New! Two Forrester Research Reports on Usability Testing
Forrester Research has just published two studies on usability testing in their new series, "Usability Testing for Managers." I participated as one of the experts in the field Forrester surveyed for the studies. These studies are usually not publicly distributed, but...
World Usability Day 2007 – November 8
Date for 2007 World Usability Day announced... World Usability Day (WUD) promotes the value of usability engineering and user-centered design and the belief that every user has the responsibility to ask for things that work better. The Usability Professionals'...
Apple’s iPhone – Greatness or Gadget?
Technophiles are drooling over Apple's announced new iPhone - a sleek and ultra thin combination of a mobile phone, an iPod and a pocket computer. The phone is operated with one button and a 3.5-inch high resolution touch screen. However, the price tag is around $500...
Prototyping Tips
A major aspect in user interface and interaction design is prototyping. Typically, prototypes are either low-fidelity prototypes (flip-charts, drawings, PowerPoint, etc.) to evaluate conceptual designs or high-fidelity prototypes (HTML/JavaScript, Flash, application...
Usability Bloopers
I'll be updating the section on usability bloopers on my website, but meanwhile, please view the current Bloopers webpages. If you have photos or links of web, application or real-world usability bloopers, please post them here in this Blog with a description or send...
Time Magazine’s Person of the Year: You
As a usability consultant, I keep stressing the importance of involving users in designing software. User-Centered Design (UCD) is all about designing products with users, for users, not just to users. Time Magazine has helped our cause by selecting the ultimate user...
Perceived vs. Actual Usability – Lexus “Self Park” Feature
Have you seen the TV commercials for the Lexus LS 460 "Park Assist" feature, or more technically named, the "Lexus Advanced Guidance Parking System?" The Lexus demos and commercials show the feature to be incredibly simple and easy to use. However, reviews and videos...
Welcome to Theo Mandel’s Usability Blog!
Welcome to Theo Mandel's Usability Blog. This blog covers a wide range of topics including web usability, software usability, user interface (UI) design, user-centered design (UCD), and anything commonly refered to as "user experience." Please join in the discussion!...