Ironically, today's thought was sparked by BuzzFeed's insistence on delighting users over boosting numbers. (Really!) In an article at Poynter this week, Dan Oshinsky discussed a 2012 email newsletter that went out from BuzzFeed that had an extremely high open rate. Its title? "You're … [Read more...] about The Right Metrics
One of the most difficult (and least talked about) facets of designing in any environment is presenting the work. As a designer, it's been your job to determine how important content should get delivered to customers and prospects and readers, and the success of that presentation and interaction is … [Read more...] about Selling Design: Three Things to Stop Doing
Some things just cannot be undone. How many wrong, dumb, or intentionally hurtful things have left our lips that we wish we could get back the moment they're spoken? I know there have been plenty of those times for me, and I'm sure there will be many more. Even more wild, sometimes, are moments … [Read more...] about Conquering Accidental FUD in a Product
These are remotes in my household. One of them has so many choices that I have to look down to find the button I need to make the interaction I want happen. The other has fewer and, thus, makes it a bit harder to jump to a direct interaction. Yet, because it has less buttons, and those buttons … [Read more...] about Snag Hunting
There's been no shortage of articles in recent months about the millennial generation, their approach to technology, and how your business will have to reach them on their mobile devices if you want to succeed in the coming decades. Like this recent one on Wired, most articles of this nature go a … [Read more...] about Typecasting Millennials is Dangerous for Your Business
You don't have much time to engage someone on the other side of a website or application. Users move quickly without fully understanding all the tools at their disposal. Visitors make judgements in 1/20th of a second. People do not RTFM. How impatient! How careless! How shortsighted! Hold on, … [Read more...] about Stranger Danger: Observation, Attribution, and Intentionality
I could never overstate how much I've learned from other designers and user experience professionals. Yes, I read their blogs and their books. I attend their presentations. But, I've learned the most from being in community with others—working alongside them, having casual conversation, and … [Read more...] about amUX: A Morning Meetup for Design People
tl;dr I've compiled some great links and discussions on the merits of the hamburger icon (some of which include actual research), and I have an alternative to propose. As much as I can hate something that's just a part of a graphical interface, I hate the hamburger icon. If you're unfamiliar, … [Read more...] about The Hamburger Icon and a Way Forward
