cobweb-covered discussion forum platform, but actually it’s more popular today than ever before, and it’s thriving as an alternative to Bittorrent. Yes, people are using it
The UX industry reacts to appearing in the OED
New mobile first site
So, this is the new look 90 Percent Of Everything. It’s responsive, it’s mobile first, I like it a lot and I hope you do too. It’s still work in progress but feel free to kick the tyres and leave
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
“Once you decide on your occupation… you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the secret of
Introducing the GE SpacemakerXL Microwave Oven
This was doing the rounds yesterday: “I use my microwave for 2 things, heating up meatloaf and making dentist appointments“: I assumed it was a joke, but no – it’s actually real: the GE SpacemakerXL Microwave Oven. Here’s a charming
Dark Patterns 2012 Awards: submissions now open!
Thanks to an inspired suggestion by Jeffrey Broer, I’ve decided to do set up Dark Patterns Annual Awards, starting this year. It’ll be fun. The idea is that community members (that’s you) will email in submissions, then once we’ve got
Copywriting: a life-saving kit. (A father’s day guest article)
My dad, Tony Brignull, won awards for copywriting including seventeen D&AD silver awards and three golds. I asked him if he feels that the principles of advertising copywriting from the 60s, 70s and 80s might be of help to UX