Whenever news of an earthquake hits, we are told that the quake had a magnitude of, say, 3.2 or 5.0. Or 7.0, as was the case yesterday in Haiti and use retin-a. We all understand that 7 is worse than 5, of course, but I fear that few of us really understand or appreciate the … Continue reading Drop the Richter Scale
In his Time Magazine Person of the Year interview, Barack Obama said “it turns out there’s some spending that has to be done on information technology, for example, that we can do very swiftly.” If recent speeches by the new President are any sign, I sure hope he’s talking about rural broadband access. Like many … Continue reading Tubes for the Sticks
I loved this picture so much I just had to find a way to look at it every day to make the moment last. And now, if you have an iPhone, you can, too. Presenting the Farewell George Bush iPhone Wallpaper! Download it. Credit for this image is “Reuters AFP/Saul Loeb/Pool” (UPDATE: Full credits in … Continue reading Farewell
Newsweek invited four “hot” design firms to “reboot” the brand of the Republican party to appeal to younger voters. Not an easy challenge. And while the design work itself looks good, I think each of them missed the big picture objective by failing to speak to core Republican values. First up is Pentagram. Pentagram proposes … Continue reading Grand Old Redesign
I am a 37-year-old user experience designer, and I don’t have a driver’s license. I don’t even know how to drive a car. I moved to New York City when I was 18 and I just never really needed to learn. Moreover, I don’t even find automobiles all that interesting or seductive, at least not … Continue reading Designed in Detroit by General Motors
In Minnesota, they are currently recounting the ballots in the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken. As part of the process, they are re-analyzing thousands of ballots that were discarded during the initial optical-scan machine count due to problems with the ballots themselves — usually stray marks and incompletely-filled-in dots. Usually, a human … Continue reading Voter Intent / User Behavior
This is a website Behavior made for the Smithsonian’s American Museum of National History during the 2004 Presidential election campaign. It is the web companion for Vote: The Machinery of Democracy, an exhibition of artifacts from America’s long and colorful history of voting technologies. It was a fascinating physical exhibition. And I’m still proud of … Continue reading Vote: The Machinery of Democracy
What if someone paid you thousands of dollars to design a user interface or an application for just one person? Most design work is done for audiences: whether designing mass market products or niche objects of desire, we seldom have a single, real person in mind when we work. We think of audiences as groups … Continue reading Designing for One User (Bespoke User Interfaces)