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This blog is dedicated to product design issues.

I hope this online collection of notes would prove valuable not only to me but to all students and colleagues looking to develop innovating and interesting products. This site focuses on product design, conceptual design, interaction design, interface design, and failure analysis.

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Posts Tagged ‘ user satisfaction ’

The Trouble with Social Search

January 16, 2012
The Trouble with Social Search

There have been changes in Google search and Google analytics. There have been many discussions on this topics. But there’s one big problem that I see with adding the social dimension to search: community bias or, as we’ve been referring to it in class, cultural bias. Cultural bias is one of the sources of...
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Special Preview: Affective Computing

January 5, 2012
Special Preview: Affective Computing

Some 25 years ago, I came up with tiny application: each day, a person picks a color that represents his or her predominant emotional state; the collection of color moods are mapped onto a calendar and displayed as an animated film, summarizing the emotional life of person. It was simple and easy and very...
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Designing for the Blind

December 17, 2011

Not much to add here — how many other cool video games are there for visually disabled? Using tactile clues instead of visual signals is a nice interaction design solution. Well done!
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Using Positive Emotion to Change Behavior

November 10, 2011

Games can be used to change our behavior — make something fun, and we are likely to do it again and again. Psychologists call is positive reinforcement. Pleasure triggers our amygdalas — makes us make strong neural connections between the activity and positive emotion. Thrills are memorable and we seeks them out in our...
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Design for Emotion, for Empowerment

November 3, 2011
Aimee Mullins legs collection

I use a cane to get around, a consequence of an unfortunate encounter with a taxi many years ago. I have many different canes (each heel size, for example, requires its own cane). All are cool. Some have animal carvings, some have silver, some have gold, some are complex in design, some are very...
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Intel i5 Core Commercial: When a company just doesn’t get it

October 26, 2011

Sometimes, a company just doesn’t get it: it’s not about what a product can theoretically do, but what it can do for the user. Intel has a history of making a particular type of commercials — “the power inside” commercials, I call them. Intel marketing people use the following mental model: people/men like muscle...
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Passionate Interface: Siri Inspires Love

October 18, 2011

You know your product is succeeding with its users when, within days of its launch, they write love songs to your work. Check out this love ode to Siri, Apples latest interface update.
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Pipsqueak Articles

Designing for the Blind

Not much to add here — how many other cool video games are there for visually disabled? Using tactile clues instead of visual signals...
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Special Preview: Philosophy of Interaction and User Experience

A person uses a piece of software, a Web site, or any other product — “virtual” or “real” — to achieve a goal. The...
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End-User Development (EUD) Educational Preview

This is an interesting collection of videos and background materials on End-User Development — situations when end users design and develop software for their...
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Thinking about the Science of Communication and Interaction

Alien Senses

In the Galaxy Far Far Away… What if sentient being evolved on a planet with permanent cloud cover? What if these being never saw...
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Using Positive Emotion to Change Behavior

Games can be used to change our behavior — make something fun, and we are likely to do it again and again. Psychologists call...
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Special Preview: Social Media by Thomas Erickson

Interfaces.com was given a free advanced preview of Thomas Erickson’s report and videos on social computing. The videos are very well produced and provide...
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Failure to Communicate

Failure to Communicate

Sometimes failure to communicate happens at the end of the product distribution line. Below are some examples of what happens when sales people don’t...
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Design Variables