Even though I’d been using Firefox for a half a dozen years and have been working in tech for a decade, there was a lot I didn’t know about Mozilla until recently. Judging from the questions I’ve been fielding since I accepted the position, you don’t know either. Mozilla is a non-profit. Unlike Google and...
Since we got some noms.in press lately with kinds words about the design, Ryan Snyder asked me to write up a few words about some of my design decisions. My first reaction is, there’s nothing to the design. I didn’t do much. I just kept it clean and let the images speak for themselves. But,...
I presented my findings from a summer of running a sidewalk pie cart. Well, you might say it was a behavioral experiment disguised as a pie cart.
Hooray! I just inked a contract with Mozilla to come on as a full-time UX Designer. I’ll be working on external stuff like campaign sites and internal tools like crash reporter. I start June 13th. The whole 35 person Web UX team is flying up to Portland the week after to meet me. Ok, not...
When designing an interface, I always strive to make my notifications accurate, timely, relevant and helpful. Never is this is critical as when someone’s life is at stake. NPR did a piece [original recording] on a Boston Globe study that indicated that in a single day at a small 15-bed unit at Johns Hopkins unit,...
The danger of adding game dynamics to sites is that it changes the motivators for doing an action. By it’s very nature, the incentives make you more likely to do the behavior the designers are targeting. The designers think… This is great! More people are interacting with our thing we built. Fantastic! We won teh...
This post is a response to Tantek Çelic’s article on communication protocols. I agree with most all of it, except the bit about IM protocol. Depending on the mindset of whomever you ask, small talk is either the foundation of a good conversation or annoying prattle to be minimized as much as possible. I find...
If I personally sent you a link to this article, it’s because you were an @reply dope. You mistakenly sent a message that ended up in my @reply box. Usernames are special, just like you. There’s only one @skinny and that’s me. Twitter keeps everyone sorted by assigning us all unique usernames. Usernames are sort...
I have this fantasy about what a good grocery shopper that I am. As I’m wheeling through the produce section, smugly checking items of my list, cabbage, celery, kale, oranges for juicing… check, check, check, I imagine that there’s a roving TV camera crew that will seize upon me and declare my cart the healthiest...
It’s time to dust off last year’s project, SxSW Crush, and get ready for this year’s geek spring break better known as SXSWi 2011. For those not familiar, this little project lets you anonymously declare your romantic or platonic crushes via the twitter account @sxswCrush. Plans for new and improved-ness include. 1. Show list of...
Ryan Snyder and Dietrich Ayala, both devs at Mozilla, and I put together a city curation site, noms.in. Basically, the idea is that you’re in a city, say St. Louis, for a conference or wedding or somesuch. What you really wish is that you had a college buddy that’s awesome that can show you the...
Since I’ve had a few inquiries, I’m officially putting up my twitter username, @skinny, up for sale. It’s a certified, one-owner name in like-new condition. The first $25,000 cashier check or cash takes it. Note to the high school students who have nicely asked if they can have it for free: GET OFF MY LAWN....
9 of 10 Sites Agree Requiring Log-in is Whack
Feb 14, 2012
How People *Think* Facebook Connect Log‑in and Log‑out Work
Feb 7, 2012
13 Signs Your Site Needs a UX Exorcism
Jan 20, 2012
Simple: Getting users to pick strong, memorable passwords
Jan 14, 2012
Chief eXperience Officer at Mozilla in 2012
Jan 3, 2012
Spaces shape creativity: Ziba project rooms
Nov 8, 2011
My Android tablet is Kenneth Parcell
Nov 4, 2011
UX of a Protest: Occupy Portland
Oct 6, 2011