To this erstwhile language geek, the application of technology beyond a language lab (look it up, kids) is intriguing. Mondly aims to marry language learning with virtual reality to advance immersion learning. In order to build a successful product, identify friction-killing tactics to engage and delight your users. These lessons from Amazon points to different kinds of friction, and …
Friday 5 — 1.27.2017
It’s a mobile, social world, as this 2017 report by Hootsuite and We Are Social confirms. A few stats stood out: The shift of web traffic to mobile devices, the dominance of Facebook, and the hyper-penetration of mobile devices in some regions of the world. UX Matters tackles a question close to my heart: the difference …
Friday 5 — 11.4.2016
LinkedIn is putting user data to work with a new Salary tool, now included with Premium membership. LinkedIn Salary provides filters like industry, location, and title, as well additional compensation elements like signing bonus. If you’re convinced you’re underpaid, use this newfound information symmetry to make the case. Harvard Business School profs figured out why you dropped your iPhone 6 in the toilet the week …
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 — 12.4.2015
Nike shoes, Star Wars droids, and hoverboards were among the popular products shopped for on Black Friday. If you were shopping from the comfort of your couch, you were in good company: Smartphone sales nearly doubled year over year, from 9.1% to 15.2 %. Read the full report PDF, and ignore Wired’s snark that Cyber …
Friday 5 — 6.26.2015
News stories are often well told visually, particularly in an era where more data than ever is available. Business and tech news site Quartz launched Atlas, a slickly-designed command center for all its charts, where you can download, embed, or grab the data. And it’s an open source product, so you can create your own version. McKinsey looks at …
Friday 5 — 8.8.2014
Snapchat and WhatsApp are emerging as dominant photo sharing platforms. Interesting that a main modality for this sharing is private messaging (quasi-ephemeral in the case of Snapchat) versus Facebook’s one-to-many concept of posting to your profile page. Social networking skeptics often decry the use of “friend” as an organizing principle for everyone from your sister …
Happy birthday, cherished LinkedIn professional acquaintance!
Whether you use LinkedIn on a laptop, the traditional mobile app or the new Connected app, you’ve no doubt encountered the LinkedIn birthday phenomenon. I don’t know how well LinkedIn thought this user experience through, but here’s how it plays out in practice. Remember that slightly sweaty but affable guy you sat next to at …
Friday 5 — 7.11.2014
LinkedIn launched an app called Connected to simplify and enhance networking. The app provides members with more information about the current status of their contacts, including new jobs, media mentions, and the dubious milestone of the “work anniversary”. The calendar sync allows for pre-meeting intelligence, which means pushing you information about contacts just ahead of …
Friday 5 — 6.6.2014
LinkedIn really, really wants you to buy a premium account, and is disrupting its current paid model with a less expensive $9.99/month option. This includes new, more visual profiles, and tools to help you optimize for search. For early access, you can sign up here. Despite the growth of and improvement in speech recognition software with Siri, …