Author: Davin Granroth

  • Thanks MS. But I don’t want to disconnect from the Internet.

    That’s just a bizarre instruction. “You can now disconnect from the Internet.” I almost blew it too by clicking the “Cancel” button because (1) I thought it was all done and it was the only button shaped thing available, (2) I do not want to disconnect anyway. Luckily, I noticed in time that the progress…

  • Helvetica vs Arial comparison

    I was on the phone with Adam and interrupted him because I noticed a commercial that switched fonts from Helvetica Bold in the middle of the spot to Arial Bold in the closing frames. The fonts are so similar that they really shouldn’t have switched. It was probably an oversight, but I was startled by…

  • Eva: It’s hard growing up

    Eva, my 5 year old, was sitting next to me on the couch. She looked up at me with a sad face and said, “Daddy, it’s hard growing up.” I gave her a little squeeze and prompted, “Yeah?” “I don’t like losing teeth,” she finished.

  • I was a Whole Foods first-timer

    I am not a foodie. Okay, now that that is out of the way: Whole Foods is amazing. One evening at last week’s IUE2009 conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, my colleague Jackie and I breezed through the local Whole Foods store. From a user experience perspective, my Whole Foods experience was really great. But, let…

  • IUE2009: Now what?

    Now comes the after-conference exhalation. (And I just attended! Imagine the organizers.) My employer, Covenant Eyes, sent a small crew of people to the conference…8 of us in all. For all but me, it was the first time at any UX conference, and I think we all learned quite a bit. So now the question…

  • IUE2009: A few photos from the last day

    I had a little break after Cora Bledsoe’s presentation, and took a few minutes outside. Just sharing a few photos.

  • IUE2009: Thursday’s tracks

    Okay, that was a great conference. The last day was built on parallel tracks of presentations, most were about an hour-long. I’m only going to write about 3 of the ones I attended. Now That I See It, Dan Klyn, Flannel In-House Recruiting, Cora Bledsoe, Quicken Loans Grown-Ups Guide to the Social World of Web…

  • IUE2009: Keynote track, part 2

    The 3 afternoon presentations were top-notch. Feeling: What makes an engaging product experience? (Kumi Akiyoshi, Adaptive Path) How to do social media right in 2009 (Marta Strickland, Organic Detroit) Lessons learned from the world of game design (Lisa Mullinaux, pogo.com and Rich Briggs, Electronic Arts) The game design (3) presentation was the most stimulating. That…

  • IUE2009: Keynote track

    Presentations this morning Threshold of Acceptable Usability Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click? Bringing left-brain and right-brain together (or, the happy spot) Anatomy of a bus map There was an interesting hodge-podge of presentations at the Internet User Experience conference this morning. I suppose, relatively speaking, I’m an old-timer in this field…which is to…

  • IUE2009: Field research class

    Today at the Internet User Experience conference I attended a field research class led by Danielle Gobert Cooley. The morning session was lecture and discussion on differences between lab-based research and field research, and some guidelines and tips on doing field research. Then we paired up and went out to observe some employees at Washtenaw…