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| bio | website | alexfeinman.net |
|---|---|---|
| location | Boston, MA | |
| age | ||
| visits | member for | 2 years, 9 months |
| seen | 2 days ago | |
| stats | profile views | 101 |
I'm a usability specialist investigating analysis and design of multi-user interaction. My doctoral work centered around using discourse analysis techniques to understand design requirements for groupware. I am currently employed helping to design a complex versioning/building/testing system.
In my spare time, I write science fiction; my novel Duplicate is available as an eBook, paperback, or hardcover. Yes, there's a fair amount of User Experience in it. ;)
My statements on these websites are not official statements from any employer of mine.
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How to measure phone number views without annoying the user? Ironic: Now that Google Plus and other sites use this design to gather more analytics, as a user I hate it. Ah well. |
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May 16 |
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Are mega footers good UX? What does "good UX" mean? In what context? for what user? trying to perform what tasks? |
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Apr 30 |
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Why use the append text to copy-paste (“Read more at …”) pattern? Another interesting question is what non usability purpose does this serve? Someone required a programmer to add that code... |
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Apr 25 |
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Why do some sites use “If you are not <user>, click here” instead of “Log out”? I think it's the verb. Some places use "sign in". But I've watched people stumble over the concept even, as I said, after 40 years of this... |
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Apr 23 |
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How to present weighted values Who are your users? Are the sophisticated enough to understand a number scale and the concept of numerical weighting? Or would they be better served by a simple 2-3 value "Less important -- More important" scale? |
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Apr 2 |
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Legacy Text Interface (e.g. Telnet) to GUI Consider looking at an application like Perforce's p4v which 'wraps' a CLI. It still shows the text command, which helps users transition from one interface to the other. |
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Mar 12 |
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Should the current likes counter be inside the Like button? This is what is done on Google Plus. Users (including me) found it confusing to have two "+1" buttons in different spots (assuming exactly one person had +1'd something before you). |
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Feb 5 |
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A/B Testing Technique Is your app really so close to perfect that the color of a single button will improve it? Are there better ways to spend your time? |
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Feb 5 |
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Relationship between font-size and width of container Excellent answer! (Can we encourage you to pick a more memorable name than 'user1757436'?) |
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Feb 1 |
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Name or data on this error alert phenomenon? "Stuck gauge syndrome"? It seems to arise out of some cognitive bias, but on the flip side, stuck gauges have been responsible for nuclear plant accidents, so it's a serious concern... |
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Jan 30 |
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What methods do you use to test the usability of an API? How would you structure and run those API usability tests? What, specifically, whould you do? |
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Jan 24 |
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Will users understand the concept of “version zero”? +1. 'Most' people (i.e., non-techies) do not work in a 0-based numbering scheme. "Version 1" is the first incarnation, not the second, in their minds. |
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Jan 24 |
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Will users understand the concept of “version zero”? Oh, you're releasing it! Behold the power of calling something "v0.xxx"--I just assumed it was internal. |
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Jan 24 |
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Giving customers a “usability score”? I'd be much happier with a small-value scale (1-3 like a traffic light, or 1-5 like stars) than percent. Justifying 72% vs. 73% sounds like it could suck an endless amount of time for what is, in the end, a rather subjective measurement. |
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Jan 24 |
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Will users understand the concept of “version zero”? Who is the consumer of this version number? In what context will they encounter it? |
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Jan 17 |
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Why do numpads on keyboards and phones have reversed layouts? I do! Thanks for the correction. The two laws are functionally similar, but have different implications. |
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Jan 14 |
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Why do numpads on keyboards and phones have reversed layouts? The proof lies in Fitt's Law plus Zipf's Law. Zipf's Law states that low numbers (0,1,2,3) are much more common in random numeric data than high numbers. Fitt's Law states that it takes longer to hit buttons that are further away...and hand position means the bottom row is closer. |
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Jan 4 |
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What are the differences between buttons and links? Two years ago, I would have agreed with this answer, but the convention has changed. Things styled as links now routinely act as buttons. |
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Jan 3 |
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User testing for car interfaces It's entirely possible that the people who design these interfaces do test them under driving conditions. (Maybe not the early iDrive, but...y'know. Maybe.) There are a bunch of studies done on the cognitive impairment of cell phone use while driving, and these use driving simulators of various kinds. |
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Jan 3 |
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How do I link people back to the mobile site from the full site? And please PLEASE make sure that when you redirect, you go to the same page that they were on. It's very frustrating when someone sends you a deep link to a site, you open it on your phone, and you get redirected to the mobile 'front page'. |
