May 2013
3 posts
April 2013
1 post
March 2013
2 posts
January 2013
1 post
December 2012
1 post
Anonymous asked: Hey Jack, I loved your breakdown of mobile input types and how they're used. I was wondering what they look like on Android, Windows 8 mobile devices, and blackberry. I assume they're not all supported as cleanly as they are on safari, but do you know how each input would look? Thanks! -Chris
November 2012
1 post
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UX lessons from ice-cream
In response to a tweet from @jansru, commenting on the ludicrously of some of these ‘What we can learn about UX from <some random thing>’ posts that are flying around the internet. (Here’s a sample if you’ve been living under a rock and not noticed them. UX lessons from: a car, Jay-Z, children, James Bond, fencing.) What will they come up with next? UX lessons from...
October 2012
4 posts
Topics I'd like barred from UX events
I’ve been in this industry a very short while, but after The Great UX Debate this evening I’ve come to a bit of a realisation. All the UX events at the moment seem to have the same topics, being talked about by the same people over and over. Sometimes there’s a bit of disagreement but it’s usually around understanding of the question rather than the topic. I doubt I’m...
September 2012
5 posts
5 tags
UX research on tour
I was watching an episode of Grand Designs this evening and a pretty revolutionary method of building a house was adopted. You’ve all seen houses where parts of the house are built in a factory and then shipped to site where they’re all put together. These guys took a different approach to this. They built a factory into a shipping container, sent it to site and then built all the house parts on...
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Crap Facebook apps are great for mobile web
I caught the Zuckerburg interview from TechCrunch Disrupt this evening and mobile was pretty much the only topic. Ignoring all the Facebook Phone nonsense some interesting insight into apps was gained. But you can read about that anywhere right now.
One statistic which really got me thinking:
More people use Facebook on mobile web than they do on iOS and Android apps combined.
That’s...
6 tags
Mobile Input Types
Introducing mobileinputtypes.com - a handy resource with the many input types which work particularly well on mobile.
Why’d you make this? A question no-one has asked but I’m going to answer anyway.
First out the gate, input type isn’t really that important on desktop, the user will never tell the difference. This has led to developers being a bit lazy and just setting the...
August 2012
3 posts
6 tags
User testing and disabilities
It’s the Paralympic Opening Ceremony tonight, so seemed like a good time to pen some thoughts around user testing and disabilities. First off I’m very junior, it may be that all the stuff I talk about is being done by the majority of folks and it’s just managed to pass me by. I’m not coming to any solid conclusions here, it’s more a basis for discussion.
Having...
“Jack has always started with the assumption that whatever we’re doing...”
– Got a testimonial today, definitely my favorite to date.
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traintweeter.com →
A handy little app I built to tell everyone what train you’re on. Because everyone at some point in their life should build something capable of annoying their twitter followers.
July 2012
6 posts
7 tags
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Galaxy 3 - designed for women
The Samsung Galaxy 3 has gotten a lot of attention recently, all of which I’ve generally ignored. The media will tell you it had more pre-orders than the iPhone. That’s fine, anyone can create a great advert, but creating a great product is a whole other ball game.
I was on the train this morning and the woman next to me fished a Galaxy 3 out her handbag with a pink leather case on...
4 tags
What this recruitment email actually means
Cold call recruitment emails for ‘UX people’ are common place in my inbox. Written by people who clearly have no idea what on earth they’re writing about, I often find reading them quite amusing. Here’s one I received today and what I think they really mean:
Hi Jack, I hope you are well.
My client is a central London based top fashion high street retailer looking for a...
10 tags
Lists
Everyone loves a good list, I have plenty of them spread across all manor of devices. Sometimes I even write them with a pen, on a form of writable material. Well hipster I know.
Thinking back to the digital lists, there’s a trend, and it’s a fantastic one. Too many software developers compete to add feature, after feature, after feature. Come the end you’re not really sure...
4 tags
June 2012
3 posts
4 tags
“2:30am, writing code. You can take the person out of a startup, but not the...”
– Me, finishing off traintweeter.com.
“You make a spelling mistake in Word and it gives you six potential words, none...”
– I noticed today.
May 2012
14 posts
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Startup Job Titles Are Pointless
Job titles are by far my least favourite topic of conversation. Especially in the startup community. Everyone is a CEO or an Entrepreneur, Vice President, Director, whatever before they’ve even got an idea, let alone build a product. Don’t mention that little word that makes the business world go around. Profit. So there’s no point having a boring job title on your business...
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My beef with that IE ad
I’ve been revising for exams lately. If you’re not familiar with the concept it generally means doing anything other than reading lecture notes and text books. Often a large amount of day-time TV is consumed in the process of avoiding the bordem. I don’t often watch that much TV, but recently I’ve noticed this very factually incorrect Internet Explorer ad by Microsoft. If...
1 tag
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April 2012
5 posts
“.titanic {
float: none;
}”
– Made me laugh by @twostepmedia
http://moviesascode.net/
9 tags
UX London Reflections
Day 1 of UX London has come to an end, after 9 insightful keynote presentations we’ve been left with plenty to take home and think about. These are my takings and considerations from the event.
Mobile was very much the hot topic, anyone would think desktop was a banned word, not to be mentioned. Personally I’m great with that, mobile is my primary interest, limited screen real estate and low...
6 tags
My piece on why more students should join startups →
Jack Holmes makes the case for joining a startup as a graduate - ‘…if you like beer, the Internet and lots of parties joining a startup could be for you… …startup life isn’t for everybody and many prefer the security and routine that comes with working for a traditional company. For those who get hooked however, you’ll never go back’.
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March 2012
15 posts
3 tags
