tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-355627792012-02-01T05:32:09.866-08:00Reflections on technology, music, and social interactionMichael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.comBlogger3341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-6582734387789619472012-01-25T07:50:00.000-08:002012-01-25T08:07:30.256-08:00

I'm reading a really good document about risk analysis, and the author makes the point that when using probabilities to make predictions, at some point the future will unfold in a way that will make others perceive you were wrong. He emphasized "perceive" and that got me thinking. We do that a lot. Someone does their analysis, makes a decision, and then acts on it. Like a football coach that

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-36779251882369354122012-01-16T09:58:00.000-08:002012-01-16T09:58:17.987-08:00

Nielsen's current Alert Box reinforces that think-aloud is a great usability test tool. I couldn't agree more, but I'd like to add some in-the-trenches wisdom I learned from my first usability mentor, Loren Burke. There is a big difference between someone thinking out loud about the task they are doing and someone voicing their opinion about the design. The first is very valuable; the second, meh

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-27772944640953226972011-12-20T08:27:00.000-08:002011-12-20T08:27:40.155-08:00

I have a new column out today in UXmatters. It has to do with managing design tensions, but I talk a little in it about Action Science. During my doctoral research, in which I studied how development teams learn collectively during usability tests, I came across a field called Action Science, which analyzes dysfunctional communication with a focus on resolving contradictions between stated

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-5723001965962599162011-11-16T05:26:00.001-08:002011-11-16T12:06:48.525-08:00

I think we use icons way too much! I'm working on a project right now where we are updating a web app and so I'm getting to talk to users and customers. One weakness that keeps coming up is that they can't figure out the icons. Not all of them, and that's been the important aha for me. Here's my new insight: Icons that differentiate among broad categories = good Icons that differentiate among

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-49950009451711443192011-11-11T05:36:00.001-08:002011-11-11T06:57:08.272-08:00

On Wednesday I went to the Irish Bred Pub in Rex, Georgia. Rex (now that I've been there, I feel as if I am on a first-name basis with the town) is a bit south of Atlanta, just off exit 2 on I-675. I went there to celebrate David Ellis's birthday and to hear his band, 3-Way Street, play. I've been in pubs all around Ireland and consider myself to know one when I see one. The one in Rex is,

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-50827182155789648322011-10-24T06:24:00.000-07:002011-10-24T06:24:40.800-07:00

When working on new material, pick a small venue and pay attention to the audience reaction. Note to self: Don't make Wagon Wheel a signature piece

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-64950275345435369082011-10-14T12:08:00.001-07:002011-10-14T12:18:05.312-07:00

About three years ago I had a big Aha! moment. I had just decided to get serious about playing the reso I had fooled around with for 15 years and went online to learn about this box that had the cool sound and why I wasn't sounding a bit like the stuff that got me interested in the first place. I found a lesson by Ivan Rosenbeg and learned Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Well, the light went on

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-21420594353173559982011-10-10T09:38:00.000-07:002011-10-10T09:38:28.787-07:00

Warning: I have absolutely NO data to support the following assertion. People have different tolerance levels for filler talk depending on if it is a live presentation versus a recorded one. If I dial into a webcast, it doesn't bother me so much when the speaker starts off, "I'd like to thank Frank for inviting me here today, before I get started I'd like to let him say a few words." "Thanks,

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-34570874207456174752011-09-20T06:45:00.000-07:002011-09-20T06:45:56.263-07:00

I have a really important presentation today in which I am bringing major stakeholders who have diverse opinions into an overview of a proposed UI redesign. I'm anxious because I already know they are opinionated and their opinions do not agree. Hence the meeting. I'd like to get out of this alive and on good terms with everyone, so I am drawing on my old consultant days and a three step process

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-30784468056053990472011-08-29T10:35:00.000-07:002011-08-29T10:40:19.113-07:00

Seth Godin has an excellent blog called "The warning signs of defending the status quo."  It's good and I agree with everything in it. But I find it interesting that the rather obvious assumption is that defending the status quo is wrong--something that deserves a warning. Often the existing state of affairs is a desirable state--that's why it is the status quo. So I did a little Zen thing

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-41431302788627766222011-08-24T05:17:00.000-07:002011-08-24T05:28:24.963-07:00

I screwed up at work. Details are not important. We all screw up in a number of ways: We make a bad decision, we behave poorly, or we just make a mistake ("Hmmm, it was such a small change, who would have thought it would have taken the entire stage environment down"), etc. So you're telling me icebergs are bad things? However you get there, you find yourself in the uncomfortable situation of

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-36064758413777125262011-08-05T08:34:00.000-07:002011-08-05T13:27:05.183-07:00

I've been involved in some grammar conversations lately, and I have been reading some recent articles about grammar in Twitter posts. It has reminded me that I am the opposite of a grammar Nazi, I am a grammar anarchist. Man, I am the Che Guevara of grammar! I hold that as long as the communication is clearly understood, standing on points of grammar is hegemonic. By that I mean that we apply

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-76354464269898390252011-08-03T07:41:00.000-07:002011-08-03T07:41:44.611-07:00

Getting old has its compensations for what it extracts from us. Case in point: I did a demo yesterday of a mobile application we are about to release. The manager of the product management group was monitoring the chat during the demo and forwarded a comment to me over SameTime chat. "One of the participants noted that the email follow-up icon was not intuitive and looked more like it would be

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-74897077437792124082011-07-25T07:00:00.000-07:002011-07-25T12:17:52.149-07:00

Two reasons not to carpool with me: The first is easy; I'm a terrible driver. I know this because I just finished a road trip with my 34-year old son who is also my insurance agent. His critiques aside, even I noticed it. I drive like an old man. (Well, I'm 62!) I run over curbs at the drive-through, miss exits, take my attention off the road while I fiddle with x (x can equal radio, CD, GPS,

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-65452000640710179792011-07-19T08:13:00.000-07:002011-07-19T09:19:40.848-07:00

[ I first wrote on this over a year ago. I've since gotten some additional insight from my tech writer perspective.] My first Dobro lesson was with Mark Van Allen who spent two hours reviewing theory with me. It was a fascinating tour of the fret board, scales, and chords. Mark pointed out that if you play the scale of G on all the strings, and if you put a dot down every place you "fretted"

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-37718767434489333492011-07-08T12:33:00.000-07:002011-07-08T12:33:53.345-07:00

For someone who is not the least bit afraid or reluctant to speak in public, I am still quite nervous when I play music in the presence of others. My stint on stage at the Steve Kaufman Acoustic Kamp was a breakout moment for me. And last night was another step forward when I took the stage for open mic at the Red Light Cafe and got the chance to play with my favorite band, Cedar Hill of Atlanta

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-87549928070091095702011-07-05T10:01:00.000-07:002011-07-05T10:35:14.280-07:00

So there I am backstage at the Clayton Center for the Arts in Maryville, TN. I'm trying to stay focused on my solo that will be coming up in just a few minutes while the stage manager corrals my group in the wings. While I'm standing there, Stacy Phillips (Reso players, yeah, THAT Stacy Phillips) comes up and gives me some mic tips about the resophonic. "Let the mic point here--not there--and

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-5679534042272200582011-06-14T05:32:00.000-07:002011-06-14T05:39:52.922-07:00

My Wrangler died and I have replaced it with a new ride, a larger, more "grown up" Jeep Commander. I now have such amenities like power windows, doors with detents (not web straps) and the like. It is longer and wider than my Wrangler was, so I must align myself with the garage door with a two point turn before going in (as opposed to just a simple turn into the garage I could do with the

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-55667679354093091152011-06-08T06:48:00.000-07:002011-06-08T07:42:45.559-07:00

 A principle of Eastern philosophy that I have come to appreciate says that a source of unhappiness is not knowing how the world works. If you do not know the nature of something or someone, you set up the wrong expectations or you attribute wrong causes or motives to others. The end result is you spend a lot of time angry or frustrated. Rocks by their nature are hard; don't expect them to make

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-27704791540557719742011-05-31T05:24:00.000-07:002011-05-31T05:24:41.708-07:00

Went to Armuchee (BTW, pronounced Ar-mur-chee) for a Memorial Day Bluegrass festival. Camped and jammed for two nights. I packed up tired and a little down, thinking about how good I should be playing--compared to the folks I jammed with. Got home and let the Dobro sit a day. Opened it up yesterday and felt all excited about how good I could be playing if I keep at it. Bluegrass just keeps

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-10014612656024767992011-05-23T06:49:00.000-07:002011-06-08T08:34:05.146-07:00

If you want to get someone's attention, you have to get their focus. There are two ways to do this: Figure out what they are currently focusing on and step in front. Wave your hands and holler until they shift their focus to you. In the world of web design, some designers employ Flash or other motion techniques as method 2. Not a good idea--this blog is not about that. I love my email client and

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-87331346427020129472011-05-20T06:01:00.000-07:002011-05-20T06:01:31.853-07:00

I turn 62 tomorrow, and I feel that's a good occasion to set some self improvement goals: Play slower Play softer Play more precisely Play more artistically I'll start with the Dobro, but it looks like a good list in general.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-6375852773408751622011-05-19T11:52:00.000-07:002011-05-19T12:08:05.630-07:00

I am a hopeless Aristotelian; I love to create classifications and taxonomies that make neat little boxes and then I put hopelessly messy realities into them. On my ride into work today, I created a way to classify all musicians (or more accurately the ways we are musicians) along two axes--thus creating four quadrants within which I can box myself or others. The two axes are Social--

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-8985813769685447712011-05-18T08:53:00.000-07:002011-05-18T09:04:14.425-07:00

In a very ironic twist, while working today, I took a Twitter link to a web article that discussed the distractions that keep us from working. It was like one of those dream inside a dream things in Inception. The article showed statistics for the things that distract us (like social networks and reading Internet articles). It did some quick math and concluded "That hour per day translates into

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-33612875550206910552011-05-17T06:11:00.000-07:002011-05-17T06:17:59.271-07:00

Ta da! A new brand for my blog. I turn 62 this month--three score and twain--and I feel like it's time to shift my life focus a bit. I'm not changing it entirely, more like broadening it. My tag line still mentions technology, but it now encompasses music and social interaction. And my professional associations and credentials have given way to other associations by which I am defining myself

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-42136689400329842122011-05-12T09:28:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:29:55.955-07:00

For every wise adage, there is an opposite and equally wise counterpart. "Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread" can be countered by "He who hesitates is lost." I bring this up because I am going to talk about the acceptability of acting on data from a scant sample, as in n=1. Big disclaimer up front: Don't do it all the time without careful consideration of the context. That having been

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-22425869200220948492011-05-10T12:31:00.000-07:002011-05-10T12:31:21.779-07:00

I'm going to be running a meeting online in which I'll be showing design concepts to key customers to get their input. One of the product managers can't make it and asked me if I would be recording the session. It caused me to remember a class I took about 20 years ago in Instructional Technology. The instructor was covering "slide presentations" (yes, I'm THAT old) and said, "There are eight

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-61662299658723458982011-05-05T07:05:00.000-07:002011-05-05T08:53:23.082-07:00

Three mistakes we make when participating in social media: We fail to recognize that there ARE multiple realities. It is possible for two diametrically opposed positions to both be right--if you account for perspective. This mistake manifests itself by someone saying "You are wrong," when the more accurate statement should be "I have a different perspective." We vilify those we disagree with.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-19974363612997078432011-05-03T11:45:00.000-07:002011-05-03T11:45:06.511-07:00

I just had a blog posted at the ATC website. I talk about how technical communicator skills can be useful as a UX architect. By the way, I really like this new group and the community website. Give them a look over at http://www.mytechcomm.org/main/summary.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-34407069153968492942011-04-28T05:20:00.000-07:002011-04-28T07:49:51.966-07:00

I lost an argument yesterday. Essentially, I proposed "to-may-to," a peer countered "to-mah-to," I rebutted with some additional facts, and the boss chimed in with "I like to-mah-to." My first instinct was to rebut again and make my points again but stronger. But my experience and executive overrides kicked in and I reminded myself of an old adage "Before you can influence others, you must

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-72050757561835695892011-04-27T06:19:00.000-07:002011-04-27T08:02:02.106-07:00

Sometimes we tout parallelism with the same misguided religious fervor with which we persecute any use of the passive voice. For example, I am not the least bit bothered by the lack of parallelism in the following menu (nouns and verbs mixed): That having been said, it is a pretty powerful force. And sometimes we must choose between being parallel and some other good rule of rhetoric. Two

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-88196313586503585382011-04-25T06:17:00.000-07:002011-04-25T06:17:01.436-07:00

I'm not saying...I'm only saying.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-91006777681949818932011-04-18T06:20:00.000-07:002011-04-18T06:20:49.383-07:00

I went to an interesting TAG (Technology Association of Georgia) Product Management breakfast meeting last week, and I participated in a buzz group that talked about Agile and Product Feature road maps. It was interesting that nearly every company/person in the session had the same experience about how to manage executive expectations. Executives are focused on dates, much more so than features.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-70955695447891998852011-03-17T06:23:00.000-07:002011-03-17T08:00:12.982-07:00

Sometimes I like to use my blog to wrestle outwardly with conflicts I am having so that others can weigh in with their perspectives. This one can get a little edgy, so let's all stay on our good behavior. Is it just me or can accessibility be a big pain in the ass at times? As Andy Rooney once said about an entirely different subject "I am violently ambivalent" about this. By that I mean I can

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-70001619585954756592011-03-14T06:04:00.000-07:002011-03-14T06:04:27.975-07:00

I love pi! It's Greek; it's irrational; it's a number that eschews exactitude and demands rounding. What exactly is it? Take a piece of string and tie a loop in both ends. Pin one end in the center of piece of paper and put a pencil in the other. Now, with the string stretched tight, move the pencil around the pin until it inscribes a circle. Now lay another string around the circumference of

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-29443089884754096202011-02-24T10:44:00.000-08:002011-02-24T10:44:23.695-08:00

My favorite quote from the Wizard of Oz: Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the Earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. Back where I come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts and with no more brains than you have

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-67938074873155752652011-02-23T05:38:00.000-08:002011-02-23T05:47:04.862-08:00

Five months ago I was in the camp of "All I need my cell phone to do is make and take calls." Then I realized that sooner or later I was going to need to design user experiences for smart phones and that I had no direct experience as a user. So I cowboyed up and bought an iPhone. Fast forward to yesterday. I got a call from our customer loyalty manager late in the afternoon (on my iPhone). We

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-56452799196913635892011-02-09T07:58:00.000-08:002011-02-09T07:58:10.863-08:00

I've always wanted my own law. Here it is: t=log(UX)  User experience time is logarithmic. The user's first 30 seconds on an application or web page is as important as the next 30 minutes. And that 30 minutes is as important as the next 3 hours. Loren Burke, my usability mentor, created an entire business fixing the first 30 minutes of products that were about to be launched or which were

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-71868538730396106532011-02-02T12:38:00.000-08:002011-02-02T12:57:32.983-08:00

Just read a great joke--OK, a joke I liked at any rate. "A dairy farmer, in a fit of desperation because his cows aren't giving enough milk, consults a theoretical physicist about the problem. The physicist listens to him, asks a few questions, and then says he'll take the assignment. A few weeks later, he calls up the farmer, and says 'I've got the answer.' 'Tell me,' pleads the excited

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-35554686661968084492011-02-01T06:47:00.000-08:002011-02-02T06:38:34.915-08:00

A theme I have watched for awhile has finally caught up to me. There has been a steady movement away from using professional technical writers to produce user assistance and, instead, let subject matter experts do it directly. Some examples: Wikipedia (I use it all the time to understand security concepts my products naturally assume I already know.) Product-sponsored social networks that let

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-81887731662106009002010-12-16T04:07:00.000-08:002010-12-16T04:07:39.579-08:00

The head of my engineering department had a meeting yesterday to talk about getting from requirements to shipped product. He talked about our need to become more productive and more efficient--not because we were dogging it, but because the market place is getting more competitive. He made a couple of points that had the same clarifying effect you get when you've been knocking about in a dark

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-43018185376844192572010-12-07T06:45:00.000-08:002010-12-07T06:45:08.136-08:00

There's a great column in UXmatters on the Freemium Model. What I liked most was that the author resurrected B.F. Skinner and reinforcement ratios. I was talking with my wife this weekend about what I consider to be the three most misunderstood expressions, and this column reminded me that B.F. Skinner is a source of a common misunderstanding--so my list has grown to the following four most

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-24872119900994856732010-12-02T12:15:00.000-08:002010-12-02T12:15:32.487-08:00

I've been working on my first "smart phone" project--investigating how our managed security services portal could accommodate smart phone users. If nothing else, it forced me to take the plunge about a month ago and get an iPhone. Up to now I have used phones to call people and take calls from people. At least I was using a cell phone and not one of those things that hang on the wall and you

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-5390033411181393542010-11-12T07:09:00.000-08:002010-11-12T11:05:04.260-08:00

I don't think there is any way I'm going to be able to tie this blog into user assistance or user experience, so I'm writing it off as "Hey, it's Friday and it's my blog :-)" Went to a gritty little bar in Atlanta's mid-town last night that has an open bluegrass jam session every Thursday night. I mostly play alone-- three times a year I get together with an old high school friend and play Dobro

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-40129456460499338142010-11-11T06:18:00.000-08:002010-11-11T06:18:51.322-08:00

A lot of vectors converged this week: Got back from vacation with the usual back-from-vacation-what-is-it-I-do-that-these-folks-pay-me-for fog Recently got a new boss (former boss from earlier position) Some projects slowing down, some simmering under the radar, some seemingly waiting for...oops, waiting for me! On and off I have used an Excel spreadsheet to track my time against projects, and

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-15099488621368466322010-10-01T09:22:00.000-07:002010-10-01T09:22:03.046-07:00

I was not only enthralled by an article in the Sept/Oct issue of Intercom (STC's magazine), but I was equally interested in my reaction. I love it; I hate it, wuh?. The article is Measuring Productivity and is very well written by Pam Swanwick and Juliet Wells Leckenby , two STC members. This is a great article if you are involved in managing technical communication projects. That's the part I

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-39779722127160310102010-09-28T06:18:00.000-07:002010-09-28T06:26:27.617-07:00

A lot of things kind of converged yesterday. I had lunch with my friend and colleague Miranda Bennett, and she was excited over a new game--lousy UI but engaging premise. Apparently you collect pieces and build a fort-like structure and then zombies come out to get you at night. I'm not a gamer, but I commented that zombies were a popular construct these days and wondered why. Miranda posited it

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-16211679372001228222010-09-23T12:39:00.000-07:002010-09-23T12:50:02.139-07:00

When I read my title, I was reminded of the Stephen Wright joke, "I got in a terrible fight at the roulette table with the croupier over what I considered to be an odd number." (It occurred to me as I read the title that all 1st sentences are odd--literally.) OK, so I'm reading an article in American Rifleman (not mine, someone left it laying around at work) and the opening sentence is "It's

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-83889290884430185592010-09-22T04:54:00.000-07:002010-09-22T05:49:41.564-07:00

When I hear people talk about not getting respect for being a technical communicator (or not getting paid enough) I wonder if the following three myths are holding them back:Thoroughly described = adequately explainedAccurate = usefulGrammatically correct and correctly punctuated = well saidThese are the "writer" myths, based on the belief that the value we bring is our ability to write.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-1358213210916616682010-09-09T06:36:00.000-07:002010-09-09T06:58:12.947-07:00

I'm reading a lot about dashboards these days. What a fun challenge in technical communication, trying to put ten pounds of information into a one pound UI.I'm reading Stephen Few's Information Dashboard Design, and he makes the most elegant points:Reduce the non-data pixels:Eliminate all unnecessary non-data pixelsDe-emphasize and regularize the non-data pixels that remainEnhance the data pixels

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-21001170496203009692010-09-02T07:48:00.000-07:002010-09-07T13:00:58.430-07:00

I'd write this one off to stupid user (moi) except that I saw it a lot when I was a usability tester. I wanted to change presentation colors in my email client. I was pretty sure I did that in Tools > Preferences. It is important to note that my opening assumption, I repeat, was that I would find it under Tools > Preferences. I clicked on Tools.I couldn't find Preferences.After some frustrated

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-4409404394775236592010-08-31T09:53:00.000-07:002010-08-31T10:20:21.116-07:00

My favorite Scrum Master used the word "uniqify" in a sprint planning call today, as in "Could you uniqify that expression?" I poked him through the instant message tool we have because he had recently taken me to task for using the word "epistemology" in a design session.It turns out that this is a fairly common pattern in Ruby, as in stringify, uniquify, htmlify, etc.The rule seems to be that

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-28304914069464738732010-08-24T07:50:00.000-07:002010-08-24T08:15:24.843-07:00

I usually try to keep work and blog separate, but I gotta say I really like working for IBM and especially the IBM Security Services group. Why? I get paid to have some really interesting conversations.Last week I was in a meeting where we were discussing the right way to use Lotus Connections in our work team--versus a department Wiki we already have.Lotus Connections is social network app that

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-74500913104886832952010-08-20T04:36:00.001-07:002010-08-20T04:38:13.207-07:00

Reminds me of the Steven Wright joke where he named his dog "Stay" just to confuse him when he called him.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-26251131773928128282010-08-18T10:09:00.000-07:002010-08-19T05:57:36.304-07:00

Does this look like your development cycle?All is joy and celebration on the product management side when the project begins. Then comes the iterations as the marketing requirements document is passed back and forth with engineering. (BTW, is it just me or does it seem we lose about 1/3 of the project's useful development time in this phase?) Then engineering goes to work and produces something

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-5263104672216745732010-08-17T09:47:00.000-07:002010-08-17T11:43:02.635-07:00

A while back I blogged that a website I use had been redesigned--seemingly to reach an audience younger than me. Here is what that design looked like:Well, I went back today and it looks like this:What made them change? Two theories. One is that they read my blog. Seeing as how I did not make the list of most influential bloggers in Tech Comm I am summarily dismissing that theory.That leaves the

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-47588408541339899482010-08-13T12:08:00.000-07:002010-08-13T12:20:34.972-07:00

Someone corrected my use of personas the other day and pointed out that the plural is personae.File under reason 42.b of "Why people hate technical communicators."It reminds me of "data."A good sentence says "The data is clear on this."The better sentence says "The data are clear on this" because we know that the singular is datum and data is the plural.The best sentence says "The data is clear

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-37753846228758746482010-08-09T06:27:00.000-07:002010-08-09T11:22:11.148-07:00

Some descriptions seem to carry negative baggage and get thrown at me from time to time. The only problem is that not only do I find these terms NOT pejorative, in fact, I have worked hard to earn them.One is "writer." I remember sitting in a meeting and having someone voice her concern that several people in the room had referred to themselves as "technical writers." (I was one.) I know the

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-70002632770638840462010-08-06T08:37:00.000-07:002010-08-06T08:47:43.086-07:00

A tweet sent me to a web site that lists phrases to avoid in technical writing. Personally, I find their list to be pretty mild. Things like:a majority of -- most a sufficient amount of -- enough according to our data -- we findI'd like to add MY list of phrases that should not show up in your documentation:Hey, dick head, ...After you put out the fire...Your browser is as lame as

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-82884616590049707422010-08-05T05:23:00.000-07:002010-08-05T05:57:40.414-07:00

Yesterday's blog about bandwidth and information attracted some very insightful comments and got me to thinking more about the issue of "Do videos take advantage of their bandwidth?" In other words, are they proportionally better given how much more information they convey?The ensuing discussion brought a couple of things to mind. I remember from one of my technical communication courses that

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-9825838798310306082010-08-04T04:52:00.001-07:002010-08-04T05:39:47.412-07:00

I decided recently that I had "stopped growing musically." You have to be a Catholic flower child from the 60s to inflict that kind of guilt and deprecation on yourself over what is meant to be a hobby--something you do for fun.(not from the 60s, but you get the picture)So I hit upon a plan. I found this great dobro player, Martin Gross, who has a terrific YouTube channel. So my plan is to learn

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-64386411157806814122010-07-29T04:59:00.000-07:002010-07-29T05:48:17.993-07:00

Anyone who is a technical communicator gets involved in reviews, either doing them or getting them. There is an enormous difference in the appropriate level of feedback to give depending on whether you are being asked to look at an initial version (first eyes) or the almost ready for prime time version (last eyes).Quick example, if I am doing a first eyes review and the document contains the word

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-31832938943402737562010-06-24T05:27:00.000-07:002010-06-24T05:36:13.987-07:00

Whenever I get stumped on a UI, I ask is it a design issue or am I just being stupid? And as I have publicly pointed out in this blog, sometimes I'm just stupid. Got stumped on this one for awhile this morning:BTW, very pretty dialog box. But the install button was disabled and I couldn't figure out why. Thought something might still be loading in the background so I waited. Finally figured out

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-51541301365607222242010-06-23T05:17:00.000-07:002010-06-23T05:47:44.398-07:00

I know, I ride Rogers' old horse beyond its intended range, but it just stays a useful model for a lot of what I do.We can identify a point in an acceptance life-cycle with a vertical bar perpendicular to the x axis and somewhere along it. Then essentially we can say that we've got the population to the left of that line on board, and the ones to the right are the resistors we are still trying to

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-26735231188018797352010-06-22T08:22:00.000-07:002010-06-22T08:31:02.253-07:00

Just helped a coworker figure out how to reopen his style and formatting palette in Word. He had shut it down because it was getting in his way, and then he needed it back.That happens to me a lot. It's gotten to the point that I am so reluctant to turn anything off because I'm afraid I'll never figure out how to reactivate it. Well, every problem is the seed for an innovation!Hey, I want credit

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-57944661080965913372010-06-10T11:36:00.001-07:002010-06-10T13:04:31.860-07:00

I just didn't think my wife was sounding diligent enough about looking out for the UPS delivery guy, so I decided to work from home this afternoon so I knew someone would be here to accept delivery of the new guitar.As I was working in my loft, I periodically checked the UPS tracking site to see if the status changed to indicate it had actually been dispatched. The current status message was a

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-55307391682742305572010-06-09T07:47:00.000-07:002010-06-09T08:03:19.221-07:00

You might remember a blog I did last year about how not to update your look and feel. Essentially it says not to let old people (moi) design anything you want to appeal to the up and coming set of users.I navigated to one of my old familiar sites and it has gone through a revamping by someone who certainly took my advice:If you are over 60 (doh! moi again) give yourself about 5 minutes to figure

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-78044095526984013222010-06-08T13:15:00.000-07:002010-06-08T13:35:45.175-07:00

I feel like I'm sending out a birth notice. This afternoon, Mike Auldridge inspected the latest batch of his MA-6 resophonic guitars (his signature guitar made by Paul Beard Guitars). I'm buying one directly through Mike. After checking them out (he still personally inspects all of his signature guitars) I'm told he said, "This one sounds just like mine," and then he set it aside for me.Wow!UPS

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-64034230045501657912010-06-08T05:03:00.000-07:002010-06-08T05:28:15.581-07:00

Read my column this month in UXmatters; Personas as User Assistance and Navigation.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-48533101676704339932010-06-02T05:10:00.000-07:002010-06-02T06:05:05.717-07:00

I love "x" graphs, you know, the ones that show one domain diminishing while another is increasing. They form an x, and the point of intersection represents a sweet spot or break-even point. These days, I feel like I'm living the one shown below:The more feature-rich a particular design approach is, the more it delights product management. Of course, that starts to overload available engineering

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-83633894824886336392010-05-28T05:01:00.000-07:002010-06-01T02:17:11.175-07:00

I spent last Thursday immersed with the students and faculty of Texas Tech's online Technical Communication and Rhetoric (TCR) PhD program. Actually, it all started on Wednesday evening with a delightful dinner at Dr. Tommy Barker's home. Tommy is head of STC's Academic SIG and Director of Technical Communication at TTU. Texas-style, nothing was done small or half way. Tommy had even procured a

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-24851510129124130792010-05-20T07:09:00.000-07:002010-06-01T01:59:41.627-07:00

I'm always amazed when information acquired in one context emerges to be useful in an entirely different environment. As a member of the STC Board of Directors, and its current president, I've had to learn a lot about Robert's Rules of Order. I even have my own dog-eared version that I referred to a lot during some tricky proceedings this past year. One would think, what could be more esoteric

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-64204928873957826722010-05-17T10:37:00.000-07:002010-05-17T10:43:36.487-07:00

Thanks to [unnamed product]'s registration site for giving me the ability to leap through the torn fabric of time and space.Either that, or their UI developer slept during the lecture on Boolean logic. Or they think I'm quite large.Also, check out my new motivational poster at http://cheezburger.com/View/3534870016

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-11947230986081312932010-05-13T08:16:00.000-07:002010-05-13T12:37:33.198-07:00

We have a Scrum Master (someone who manages an Agile team) who has nerves of steel. No matter what goes wrong, he just recalculates the new path to the solution from the new location.My hard drive crashed last week in Houston and the Gibson Original Acoustic Instruments factory in Nashville got flooded. They were to ship my new Dobro guitar to me in two weeks.So there I am in the Sheraton

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-27880374438205890682010-04-19T10:50:00.001-07:002010-04-19T11:05:24.535-07:00

I've been very quiet the last several weeks as I have been wrestling with a long-standing inner conflict of mine. I have scoured my soul and I now know my mind. I am ready to make my public statement about...[ominous fan fare in background]ending a parenthetical statement with the smiley face icon.Often, I want to soften a strong statement or add some context to a comment by putting a

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-66852339648581627382010-04-02T04:55:00.000-07:002010-04-02T07:54:58.557-07:00

This week I visited with a ladies' book club in Pine Mountain, Georgia, to discuss my novel, Iron Hoop. It was a classic Southern experience right out of "Midnight in the Garden..." The group were well-to-do retirees who lived in a very upscale neighborhood situated on Piedmont lake. Well dressed, genteel, and with Southern accents that flowed as sweetly and lazily as praline.Needless to say,

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-30617212376244720552010-03-25T07:48:00.000-07:002010-03-25T08:54:24.342-07:00

Just because you like something you created, it doesn't mean:It's any goodYou have a big egoBut it can be useful to stop and ponder something you did that you particularly like--so that you can understand your own design priorities a bit better.I recently created a diagram for an article in UXmatters that I liked:The article was about the differences in the roles of User Interface (UI) developer

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-37846168902572366552010-03-18T05:26:00.000-07:002010-03-18T06:28:47.497-07:00

I just had a bad user experience at my bank's ATM. I'm not blogging to whine, they're a good bank, but I want to understand what went wrong with the experience and more importantly, the design process that led to it.I drive up to the ATM and insert my card. New screen, bright and shiny oooooooh.First new thing, it tells me to cover the keypad as I enter my PIN. Hmmmm, Not sure how one does that

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-90318461911647928182010-03-16T05:03:00.000-07:002010-03-16T05:18:05.601-07:00

I just changed cable providers, and this one has the same UI problem as the last. In both cases, if you view the guide (program menu), the channels start at the top of the screen and are listed in incremental order. That is:001002003...So if you want to see the next channel after you reach the bottom of the screen, you press the down arrow key. This means you are pressing a DOWN command to go UP

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-31319793727861584932010-03-04T05:59:00.002-08:002010-03-04T06:13:03.996-08:00

Dug, you gotta love him! But I seem to get involved in discussion threads where it seems a cyber squirrel runs through the conversation and everyone gets distracted. It's a good thing we didn't have discussion groups in the old days.Churchill: Things are looking rough on the continent, the axis forces are massing to eliminate free civilization as we know it. This could be our darkest

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-47606832626130174122010-03-03T05:41:00.000-08:002010-03-03T05:44:28.463-08:00

Neil Perlin is looking for participants for the "Beyond the Leading Edge" presentation at the STC Summit in May. Where I stand (click to enlarge):Click to enlarge.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-75993337912297715342010-02-19T08:12:00.001-08:002010-02-19T10:33:49.084-08:00

The winter Olympics are here and so again is curling. I polish my miniature curling stone paperweight and put on my team USA curling sweat shirt and I'm in my quadrennial state of euphoria.I discovered it about 10 years ago in Canada watching the women's national final on TV in a pub in Victoria. The teams wore plaid skirts as part of their uniforms. [...] Sorry, I was off in my happy place there

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-33958519293912226022010-02-18T04:42:00.001-08:002010-02-18T05:07:48.574-08:00

In my previous blog I throw some (well-padded) elbows at experts, and Isaac Rabinovitch rightfully takes me to task a bit. He makes the points that sometimes the gnarly explanation is needed--true, see my post on G2G (Geek-to-Geek) communication--and that technical communicators should not cut off experts during their explanations.My comments were directed as much to us when we acquire expertise

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-34834714607119561152010-02-16T04:13:00.000-08:002010-02-17T05:11:16.396-08:00

As user experience professionals, we deal with experts a lot in the form of Subject Matter Experts. And in doing so, we become experts. Plus we deal with experts and expertise in a dozen different forms in our routine lives every day, so it is good to stop and talk about the three big mistakes experts make. Mistake one: The infield fly ruleImagine there is a group of you from work at a baseball

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-22960859840314615592010-02-12T04:33:00.000-08:002010-02-12T04:51:38.929-08:00

In my book Iron Hoop I portray a conversation between the local junk man and a crony about how the junk man arranges things in the junk yard. It is a very thinly disguised metaphor about the inherent problems I have with taxonomies.The one I have a continual problem with and never get around to fixing is my folder arrangement on my computer. I have a folder called Presentations in which I file my

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-67442760369670385312010-02-11T04:25:00.000-08:002010-02-11T04:34:50.272-08:00

What is it about the striking of the Submit button or the opening of the first manual off the press that makes me an expert proof-reader?The first sentence of an article proposal I recently sent to an editor: "I have contribute in the past to the ..." Subject-verb disagreement in the FIRST THREE WORDS!The happy ending is that they accepted the proposal anyway. Sometimes the message outshouts the

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-40441259486293808312010-02-09T05:09:00.000-08:002010-02-11T06:32:42.889-08:00

Here's an interesting snippet of research coming out of Carnegie Mellon: How the brain arranges nouns.Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology, members of the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging have gained deep insight into the way human brains categorize objects. In a breakthrough that demonstrates the interdepartmental cooperation here at Carnegie Mellon, neuroscientists

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-56486150673743349842010-02-03T05:16:00.001-08:002010-02-03T05:18:07.206-08:00

On-the-job negotiations.Click comic to enlarge it.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-50883504308470570402010-01-28T07:25:00.000-08:002010-01-28T10:30:25.459-08:00

My NSS award goes collectively to all of the accessibility web sites on colorblindness that advised me to offer an alternative to using color to convey meaning.An open question for my readers:If an IP address in red means one thing and an IP address in blue means something else, what alternative approach would you recommend for this kind of scenario?

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-77013402706096368822010-01-27T04:24:00.000-08:002010-01-27T04:26:52.810-08:00

Don't you just love working on distributed teams?Click cartoon to enlarge it.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-55686470982417965672010-01-25T03:08:00.000-08:002010-01-25T03:14:27.300-08:00

I just had to chuckle when I read Dilbert yesterday. I think a lot of UX departments go through this phase. I hate hiring onto a job and then showing up for this as my first meeting (it's happened more than once).

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-79786936379345097292010-01-22T09:15:00.001-08:002010-01-22T09:23:56.016-08:00

Got so busy this week doing real work I totally forgot my Hump Day cartoon.Click image to enlarge it.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-53833468323692623552010-01-20T06:00:00.000-08:002010-01-20T06:31:27.429-08:00

Had coffee this morning with my friend Ken Hilburn from Juice Analytics. Essentially, they are in the business of helping customers visualize data. Naturally, we talked about dashboards, a big emphasis of his company. The conversation helped close a loop for me between data dashboards and decision-support embedded user assistance.Any follower of this blog or my column in UXmatters knows that I am

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-79583939536861451772010-01-19T07:05:00.000-08:002010-01-19T07:08:19.808-08:00

I have a new column out today in UXmatters.All UX professionals, not just user assistance developers, face the problem of integrating their work into the product development lifecycle. At lower levels of organizational usability maturity, too often, the contributions of User Experience tend to be reactive. Usability professionals test the usability of a given product, then designers mitigate any

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-16321587401942353752010-01-15T05:26:00.001-08:002010-01-15T06:10:44.211-08:00

Granted, I'm still in the honeymoon phase on my new team, but what a honeymoon! This week we had some great meetings with key players to define the role of the UX Architects and add that to the existing team roles. There's a double gasp here. First, this team already has a well-defined Scrum process that identifies all of the roles, and which documents what their activities are before, during,

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-78700597548540644802010-01-14T05:52:00.000-08:002010-01-14T12:27:13.088-08:00

I had a really stupid user experience yesterday, so I am trying not to squander my ignorance and understand what went wrong. More importantly, would a difference in the design have helped?So I'm having to set up a two-layer authentication set of credentials for myself. I have a keychain fob with six digits electronically displayed, and the digits change every 30 seconds (these digits are in synch

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-33093841006192841592010-01-13T04:08:00.000-08:002010-01-14T12:38:16.336-08:00

Click on comic to enlarge it. Urban CampingMy wife is out of town this week so I thought it would be a good time to rotate some of my camping provisions, you know, packaged food with a half-life of radium. I keep a store of these items so I can go off in the wild for up to three days without going shopping first. But I think once a man hits the age of five a good guideline is not to eat anything

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-76551727717873384162010-01-11T04:57:00.000-08:002010-01-11T05:19:04.350-08:00

We had a lot of organizational restructuring the past week at work, and a lot of managers flew in to communicate the changes and sell the positive impact they would have on the business and our lives as employees.Personally, I was impressed by their coming, their genuine enthusiasm, and the content of their messages. But no good deed goes unpunished, and I've heard more than one smirking mimicry

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-16198777584891240442010-01-08T04:20:00.000-08:002010-01-08T05:08:59.625-08:00

One of the more interesting tensions I have observed since getting into User Experience (UX) design about five years ago is the almost sibling-rivalry-like tension between UX designers and User Interface (UI) developers. At the heart of the tension is that most UI developers consider themselves (rightfully so) to be UI designers. The coding part is like Picasso having to understand how to mix

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35562779.post-58945296948069937182010-01-06T02:51:00.001-08:002010-01-12T08:09:12.199-08:00

Click to enlarge comic.

Michael Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06004741387594324547noreply@blogger.com0