Here we are in mid-November and once again, it’s World Usability Day. The day when user experience professionals dream big about making the needs of users people front and center in all aspects of design. What we’re actually doing at work is pretty cool. After making a big splash last year with a big event […]

This one must have slipped by the tech writers…

Security related applications tend to tell usability people to screw off because security is the prime concern. This is the basis for having ridiculous password length and type requirements (with almost 0 innovation on that front), password change policies, and (my personal favorite) the exceeded number of attempts lockout.
Not only does every site out there […]

Gotta love the bouncer-esque tone of the message. “I’m sorry, your name isn’t on the list, there are no options that someone like you can set.”

I often think very conflicting things about Microsoft’s cash cow productivity suite. On one hand, they’re the standard for office applications, anyone that’s computer literate knows how to create and print a word document. It’s almost liberating; print publishing for the masses and such. At the same time, they’re such punishing applications when you want […]

“but you forgot one thing, rock crushes scissors. But scissors cuts paper and paper beats rock… Kiff, we have a conundrum! -Zap Brannagan
So the general rule with logging in and signing in is that:
You have a login that you use to log in.
That could apply to a variety of terms, for example:
Billy tried to […]

Website feedback sent to adobe:
I KNOW MY CAPS LOCK IS ON AND ITS INTENTIONAL SO I CAN MAKE MYSELF CLEAR. ADOBE READER UPDATER WASTES A TON OF MY TIME. FIX IT. WHEN IT FINALLY FINISHES UPDATING, IT TELLS ME TO GO TO THE WEBSITE TO UPDATE MY VERSION OF ADOBE READER TO 8.1. THIS IS […]

rlthomps: If there’s one thing I’ve learned from last summer, if there’s something that needs to be named in your software, you should never put a half-assed name in there assuming that a better one will replace it. It’s 70% likely to ship with that half-assed name you gave it.

rlthomps: […]

So it’s a long story, but despite old ladies stealing away my sales reps I was actually able to get by hands on a new iPhone. I’m feeling a combination of giddyness and self loathing over the purchase. I can’t believe I couldn’t resist more than a few days. The initial verdict? This thing is […]

Well I’d post some pictures but I keep forgetting my little cable that puts the pictures on my laptop, so you guys will have to wait.
Saturday: Arrived in SF, went up for Pizza in the Mission. It should be noted that this is the first good pizza I’ve had in California, I’ll probably hitting up […]