: I was skeptical. ‘Design’ is not a word I’m entirely comfortable around. Almost entirely because I’m not naturally very good at it. And yet I found myself signed up – by my doing, too – to spend a summery Cape Town Saturday at a workshop. The workshop in question is part of Ogilvy’s Digital [...]

: This is an amazing (intentional) portrait of the world’s worst website. Every UXer and designer should see it. An oldie but goodie. : http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/

: Physical buttons have the unique ability to provide low-attention and vision-free interactions through their intuitive tactile clues. Unfortunately, the physicality of these interfaces makes them static, limiting the number and types of user interfaces they can support. On the other hand, touch screen technologies provide the ultimate interface flexibility, but offer no inherent tactile [...]

: I find inspiration in the literature that examines games and play as factors in creating delightful and engaging experiences. I like to think of how this applies to products outside of the video gaming industry. I’ve had Thomas Malone’s 1981 paper, “Heuristics for Designing Enjoyable Interfaces: Lessons from computer games” on my desk for [...]

: At the User Interface 16 Conference in Boston, Jared Spool walked through what makes a product design intuitive and how teams can use this information to create better designs. : http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1443

: A brilliant exposé of the interaction between art, design, and commerce. : http://www.amazon.com/Language-Things-Understanding-Desirable-Objects/dp/0393070816/?tag=href-20

: Great deal sponsored by UX Booth. 7 UX Apps. 70% off, today only. : http://usabilitydaybundle.com/referral/uxbooth

: It’s a web-based application, it runs in your browser and is accessible from any computer, and is designed for collaboration, both within your company and with external stakeholders. : http://blogs.balsamiq.com/product/2011/11/10/mybalsamiq/

: Last year I had an influx of mobile projects and needed to find a way to carry out usability testing on a mobile device. I’ve been meaning to share my solution for a while, but it’s taken me until now to get round to it. : http://shortboredsurfer.com/2011/09/making-a-mobile-usability-testing-sled-the-macgyver-way/

: The country selector. It’s there when you create an account for a new Web service, check out of an e-commerce store or sign up for a conference. The normal design? A drop-down list with all of the available countries. : http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2011/11/10/redesigning-the-country-selector/