John Sorflaten's Page

Let's explore a recent job requirement for usability folks that may affect you.

From Flickr.com (seeking Sr. Product Manager):

Build a strategy and product requirements for Flickr features focused on the core photo sharing experience. Partner with user…

Do you ever find yourself at a loss for words?

Perhaps you said something like "could you bring me that thingamabob over there?"

If we don't know the right words, we fumble around talking about layouts with comments like "it's too loose" or "could you clean that up" or even "what were you trying to do?"

Many of our readers who have taken HFI's Science and Art of Effective Web and Application Design course have heard the principles of…

A reader asks how to conduct user experience design for different types of end-users:

"Usually, visitors to a website might either be a verbal or a visual learner. How do we design websites and GUI products keeping in mind the requirements of verbal and visual learners?"

Answer: There has been quite a bit of research on the "visualizer-verbalizer" question since the mid-1970s. It's mostly from the instructional design field where "individual…

As part of my own User Experience (UX) effort to get the pulse of what you would like to read in this newsletter, I posted a request for topics on HFI Central and HFI Connect.

Arun Martin, from Bangalore, picked up the challenge. He was new to UX, but also a recent CUA graduate, having worked previously in tech support and tech writing. He sent the…

Have you ever come into a room where an intense conversation commanded the air? Imagine it ending with these phrases:

A.B.: "I'll never believe in that person again."

L.M.: "The facts are clear, it's all over. Nobody can deny it."

What just happened? Were you witness to the end / take-over / bankruptcy of your organization? The untimely demise of a project? YOUR project? (Of course, we always take the worst case,…