Annoying Design » user experience

Choosing what features to design? Hit the sweet spot.

ross — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:46:55 +0000

From websites to software, new types of interactions require designing with a learning curve in mind. How do you appeal to both novice and expert users at once? Here’s an article I wrote addressing that question. When designing anything that targets multiple types of users — a robust web site, an application, a video game, [...]

My New Gig At Modernista!

ross — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:44:30 +0000

Last week I started a new job as Lead Experience Designer for Boston-based ad agency Modernista! I’m their first full-time user experience hire, and charged with helping the agency, which is often recognized for brilliant traditional work, develop their interactive capabilities. Designing Web sites and digital offerings is fundamentally different from creating a TV spot. [...]

Building a UX Team of One

ross — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:53:39 +0000

It’s been a long blogging hiatus. I’ve been taking time to work on my job search and figure out what I’m most passionate about), But now I’ve started working on a big blog post titled “Developing Experience Design Within The Traditional Agency.” My hypothesis is that as consumer distrust and distaste of advertising increases, they’ll [...]

Myspace, A Place For CAPTCHAs

ross — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:26:04 +0000

Using MySpace these days, you come across more CAPTCHAs than you do content. It’s frustrating “solving” these all the time, and sometimes downright ridiculous. In the words of my former boss, Harley Manning, “You can’t annoy someone into liking your brand.”

Some Thoughts on MySpace’s Redesign

ross — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 07:29:06 +0000

MySpace is rolling out their new re-design, as of yesterday, which the brilliant folks at Adaptive Path played a large part in. I’m always impressed by their work, but I was surprised by the screenshots of the redesign I saw on Valleywag who notes: “When Fox Interactive began interviewing Web designers for the job last [...]

Towards the Customer-Centric Organization

ross — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:38:05 +0000

There’s exciting thought brewing right now about how user-centered design and customer experience thinking can impacting, not product or website design, but the very building blocks of business, like org charts, process flows, even manufacturing. As companies realize they need open up their marketing mentality, so are a handful applying that thought to other areas [...]