Many business gurus state that quality is created by keeping the amount of products that work according to specification up. Others argue that it is not about the lack of errors, but about fulfilling customer expectations. On the surface defining quality seems easy: it is that which is good. But soon we discover that it [...]

As the field of UX is growing and we have to tackle more and more challenges, we can no longer reach out for our old tools and methodologies. Jesse James puts forwards a concept to see UX design for the web as one of the many forms of experience design that exist. Liz comes at [...]

Yesterday I held my talk at uxcamplondon on how to enable users to customize their site whilst avoiding a usability nightmare (for both them and their future visitors)

Long ago when I was still young, I believed in a world where the future would lead us upwards, technology would bring us prosperous times and digital enlightenment would come to earth. Virtual worlds would open their doors and for the first time humankind would be connected and world peace was on the brink.
Later on [...]

We are moving from representing ourselves online to being online. The expression of our online identity is no longer what we’ve accomplished in the past, but what we are doing in the now. Just like us brands  can no longer work on their heritage, but are challenged to actively engage in the now.
Something that has [...]

A while ago I answered some questions for .Net magazine about my work at Webjam, only a few quotes got published, so it seems like a good idea to share my answers with the world.
What does user experience mean, as far as you’re concerned?
User experience is about aligning the existing elements –information, visual style and [...]

Last Wednesday, 26th of November, I was in Utrecht to give a lecture on Social Networks for the audience of Studium Generale and SSPN. I had a marvellous afternoon and want to thank all the audience and organisation.

The social networks of today aren’t what they used to be. Facebook, LinkedIn and other large survivors have evolved from a simple collection of personal data (like the the files they keep about you at the CIA) to something that has no ‘old’ media comparison any more. How did we end up there, what are [...]

Are those who use a Moleskin more successful, richer and more creative? Maybe a weird question. Logic tells you “of course not!”, writing in an expensive notebook should not differ from writing in one that you bought for a pound. But think with me for a moment, to be able to buy a Moleskin you [...]

In this article I want to discuss the relation between emotion and design, but first let me say why I think that we are having this discussions at this very moment (and not a decade ago (or next decade)) I see five reasons.

Interaction design is more than graphic design on a screen or industrial design [...]

This is my tiny wrap up of uxcamplondon talk that I held at the Ebay Headquarters down in Richmond. My talk had the inspiring title “designing for the difficult – because some things just aren’t simple”. Before I had my talk I had only a vague understanding of the concept. But I think I understand it a bit better now, so i decided to give you a rough outline of the concept.

There are a few topics, that I want to write about the next times, I’ve already mentioned them in my previous post, but I’ll define them once more.

Goal based design
Flow design
Emotional / experience design
Play and fun as a way to achieve goals

They are all part of the same process, and describe our relation with technology, [...]

Lately I’ve spent some time in trying to map the ‘true essence’ of social networks, as always with true essence they refuse to be mapped. Here is my attempt though

There are (should be) three mayor components in any social network

Users – this might be members, visitors, creators, editors, (who knows even spambots), someone needs to [...]

One of the questions that has kept me awake last weeks is ‘how can you create design visions?’ , how can you set a direction of the path the design is taking. How can you set goals for design five years ahead. For business planning these questions are still tough but they’ve got a history [...]

This review is about the book Neuro Web Design – what makes users click by Susan M. Weinschenk. As the title suggests this book is supposed to be about what web designers and web marketeers can learn from ‘recent’ insights from psychology to build websites that are better up for their tasks. I.E. how [...]

As I pointed out in my previous post, I think that there is still something missing on all the great diagrams that are already made about design. And that is “why bother about design in the first place”. I placed my writings in a nice little diagram that hopefully explains what I meant, but also [...]

I came across quite some sideshows, some arguing quit strongly against calling the artist formally known as interaction designer Tafkid now a user experience designer.
Are You An User Experience Designer
Although i do agree with the key ingredients of this presentation, I also think one should avoid wasting ones time on defining meaning of words or [...]

Emotional design, or should I say, emotional technology, sounds like a concept or thought up by hippies, or some Japanese scientist on a remote island (Aibo anyone?). Though in his book Emotinal Design Donald A. Norman explains that, although most technology is without any soul, we humans, trained for social interaction, are capable of putting [...]

From the surface Facebook might look like just another toy for teens to waste their time on, but Facebook is much more than that. Not only is the audience comprised of much more than purely teens, the amount of users -70 million- and the time spent on it – the 6th most trafficked website [...]

finally a new update, and this time it’s an essay about Supermodernity and non-places, it’s based on a small book/ article written by Marc Auge (and lucky for us translated to English in 1995) Find Articles has a good review on it, and you can order it on Amazon Although it’s not really an easy [...]

Enormous media hype around the “jesusphopne” proved it once again, there is only one leading company in consumer technology, and that is Apple. In current time there is probably no other company that is more capable of selling a piece of the future than these Californian dream-weavers. Once bought, however, the great promise turns out [...]

Last Friday I attended to the Next Web, (although i was very luck to been able to speak with some people on the night before) Because a lot of websites already did great coverages of the day, ill stick to the things i learned.
So what is the next web?

The next web is wireless (not mobile)
Although [...]

In the morning session of the Next Web there where two more interesting presentations from the venture capitalists Jeff Clavier and Saul Klein. Their presentation gained a lot of sceptical criticism, nevertheless they got me thinking. So first a summary of their talks, and than I’ll look a bit deeper in the discussion they created.
Saul [...]

De volgende tekst gaat over de overeenkomsten en verschillen tussen
het Semantisch Web (een artikel van Tim Berners-Lee uit 2001 over hoe computers data kunnen begrijpen) en het recent populair geworden begrip folksonomy (een manier van categoriseren door gebruikers). Het gaat in op de begrippen zelf, de huidige voor en nadelen en geeft een toekomst verwachting
Inleiding
De [...]