Opinions, ideas and new thinking
CategoryThe futility of fighting Apple’s Stockholm Syndrome
User research is about understanding personal stories. For the sake of efficiency it is necessary to aggregate individuals’ experiences and prioritise designing for the most prevalent trends. However, in doing so, the personal meaning of each us…
The ugly experience of smartwatches
Smartwatches and other wrist wearables have been prominent at this year’s CES, the consumer electronics show which provides an early look at annual product trends.
Surely if everyone is announcing products in a new category, it must be on the c…
Skills for digital change
The season for annual predictions is upon us and they remain as useless as ever, limited as they are to either recounting the obvious or speculating on the unknowable. Instead, I’d like to reflect on a future just becoming visible over the horizo…
Blackberry’s future through the lens of a Q10
Why would anyone use a Blackberry Q10 in 2013? The answer, as I’ve found in four months of testing, is simple: speed, battery life, keyboard and the quality of connectivity. I’ll expand on each of these below, as well as the negative aspects…
YotaPhone’s dual screen experience
The YotaPhone launched today with a 720p colour screen on the front and a 4.3 inch e-ink display on the back. It is a unique combination and a welcome innovation in a market where form factors remain stagnated around the generic, single scree…
Advice for a first day in UX
As the MEX initiative enters its 18th year, I’m hearing a common problem among heads of design agencies and those leading user experience teams in corporations: finding, training and retaining talented graduates. It’s hardly surprising as demand …
Enabling new Apple product categories with new interaction methods
Apple bought PrimeSense, a company which specialises in the spatial sensing technology used in products like Xbox Kinect.
History, of course, can be a fickle guide to the future, but in light of this purchase it is worth noting Apple’s two most…
Human qualities & organisational design
Achieving good user experience is as much about the organisational challenge as it is about the design process.
For this reason, I was intrigued by an invitation to The Foundation’s discussion of ‘Human organisations are what we need but not …