Writing for Cognitive Ease
The second of my UX Booth articles, concerning the work of Daniel Kahneman and the concept of Cognitive Ease, is now live. In his new book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman…
Other traffic sources that contribute to your direct traffic numbers (Google Analytics)
It’s worth knowing what makes up “direct traffic” in your analytics reports. Why? I’ve been seeing a strange set of numbers in Page traffic reports in Google Analytics recently: when comparing traffic sources for the…
HCI Statement of Accomplishment
I recently completed an online course in Human-Computer Interaction with Stanford University via Coursera and I’m happy to say I just received my Statement of Accomplishment. The Statement of Accomplishment is given to those who took…
How to: Get to the Desktop quickly in Save or Open dialogue (Mac OSX)
If you’re like me and use your desktop for temporary files and working documents (before you save them somewhere that’s backed-up), getting to the Desktop in an Open/Save dialogue window is a frequent operation. Fortunately…
How to: Applying styles to multiple objects at once, Omnigraffle
I occasionally use Omnigraffle for wireframes (other wire-framing tools are available). I like it, it does what I need and it’s relatively inexpensive. Whether or not you believe in wireframes is another matter. This post isn’t about the…
Deconstructing Google url search parameters
[Quick note: this post isn't about the Google search url that's created when you use Google to search the web. If you're interested in those "request parameters", you can't do better than Google's own resource: Search Protocol Reference.]…
Bounce rate, when you should ignore it and when you shouldn’t
Bounce rate has long been one of the key performance indicators (KPI) used to determine the success (or failure) of your website or individual web page. What is a “bounce” exactly and is it actually…
How to mark form fields as *Required or (optional)
Undoubtedly this is an old question and one that I thought I’d answered many years ago (for myself anyway): how do you design form labels so that your visitor understands which fields are required and…
On the simple act of clicking a link on a mobile device
Have you ever noticed that slight time delay when clicking a link on your smartphone and waiting for the operating system to respond? In the past I’ve always put it down to hardware performance, multiple…
Walking through doors, and their effect on memory
This post was considerably re-worked for publication at UX Booth – read the updated version there. Have you ever walked into a room and completely forgotten what you came in for? Judging by the various…
