-
Visit to Camp Perry 2010
On Saturday I made it down to the National Pistol Championships at Camp Perry, OH to visit my dad (Ron Granroth), old shooting buddy Bob Gardner, and the Springfield Armory/Ottowa Sportsmen’s Club Junior Pistol team. Congratulations to the junior team on winning the .22 caliber Junior championship! (These junior shooters went through the Ottowa Sportsmen’s…
-
How to seek and destroy organizational silos
After I was put in charge of a newly created user experience department, a young professional gravely warned me about silos. He had argued against the new department because it would just create another silo in the company. The passion of the warning gave the impression that this silo threat was real, imminent, and inescapable…
-
Stop the stopwatch, UXers!
Recently, I watched a series of people observe informal usability tests. Two of the observers have recently graduated with Masters degrees in HCI or an adjacent field. Both recent graduates used a watch to record time-on-task and completion of the task. One actually broke out a stopwatch while the other referred to his wristwatch. While…
-
The “Pause.” Cup Escapades, June 2010
I have a coffee cup at work. It resembles a jumbo marshmallow with a handle and “Pause.” printed on the side. There’s a small story behind the cup itself, but today I write for another reason. It was abducted, and I received a series of sinister photos. Due to a back problem, I had to…
-
My 2.5 days in San Francisco: MX 2010
Saturday PM: Sunshine! I actually began to sweat under my blazer from the warm sun shining brightly through the window. I had arrived in San Francisco a little early on Saturday, dropped my suitcase off at the Intercontinental Hotel, and walked around the corner to a sandwich shop for a bite to eat and to…
-
How to write release notes
I confess, I’m a release notes reader, and I’ve read some overwrought release notes lately. When you use them like an installation guide, a features list, or a list of software conflicts, you’ve got it wrong. The purpose of release notes is simple: Release notes explain what changed with this version of your software. Period.…
-
Another pistol tournament, Flushing
Today I shot an 824-19X out of 900 at the match at the Flushing Rifle & Pistol Club. I definitely shot better than my last match, a 785 shot at Grand Rapids. I’m still getting these crazy fliers that really sink the scores. Most of my fliers were high and right, although a few were…
-
jQuery: Show password checkbox
I wrote version 1 of a jQuery plugin during the last couple of days. Read more about jquery.showPasswordCheckbox.js. The basic functionality is to provide a checkbox on web forms to reveal the password text, so people can choose to view the password they are entering as they enter it.
-
Getting back into competitive pistol shooting
Finally, I competed in a real pistol match. Throughout the 1990s I competed regularly, but in about the last ten years I’ve competed in only one sanctioned bullseye pistol tournament. That was about three years ago. Sure, I’ve shot in some pistol leagues here and there, but it’s not quite the same. This one was…