Last month I was reminded of something I did a long time ago – 1989, to be precise. Thirty years ago, i found out that the independent station in Birmingham, WTTO Channel 21, was putting together plans to promote Star…
I was quite fortunate to chat with the great Bjo Trimble last month. Trimble, if you don’t know, worked with her husband John to save Star Trek in 1968. The letter writing campaign they spearheaded convinced NBC and Paramount to…
Something that’s top of mind for me, when it comes to establishing a mature UX team, is traceability: How is the team doing? Who is doing what? Is the team’s output’s at the quality it needs to be? The challenge…
Planning and executing effective user research is sometimes a challenge. The value of research is obviously to UX people, but less so to those decisionmakers and stakeholders – who usually control the budget for such things. I’ve had to build…
Recently Gartner revealed their predictions regarding the top 10 technology trends for 2020. I welcome the opportunity such predictions give me to think around how UX practitioners will have to adapt to such change, and what new types of project…
While I am not a fan of “explainer” videos (where a so-called-expert produces a Youtube clip that details the true “meaning” behind a piece of pop culture) I recently discovered a video on Twin Peaks that gave me pause. It’s…
I’ve been rewatching Star Trek lately – not Deep Space Nine, not The Next Generation, not even Voyager or Enterprise. I’m old school, so when I say I’m watching Star Trek, that’s what I’m doing. Paramount and CBS would like…
I’m a passionate advocate of user research, not just as a practical matter but also from a strategic viewpoint – The more you know about the people that engage with the solution or product you produce the better you can…
It’s that time of year, again. The night HE came home. I’ve been a fan of the Halloween movies for a long time, ever since I first saw the original on broadcast TV the weekend that Halloween 2 debuted in…
NOTE: This piece was originally written for TrekMovie.com. After they received it they decided to not post it, for reasons I will not detail (reasons which I 100% disagree with). Here is what I wrote, and I again thank Ray…
Warning: This is a rant. I have multiple hobbies, things I enjoy doing either on my own or with my family. I write, I love to travel, I collect ephemera, and I like cooking. These things bring me pleasure. But…
When it comes to filling key leadership roles, many large companies are asking candidates to detail their plan for the 30, 60 and 90 day on the job during the interview process. What is the new hire going to do…
It was 1992, and I was doing audio/video stuff for Dragon Con. I was running a camera on the main stage, and the footage I shot was not only recorded for resale (on VHS!) but also streamed to hotel rooms…
I was young and stupid in the early 90s. I had a lot of really cool collectibles and comics, but I also did not have much money. So I did what I’ve had to do a couple of times since…
It was a LONG time ago: May 1987. I was living in Pinson, Alabama and I had always wanted to go to a go to a “real” Science fiction convention. I had attended a couple of small events in Birmingham…
I’ve worked on many projects and several different software development teams in the past, and these teams have had great success in applying Agile best practices in their work. Unfortunately, the integration of UX processes into the Agile methodology is…