Ruminations on our relationship with technology
Given all the ways technology influences how we make a living, many professionals have asked: What technologies work best for what purposes? In other words (as educator Neil Postman asked), for what problem is the technology a solution? Articles on user experience, one of the Professional Topics on this site, can help shed light on this question.
In essence, user experience (abbreviated UX) refers to designing technology for ease of use. ‘Ease of use’ means designing tools, machines, and media so they are useful, usable, and beneficial to end users. In other words, the technologies are user friendly. To explore ideas from this topic, select an article below.
Why jailbreaking remains a risk with some chatbots Imagine a criminal is trying to figure out how to rob a bank. This person decides to go online and ask a chatbot: “How do I rob a bank?” Fortunately, the designers of the chatbot may have anticipated the possibility of this question, so they directed the … Read more
Why scrolling is not relaxing Readers of this site know that, as a user experience advocate, I haven’t held back criticizing social media over the years. Many social media platforms are designed to be little more than a time suck. They’re addictive by design and detrimental to both mental health and social life. However, there’s … Read more
Another way to think about UX design and content Another article of mine was published in Vanguard UX, which houses some of the latest thinking on user experience. For anyone not familiar with this profession, I thought I’d take the opportunity to briefly define what we mean by the term “user experience” (abbreviated UX), including … Read more
Preventing human error with better designed technology Recently, I moved to a new apartment with a gas stove in the kitchen. The stove works great, but whenever I use it, I almost always make the same mistake. I turn on the wrong burner. The problem I have is that I can’t tell immediately which control … Read more
When to heed usability-flexibility tradeoffs I recently moved from the Twin Cities to Philadelphia, and luckily, I bought myself a GPS device beforehand. I’m glad I did, because it prevented me from getting lost while traveling and driving around the East Coast. Sure, I could just use a GPS app on a smartphone for the … Read more
The ethics of personalization Recently, I had the opportunity to write for Vanguard UX, the user experience area of The Vanguard Group. The goal of Vanguard UX is to provide thought leadership on various topics in the user experience profession. In this case, I decided to focus on a contentious topic in ethical design: the … Read more
When is it ethical for technologies to collect and use personal information? Summary: Is it ethical for websites, apps, or other technologies to collect and use personal information? On one hand, there’s no shortage of examples about how this practice can appear unscrupulous. For instance, social media sites and apps may harvest our private data … Read more
How to use (or abuse) Fitts’ law with website designs Summary: Fitts’ law sounds like an obscure concept from the user experience profession (designing websites for ease of use). But it’s a law we encounter practically every time we use the web. For example, it’s often used (and sometimes abused) when we see and select … Read more
User-friendly technology vs. the bed of procrustes In ancient Greek mythology, there was a famous, if not infamous, figure by the name of Procrustes. He was a criminal who tortured people by forcing them to fit into an uncomfortable iron bed that he designed. If his victims were too short for the bed, he’d stretch … Read more