Five Best Practices for Digital Badges for Behavior Change
It’s easy to come up with examples of digital badges that don’t work, or are simply too silly to be serious tools for engagement. It’s …
user experience
Mistaken Identity: How Do We Design for This Edge Case?
I have an ongoing problem. As an earlier adopter of Gmail, I have the “original” firstname.lastname versions of the gmail.com address for both my maiden …
A Little Personality Can Improve the UX of Forms
Designing effective forms is a tough but critical UX challenge. You’ve got to collect all the necessary information in a way that’s intuitive to the …
The Behavioral Economics of Airline Loyalty Programs
As a frequent flyer, I know how easy it can be to get caught up in a loyalty program. You could blame it on the …
How Is a Good Insight Like a Patent?
I got interested in genetic testing for fitness a while back, but haven’t pulled the trigger on anything yet (besides 23 and Me, a few …
Self-Congratulatory UX Better Back It Up: A Starbucks Whiff
Conversational tone can help make a digital experience more user-friendly and fun. A lot of designers and content developers choose to give their programs a …
Does Making It Easy Mean Designing for the Lowest Common Denominator?
After I posted about seemingly obvious information not necessarily being obvious to the people we design for, someone reached out to me on Twitter to challenge my …
Case Study: Nothing Is Obvious
It’s easy to assume that some facts are self-evident when we create a product or experience. Even if logically we accept that nothing is obvious, …
Behind the Screens: Aligning Operations And Digital Tools
In The Wizard of Oz, the Great and Powerful Oz ended up being an illusion controlled by Professor Marvel, a skilled performer hidden behind a …
Design Gone Awry: When Autonomy Nudges Fail
Supporting people’s sense of autonomy is a key principle for designing engaging experiences. Designers can sometimes nudge users into taking specific actions by painting those …