How Usable is YOUR World?

I love data visualisation! That’s why when I read articles and I see data visualisation used with a bias way, it shocks me! A recent example was in Bloomberg BusinessWeek  – The Colossus of Wall Street. The article is about how BlackRock (asset management firm) and its CEO have enormous power on Wall St and Main St. At some point, they compare BlackRock to a similar firm, Goldman Sachs, in terms of how they dealt with the 2008 crisis and what they have done since their Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 1999. (more…)

After observing dozens of colleagues walking up one floor (and mumbling) and then making a wild guess where the meeting room they were appointed was, I decided to post signs. The building where I work is a classical square shape where you have stairwell and toilets in the middle. We are working on two floors which means we often have to go to the other floor for a meeting, but my colleagues don’t memorize (we have other stuff to think about) where our meeting rooms are located even if the meeting room’s names are those of Wellington’s suburbs and are located as a geographical representation of the city. (more…)

Do you know how to make your recorded talk, that you will broadcast on Youtube, easy to understand? I have seen a nice way to do it at the Webstock mini (Wellington, NZ). Daniel Button presented his TED talk (Yes, he came to show us a recorded talk…) but, instead of seeing him giving his talk with his slides, it was animated. It was much easier and funnier to listen to his topic – Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution.

Since his talk is not already available online, here is another one using the same technique, I love the value added of the animation! (more…)

I love seeing an application that caters for two personas like the xe.com iPhone app. Ted The Tourist lives in New Zealand but he is planning a trip to Australia, so he checks the currencies once a week until he buys Australian dollars before leaving.  What he needs to know is the value with a precision of 1 or 2 decimals. Ted doesn’t care if it’s 1NZD = 0.8138AUD or 1NZD = 0.8118 AUD. In fact, he just remember the exchange rate was 1NZD = 0.79…AUD a week ago. (more…)

Hey, I just started a flickr group about Great user experience!

While working in the usability field, we are often talking about bad and great user experience. I have found several Flickr groups about bad design/bad experience but I haven’t found one that lists great design/great user experience. So here is one. (more…)

Have you heard about Daniel Szuc? I had the chance to attend one of his recent talk, here in Wellington.

Topic: Sell UX

I simply loved his talk; I smiled several times
We are all working in different organizational cultures and it’s important to know in which one you are working to better understand how you should sell UX. (more…)