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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

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, 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

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

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

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

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

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, 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

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, 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

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

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

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, 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

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

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

culture, miscellany, writing Posted onSeptember 19, 2008September 10, 2021

RIP DFW

It’s taken me a few days to write this post, partly because I’ve been busy (remarkable in itself, since I’m officially unemployed right now), and […] Read More

culture, miscellany Posted onSeptember 11, 2008September 10, 2021

The Republican Ticket

I’ve been off the grid for a couple weeks, backpacking with my brothers. We embarked a day or two after McCain announced his surprising (and […] 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

culture, miscellany Posted onJuly 5, 2008September 10, 2021

Before you give up on the human race…

Lots and lots of people have passed this video around, but it puts a giant, ridiculous grin on my face everytime I watch it. This […] Read More

miscellany Posted onJune 24, 2008September 10, 2021

Sean Hannity’s website

Don’t ask me why, but I was looking at Sean Hannity’s website today. OK, I was looking for a video clip of his recent interview […] Read More

miscellany Posted onJune 13, 2008September 10, 2021

David Byrne takes on the censor bar

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

business, miscellany Posted onMay 10, 2008September 10, 2021

Here’s to the high price of gas…

…and not just because my recent investment in oil futures depends on the price continuing to rise. The sudden upsurge in the price of gas […] 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

culture, miscellany Posted onMay 1, 2008September 10, 2021

5 Things I Love About The Library

My small town library was one of my absolute favorite places when I was a kid. I regularly borrowed to the full limit of what […] 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

culture, entertainment, miscellany Posted onApril 13, 2008September 10, 2021

Britney Bashing Bottoms Out

I can’t believe I’m writing about Britney Spears, but bear with me. One would hope that Britney bottomed out somewhere around the head-shaving or the […] 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, 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

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

social media, software, user experience Posted onMarch 1, 2008September 10, 2021

My Favorite Web Services

As a user experience guy, one of the things I do for my job is try out every new web service that comes along. Most […] Read More

business, miscellany, user experience Posted onFebruary 20, 2008September 10, 2021

Amazon Wants to be My Wingman

Today I ordered a book called Information Dashboard Design from Amazon.com – my latest in a series of work-related purchases. Of course, whenever you buy […] Read More

miscellany Posted onFebruary 14, 2008September 10, 2021

My Favorite Podcasts

My iPhone and a good soundtrack is essential to my daily commute. Here’s a list of what I’ve been listening to lately: Radio Lab – […] Read More

business, social media Posted onFebruary 8, 2008September 10, 2021

The Currency of Influence

The February issue of FastCompany magazine includes an article provocatively-titled, Is the Tipping Point Toast? about the work Duncan Watts has done researching influence. The […] Read More

entertainment, miscellany Posted onFebruary 4, 2008September 10, 2021

sigur rós trove of beauty

The other day, I was watching – for maybe the fiftieth time – this video by sigur rós for the song “Glósóli” It’s a stunning […] Read More

business, miscellany Posted onJanuary 30, 2008September 10, 2021

Stupid product of the week: OJ Insanity

From the image above, you know I’m not talking about the notorious former football great. In case you’re counting, yes, that’s twelve varieties of Tropicana […] Read More

culture, entertainment, miscellany Posted onJanuary 24, 2008September 10, 2021

Guilty Pleasure

When I was a kid, my parents controlled my TV diet, and while I was hardly deprived, I was never at risk of becoming a […] Read More

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

CD cover meme

Came across this fun design exercise via the xblog today. My entry is above. Instructions below: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first article title on the page is […] Read More

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

The war of dependence

President Bush is touring the Middle East right now, and he has made sure to bluster about Iran’s fictional nuclear ambitions at every stop, but […] Read More

business, entertainment Posted onJanuary 14, 2008September 10, 2021

Thoughts on the Hollywood Writers’ Strike

Some kind of silly excuse for a Golden Globe Awards ceremony took place last night, with no speeches, performances or jokes – just winners announced […] Read More

business, miscellany Posted onJanuary 13, 2008September 10, 2021

Stupid product of the week: PUR Flavored Water Filter

Is it really too much trouble to add flavor to your water after you pour it? I was busy washing dishes while my girlfriend was […] Read More

business, entertainment, miscellany Posted onJanuary 9, 2008September 10, 2021

Chad is a douchebag

Am I the only one who wants to punch my TV whenever I see Chad on those Alltel commercials? He reminds me of the pretty […] Read More

user experience Posted onJanuary 8, 2008September 10, 2021

I don’t want to talk to my car

I’ve been seeing a lot of advertisements for cars that feature voice recognition technology. Like this clever one for Ford’s SYNC: Or this one for […] Read More

miscellany Posted onJanuary 7, 2008September 10, 2021

Redesigned

After using the WordPress default “kubrick” theme for months longer than I wanted to, I finally got around to redesigning this blog. I wanted a […] Read More

design, miscellany Posted onJanuary 6, 2008September 10, 2021

36 shots

Along with the usual flow of annual family newsletters and photographic Christmas cards, featuring matching cable-knit sweaters and first visits to Santa, this year I […] Read More

culture, data visualization Posted onJanuary 4, 2008September 10, 2021

Pronouns used by the candidates in their post-caucus speeches

File this under “random.” I’m not sure what to make of this, but as I was listening to the speeches of the various candidates after […] Read More

miscellany Posted onJanuary 4, 2008September 10, 2021

Open commenting again

I upgraded my WordPress software, and I’m theoretically able to filter comment spam now. I got a handful of new blog posts in the works, […] Read More

miscellany Posted onDecember 19, 2007September 10, 2021

What have I been up to?

Part of the reason I write so infrequently here, is because I write quite a bit here and here. Also, there’s work. I know that […] Read More

miscellany, software Posted onDecember 10, 2007September 10, 2021

Configuring mail.app for Gmail

In the latest version of mail.app in Leopard, some of the fields have moved. I had some trouble sending mail because I was used to […] Read More

miscellany Posted onDecember 5, 2007September 10, 2021

Microsoft made me miss my bus

I spent several hours on Friday unsuccessfully trying to install Parallels and then Windows XP on my Macbook Pro. I was able to get it […] Read More

business, social media Posted onJuly 19, 2007September 10, 2021

On Measuring Influence

Yesterday’s word of the day, apparently, was “influence.” At least that’s what was on the mind of a few big bloggers. Steve Rubel started the […] Read More

business, social media Posted onOctober 31, 2006September 10, 2021

The trouble with CGM

The notion that consumer-generated content lacks authority is not a new one of course. Wikipedia has been in the middle of this storm for a […] Read More

miscellany Posted onOctober 19, 2006September 10, 2021

italian dreams

I started a new job recently. This came with the usual changes – new office, new policies, processes, people – but one of the peripheral […] Read More

miscellany Posted onOctober 5, 2006September 10, 2021

my california taxes at work

Today, I took my car to the nearest Shell station to get it smog checked – a bi-yearly(?) ritual for drivers in California. The friendly […] Read More

business, miscellany Posted onSeptember 26, 2006September 10, 2021

jetta goes meta

Well, it’s not the Jetta. It’s two women in a Passat blindsided by an SUV as they discuss Volkswagen’s controversial Jetta commercials that depict… well… […] Read More

business, entertainment Posted onSeptember 25, 2006September 10, 2021

nbc goes meta

YouTube got a lot of flack for making a recent deal with NBC, so perhaps it was not NBC’s prerogative to lampoon it. Still, you […] Read More

entertainment Posted onMarch 18, 2006September 10, 2021

pandora – last.fm deathmatch

My next deathmatch post was going to compare these two music recommendation services. I’ve used both pandora and last.fm for a little while, and I’ve […] Read More

software Posted onMarch 14, 2006September 10, 2021

apple – windows death match

Ok, this isn’t exactly a new topic, but some thought-provoking (and entertaining) nuggets have come across the wire recently. This photo nicely sums up my […] Read More

culture, miscellany Posted onFebruary 14, 2006September 10, 2021

fuck

Did that get your attention? That’s the name of the movie I saw last night, as part of the San Francisco Independent Film Festival. It’s […] Read More

business, user experience Posted onMay 29, 2005September 9, 2021

marketing ux

Driving into the city on I-80 today, I saw a billboard for BAJobs.com touting the website’s “better interface”. I think it’s the first time I’ve […] Read More

culture, miscellany Posted onNovember 20, 2004September 9, 2021

life of pi and runaway horses

“There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something […] Read More

design, miscellany, user experience Posted onNovember 17, 2004September 9, 2021

title anyone?

From the booking process on the Singapore Airlines web site. I only wish I’d seen this in time for Tracy and I to travel as […] Read More

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