The Benefits of Surrogate Testing
How can design teams gather data from users when their target audience is difficult to access? We often recommend that our clients test surrogate users when the design’s actual users are unavailable....
View ArticleRolf Molich’s Comparative Usability Evaluation
In my work, I’ve seen that usability testing is an extremely valuable tool. It guides the design of sites, provides information on the expectations of our users, and it gives a way to assess how close...
View ArticleThe Power of Persuasive Momentum
We have dozens of clients seeking our help to influence their site’s users and make them take action. Some want us to help them boost conversion rates. Others just want strategies to draw users to...
View ArticlePersonas Are Still a Mystery
Adaptive Path’s Dan Saffer recently wrote an interesting article on Personas. Dan has observed that many development teams build personas without conducting up-front user research. I’m not really...
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Entertainment Tonight and UNI.edu’s Inukshuk Content
On the home page of the University of Northern Iowa’s web site, prospective students deciding where to attend college can read about Jen. Jen is a current student at UNI who shares some of the reasons...
View ArticleThe 7-11 Milk Experiment: How Does Site Design Affect Revenue?
At UIE, we’ve spent a great deal of time trying to assess how elements of a site design affect revenue. In all of our recent studies of e-commerce sites, we’ve based our research on what we refer to as...
View ArticleStill looking for UI10 Volunteers
User Interface 10 is only three weeks away and we’re just now putting the final touches on the program. We’ll have more than 350 attendees from all over the world. There are folks coming from Africa,...
View ArticleWhat UI10 Attendees Are Reading
Last month, more than 350 designers, information architects, and usability professionals joined us for User Interface 10 in Cambridge, MA. One of the best parts of the conference was that we had the...
View ArticleMeasuring a Site’s “Blink” Response
I just recently finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s bestselling book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Malcolm’s main premise is that people frequently develop important impressions in...
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Enticing Users with Content
We’ve been spending a lot of time looking at how designs can best entice users with their content. Specifically, how can design teams get users to pay attention to their site’s valuable information...
View Article5-Second Tests Don’t Tell Us Everything
I recently discussed how we use the 5-second test technique to gather users’ initial impressions of designs. While we’ve found this technique to be an essential part of our usability toolbox, it still...
View ArticleYahoo’s Frustration with Focus Groups
In a recent article from Business Week, Shoot the Focus Group, Yahoo’s chief marketing officer discusses how focus groups rarely yield valuable information about Yahoo’s user needs. Yahoo’s frustration...
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Is Unexcelled Food a Good Thing?
I’m curious how many people are interested in eating at a restaurant that serves unexcelled food? Last weekend, I drove by the Century House Restaurant in Peabody, Massachusetts. What struck me was the...
View ArticleTop Five Articles of 2005
As we begin the new year, UIE’s research team spends time examining what topics areas seem to resonate most with our readers. Here is a list of the top 5 UIE articles readers emailed to each other in...
View ArticleSnap Decisions on the Web
What is the smallest amount of time it takes users to form impressions of web sites? In a recent study described in the scientific journal Nature, Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in Ottawa...
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Branding and the Million Dollar Homepage
This week, marketing expert Seth Godin, has chimed in with his thoughts on the Million Dollar Home Page. The Million Dollar Homepage is an innovative site created by college student Alex Tew to help...
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The Grizzly Man: Disruption that Works
We’ve spent a lot of time researching what types of online advertisements actually work. Not surprisingly, we’ve found a lot of evidence to suggest that users ignore featured advertisements when they...
View ArticleI’m Heading to Portland
Next week, I’ll be heading to Portland, Oregon for a couple of days to teach a seminar for the great folks at Standard Insurance. I fly into Portland on the 15th and leave on the 17th. I’d love some...
View ArticleThe Content Page Gets Priority
In a recent article on A List Apart, Derek Powazek, an expert designer and past User Interface Conference speaker, describes how he goes about designing a web site: When I set out to design a website,...
View ArticleYahoo! Publishes Design Pattern Library
I just returned from presenting a one-day course in Portland, Oregon where I had the opportunity to talk with more than 40 designers, programmers, and content writers about their specific design...
View ArticleUIE Happy Hour: Atlanta, GA – 2/24
User Interface Engineering is hosting a happy hour in Atlanta, GA on Friday, February 24th for user experience professionals, information architects, knowledge managers, designers, usability...
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My 90-mile Bike Ride for Best Buddies
On the morning of Saturday, May 20 2006, I am riding my bike approximately 90 miles from JFK Library in South Boston, Massachusetts to the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port in support of the Best...
View ArticleRecruiting Volunteers for User Interface 11
User Interface 11 is only two months away. It’s looking like we’ll have more than 400 attendees from all over the world. There are folks coming from Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. Would you...
View ArticleBranding and the “Hey” Phenomenon
Dan and Chip Heath, authors of the book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Fail, have written a great article, Polarize Me, for this month’s issue of Fast Company. They discuss why...
View ArticleInterviews with Scott Berkun, author of The Myths of Innovation
Flickr, the online photosharing web site, changed everything for web applications. For one of the first times, elements of Flash and AJAX were combined in a seamless form, along with the HTML page....
View ArticleStarting a New Adventure: Perfetti Media
Tomorrow is a bittersweet day for me. July 18th is my last official day working at User Interface Engineering. I’ll be leaving UIE and launching my new training and consulting organization, Perfetti...
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