Category: Article

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in. Isaac Asimov It all started while on vacation with my wife. We were driving a rental car to a remote location in Washington state. The car had a safety feature that beeped every […]

“Perspective is worth 80 IQ points.” Alan Kay This quote is meaningful to me as I’ve often struggled with a problem until an insight from a user test “changed my perspective”. I had this intuition that video games would also change my perspective. They seemed so much edgier, playing with deeper and more experimental UX […]

I asked Twitter for a good introductory book on UX. Something that would help startups or small teams “get” UX and help them understand the process and tasks needed to be done. No book can summarize all of UX (just like no book can summarize all of programming!) But I wanted a ‘starter book’ that […]

I’ve been on vacation these last two weeks, letting my mind go a bit fallow. While I still browse the web and read books (I’m really enjoying Factfulness by Hans Rosling), I try hard not to do too much. Vacations are my attempt to rehydrate the mind. In the bathroom of Hotel #4, I noticed […]

What I learned about smart watches by using a $29 Bluetooth band.

My conversion from Mac to Windows last fall had an unexpected bonus: by shifting from Mac to Windows conventions, I was forced to rethink many aspects of the desktop experience. As a result, I’m now inspired more by desktop UX concepts than mobile ones. I’m not surprised if some might think this quaint, or worse, […]

The Internet of Things (IoT) is going through a rough patch. High-profile products like Nest home devices, Amazon Echo, and even Google Home are getting mainstream attention, yet a string of security failures (such as Wink and WebCam) is worrying many potential customers. To make matters worse, those who actually try to set up a […]

This is a personal and targeted report on CES. I didn’t look at any TVs, phones, cars, or refrigerators with cameras. I’m not looking for any killer new consumer appliances. I go with my “Beyond Mobile” approach which has a very specific set of goals in mind:

This is my second post about moving from Mac to Windows. I originally was just going to focus on the OS differences but was amazed to find out that while I loved the Surface Book, I hated the Yoga. Keep in mind that my target audience here isn’t Windows users but Mac users who are […]

Yes, I’m ‘doing it’. I’m putting my money where my mouth is. If I’m going to rant on twitter about the inadequacies of the new MacBook Pro, I should back it up with action. After 30 years(?) of using Macs (and even working for Apple for 8 years) I’m moving to Windows. My colleagues consider […]