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Author: Shawn

business, software, user experience Posted onSeptember 27, 2013September 10, 2021

Why it takes as long as it takes

Today at work I had one of those lengthy, impassioned discussions with the senior leadership of my company – the sort of discussion that makes […] Read More

Blog, business, user experience Posted onOctober 26, 2011September 10, 2021

On Interviews and Evangelizing User Experience

I received a rejection email the other day from a man who had interviewed me for a job. I haven’t been rejected many times in […] Read More

Uncategorized Posted onOctober 26, 2011September 10, 2021

The Internet Bubble

Don’t misunderstand. I believe in the Internet. It’s deeply embedded in my life. It makes so many things so much easier than they used to […] Read More

business, culture, entertainment Posted onAugust 24, 2011September 10, 2021

Rdio, Spotify and the Paradox of Choice

Spotify has arrived in the US! Twitter was all abuzz when the announcement came, and lots of my friends jumped on board as soon as […] Read More

business, culture, media Posted onMarch 24, 2011September 10, 2021

Bad News? The Future of NPR and the New York Times

There have been a couple of interesting developments in news media in recent weeks. The first development is the mostly symbolic vote by the House […] Read More

business, design, user experience Posted onMarch 15, 2011September 10, 2021

Game Changers: Dyson

James Dyson was not happy with his vacuum cleaner. It wasn’t powerful enough, and he determined that the problem was the bag. The bag’s purpose […] Read More

activism, business, technology Posted onMarch 9, 2011September 10, 2021

How One Security Expert Kicked The Hornet’s Nest that is Anonymous

As promised. The second article I alluded to in my last post is really a series of articles ars technica ran last month. It’s an […] Read More

business, design, mobile, user experience Posted onMarch 9, 2011September 10, 2021

Game Changers: Apple

This is intended to be the first of seven (possibly more) posts on game-changing business ideas. It’s often difficult to recognize when something changes the […] Read More

business, culture, government, politics, the economy Posted onFebruary 26, 2011September 10, 2021

Gawande on Healthcare’s Super-Utilizers

In my last post I attempted to list the things I found especially resonant last year in media, entertainment, art and journalism. I say “attempted” […] Read More

design, user experience Posted onFebruary 17, 2011September 10, 2021

Instapaper and Readability restore the pleasure of online reading

It would probably be better not to say anything. Advertisers won’t like it, and publishers who depend on ad revenue will like it even less. […] Read More

culture, entertainment, video Posted onJanuary 28, 2011September 10, 2021

Friday Favorite Video

Uncategorized Posted onJanuary 3, 2011September 10, 2021

My Best of 2010 (Things Read, Viewed, Heard…)

Better late than never, a list of things I enjoyed in 2010. In the interest of time and space, these are just the things that […] Read More

activism, culture, government, politics Posted onNovember 30, 2010September 10, 2021

On Happy Meals and the Nanny State

The latest highly-publicized, hotly-ridiculed move by my adopted city of San Francisco was to ban the Happy Meal. And so once again we have lobbed […] Read More

mobile, user experience Posted onJune 2, 2010September 10, 2021

The 3 Cs of Mobile Engagement

Two years after Pinch Media released their iTunes App Store Secrets report, I still see this iconic curve on a regular basis: It doesn’t matter […] Read More

business, culture, technology Posted onMay 16, 2010September 10, 2021

Have You Ever Killed a Person With Your Car?

The ongoing BP / Deepwater Horizon oil disaster is a sickening object lesson in the evils of oil. Of course it’s just the latest in […] Read More

business, government, politics, the economy Posted onMay 2, 2010September 10, 2021

Three Financial Industry Reforms We Should Demand

The House recently passed a major financial reform bill, and the Senate will vote on it as soon as there’s enough Republican support to push […] Read More

culture, religion Posted onApril 13, 2010September 10, 2021

Losing My Religion

I was a good Bryn Athyn boy once. Many people reading this will have no idea what that means, but briefly, Bryn Athyn is a […] Read More

activism, culture, government, politics Posted onMarch 29, 2010September 10, 2021

Our Missed Opportunity

Things are ugly right now. After the healthcare bill passed, we all heard how a few so-called tea baggers hurled racial slurs and other insults […] Read More

culture, technology Posted onMarch 10, 2010September 10, 2021

Two Futures

I feel like the media constantly bombards us with two completely opposite visions of the future: In future #1 I can talk to my home […] Read More

culture Posted onFebruary 12, 2010September 10, 2021

Coming Soon to Google Street View: The Inside of Your House

Today I walked down to Cafe Dolci to grab a banh mi (I always order  a combo of grilled pork and paté incidentally), and there […] Read More

culture Posted onFebruary 8, 2010September 10, 2021

And They Shall Know Us by the Trail of our Marketing

When future archaeologists unearth the cities of what was once the great empire called America, and they sift through the remains of our civilization looking […] Read More

culture Posted onFebruary 5, 2010September 10, 2021

The End of Imagination

“[The writer] does not need to invent the fiction because it is already there.” – J.G. Ballard I’ve been on a kind of media fast […] Read More

business Posted onJanuary 7, 2010September 10, 2021

Useragent’s Rules for Meetings

Meetings without a specific agenda are evil. A vague agenda isn’t good enough. It’s a waste of everyone’s time. Know exactly what you want to […] Read More

entertainment, video Posted onDecember 18, 2009September 10, 2021

Friday Video Snack: Enhanced!

It’s Friday, and here’s my video of the week… wait, let’s enhance it:

business, software, user experience Posted onDecember 13, 2009September 10, 2021

Essentials of My Digital Life

A while back I wrote a post called my favorite web services, and I thought I would revisit it in the spirit of end-of-the-year (or […] Read More

entertainment, video Posted onDecember 11, 2009September 10, 2021

YouTube Favorite of the Week

I have an idea. Every Friday I’ll post a video from my YouTube “Favorites.” It won’t necessarily be new, or timely, or funny, or profound. […] Read More

business, design, mobile, user experience Posted onDecember 8, 2009September 10, 2021

Visualizing Various Mobile Screen Sizes

One of the things that stood out for me amongst all the hype around the Motorola Droid before the device hit the market was the […] Read More

mobile, software, user experience Posted onNovember 20, 2009September 10, 2021

Nokia: Software Update Fail

What the hell is wrong with Nokia? It’s as if they got together as a company, identified all they ways their software could suck, and […] Read More

design, hardware, mobile Posted onNovember 15, 2009September 10, 2021

Why I don’t Kindle

So I don’t have a Kindle, and I don’t want one. For some reason I’m predisposed to dislike it. When I try to articulate my […] Read More

business, software Posted onSeptember 4, 2009September 10, 2021

Snow Leopard Price Comes with an Asterisk

I updated one of my two Macbook Pros to Snow Leopard yesterday, and although the official price tag for the new OS is only $29, […] Read More

culture, politics, the economy Posted onAugust 21, 2009September 10, 2021

America: The Game

Americans, it’s well known, aren’t interested in soccer. Americans prefer the other football. We don’t like hockey either, which isn’t surprising, since it’s a lot […] Read More

culture, government, politics Posted onAugust 19, 2009September 10, 2021

Dear Conservative Friend

Yes old friend, I’m talking to you. You with the high-paying office job, the fine house in the suburbs, the lovely wife and the precocious […] Read More

hardware, mobile, user experience Posted onAugust 14, 2009September 10, 2021

What the F**k is an iPhone?

Whenever the conversation turns to Apple, there erupts a certain amount of troll vs. fanboy squabbling. Usually there are a few would-be referees in the […] Read More

business, mobile, software Posted onAugust 11, 2009September 10, 2021

Why Android Will Win the Mobile App Wars

What if the company that made your computer forced you to use only their web browser and email application? (Remember, Microsoft was prosecuted for less […] Read More

culture, miscellany, social media Posted onJuly 14, 2009September 10, 2021

Ships Passing, Twitter Style

I suppose I could create a bridge between them, but sometimes it’s fun to just watch.

culture, elimination dance, government, people, politics Posted onJuly 14, 2009September 10, 2021

Elimination Dance: Sarah Palin

If Sarah Palin falls in the forest and the media ignores her, does it make a sound? I shouldn’t have to wish for Sarah Palin […] Read More

business, culture, elimination dance, government, politics Posted onJuly 12, 2009September 10, 2021

Elimination Dance: Small-Government Fanatics

It’s been a while since I posted here, and I’m introducing a new category: Elimination Dance. Instructions: An elimination dance begins with a crowded dance […] Read More

business Posted onJune 28, 2009September 10, 2021

How to Hire an Interactive Agency

I’ve spent much of my career working at well-regarded agencies – large and small, and I’ve worked with my share of brilliant people at each […] Read More

culture, social media Posted onApril 20, 2009September 10, 2021

twitter for curmudgeons and noobs

After holding out for a couple of years, I’ve become a full-on twitter convert. I wasn’t avoiding twitter on principle or anything. I just couldn’t […] Read More

activism, business, culture, the economy Posted onApril 19, 2009September 10, 2021

Green shopping, the Costco way

I have a somewhat irrational affection for Costco. The selection is good, the prices are low. They have a generous return policy (my friend just […] Read More

activism, culture, people, religion, technology, Uncategorized Posted onMarch 22, 2009September 10, 2021

Why we love Mad Men

I just finished watching the second season of Mad Men, and I’m left with a familiar bittersweet feeling. The same one you get when you […] Read More

culture, data visualization, entertainment, miscellany Posted onMarch 13, 2009September 10, 2021

March Madness for data junkies

[Disclaimer: The following post is partly a reprise of one I wrote last year] March Madness is almost here, and my workplace productivity is bound […] Read More

culture, technology Posted onMarch 3, 2009September 10, 2021

Let the newspapers die

There’s no shortage of ideas for how the newspaper industry might save itself – by adopting new business models, distribution strategies, etc. The other day, […] Read More

culture, social media Posted onFebruary 24, 2009September 10, 2021

5 things Yelp should do to avoid future lawsuits

My last post, “How to win at Yelp: a guide for businesses” was inspired by the recent controversies surrounding Yelp, and the gist of the […] Read More

culture, social media Posted onFebruary 23, 2009September 10, 2021

How to win at Yelp: a guide for businesses

Last week, the East Bay Express published a lengthy story accusing Yelp of extortion. Among other things, the article charges Yelp of offering to take […] Read More

politics, the economy Posted onFebruary 20, 2009September 10, 2021

The Financial Crisis explained… again

In the tradition of The Giant Pool of Money, its spinoff Planet Money and this fine piece of writing by Henry Blodget in the Atlantic […] Read More

data visualization, social media Posted onFebruary 19, 2009September 10, 2021

Scout Labs launches its social media and brand monitoring solution

From ClickZ: More than two years after its founding, San Francisco startup Scout Labs has unveiled its first software suite, an assortment of Web monitoring […] Read More

miscellany, social media Posted onFebruary 19, 2009September 10, 2021

Travel Channel uses Kyte to power “No Reservations” Facebook app

Kyte’s super-simple content production features are perfect for engaging fans of a show like Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, so it’s cool to see how the […] Read More

design, mobile, software, user experience Posted onFebruary 10, 2009September 10, 2021

Are iPhone apps the new CD-ROMs?

Remember CD-ROMs? Remember how cool they were and how for a brief moment in the early 90s it seemed every possible thing was being CD-ROMified […] Read More

politics, technology, the economy Posted onFebruary 10, 2009September 10, 2021

The other opportunists

There are a lot of people lining up for stimulus dollars, a lot of ambitious and long-dormant projects being dusted off by governors and mayors […] Read More

culture, the economy Posted onFebruary 9, 2009September 10, 2021

We could have saved the economy… who knew?

Here’s a remarkably simple formula for personal finance. It’s genius, and I wish someone had told us this sooner.

culture Posted onJanuary 27, 2009September 10, 2021

Schadenfreude

Well, the Eagles lost the NFC championship game… again. This is what Philadelphia teams do. Instead of outright sucking like you can always count on, […] Read More

politics Posted onJanuary 25, 2009September 10, 2021

What’s the big deal about Obama?

As I wandered through the crowded mall in Washington D.C. on Inauguration Day, chatting with people and overhearing many other conversations, a theme emerged. Or […] Read More

business Posted onJanuary 25, 2009September 10, 2021

The Web is a tough place to do business

The economy is in rough shape these days. Nobody’s job seems secure, and no industry is safe, but the Web is an especially hard place […] Read More

social media, user experience Posted onJanuary 14, 2009September 10, 2021

Why does YouTube bother with ratings?

I’ve worked on a few online video sites in my career, and on every one of those projects we confronted the question of whether to […] Read More

miscellany Posted onJanuary 12, 2009September 10, 2021

I’ve been Kyted

I mentioned in an earlier post that for the past few months I’ve been working with Kyte. That’s their widget above. My lineup of shows […] Read More

politics Posted onJanuary 11, 2009September 10, 2021

The economy’s willing executioners

Who killed the economy? Hint: call your lawyer. The witch hunt to expose the people responsible for the current financial crisis has been underway for […] Read More

business, culture, user experience Posted onJanuary 3, 2009September 10, 2021

Sign o’ the times

I received my weekly BayCHI job bank email today, which has always contained at least twenty or thirty postings.  Today, however, it was so thin […] Read More

business, writing Posted onJanuary 1, 2009September 10, 2021

IE vs. CSS

I’ve been doing battle with the CSS on this blog recently, and I’d gotten it to an acceptable (if not optimal) place in Safari and […] Read More

design, mobile, software Posted onDecember 31, 2008September 10, 2021

Branding and visual design in iPhone apps

The purpose of the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines (requires login) is to help developers create well-designed experiences for the iPhone that also measure up to […] Read More

culture, social media, user experience Posted onDecember 29, 2008September 10, 2021

twitter is a game

On many occasions and even in a recent post, I’ve said that I just don’t get twitter. I was certain I didn’t want to tune […] Read More

software Posted onDecember 28, 2008September 10, 2021

5 dumb iPhone app genres

Raven Zachary posted recently about Apple’s new criteria for application acceptance, where he noted that there are now more fart apps than sudoku apps for […] Read More

culture, politics Posted onDecember 28, 2008September 10, 2021

Maybe we need a downturn

The other day on my bus into downtown SF, a down-and-out looking guy stepped on and asked if anyone could give him the dollar he […] Read More

people, politics Posted onDecember 23, 2008September 10, 2021

Bush branding: 11 labels we’d like to forget

Yesterday, NPR’s On The Media aired an interesting segment about Bush and language. It wasn’t another jab at his butchering of English; it was a […] Read More

culture, social media Posted onDecember 22, 2008September 10, 2021

A Facebook Holiday

The somewhat agonizing ritual of sending holiday cards has been my way of keeping long-time and distant friends up-to-date on my life, and each year […] Read More

social media Posted onDecember 17, 2008September 10, 2021

Social Media: Lists, Predictions and Lists of Predictions

The end of 2008 is upon us, and that means pundits of all stripes are busy trying to boil it all down. I’ve been reading […] Read More

culture, entertainment, social media Posted onDecember 4, 2008September 10, 2021

Huffington vs. Stewart backstage – on blogging and web TV

For the last couple of months, I’ve been working for Kyte (more on that in a future post), and yesterday we got a nice shout […] Read More

culture, entertainment Posted onDecember 4, 2008September 10, 2021

Everything is amazing; nobody’s happy

I wish I could maintain this perspective all the time: Thanks Louis CK

miscellany, social media Posted onDecember 3, 2008September 10, 2021

No longer (Yelp) cool

Just a year ago, two of my most powerful Internet addictions were Yahoo Fantasy Sports and Yelp. Now, I hardly think about either one. Yelp […] Read More

social media Posted onNovember 30, 2008September 10, 2021

2 ways to monitor buzz with Yahoo! Pipes

In my last post, I mentioned that you can use Yahoo Pipes as a buzz-watching tool. Today I made three short videos to illustrate how […] Read More

social media Posted onNovember 27, 2008September 10, 2021

Watching Buzz on the Web

Social media analytics and measurement has rapidly emerged as a market over the last few years, and there are a lot of companies trying to […] Read More

mobile, software Posted onNovember 26, 2008September 10, 2021

Evernote: The Best Free iPhone App

I could almost go so far as to say that Evernote is the best free app period, iPhone or otherwise. In Evernote’s case, it’s iPhone […] Read More

mobile, software Posted onNovember 25, 2008September 10, 2021

YouTube, Yahoo: iPhone Parasites

Like a party guest who insists on staying long after the alcohol is gone, the music is done, and I’ve dozed off on my couch… […] Read More

politics, religion Posted onOctober 28, 2008September 10, 2021

Jesus Christ: Not ready to lead

Re-distributing the wealth? Turning the other cheek? Someone has to stop this guy…

culture, social media Posted onOctober 27, 2008September 10, 2021

flirting with twitter

No, I don’t mean I’ve been flirting via twitter. It took me a long time to sign up for twitter. I just didn’t get it. […] Read More

people, politics Posted onOctober 24, 2008September 10, 2021

Pelosi: Too Conservative?

When the folks in “real America” want to make a point of distinguishing themselves from the rest of us, they often spit words like French, […] Read More

politics Posted onOctober 16, 2008September 10, 2021

OMFG

miscellany Posted onOctober 2, 2008September 10, 2021

Why so quiet?

The economy is blowing up. The election has a certain circus quality to it – more than the usual presidential election. I started a new […] Read More

design Posted onAugust 7, 2008September 10, 2021

In defense of PowerPoint

Edward Tufte famously declared that PowerPoint is evil, and in my life as a consultant, I’ve witnessed quite a bit of love and hate directed […] Read More

data visualization, design Posted onJuly 23, 2008September 10, 2021

The Data Visualization Palette

I might expand this into a larger article at some point, but for now it’s just something I decided to cobble together for a quick […] Read More

miscellany Posted onJuly 22, 2008September 10, 2021

Theft-Prevention

My friend Rebecca is thinking about purchasing a scooter. Not a leg-powered one (like the “Razor” that was so popular with dot-commers), but a real […] Read More

business, culture, social media Posted onJuly 20, 2008September 10, 2021

If you build it, they won’t come

The Business Technology blog over at WSJ reports on a recent study of more than 100 corporate social networks. Ed Moran, a Deloitte consultant, found […] Read More

culture, data visualization Posted onJuly 19, 2008September 10, 2021

Return of the Douchebag

Perusing the online blogopolis today, I saw that Xeni over at boingboing has proposed a new greeting card that would thank the recipient for “not […] Read More

design, miscellany Posted onJuly 18, 2008September 10, 2021

Nailed it!

Please indulge a moment of self-pity… I know a designer’s job isn’t rocket science, but that doesn’t mean everyone is qualified to make design decisions. […] Read More

design Posted onJuly 17, 2008September 10, 2021

Clever Target Circular

Why do they call these things “circulars?” The word makes me think of my mom, clipping coupons from the Sunday paper for the weekly trip […] Read More

business, culture, miscellany Posted onJuly 17, 2008September 10, 2021

Yes People and No People

I’ve been stretched too thinly across a few big projects and trying for nearly three months to find a couple of qualified people to help […] Read More

business, culture Posted onMay 26, 2008September 10, 2021

Resumes are obsolete

I was doing a little housekeeping the other day, and I found a packet of cream-colored, cotton fiber resume paper that I must have bought […] Read More

miscellany Posted onMay 25, 2008September 10, 2021

Moving on…

After a mostly fun eighteen-month ride, I decided to leave Scout Labs. As part of the founding team, I played a big part in defining […] Read More

design Posted onMay 6, 2008September 10, 2021

In An Athlete’s Shoes

The big athletic footwear companies have built their marketing campaigns around aspirational themes and creating connections between regular sports hobbyists and elite athletes. If you […] Read More

business, social media Posted onMay 5, 2008September 10, 2021

Give it up

Back in my agency life, clients were always asking us to create “viral” campaigns that would get the attention of the digital youth. Our inside […] Read More

business, culture, design Posted onApril 30, 2008September 10, 2021

Stupid product of the week: American (big brand) beer

Have you ever noticed the way American beer commercials emphasize packaging gimmicks? The wide-mouth can. The label that turns blue when it’s cold. The easy-pour […] Read More

business, miscellany Posted onApril 11, 2008September 10, 2021

An Inconvenient Fee

I was reminiscing with my colleagues yesterday about the dawn of the ATM machine. We were remembering how, when banks first started to install them, […] Read More

business Posted onApril 11, 2008September 10, 2021

Getting There Without Directions

I can barely remember now, but before the age of MapQuest (and, subsequently, Google Maps), if I needed to go somewhere I’d never been to […] Read More

business, social media Posted onMarch 27, 2008September 10, 2021

Measuring the Value of Good Will

In this week’s installment of his ‘Circuits’ column, David Pogue asks, “Are you taking advantage of Web 2.0?” By ‘you’ he means your company, and […] Read More

business, culture, miscellany Posted onMarch 20, 2008September 10, 2021

Stupid product of the week: Lexus 600h

‘h’ is for hypocrisy. If the premier selling point of a hybrid vehicle is fuel economy, then you have to wonder why Lexus won’t reveal […] Read More

business, miscellany Posted onMarch 19, 2008September 10, 2021

The Job – Career Gap

A couple of times in my career as a User Experience professional, I’ve worked for bosses whom I considered to be ridiculously (some even dangerously) […] Read More

business Posted onMarch 12, 2008September 10, 2021

Watching Out For “What If…” In Product Development

The guys at 37 Signals have a list of what they call “red flag” words that often come up in business communications and can get […] Read More

culture, design Posted onMarch 9, 2008September 10, 2021

Design Meets Democracy

The state of Texas recently held an “e-vote” to choose a new license plate design. There were five designs in the running, and over 450,000 […] Read More

business Posted onMarch 4, 2008September 10, 2021

Does “Process” Work in Software Development? – Part 2

In my post yesterday, I questioned the value of “process” in web and software development and discussed my successes and failures both with and without […] Read More

business Posted onMarch 3, 2008September 10, 2021

Does “Process” Work in Software Development?

UPDATE: There’s a Part 2 now. When I started in the web development business about a decade ago, I worked at a small agency with […] Read More

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