Category: design
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #52: People Create Mental Models
Imagine that you’ve never seen an iPad, but I’ve just handed one to you and told you that you can read books on it. Before you turn on the iPad, before you use it, you have a model in your head of what reading a book on the iPad will be like. You have assumptions about…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #43 — People Expect Online Interactions to Follow Social Rules
When people interact with each other they follow rules and guidelines for social interaction. Here’s an example: Let’s say I go to a café and I see you sitting by the window. We know each other, and so I come up to you and say, “Hi Richard, how are you doing today?” I expect you…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #36 — People are Inherently Lazy
Ok, I’ll admit it, I am exaggerating a little bit when I say people are inherently lazy. What I really mean is that people will do the least amount of work possible to get a task done. Is lazy another word for efficient? — Over eons of evolution humans have learned that they will survive…
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100 Things You Should Know About People: #33: Bite-Sized Chunks Of Info Are Best
I am about to head to Portugal for a week, and I was interested in exploring different possible destinations in Portugal. I may not have much time for touring (I’m going to speak at the UXLX conference there), but if I did have time, where should I go? I have to admit to pretty much…
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Initial Impressions Of The iPad
My (long awaited) iPad arrived last Friday, and I’ve had a few days to start my relationship with it. I have the wireless plus 3G version. Here are my initial impressions, from a user experience point of view: Fingerprints, fingerprints, fingerprints — I am beginning to understand the use of fingerprints in forensic science… certainly…
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Sometimes The Best Idea Is To Steal One
What do rolling luggage and Method laundry detergent have in common? Bear with me while I tell some stories, and I’ll explain. The Mayans had wheeled toys, but not wheeled tools — I’m listening to a Financial Markets course by Robert Shiller from Yale. In one of the lectures, Professor Shiller talks about the Mayan…
