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I got to help UXmatters with print styling
A few months ago I contacted UXmatters online magazine to let them know of a problem I had printing out articles with Firefox. The first page would print, but that was all. I could switch to Safari and print fine, but that just didn’t seem right. I found out that they were a little shorthanded…
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IxDA Lansing kickoff featured speaker Dan Klyn
Last night was the inaugural event for IxDA (Interaction Design Association) Lansing, and information architect Dan Klyn presented “The Nature of Information Architecture.” Presentation overview Dan’s presentation was both informative and controversial. He provided some nice background on the naming of the field of information architecture, citing Richard Saul Wurman phrasings at the 1976 AIA…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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.
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Argh! I’m pen-less!
Pen-less. It’s 9:30 in the evening, and I need to write out some thoughts (about a split-complementary color set). At work last Friday, the pen that I’ve had with me for some months now finally gave up its last ink. It was a Pilot Precise V5, black. My habit has been to have that pen…
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Nephtali web framework creator talks FP
Adam Richardson of Envision Internet Consulting has been a long-time collaborator and good friend of mine, and over the last few years I’ve seen him pursue knowledge in web programming with persistence that I’ve never seen from anyone else. One of Adam’s projects is Nephtali: a web framework that focuses on security and considers the…
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How WordPress falters as a CMS: Multiple content fields
WordPress is amazing and keeps getting better, but I want to be clear about an inherent limitation that WordPress has as a content management system (CMS). That limitation is that WordPress doesn’t handle multiple content regions on web pages. Too strong? With WordPress, you can try to use custom fields or innovative hacks like Bill…