I get excited when a product team gets out of the building. GOOB (get out of the building) forces people to test their product assumptions in the wild, learn about and get to know potential customers, and see how the product might fit in the real world. Getting out of the building allows a product team to talk to real people about something they want to learn, a problem they want to solve, or a solution they want to validate or test.
To get information and insights, the product team needs to prepare and ask people questions. Teams who are new to making and asking questions tend to lean heavily on something I call the Would + You formula. …
Questions about work don’t usually trip me up. Being a UX Designer at a big retailer has come with all kinds of questions. From people asking me what in-store department I work in, to all the variations of “what is UX” — when I sense a career question coming, I have an arsenal of answers that clearly define who I work for, what I do, and adaptable answers to the never-ending UX questions.
But a couple of weeks ago, I got this question:
What makes you get out of bed every morning and do this work? …
Survivor used to be more like a survival show. Having a social game played a role, but when you were starving out in the desert drinking cow’s blood in Season 3, the social game took less importance over just surviving. Even a few seasons after Survivor Africa I have memories of watching Ozzy get all the way to the end by winning challenges, no strong social game required.
If you don’t know what Survivor is and/or how to play, here’s a wiki: Survivor Rulebook | Survivor Wiki | FANDOM powered by Wikiahttps://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Survivor_Rulebook
Now, times have changed. Survivor isn’t about survival anymore, it’s a game of strategy. One key element, however, makes winning the game of Survivor surprisingly similar to designing a successful…
“Study people like you are from Mars.” ~ Chris Michaud, Continuum
I have been a Serial (podcast) fan for a long time. I got hooked when someone reccommended Season 1, and have since listened to all of Season 2 and kept up with Season 3.
When the Nintendo Switch first came out in March, 2017, I wasn’t really sure what to think. I already had a Wii U and a Nintendo 3DS, so I didn’t think the Nintendo Switch would be much of an improvement. Regardless, I ended up getting one last weekend because I heard great reviews about some of the games and a lot of my friends have one. So… what do I think of the Switch now that I have one?
It’s fantastic.
Besides having a bunch of Nintendo games with truly incredible graphics, like Splatoon and Mario Odyssey, every feature on the Switch feels intentional. For example — the joy-cons don’t roughly snap onto the tablet. They have this little slow down, then an audible, delightful click as they snap into place. The software is the best I’ve ever seen from Nintendo, and the thought put behind each gesture and sound rivals a lot of smartphones and mobile/tablet operating systems. …
“Anchor is the easiest way to make a podcast, ever” ~ Anchor, 2018
Anchor started as an app that allowed users to upload segments of audio (up to 5 minutes long) that they could post and have live for 24 hours. Users then had the opportunity of permanently posting these segments to their station, and even uploading these segments to Apple and Google Podcasts. In a nutshell, Anchor became a unique social network for people to create podcasts.
It was a fun idea, but what got me hooked on Anchor last year was their design. As soon as I opened the app, bright colours caught my eye. The News Rundown said “Hey Abbie! Welcome to Anchor”. I was greeted with a spinning “turntable” like interface that displayed only my favourited stations. I could spin through these stations and pick what I wanted to listen too. Anchor was a personalized experience (even down to saying my name) and looked different from any other social media app. I got claps instead of likes from other people who favourited my station and I could comment or call-in to other stations. Overall, Anchor felt like a new world I was exploring, with enough familiar features to not be scary and enough newness to keep exploring. …
When I found out that Sphero released a realistic BB8 in 2015, it was all I secretly ever wanted. I loved BB8 from The Force Awakens, and a real one roaming around my house sounded amazing. Well, last weekend that dream became a reality — some friends of mine surprised me with a Sphero BB8 Droid as an early birthday gift. Finally I could see if this thing was as good as I hyped it up to be.
It is.
Besides being able to drive BB8 around and hit buttons to make him talk (which is very fun) Sphero added Patrol Mode, which basically gives this BB8 toy a mind of its own. When on patrol, BB8 zooms off, running into walls and then complaining, making happy noises when he finds something interesting, and scanning his environment looking for Darth Vader and “unidentified human lifeforms”. It is by far my favourite thing about this little Droid, and everyone I’ve shown it to loves to watch him speak his mind. …
This week, Bachelor fans from across the continent are still reeling from the finale where Arie Luyendyk Jr. (most recent Bachelor), dumped his former fiancé, Rebecca (Becca) Kufrin, for his runner-up, Lauren Burnham, who he later proposed to on After the Final Rose. The show aired the unedited break-up with Becca, which showcased at least 20 minutes of Becca crying and emotionless Arie following her around for what felt like an eternity. From the tweets I read during the reveal of the break-up, “Arie is a jerk” was universally accepted, with tons of gifs and people tweeting about how angry they were. …
“Anchor is the easiest way to make a podcast, ever” ~ Anchor, 2018
Anchor started as an app that allowed users to upload segments of audio (up to 5 minutes long) that they could post and have live for 24 hours. Users then had the opportunity of permanently posting these segments to their station, and even uploading these segments to Apple and Google Podcasts. In a nutshell, Anchor became a unique social network for people to create podcasts.
It was a fun idea, but what got me hooked on Anchor last year was their design. As soon as I opened the app, bright colours caught my eye. The News Rundown said “Hey Abbie! Welcome to Anchor”. I was greeted with a spinning “turntable” like interface that displayed only my favourited stations. I could spin through these stations and pick what I wanted to listen too. Anchor was a personalized experience (even down to saying my name) and looked different from any other social media app. I got claps instead of likes from other people who favourited my station and I could comment or call-in to other stations. Overall, Anchor felt like a new world I was exploring, with enough familiar features to not be scary and enough newness to keep exploring. …
We have a couple of Macs around the office, so I came across two of these chargers sitting next to each other. I looked at them for a minute, chuckling at the fact that they just happened to be beside each other… and then I noticed something. For those who don’t know, the one on the left is the 2014/2015 model, and the one on the right is a 2017 model. What’s missing?
It suddenly dawned on me.
The hooks.
These handy little hooks on the 2014/2015 charger helped anyone neatly wrap up their cord and clip it. Your cord transformed from a big mess of wires (like most PC cords at the time… and now) to a neatly wrapped bundle that easily fit in a backpack or briefcase. A very little, but very cute and helpful feature that made Apple look like a company that went the extra mile for their users. …
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