“Perfection is attained, not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery This quote is a maxim — almost an ideology — in user experience design (UX). We believe in making websites, consumer products, interactive devices, brands, exhibition spaces, retail shops, you name it, as easy […]
This is something I learned from experience: your most frequent security issues are going to result from Breaches or leaks at other large businesses (Twitter, Tumblr, DoorDash, Bitly, eVite, ParkMobile, ShareThis, TicketFly …) resulting in emails, usernames, passwords, and security question answers getting stolen Phishing attacks against your users, wherever they may be. Since most […]
Discussions about page length are almost always more effective when they are discussions about Concise writing Information architecture Prioritization Form usability. Almost inevitably, if you have a web design review meeting, someone will say “these pages are too long. I have to scroll too much.” This inevitably leads to an unproductive discussion that’s mostly about […]
In the last few months several major institutions have publicly scaled back on digital operations, often as part of larger cost-cutting plans. Others have reorganized, or lost experienced tech staff in response to diminishing executive expectations. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, is scaling back on digital in order to cut costs. Staff of […]
An earlier version of this post appears on the New York Public Library’s blog. I’m highlighting it here as a success in applying generalized web UX research to the specific needs and content of an institution. Among my first tasks upon taking leadership of the Website Department at New York Public Library in late 2012 […]
A lot of the work that I do on the side is helping nonprofits investigate and choose vendor partners for major tech upgrades. Website rebuilds, Art Management (Collections) systems, fundraising systems, CRMs, that kind of thing. I frequently get asked what to include in an RFP (or sometimes get asked to write them). Here is […]
Museums, especially art museums, have made tons of progress in figuring out what it means to be a museum in the internet-connected world. All significant art museums now have most or all of their collections online, engaging social media strategies, and effective email marketing programs. And all these efforts are all fundamentally content-driven (i.e., they […]