Usability, mostly.
There’s one phenomenon you really should be prepared for when you introduce the idea of usability tests in your organization: People will think you mean you’re going to be doing focus groups. Seriously. This really happens. All the time. The problem is that a lot more people are familiar with focus groups than with usability tests. So sometimes no matter how often you correct them (politely and…
Recently I’ve begin hearing from people who run book groups at work, telling me that the group had chosen Don’t Make Me Think (and in a few cases, Rocket Surgery Made Easy ) as one of the books to read. If you run a group that’s going to read either one of my books, I’d be happy to try to drop in online at the end of your discussion for some live Q&A. All you have to do is ask me (at…
I’ve been working on a new book for five years now. And it’s not about usability or UX. It’s about writing. I’ve never made any secret about the fact that I find writing to be ridiculously hard work, and for me, a source of, well…agony is probably the best word. And I’ve been doing it for forty years. And not being a big fan of agony, over the years I’ve slowly found some things that make writing…
It’s been 10 years since I last redesigned my site. There, I said it. That feels better. Every so often, one of my readers will suggest, ever so gently and kindly, that my site is…well…kind of…sort of… old looking. And about once a year, someone will suggest that it’s…awful. And personally, I’ve never taken it personally. For a long time, people said the same kind of thing about Jakob Nielsen’s…
‘ One of the things that’s surprised me about Don’t Make Me Think is how often it’s being used in courses, ranging from high school to grad school. It makes me glad that it’s a short book, given my many not-fond memories of slogging through big boring books in college. I love teaching, but I’ve never had to plan anything longer than a workshop, and the thought of creating an entire course scares…
You know what I mean: Those stickers that have suddenly sprung up everywhere, like mushrooms in a lawn after a few rainy days. This is the reception desk at my local healthcare center. When I walked in yesterday, I found it interesting how impossible it was to ignore the social distancing stickers on the floor. A perfect example of great affordance design (“Here’s how to use the floor.”). If…
For your convenience, I’ve rounded up all of the FAQ lists from my site in one place. Enjoy! General What have you been up to lately? Mostly working on some book projects. And one of them isn’t even about usability or UX: It’s about writing. I’ve never made any secret about the fact that I find writing to be ridiculously hard work. In an attempt to spend less time in agony, over the years I’ve…
One of the things I get asked most often is something like “How do I get started in the exciting, high-paying field of UX?” I usually take this to mean “How do I get a cushy job like yours?” There’s plenty of advice out there, and most of it seems to be pretty good. In fact, I’m surprised there isn’t a Medium article titled “Top Ten Medium Articles titled ‘Top 5-10 Tips for Getting into UX/UI…
I’ve always thought Amazon paid more attention to usability than almost any other web site. Full disclosure: I bought some Amazon stock 20 years ago. (Lucky me.) I did it because I’d done an expert review of the Barnes & Noble site, and had the chance to show one of the Riggio brothers (the two founders and owners) in person why Amazon was going to eat their lunch. Nothing changed, so I bought…