The problem, as it relates to privacy, is that insurance companies are collecting data without anything by way of consent — especially within the realm of health insurance. What they’re doing is also not illegal, by the way. In the US, at least, the vast majority of people don’t actually own their own medical data. That means healthcare industry giants like Optum can collect as much private medical data as they want. They have already collected all your health information – for more than half of the total US population. The insurance companies can sell it to whomever they want. It’s
While smart contracts and decentralized cloud storage are already a reality, there are several blockchain implementation prospects that may come to life in the nearest future. Among them is private messaging solutions powered by blockchain technology. This solution is crucial for business security, as it encrypts all interactions, creating a system of unified communication. While most private messaging systems today use end-to-end encryption, which ensures safety but is still far from being completely secure, blockchain-powered private messaging solutions are expected to have higher levels of
The Tableau platform combines many tools. You’ll receive data visualization that enables companies to visualize their analytics, prepare it, and share it online. You’ll then store the information on a cloud or on-premise. Bought by Salesforce in June 2019, the company offers products such as Tableau Desktop, Prep, Online, and Tableau Server. To create a data visualization, you don’t need advanced programming skills. Gladly, they offer developer tools to integrate and customize API for your own organizational needs. Similar to other tools, they also offer a drag and drop interface
It was almost two decades ago that VPN industry saw an upgrade in the tunneling protocols. The upgrade came in the form of OpenVPN, an open-source protocol that dominates the market to this day. I feel that with the development of WireGuard some significant progress and a breakthrough in online security has occurred. WireGuard is a type of VPN that aims to be simpler than the current VPNs while offering a higher degree of security. It is a tool that is free and open source with GPLv2 license – same as Linux Kernel. Some experts are already backing WireGuard as the protocol that will dethrone
People love it when they get things done from their comfort zone, and that seems to be from the mobile phone these days. Setting up a mobile app for your site or brand is one of the best customer services you can employ to ensure the best service. Before setting up a website or building an app, the need to research how to make it mobile friendly and responsive should never be underestimated. Learn from sites that offer guides on how to make your site and app mobile friendly. Your customers will become your fans while they’re on the go. People like to get things down from their fingertips
Sweetgreen, a fast-casual restaurant chain, ensures its culture is a strong one through such initiatives as its family fund, under which voluntary paycheck donations are used to help out employees in times of need. The fund came into play when someone needed temporary housing following a fire, and
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
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
A marketplace solution for IoT development through decentralized smart contract ledger
Despite all this excitement surrounding IoT, the companies involved in IoT development are already experiencing a huge shortage of relevant skills. In research published by Inmarsat titled ‘The Future of Enterprise in IoT -2017’ conducted by interviewing respondents representing 500
Decentralized P2P Lending Services vs Networks
But even when some of these lending services work with several different crypto-assets, their variety is often limited to a couple of the most popular ones. Also, most of the services are trying to tie their users to their native token – that contributes to the exclusiveness of these systems
FinTech is Transforming the Finance Industry
The FinTech field shows great promise for providing access to financial services to underserved consumers and small businesses. It can reduce the costs associated with loan processing and underwriting. As such, it may serve as a solution that will allow financial service providers to offer smaller
Browser and GUI Chrome
What do we mean when talking about the "chrome" in a user interface design? An attendee asked this question during a recent course on Visual Design for Mobile and Tablet. Whenever someone asks us a basic question, I assume that many more people want the answer as well — and thus, this article on
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10 Heuristics for User Interface Design: Article by Jakob Nielsen
Visibility of system status The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time. (Read full article on visibility of system status.) Match between system and the real world The system should speak the users' language, with words
The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think
This is what level-2 people can do: “At this level, tasks typically require the use of both generic and more specific technology applications. For instance, the respondent may have to make use of a novel online form. Some navigation across pages and applications is required to solve the problem
The Need for Speed
Conservative use of graphics does not imply boring pages. Much can be done by colored table cells and creative (but restrained) use of different fonts. In particular, style sheets can be used to improve page design without incurring a download penalty. If you are using style sheets (and everybody
7 Tips for Successful Customization
You may want to allow users to select the background color of their interface, but is there adequate payoff or interest in that option to account for the additional cost of implementation? You may want to allow users to move content areas around a page to create a unique experience, but again, it
Confirmation Dialogs Can Prevent User Errors (If Not Overused)
Yes answer. Usually it’s good to have the most common options as the default in a dialog box: doing so saves users time and also educates newbies as to the most likely answer. However, the entire purpose of confirmations is to make sure that users double-check their action and don’t proceed
Transactional Email and Confirmation Messages
Beyond their immediate branding effect, transactional messages can also drive traffic to your site long after you send them. Some users maintain a "clean mailbox" policy and erase messages as quickly as possible. However, when people do save transactional messages, those messages become a pointer
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'About Us' Information on Corporate Websites - User Research Findings
Including detailed information on subcategory pages can give users answers to their questions when they want to learn even more about your company. Examples of appropriate subcategory pages that could live underneath the main About Us category include Mission and Values, Company History, Leadership
Large Devices Preferred for Important Tasks
Today, smartphones play a larger role in our lives, and as a consequence, users are more familiar and comfortable with mobile than they used to be. For example, in 2010, researchers at the University of Alberta found that reading comprehension was impaired when people read content from a mobile
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
WP Engine's London Office Recognised as a Great Place to Work
In 2015, WP Engine opened our first global office in London as a physical representation of our desire to expand our team of WordPress specialists and better serve our customers globally. Since then, we’ve worked hard to create a workplace that is collaborative, productive, and fun. Today, we
WP Engine All Hands Spring 2019: US
Last week, WP Engine employees from all over the U.S. came together at our Austin headquarters for the first biannual All-Hands event of 2019. All Hands is a two-day event in which employees from other offices and teams around the country get the chance to collaborate and strategize with one
5 Strategies for Presenting UX Remotely
Following these 5 general tips will improve your remote presentations. However, the best way to achieve success is to test and iterate: our presentation methods need to be tested and iterated upon just like the products we design. Zig Ziglar said “maybe you don't hold the title of salesperson
Parallel & Iterative Design + Competitive Testing = High Usability
Once you have all the parallel versions, subject them to user testing. Each test participant can test 2 or 3 versions. Any more and users get jaded and can't articulate the differences. Of course, you should alternate which version they test first, because users are only fresh on their first
The Magnifying-Glass Icon in Search Design: Pros and Cons
When used without an open-entry text field, the icon takes up less space. Visually, it’s less prominent and, therefore, less noticeable. We don’t recommend the icon-only pattern for desktop websites. Icon-only search makes sense on mobile devices, because there’s less screen space and fewer
How to Improve Cybersecurity in a Smart City
In one example of these kinds of public-private partnerships, AT&T and GE Current are working with Georgia Electric to install 200 smart LED streetlights. The streetlights provide illumination while also tracking traffic, parking, and pedestrian patterns and even monitoring for gunshots
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Is Workplace Privacy Dead?
Employee monitoring doesn’t have to endanger your company culture. Some companies were able to improve their culture since the software allowed them to spot all kinds of harassment in the workplace. Additionally, thanks to tracking tools, companies were able to detect internal threats and
Big Tech Faces Data Collection Scrutiny, but Big Insurance Might be Next
The problem, as it relates to privacy, is that insurance companies are collecting data without anything by way of consent — especially within the realm of health insurance. What they’re doing is also not illegal, by the way. In the US, at least, the vast majority of people don’t actually own
Sam Plecic secrets on Internet Business | User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly
User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly
We can't directly assess whether our study participants are idiots, since we don't subject them to an IQ test. But participants' comments during all of our studies these past 14 years indicate that we've mainly had plenty smart test users. Unless a specific study calls for participants with a
Customer-Service Information on Websites: The Hub-and-Spoke Model
In the end, each participant had to make a best guess and select from the available options, rather than confidently proceeding down a path to the answer. One user clicked on Returns because it seemed the most logical option. She spent several minutes reading about returns before opting to use the
Store Finders and Locators
Many of the websites we tested in Studies 3 and 4 included the option to use current location to begin a search. The majority of study participants allowed access to their current location when the site requested it. Some desktop users did not notice the browser popup requesting their location
