Monthly Archives: March 2010

Novel input mechanisms and user control

Instead of writing a silly post for April fools day, I’ve instead decided to highlight some fascinating academic research from MIT that looks at novel input mechanisms and issues of user control. This paper (pdf) was published at CHI a … Continue reading

Why today’s voicemail systems are worse than 1980s answering machines

It’s funny to think about how big a step back voicemail took when it moved from desktop answering machines to mobile phones. Image credit: Hold all my calls by Furryscaly Back in the 1980s, if you didn’t get to the … Continue reading

The reconstructive nature of human memory (and what this means for research documentation)

Here’s a classic piece of psychology research that should get you thinking about the strangely malleable nature of human memory: Loftus & Palmer (1974) on the reconstructive nature of human memory (PDF). The research paper is pretty dry, so I’ll … Continue reading

Email verification – is your call-to-action strong enough?

Email verification is often needed as a step in user registration. It plays the role of an identity check – to confirm that the person registering genuinely owns the email address given. If you run a site that uses email … Continue reading

‘A Brief Guide to Service Design’ by Paul Thurston & Nick Marsh

Back in January, Paul Thurston (@paulthurston) and Nick Marsh (@choosenick) gave a great talk on Service Design at UX Brighton. They make some really interesting points about the differences between UX & SD, and strategic (“thinking”) vs tactical (“doing”) work. … Continue reading