Category: Web

User vs. You

Aug 2, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, Information Architecture, Interface Design, Language, Personal, Reviews, Storytelling, User Experience Design, Web

There’s a huge debate going on in the UX community about the use of the word “user”. Some argue that the word demeans the people we are trying to help, that it distances us from them, and that it makes us unable to truly empathize with their wants and needs. Words like “people” and “humans”…
My First Podcast

Jul 11, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Behavior, Branding and Marketing, Business, Information Architecture, Personal, Storytelling, User Experience Design, Web, Work

A few months ago during an intermission at the 2007 IA Summit, Christina Wodtke and Bill Wetherell accosted me in the hallway of the Las Vegas Flamingo hotel. The next thing I knew, Christina was interviewing me for a new series of Boxes and Arrows podcasts. The 16-minute interview has just been published, and I’ve…
Should Bloggers Assume that Their Readers are Dumber than They Are?

Jul 10, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, graphpaper.com, Information Architecture, Information Design, Personal, Reviews, Social Interaction, Storytelling, User Experience Design, Web

Several bloggers I know have confessed to me that occasionally they’ll compose and publish articles or posts that they don’t feel especially passionate about, writing things that they aren’t particularly proud of or inspired by, simply because they know that certain topics, ideas, or opinions will give them an easy and predictable traffic boost. For…
Muddling Through eBay

Jun 24, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, Information Architecture, Information Design, Interface Design, Reviews, User Experience Design, Web

The online auction site eBay recently redesigned their site, and (as it usually has in the past) the new design is being subjected to some pretty harsh critique. When critics bash eBay’s design, they usually focus on the site’s general visual design, or on the information design of individual pages. Even I have in the…
The Don’t Stop Believin’ Game / Bristles on the Long Tail

Jun 17, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Art, Business, Music, Personal, Reviews, Storytelling, The Future, User Experience Design, Web

At least Tony didn’t pick Heart’s “Magic Man”! Almost every Friday near the end of the day, someone at Behavior will start playing loud music to help remind everyone to stop working soon — the musical equivalent of the whistle that tells Fred Flintstone that it’s quittin’ time. This Friday, my partner Jeff blasted “Don’t…
The Google Street View Racial Gerrymander

Jun 14, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Business, History, Images, NYC, Personal, Politics, Reviews, Social Interaction, Technology, Web

I love Google Street View. But what a surprise I had when I tried to view my own building and found out that the Street View photo-truck decided that they would limit their coverage to upscale (i.e., white) neighborhoods.
Art Direction in the CSS Zen Garden

May 6, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Art, Design, graphpaper.com, Information Design, Interface Design, Reviews, User Experience Design, Web

I was browsing through the CSS Zen Garden recently, and I was struck again at just how great it is. [If you’re not familiar with the CSS Zen Garden, go there and you’ll figure it out] I don’t mean to say that I think the designs are all excellent (more than a few of them…
A View From Singapore

May 1, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Education, graphpaper.com, Information Architecture, Interface Design, Personal, Reviews, User Experience Design, Web

Going through my server logs the other day, I discovered that my series of articles from last summer, User Research Smoke & Mirrors, was a required reading assignment for a User Experience Design class at the National University of Singapore, taught by Mr. Raghavendra Reddy. In browsing the official site for the course, I was…
Experience or Don’t Experience. There is no Try.

Apr 8, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Books, Branding and Marketing, Business, Design, graphpaper.com, Interface Design, Language, Reviews, Social Interaction, Storytelling, Technology, User Experience Design, Web

The word “experience” comes from the Latin word “experÄ«rÄ«”, or to try. It’s strange, then, that in modern English the two words, “experience” and “try”, have such different meanings: when we try something we tend to take a sip or a nibble, get our toes wet, or go for a test drive around the block.…
Interaction Design Style (My IA Summit 2007 Presentation)

Apr 1, 2007

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by

Christopher Fahey

in Architecture, Art, Books, Business, Design, Gaming, graphpaper.com, History, Information Architecture, Information Design, Interface Design, Language, Music, Personal, Reviews, Technology, The Future, User Experience Design, Web, Work

It’s been a little less than a week since my IA Summit presentation. To my great surprise, it went really well. I mean really well. In the next day or so I will be posting a summary of my experiences preparing and discussing my topic, which was, in a word, style. Many people came to…