Five Sketches™

A simple and good design can last and last. Consider the qualities of a BC Telephones operator’s chair from the 1930s:

Environmentally defensible. It is made primarily of a renewable resource—wood—and is so durable that, after decades, it still withstands daily use.
Functional. Originally, at BC Tel, this chair fit a small space, swivelled so the operator […]

In early June, in a hotel lobby, I stopped to observe someone troubleshooting a wireless connection. I’ve faced this challenge myself, since every hotel seems to have a slightly different process for connecting.
The person I was observing was visually impaired and had his GUI enlarged by about 1000% or more. As he attempted to troubleshoot […]

When designing the user experience of software, UX- and Development teams often focus on how the user interface supports user performance, because that’s within their locus of control. Once the product is in the wild, environmental factors may reduce user performance despite the team’s best product-design efforts. But I believe it’s possible for a UX team to […]

For professional reasons, I like to mess around with software. It’s a form of training, because some of the messing around leads to frustration, confusion, and inefficiency. And that’s good.
My hope is that my experiences will help me to better understand what I put various groups of software users through when they use the software […]