This post includes the slides and some of things I said during a brief presentation I made to the LIS 9706 User Experience Research class at...

"Why would someone ever want to do that" is the wrong question. It doesn't matter why they want to do it. The fact is that people do.

Good history and background.

Nice usability case study.

An Interface and Product Design blog by Joshua Porter

How many library assumptions about user behavior rely on similar fallacies?

Aside from paying very little attention to visual design and not caring about the impact of horrible typography, the big problem with library catalogs is that they are not designed to help people accomplish library tasks. Instead, they’re designed to expose catalog records. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is totally backward—prioritizing the collection, not people, results in a user-hostile interaction design and a poor user experience. Imagine the reverse: a tool that prioritizes helping people accomplish their tasks, whereby bibliographic data exists quietly in the background and is exposed only when useful.

"Here’s a way to get paid for drinking coffee or shopping: the Service Safari. During this field trip, you and your coworkers will turn into customers with an ulterior motive... Pay attention to all of the steps involved with using the service and how you experience it over time. Keep track of what was good about using the service and what could be improved."

In our recent usability study we asked 5 undergraduate students to find resources and services on the library website.  In a previous post I shared my findings on how obscure language and jargon wa…

This past Friday, I went to Westfield Mall in San Francisco to conduct user tests on how people browse the web, and especially how (or if) they use tabs. This was part of a larger investigation som…

A detailed brain dump about how to go about starting web design for startups. Including design process, inspiration and required reading.

The usual question: Over the past 40+ years as a consultant in the field generally known as human factors engineering (aka usability engineering), I have been asked by hundreds of clients why users don’t find their company’s software engaging. The answer to this persistent question is complex but never truly elusive. This question yields to … Continue reading Why Angry Birds is so successful and popular: a cognitive teardown of the user experience