Here are two bits from the user registration process at Digg that makes them a little more human. and...

Continue reading "More Fun with Users... from Digg"

I don't know why, but lately I'm a sucker for things like this......

Continue reading "Smile"

Something that's never really discussed in the visual age is the voice of your product or Community.  Words are just as important as important as the visual design and layout.  The language of your product educates, informs, and sets the tone of the environment for the user. 

If your software sounds angry it might have an impact on the user perception.  On the flip side, every one of these e-mails has the potential to be an important customer touch... make it a good one.

I'll pick on ourselves for a moment to demonstrate.  The following message is received by a user of Community Server 2008 when they are rejected by a group owner for membership...

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Don't tell my dev team's but today is the first day I've felt like I could catch my breath since taking on the challenge of building up a Program Manager foundation at Telligent. That means that it's a good time to talk about what I've been working on as a way of looking back and thinking about improvements...

Continue reading "Creating a New Breed of PMs at Telligent"

I love this touch of personality... especially considering this tool is made for something that's traditionally boring......

Continue reading "Is your application "ready to rock"?"

I’ve been thinking about the differences between developing social and traditional applications. What’s the difference, for example, between developing Word and Facebook? The obvious difference is that one is social and one isn’t. But what does that really mean? It means is that the user experience in...

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I love little things like this. It seems silly, but goals have been proven to motivate people. They don't work alone, but when combined with other compelling expereinces goals can put your user's average time on site through the roof. A recent example of this is what you see in Linked in. I hate managing...

Continue reading "Goals Really Do Motivate People"

Not important to the story, but just an interesting side note is that I found this through a friends facebook update since they had shared the link with google reader -> feedheads in facebook -> facebook news feed -> me ->you. Not important, but interesting how things travel now. Mint.com...

Continue reading "Lost and Found - Mint.com: Why Design Matters, Too"

I was hesitant to try and squeeze my collection down into an 8GB "best of" set of music, but the advantages are totally worth it. The load time switching multiple tracks in a random playlist seems faster here than on the hard drive based models. The battery lasts MUCH longer than my 30 GB model...

Continue reading "My New Zune 8"