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Testing Testing Testing…
Hey ThoughtWorkers, So at TWU we learned about a ton of different ways to test software: Unit Tests, Functional Testing, GUI Testing, etc. Here’s my question: What’s the point of a tested tool that the user (or perhaps customer, if you prefer) finds difficult to actually use? What about Usability Testing? How about testing to…
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Words Matter
For the past few days I’ve been trying out some of the music recommendation services out there. I really like the idea that my computer can help me find new music to listen to. When I was using Last.fm I noticed that the words they use for rating music really don’t fit with my mental…
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A little thing called Typography
You know Craigslist, right? Great site, right? I definitely think so. The content is fantastic. The kinds of interactions it creates are possibly better than any other website on the entire interweb. You know what I don’t like about it? It is horrifically UGLY. You’re not allowed to disagree with me. You just aren’t. Now…
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It’s not just about the customer, but the users too!
100_2024 Originally uploaded by josh.ev9. Just another day at ThoughtWorks, or at least ThoughtWorks University. While we were designing the interface (and experience) for a new internal tool, we involved some real future users. In this photo, the Analyst team is carrying out a study with a low fidelity prototype, which led to a pretty…
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Why can’t we find a way to speed up web apps?
Now, I try to stay away from such technical subjects, but I’m just wondering: Is there any way to make our web applications go faster? Why do sites like Wikipedia and other content-rich tools (like Confluence, for all you TWers) have to load soooooooooooooooo slooooooooowly? It really inhibits my attention span.
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What the users really think…
I was inspired this evening by this post on Creating Passionate Users. It reminded me of one of my favorite phrases from all of graduate school: Design Like You Give a Damn. Don’t just think about the design you should be doing. Actually do the design. Actually care for the people you’re designing for, and…
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UCD @ TW: What You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know
When I came to ThoughtWorks University a little less than a month ago, I set as my main goal the task of discovering what kinds of User Centered Design practices were occuring at ThoughtWorks, and how I could help progress those tasks. After two blazingly fast weeks of class, I’ve learned a lot, hopefully taught…
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It’s all starting to come together…
…a little bit at a time. So yesterday at TWU we had a session called Analysis in Context, which was (for me at least) exactly what I have been looking for in terms of lessons that I can wholeheartedly agree with. During the session, the “dirty secret of software development” was revealed to us. I’ll…
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Holistic Experiences, Creativity, and the Brain
Summary: When studying user experience, the brain and its activities need not be considered in terms of separate function. For the past few days, I’ve been taking in the following image, linked to me from the blog of a future coworker of mine, which was originally linked from here. In science today, many people spend…
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Gmap Pedometer vs. Forerunner 101
For my birthday this year, Puneet bought me a cool new Garmin Forerunner 101. For a number of reasons, though mainly because I have tended to workout indoors rather than out lately, today was the first time I had a chance to try it out. I have to be honest…I’ve been a little skeptical of…