Everyday UX: The New Google Drive Interface & Why UX Details Matter

I’ll admit it, I’ve reluctantly grown to appreciate and use Google Drive. I now like Google Drive because it makes collaboration between documents easier. I’m often sharing documents with people, and with Google Drive, it’s really easy to share documents.

Also, I love that in Google Docs I can comment and reply back to comments within a document. This helps make collaboration easier and get feedback out of emails … you know you’ve been on those email threads that start with “see my changes in purple. It’s so frustrating!Continue reading

My Review Of Using Oscar Health’s “Talk To A Doctor” Feature

I’ve written before about why I think Oscar Healthcare is really doing a great job at creating a new customer experience around health insurance (read my post here). Recently, I put the insurance to the test.

In mid July I was getting ready to go on a 2 week work trip during which I’d be taking 7 different flights. For about the last month, I’d had a sore throat and felt totally run down. I had tried resting, making crazy juices with my juicer, cough syrup, acupuncture, yoga, and all kinds of over the counter remedies. But nothing seemed to help.

Concerned that I had a run down immune system and that I’d be at increased risk of getting sick during the work trip, I decided to play it safe and use Oscar’s “Talk to a doctor” feature less than 24 hours before my flight … I know, I know, very last minute planning on my part!Continue reading

Everyday UX: The User Experience Of The WunWun Delivery Service

A few weeks ago, I had a little problem. It was Wednesday and on Friday I was supposed to go on a tubing trip down the Delaware river. For the tubing trip, the website said that we had to wear closed toe shoes, specifically water shoes. Shockingly, I don’t own water shoes. So I looked some up on Amazon but they wouldn’t be delivered in time for my trip. But then, I remembered two on demand delivery apps I have on my phone, WunWun and Postmates, so I decided to try them out.

The premise of both of the apps is that you can place an order for any item from a store or restaurant, and it will be delivered to you very soon (normally within two hours). It’s great when you realize you forgot to get something that Amazon can’t deliver to you soon enough!Continue reading

Everyday UX: The Value Of Comparison Tools In Online Shopping Experiences

Earlier today I was looking for a hotel in Boston. I love a good deal, so I can’t just go to Orbitz and book one of the first hotels that look good in 5 minutes.

Nope. I’m the type of person who has to search all the sites, try to find discount codes, and determine which hotel has the best amenities for my trip. I know I’m not alone in this either!

So, I went to Hotels.com and did a search for Boston hotels. I was given no less than 297 hotels. This is impressive, but overwhelming. So I applied some filters such as pricing limits to help make my search easier to digest.Continue reading

Video Of The Week: Elders & Google Glass Reactions

Elders React To Google Glass Video

One thing that’s been on my mind lately is the fascinating way that technology is changing the lives of various generations. Previously, I wrote about designing for the generation who did not grow up with the Internet.

Just thinking of my own family, I remember when my Grandmother got a little piece of hardware that only let her do email. I can’t remember what it was called. But, it was pretty cool to get emails from her. This was probably about 20 years ago! Now, my 84 year old Grandfather has an iPhone and knows how to Facetime, send photos, use Siri, dictate messages, use all kinds of golf apps, and more.Continue reading

Five Websites For User Experience Inspiration

A lot of people ask me where I get user experience inspirations.

A blank whiteboard can be really daunting and a lot of times I too feel lost when I am first working on a project. But, the more projects you work on, the more ideas and inspirations you’ll have in your brain.

I’ve found that it’s critical to organize all your user experience inspirations. So,  I always have an inspiration folder on Dropbox for each project I work on. In that folder, I put whiteboard drawings and paper sketches, screenshots from sites and apps I find helpful, articles, and any other artifacts that I find inspirational. Then, when I feel stuck, I just browse through my inspiration folder to see if something sparks an idea.Continue reading

What is Microfeedback and Why it Matters to Your User Experience

What is microfeedback? More importantly, why does it matter to your user experience? Well, to understand microfeedback, you first have to know a little bit more about user experience and how experiences are measured.

In user experience, we talk a lot about the importance of talking to users and customers in the beginning of the product development process. This helps us with market research and customer discovery where we begin to develop a deep understanding of who the user or customer will be.

Without this knowledge, it is impossible to create a successful product. You must understand your target market’s problem and how your product will provide a solution.

So let’s say you’ve done that, you’ve gone through the whole product development process, and then you’ve launched. Now what?

Click here to get my free guide: Introduction To Microfeedback

Continue reading

Video of the Week: The Mink Makeup Printer

At TechCrunch Disrupt, an amazing company called Mink gave a demo of their desktop makeup printer that will let you print makeup …. yes, makeup!

Grace Choi, came up with the idea while she was at Harvard Business School. People don’t normally associate the beauty industry with tech, but Grace is definitely going to change that.

Turns out, that cosmetics are all made of the same basic raw materials, the most important being color. Color is where the cosmetic companies make all their money.Continue reading

Everyday UX: How to Reduce Waste in Blue Apron & Plated

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been trying out two new companies who are in the business of helping people eat healthier, reduce food waste, and maybe even save a bit of time and money along the way.

Plated and Blue Apron are the two main companies who will deliver all the ingredients (actually, measured ingredients) you need to make a fabulous meal at your home. Each box comes with the exact things you need as well as detailed instructions, including photos, of how to cook the meal.

It’s a pretty amazing idea. See, I love to cook, but the act of deciding what to cook, making lists, going to the grocery store, carrying it all home, and then cooking just makes the whole activity of cooking feel like a chore! I already wrote about my experience with Plated and soon I’ll be sharing some insights I had through my experience with Blue Apron.

Overall though, one thing that continues to bother me is the amount of waste that I feel like I’m creating due to every single ingredient being individually packaged in Ziploc bags, small containers (similar to a travel size shampoo bottle), boxes, bubble wrap, ice packs, and more. Something about all that waste just makes me feel bad!Continue reading

6 mistakes companies make when working with a UX agency or consultant

So, you want want to create a great user experience? The truth is, it doesn’t matter how great of a user experience design team you hire.

The success of your UX project lies as much on your shoulders as it does on the team or person that you hired.

I’ve worked both internally at startups of all sizes. I’ve also consulted with a lot of companies through my freelance UX consulting practice. After years of experience, I’ve identified some common mistakes that companies make when working with a UX company or consultant.

I promise you, if you don’t make these mistakes, you’ll set your UX team or consultant up to create a great experience for your product.

Continue reading