At the end of last year, I contributed to a year-end roundup piece in A List Apart called “What I Learned About the Web in 2011.” I shared the most impactful lesson I had learned from various user research projects last year. CONTEXT IS KING The most important thing that 2011 taught me about web [Keep Reading…]
Historical Technology: Machines of Times Gone By
The Museum of the City of New York has one of the most extensive photo archives of historical NYC in existence. They made a significant portion of it (13,895 photos to be exact) available online last December, and when I first read about it on Gothamist, I must have spent hours combing through it all [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…]
Photo of the day: Visualizing Genres
Hotel alarm clocks are usually a big pain in the butt. Hampton Inn aims to fix all that — and takes simplicity to inconceivable levels. They go so far past easy to use and intuitive that they come back around to obscure and pointless. They visualize musical genres. Columns for Classical Stream for Soft Rock [Keep Reading…]
TD Bank’s Penny Arcade
[UPDATE: I’m getting a lot of visitors from TD Bank’s Intranet. If you are a TD Bank / Commerce Bank employee, please leave a comment on this post with your thoughts!] I save my spare change in a ceramic vase that was given to me by my childhood babysitter. It isn’t cute like a piggy [Keep Reading…]
Photo of the day: Cigarette vending machine
On a recent trip to Pittsburgh, I passed this cigarette vending machine when I went to the restroom at Finnegan’s Wake (one of my favorite Irish pubs in town). It took me by surprise because they’ve been illegal in New York City for almost 20 years. I remember playing with the knobs as a little [Keep Reading…]
Photo of the day: Whirlpool dishwasher utensil tray
A few years ago I went out with a guy who made me dinner in his apartment. I’m going to refrain from saying what I thought of the food. But at the end of the meal as we brought the dishes into the kitchen, I noticed that his dishwasher had a unique design that I’d [Keep Reading…]
Personas in the 2008 Presidental Election
I’ve talked before about how designers use personas to capture user needs, behaviors and motivations. If you were ever wondering how those insights help guide the product design, this pretty much says it all: [via gregoire] Questions?
Why I Don’t Have an iPhone (but might someday)
As you probably know, Apple released iPhone 2.0 yesterday. Watch Steve Jobs’ WWDC Keynote Address if you haven’t already seen it. I watched it live on MacRumors, and when it was over I Twittered this: That comment solicited quite a reaction from my Twitterverse. Two examples: As a designer and gadget geek, I’m constantly asked [Keep Reading…]
My Cell Phones: 2000 – Today
Alex Rainert just posted this great piece on his blog Everyday UX showing the evolution of his mobile phones from 1998 to now. I was inspired to post my own, though I have to admit I’m not sure if I have the exact models right. Thanks to GSM Arena for having photos of every mobile [Keep Reading…]