It’s been a really long time since I’ve done a NY Tech Meetup roundup, but Tuesday night’s event was so great that I thought it would be worth posting my tweets here. I know it’s not much, but it’s all I’ve got. The presenters were: RadBox Tout SocialWorkout Tim Soo‘s Invisible Instruments Aviary Crisp Media [Keep Reading…]
Archives for 2011
Etiquette isn’t dead
Sure, the web has made communication more brief, more casual, and a lot more impersonal. But people haven’t ceased to have feelings, so etiquette shouldn’t fly out the window. My friends at RedStamp, a modern stationery company based in Minneapolis, recently released an iPhone app that makes it a cinch to brighten someone’s day and [Keep Reading…]
Why I detest the term “Lean UX”
Any user experience designer worth their salt takes the needs of the company they’re serving into account and adapts their approach accordingly — identifying the appropriate process, methods and tools to get the job done. This has been the case for as long as information architecture and interaction design have been in practice. Rigid methodology [Keep Reading…]
Designing for Startups in Smashing Magazine
A big thanks goes out to Andrew Maier whose article “Designing for Startups: How to Deliver the Message Across” in Smashing Magazine included some thoughts from a blog post I wrote a few months ago titled “A Plan of Action.” In it he features my three approaches to design: Reactive, Preactive, and Proactive — the [Keep Reading…]
Interaction-design.org’s Encyclopedia is live!
Interaction-design.org is a Denmark-based foundation that explores research on all human-centered aspects of technology. In an effort to create world-class educational materials for free, they have just launched an open-access, peer-reviewed encyclopedia. The first seven chapters were released today, with many more to be published in the coming months. I was invited by editor-in-chief Mads [Keep Reading…]
From the archives: I love new toys!
Pleasure and Pain is not my first blog. It’s probably my fifth, though it’s certainly the only one that ever took off. From September 2004 – August 2006, I had a blog called self-preservation (self-hosted WordPress, natch). At the time, I was pretty damn proud of myself for that witty title — and I kinda [Keep Reading…]
A Proactive Apology from Plancast
I’m not a huge user of Plancast — the event-based social network (a sort of next generation Upcoming.org) — mostly because I’m too lazy to update my plans in multiple places, with RSVP functionality on Facebook, Meetup, Eventbrite and more. But an email that arrived in my inbox yesterday just might make me change my [Keep Reading…]
Recent Reads – 1/30/2011
Here are the most recent additions to my Delicious bookmarks. Hope you enjoy, and please share your thoughts in the comments. Skip The Water | A VCSometimes using all of your resources slows the process down Volkside | Wirify homepage – The web as wireframesTurn any webpage itno a wireframe with one click (via @swissmiss) [Keep Reading…]
Hubs and Connectors: Understanding Networks Through Data Visualization
Yesterday a bunch of friends were tweeting about the new LinkedIn InMaps web app (part of LinkedIn Labs), so I had to check it out for myself. Wow, wow, wow! InMaps are data visualizations of your professional network, based on LinkedIn connections, with you as the center node. I’ve been waiting years for LinkedIn to [Keep Reading…]
The most accurate portrayal of User Experience Designers ever created
This is possibly my favorite 1 minute and 32 seconds in the history of moving images. I got shivers at the end. Please do yourself and everyone else a favor by taking the time to watch this now, then send it to everyone who has ever asked you what a user experience designer is. ILUVUXDESIGN [Keep Reading…]