Writings
Random Musings on UX & Life
Would you like to save before exit? The UX of Save Dialogues
I recently went through a long and complicated discussion of our exit dialog here at my company (GN ReSound). In the process, I realized how complicated Save and Exit Dialogs can be for a user (and designer!). There has been some...
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Do We Over-Think UX Design…And Underestimate the User?
One of the irritations of being a user experience designer is everyone believes they are a user on some level...even me. This means you are constantly bombarded with suggestions in meetings and in passing. This doesn't happen to developers, for example. I've never sat...
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eBook Design, the Future & a Better Mousetrap
My wife has always had this curious habit when reading a book. She enjoys listening to the audio version of a book, but will rarely purchase the audio version opting instead to borrow it from the library and listen to it during her daily commute. Some weeks she...
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Creepy Robots, Return Envelopes & The Little Things in User Experience
As a designer, I find I have an uncontrollable urge to deconstruct things - to reverse engineer both things that work poorly and those that work extremely well. The stuff that falls in the middle usually escapes my scrutiny. This could be due, in part, to genetics...
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An Open Letter to Recruiters
I recently happened upon an article published via LinkedIn that, while not entirely representative of job recruiters as a profession, did indirectly epitomize the underbelly of the recruiting process. The article is entitled “The Recruiter Never Called Me Back”...
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Walking with Jasmine: The Value of Life Experiences
I lost the best friend of my life this past week. And as a U.S. Marine, I’ve had some pretty damn good friends in my lifetime – friends who would have risked life and limb for me. But this friend was different having unprecedented honor and loyalty worthy of the...
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Customer Experience: Aligning Your Goals with the Customer’s
Two things are certain when I go grocery shopping. The first is that I will purposefully not grab a hand cart and subsequently end up with an armload of groceries threatening to teeter out of my grip. The other thing is I am sure to forget a critical item…usually the...
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What’s Wrong with the Interview?
I have become increasingly dissatisfied with the interview process over the past few years and I don’t think this is because the people who interview me or are interviewed by me are getting worse. I think, for one, it is a natural result of a maturing career and some...
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More Press on ReSound LiNX Made for iPhone Hearing Aid
I keep wondering and daydreaming at how we might be able to integrate devices into our lives - specifically as they relate to our healthcare. With fitness monitors now connecting to our smartphones and hearing aids connecting to our smartphones, will the phone...
read moreDon’t Make Me Wait! Presentation & Resources
This is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of resources on this topic. However, they do represent resources I found helpful in compiling the following presentation. In addition, many of the resources are rife with citations and sources of their own if you care...
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Communicating Design with UX Demo Videos
I have become somewhat fascinated over the past year or two in how we communicate design (as this is where I usually have the most trouble with clients/stakeholders). It is, indeed, a critical component of the UX and development process. And, as I have noted in a...
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A Practical Guide to UX Specifications
So you figured out your design, met all the requirements and managed to create an interface that not only solves the end-users’ problems, but is also aesthetically appealing. You might even have developed a prototype and conducted a little usability testing on the...
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UX: What’s in a Job Description?
I’m always uncertain about those who are so very certain. I recently have been following a discussion thread on LinkedIn - not too closely because I find most of the forum discussions a waste of time. They are generally filled with blowholes (I occasionally fall into...
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Progress Bars & Time Indicators: UX Design Best Practice
One of my themes on this site lately has been the user’s perception of time where I have written about waiting versus occupied time and the psychology behind waiting. The gist of these articles has been to convey how retail and other industries manage customer wait...
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Fox News Spotlights ReSound LiNX Made For iPhone
This is a humorous news spot, but I'd expect nothing less from Fox. What I find the most humorous is how Stuart Varney misunderstands the functionality of both the hearing instrument and how it works with the iPhone. But this is also an example of how little is...
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3 Techniques to Induce User Flow & Decrease the Perceived Duration of Time in Software Interfaces
The comedian, Louis CK, has a famous routine where he talks about how quickly our amazement with technology turns to impatience – or, how quickly we take a new convenient technology for granted. In part of this routine, he speaks of a plane trip where the plane...
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Placebo Buttons, Misleading Users & the Ethics of UX Design
I recently came across an article concerning Facebook and the loading animations they use in their iOS app, The Psychology of Waiting, Loading Animations, and Facebook. Facebook uses a custom loading animation distinct to their app. The article stated using the...
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Seven Rules to Manage User Wait Times
This is the 2nd part of a series on time perception in human-computer interaction – a topic I have spent the past year researching. It is intended for this series to continue and to explore the perception of time in software and physical environments as well as...
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