Archives for the category "User experience"

Website limitations foil free trade between Canada and U.S.

July 27, 2008 · Posted in User experience  

Interesting, isn’t it, how a little 5-digit code can clog up business transactions between countries? I travel a lot on business and when my Canadian cell phone bills (about $1.50/minute, after roaming + long-distance charges) mounted, I thought I’d get myself a U.S. cell phone in Oregon. I went into the local Newberg super-grocer and [...]

US courts enforce accessibility legislation

February 21, 2008 · Posted in Content management, User experience  

A U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruling issued Sept. 7, 2006 raises the bar for online businesses, requiring them to meet the terms of the Americans with Disabilities Act just as offline business have been required to do since the law’s passage in 1990. The court ruled that retailers may be [...]

World Usability Day: making the world a little better

November 13, 2006 · Posted in usability, User experience  

If you’ve ever wondered whether you were the only person in the world who couldn’t figure out how to use a product, open a package, follow instructions, World Usability Day is a little ray of hope in an otherwise generally unusable world. I’m one of those people; I assume that everyone else must have figured [...]

XM Radio User Experience Starts with its Web site

December 3, 2005 · Posted in usability, User experience, Web development  

Either I’ve just crossed the threshhold into “too old for new technologies” or I’ve become discerning enough that I expect a good user experience from start to finish. After buying an XM radio, I discovered that I needed to activate the radio service by going to the XM Radio website and entering my radio ID [...]

Off the Beaten Task Path

November 30, 2005 · Posted in usability  

On the one hand, users don’t like to feel pressured to act in a prescribed way. On the other hand, users don’t want to be led away from whatever task they set out to accomplish. For instance, when I go to Amazon.com, I want to shop for books. I don’t to be led down a [...]

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