Amazon is taking another swing at streaming music, but this time with Alexa as its not-so-secret weapon. Will the hardware that’s insinuating itself into our home lives (and turning our tots into tyrants) make the difference? Alexa’s already done a good job making Siri seem dumb. No one ever sits you down to teach you how …
Friday 5 — 10.7.2016
Chatbots still have a long way to go, but Duolingo has identified a great application: bots for language learning. You might be embarrassed to try a new French word with a colleague, but a robot won’t judge. Not yet, anyway. A recent release of the Facebook Messenger app has enabled end-to-end encryption, which is a fancy way …
Friday 5 — 9.30.2016
Black, teal, and coral: those are your color options for Snap Inc.’s new product, Spectacles—sunglasses with a pair of cameras. Your questions about how to use them are answered here. Will this be the breakthrough wearable device? Ben Thompson concludes that our wearable future isn’t here, and it’s probably not even close. I’ve often wondered how content gets into …
Friday 5 — 9.23.2016
As we perform more of our work collaboratively online — suddenly, nothing seems as antiquated as a corporate “shared drive” — there’s a lot of value in knowing the range of features available. These 18 Google docs tips, like the ability to search images by color, can help you keep up with recent improvements. Is a …
Friday 5 — 9.16.2016
Rather than say, “I think users want this feature,” a product manager should ask, “What outcome do you predict this feature will have?” Read more insights from co-VPs of Product (!) at Reddit. There’s a lot of information elegantly packed into the mobile screenshot above: this approach provides an outcome-focused frame for feature decisions. Instagram …
Friday 5 — 9.9.2016
I hope you spent a good bit of summer staring at the sun-soaked scenery rather than a screen. Product Hunt can catch you up on what you’ve missed, with the 44 most loved products of the summer. Try Duolingo Tinycards for learning made fun, Snappa for crafting great graphics easily, or Great Apps Timeline for a nostalgic look at popular …
Friday 5 — 8.19.2016
Google Duo, a clean, simple mobile video calling (and soon, audio calling) app launched this week to take on Facetime. The jury is still out whether its simplicity will carry the day, or it will become the latest failed Google social tool (Buzz, Wave, Plus). Here’s a UX secret that will ruin apps for you: artificial …
Friday 5 — 8.12.2016
Jasmine Friedl suggests how to make your not-so-great visual design better. More importantly, she shares the process that can help a designer get better: asking questions and guiding rather than issuing prescriptive statements. Connie Chan explains why stickers are more than just a frivolous gimmick: they are an emerging visual digital language. In messaging platforms like WeChat and Line, stickers …
Friday 5 — 8.5.2016
Consider optimizing your analytics implementation for more lightweight use cases — e.g., monitoring and reporting, rather than exploration and data mining . Alex Couch captures a frustration I’ve experienced with all kinds of software projects—a great deal of energy is expended designing for what might end up being the rarest and most involved use case, neglecting the lighter weight, most common use cases. …
Friday 5 — 7.29.2016
Nieman Lab shares insights about the progress and user adoption of Stela, the New York Times’ in-house analytics platform. As publishers adjust to living in a world of distributed content and to using analytics data to drive decisions, there’s value in more than aggregating the data: make it approachable, simple and fun to use. Make your buttons look like buttons. Nick …