Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
The German and Swiss websites of the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) report that Silvia Zimmermann from Switzerland is the new president of the UPA. Although the global UPA website has not yet been updated, UPA Voice confirms the news. Zimmermann…
Press release: Complexity is preventing uptake and usage of mobile applications and services, according to a survey of US and UK consumers commissioned by mobile device management (MDM) specialist Mformation. 95% of consumers surveyed indicated that they would be more…
The (in)famous Bad Usability Calendar has featured 48 classic design mistakes in 13 different languages since 2005. Now it is available in its 2009 edition (with versions in English, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian and Polish). NetLife Research, who is behind…
The complexity of modern mobile phones is leaving users frustrated and angry, research by Mformation (and reported by BBC) suggests. Some 61% of those interviewed in the UK and US said setting up a new handset is as challenging as…
As part of the World Usability Day 2008, the Department of Information Technology at Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology (V.I.I.T.), Pune (India) hosted on 27-28 November the Conference on Advances in Usability Engineering, a platform that brought together the professionals,…
Whitney Hess, an independent user experience designer, writer and consultant, asked some of the most influential and widely respected [USA] practitioners in UX (including Steve Baty, Mario Bourque, Dan Brown, Liz Danzico, Bill DeRouchey, Will Evans, Chris Fahey, Kaleem Khan,…
John Maeda, the new president of RISD, wrote some smart words in Esquire (where he was profiled as one of 75 most influential people): “Technological advances have always been driven more by a mind-set of “I can” than “I should,”…
In a BBC background article on how Microsoft is missing the boat (again) on the latest technology development, Tim Weber points out usability as Microsoft’s main weakness: “The real Achilles heel of Microsoft’s devices was their abysmal user interface –…
Press release: IBM is announcing a collaborative effort with European Union partners to develop new technology that will help support active aging and prevent cognitive decline in the elderly population. Based on intelligent audio and visual processing and reasoning, the…
Over 250 participants are expected to attend the first European regional conference of the Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA) next month. From December 4-6, 2008, the beautiful baroque city of Turin, 2008 World Design Capital, will host the conference, themed “Usability…
“Working through Screens: 100 ideas for envisioning powerful, engaging, and productive user experiences in knowledge work” is a reference for product teams creating new or iteratively improved applications for thinking work. Written for use during early, formative conversations, it provides…
Donald Norman has posted a number of columns/essays on his blog: People are from earth, machines are from outer space [Interactions 2008 column] People are from earth. Machines are from outer space. I don’t know what kind of manners they…
Michelle Fuller, Director at eDigitalResearch, writes in the Financial Times on the user experience of online banking: With the banking sector moving towards consolidation, it is crucial that customers are understood, reacted to and rewarded for their loyalty. With the…
An interesting article in Scientific American discusses a new insight about forgetting: although the brain contains detailed representations of lots of different events and objects, we can’t always find that information when we want it. “As this study reveals, if…
Two user experience magazines landed on my desk this week. They are available only to subscribers, both in print and online. But subscriptions are relatively cheap. User Experience is the quarterly magazine of the Usability Professionals’ Association (membership is a…
Adrian Chan, a social media expert and social interaction theorist at Gravity7, makes a nice attempt at setting out a new model for social interaction design. “Social interaction design works by respecting the psychological and social, the ambiguity not the…
CNN reports on how Donald Norman wants designers to be more inclusive: The future of design could see the divide between able-bodied and disabled people vanish. Don Norman , design Professor at Northwestern University in Illinois, and the author of…
Hubert Guillaud has written again a short analysis on why it makes no sense at all for companies to create something like intelligent fridges. His main argument is that nobody has any need for such a device. Although the article…
Marc Hassenzahl is Junior Professor for Economic Psychology and Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Koblenz-Landau. He is also a freelance usability consultant, president of the German Chapter of the Usability Professionals’ Association, and the author of over 30 journal…