12 steps to stellar software design
Practitioners can always use good advice. David Crow, usability adviser at Microsoft Canada, and Jay Goldman, president of Radiant Core in Toronto, speaking at the Free Software and Open Source Symposium at Seneca College in Toronto last month, offered a 12-step...
Continental Airlines Turns Mobile Phones Into Boarding Passes
More new technology ideas to improve real-world usability! Road-weary travelers (and everyone traveling these days) no longer enjoy the air travel experience. Companies must diligently look for new ways to use technology to improve the user experience of their common...
Starbucks customers stampede website – Be Careful What You Ask For!
Hundreds of coffee-obsessed consumers chimed in moments after Starbucks launched a Web site asking customers to pitch changes the company should make to revive its struggling US business. Be careful what you ask for - You may get overwhelmed by incoming traffic. Or,...
Business-Software Vendor Finds Business Software Impossible to Use
The Business Technology Blog in Wall Street Journal describes a software vendor's study: IFS, a business-software vendor, sent us a report titled
Lamenting the Lost Art of the Office Telephone Conversation
Very interesting article in the New York Times on the shift from telephone calls in the workplace to e-mail correspondence and cell phone conversations. While it makes the office a quieter workplace, workers have lost the fine art of handling the telephone...
Consumers earn Free Stuff with “Free Love”
FREE LOVE: the ongoing rise of free, valuable stuff that's available to consumers online and offline. From AirAsia tickets to Wikipedia, and from diapers to music. This is the new consumerism on the Web. Read about it at http://www.trendwatching.com/briefing/. FREE...
Rebate Psychology – Understanding Taxpayer Behavior
Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, wrote a recent article in The New York Times about the recently passed tax rebate bill. Basically, he says that calling the money taxpayers will receive as a...
The Ultimate Multi-Function Cell Phone (Humor)
You knew it was coming...move over iPhone! Here is a cellular phone that *really* can multitask! The Sumsing Turbo 3000 Xi mobile phone! View the video!
Designing Usability and User Experience for Consumer Medical Devices
Usability and comsumer experience are not only important for computer hardware and software. Consumer medical devices must not only be usable - they must be visually and physically appealing: "Today, a medical device must be more than functional; it must also look and...
Usability/User Experience Specialist – Best Careers for 2008 [US News & World Report]
US News & World Report on Best Careers for 2008: Usability/User Experience Specialist listed as one of the best careers! We continue to gain recognition for our contribution to the IT industry. The article notes one drawback about our industry, as we continue to face...