Google released its 2016 year in search, with a pretty nifty user experience. Pokémon Go was the top term globally, but you can explore by type of search as well as other facets like geography and volume. Handy eye candy as the search engine comes under fire for some terrible fake news results. This week …
Friday 5 — 12.2.2016
Thanks to the 200+ readers who filled in the survey. Great feedback on areas of digital to cover, and I am equally impressed that the most common write-in entry was for NYC food and drink recommendations — see below. Your experience of email is starting to look a lot like your experience of the web. Animation and …
Friday 5 — 11.18.2016
A Steam account and an HTC Vive headset will get you free access to Google Earth in virtual reality. Try out the experience on your laptop with locations like the Hoover Dam and Hong Kong Stadium at Google Earth VR. As someone who has stayed up far too late writing marketing copy for an app release, I’ll vouch for …
Friday 5 — 11.11.2016
Gmail just got way faster (and prettier) on your iPhone with their new app release. Download for features like the critical undo send, a better swiping experience, and spell-corrected search. A great push notification is three things: timely, personal, and actionable. Apps are competing for our attention, and push notifications are a means to a touchpoint …
Friday 5 — 10.28.2016
The microcopy in a user interface — the words that go on the buttons, appear in error messages, and guide you through wizards — is too often neglected or left for the developer to fill in. Nick Babich provides guidance on effective writing for your user interface. No more shopping for snake oil: the best search …
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 — 9.23.2016
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 — 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 …