If you were one of those kids who “became a person” in the age of the rotating family pictures inside a frame on an end table–you will relate to this feeling. Remember the real trick to these abominations was to come in the door from school and toss your bookbag in front of it quickly. “Please,” you halfway prayed, “don’t let the friends see my two-year-old-butt in the bathtub.” If you were unlucky, you were also terrorized by these frames in the parents room, family room and the pool-table room. It would be very difficult to study and graph the ptsd these little gems may have
Over the past few decades, the technology industry has risen to become the economic engine that the world depends on. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, though. The industry has faced a rash of user privacy issues, data thefts, and systemic gender bias throughout the years. The constant problems have given the industry as a whole a black eye in the public consciousness. Needless to say, that has complicated the PR efforts of every company in the space. Today’s tech startups have to make a concerted effort to avoid getting tarred with that industry-wide brush. Some don’t succeed and
Starting off, Young wasn’t able to get into an ad agency because of the catch-22 of experience. So he, like most young adults, worked low-wage retail jobs to pay the bills. Young applied for internships and interviews, hoping to land something before graduation, hopefully at one of the big New York ad agencies. That’s when he reached out on Twitter to make connections, and AJ Wilcox connected him to Dennis Yu, the chief technology officer at BlitzMetrics, which is now one of the top Facebook agencies worldwide. When Young first met Yu, Young didn’t even know who Mark Zuckerberg was. The
Taking the last tip a step further, when expending serious brainpower, eliminate distractions from your environment. Log out of your email (or pause your inbox using a tool like Boomerang), turn off your phone, close your office door — whatever you have to do to keep your brain from losing focus. Whether you realize it or not, constant email updates or social media notifications keep you from doing your best work. Your brain is pulled in so many directions it can’t possibly produce at peak level. So do your time management skills a favor and remove distractions while working. One
The Startups That Create Startups Over the past year, venture studios have seen an impressive influx of funding, marking the beginning of a sea change in how new companies are conceived and grown. Late last year, for example, startup studio Atomic closed on the second fund of $150 million. Then, just this spring, Madrona Venture Labs announced its own new funding of more than $11 million. The venture studio model is designed to attract and nurture first-time and experienced entrepreneurs alike. The venture studio provides more than capital, advice, and introductions to entrepreneurs; it
Veronique James, CEO of the James Agency, an advertising, public relations, and digital marketing firm based in Scottsdale, Ariz., writes that there are things every executive can do on a granular level to ensure an upbeat environment. For example, her agency begins each week with a 15-minute
She explained that the original design of the Internet was driven more by considerations of interoperability rather than security, and as a result we are now faced with almost insurmountable issues. Some examples include online criminals who steal our information, mass bandits who have the ability
Finally, Hathaway sees this as a unique opportunity for the United States to work with countries around the world, and with organizations on an extremely local level. “We cannot succeed if our government works in isolation,” she added. It requires “leading from the top” from
When Will You Be Able to Use Cryptocurrency to Buy a Pack of Gum?
One of the best reasons to hitch your wagon to cryptocurrency is its ability to curtail, if not eliminate, identity theft. Crypto is protected by a private key that should be known only to the owner. If you never share the key, it theoretically should never be stolen. However, the anonymity that
Emerging Technologies are Banding Together to Accelerate Big Data’s Growth
Thanks to the growth of the internet, the rate at which new information is being released is growing exponentially. Accelerating big data between machines. We are in an age when communication is not just between human beings. Machines are now the go-to for connections between the people to people
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues
Brand Is Experience in the Digital Age
Before a siege, Blackbeard dressed himself in a dark heavy coat and captain’s hat to accentuate his domineering stature. He strapped pistols to his chest and tucked lit, smoking fuses under his hat and in his beard to create an image reminiscent of the devil himself having just emerged from some
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Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
Unless you have an unlimited clothes budget, it’s unrealistic (and wasteful) to wear a new outfit for every single occasion, yet social media pressures us into it. Rent a Runway solves this tension elegantly by recycling (expensive) clothes across a large set of women. It’s an example of the
UX Responsibilities in Scrum Ceremonies
In this meeting, the product owner will review backlog items in their current order of priority and readjust priorities to meet business and user needs. The product owner will lead the discussion with the team to understand if additional stories are needed or if existing ones need to be edited or
Top 10 Application-Design Mistakes
Egregious uses of coded information often appear in medical applications, CRM systems (where users often have to select a code for each sales interaction with their customers), accounting software, and enterprise applications. In all these apps, information that is meaningful to humans is
Designing Effective Infographics
Consider the needs of the piece you are creating before adding interactive elements. What aspects of the data will users be interested in? If you simply want to make a point, then a static visualization supporting it may be enough. If you’d like your users to manipulate and get a deep
Layered Interaction Analysis of Direct Manipulation (Jakob Nielsen)
Summary of the direct mappings discussed in section 4. For simplicity, the figure only shows those interaction levels actually involved in these mappings, but similar mappings could be defined between the rest of the interaction levels. Previous work has shown that experienced users find the
Creepiness–Convenience Tradeoff
As with anything we design for, there will be differences in individual users. People will have differing levels of awareness of a product and its capabilities, meaning that some may be further along in their path toward acceptance than others. There may also be individual differences in creepiness
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Informational Articles Must Ask For the Order
The Iams kitten food page contained a clear link to Feeding Tips for Growing Kittens , which was highly attractive: all of our test users clicked it. The article was also very interesting and informative: all users scrolled through four screens of text. At the bottom of this fairly large page
Modes in User Interfaces: When They Help and When They Hurt Users
Modal windows are a specific type of mode; they present as popups or slide-over panels and they restrict the user’s ability to interact with the content behind the modal, even though that content will remain visible (and typically darkened). Modal windows or dialogs demand that users interact
StudioPress Theme Spotlight: New Breakthrough Pro
As we continue to showcase a sample of the amazing StudioPress themes now available to WP Engine customers, we’re extra excited to bring you this new StudioPress Theme: Breakthrough Pro, which is the first new theme to be launched since our acquisition of StudioPress in June. Breakthrough Pro
Join WP Engine in Web Week 2018
During Web Week, we encourage our customers to take advantage of this low-stress time of year to create more personalized, dynamic, and better-performing digital experiences. For brands and agencies, this is the perfect time to kick your feet up, re-access, and get creative. It’s the ideal time
WP Engine Participates in the Day of Understanding
Diversity has long been an important topic for WP Engine. CEO Heather Brunner often says “diversity attracts diversity.” This means that as a company naturally attracts and retains diverse talent, that diversity is sustained from the inside by employee referrals. Ultimately, the
Design Critiques: Encourage a Positive Culture to Improve Products
If critique is already a successful part of your team’s process, think about inviting someone with a different background or from a different department on a rotating basis. Critique helps create a common foundation by bringing together different perspectives. Over time, not only do extended-team
This finding has implications for the choice of recommender engine. Let’s say you’re running a streaming video site with a page layout that allows you to show only two recommended movies to each user. You have the choice between two recommendation algorithms: Algorithm A selects two movies that
Preventing User Errors: Avoiding Conscious Mistakes
Polarr is a popular photo editor on iOS. The right-hand editing controls (Temp, Tint, etc.) require that you tap on the box, and then swipe left or right to change the numeric value of that parameter. However, the controls don’t indicate how users should interact with them, so novices are likely
These Are The Concerns Slowly Killing Ad-Tech
Black Mirror, recently bought by Netflix, is a hugely popular TV series that is a dark, twisted but spot-on portrayal of the possible ramifications of technology in the future. Advertisements for the show are ironically targeting ad block users, and some argue, are “intentionally creepy.” For
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Data Privacy Attitudes and Connected Cars: A Deeper Look
Connected car owners age 55+ are more likely not to a connected car app service for security reasons. 76 percent of older car owners say they have chosen not to use an app because of concerns about their personal information. Younger drivers have not experienced the devastations of losing entire
Data Legislation Is Coming. Can You Get Compliant?
Because of data breaches at Facebook and countless other leading companies, consumers are understandably wary about how much of their personal data is being tracked and stored. These fears were stoked after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, as it became clear that personal data was being used for
Sam Plecic secrets on Internet Business | Why Frames Suck (Most of the Time)
Why Frames Suck (Most of the Time)
Percentages sum to 101% due to rounding. Thus, 13% of users would not even be able to see a site with frames. Sure, it is possible in principle to use the <NOFRAMES> feature to serve alternate content to these users, but most designers don't bother designing two versions of their pages and
Mastery, Mystery, and Misery: The Ideologies of Web Design
User research with children shows that they often have problems using websites if links and buttons don't look clickable. At the same time, using a virtual environment as a main navigation interface does work well with kids, even though it's rarely appreciated by adults (outside of games). Also
Use 2-factor authentication. For accounts that don't need high security, sending SMS codes or voice codes to the user's phone is better than nothing, but NIST recommends this method be phased out. For better safety, security professionals recommend using apps like Google Authenticator, Microsoft
