I’m excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at the upcoming Agile UX conference here in New York. I’ll be talking about the how the relationship of design to the world of startups has recently shifted from a question of necessity to a position of criticality. To succeed in this new environment, designers need to adapt [...]
The Commuting Surplus
Jan 4, ’12
7:48 PM
The share of automobile miles driven by people aged 21 to 30 in the U.S. fell to 13.7% in 2009 from 18.3% in 2001 and 20.8% in 1995, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Household Travel Survey released earlier this year. Meanwhile, Census data show the proportion of people aged 21-30 increased from [...]
Who “Gets” Product?
Dec 15, ’11
12:28 PM
Like many in my field, I’m always amazed when poorly conceived or executed products find their way to market. While every case study of failure is unique, starting with a great product team is a variable we’d like to have under control. Finding people who work in product development with a compatible outlook and skillset is difficult, [...]
Big Screen Chartbeat
Dec 9, ’11
5:05 PM
Chartbeat is often displayed on large screens inside newsrooms and offices, usually in a static mode. In this shot, John Borthwick is using it on a giant touchscreen (an 82″ Perceptive Pixel LCD Multi-Touch Display) at the Gizmodo Gallery (there are some Betaworks folks at the 22 second mark in the video). I think it’s still [...]
Behind the Bitly Mascot
Dec 7, ’11
3:00 PM
Ok, so its a bit of a puff piece, but I was interviewed by Mashable about the origins of the Bitly mascot.
How did the pufferfish develop?
We started looking at renderings of pufferfish, and one of the things that I hit on was why not show two pufferfish and show them in the states you would [...]
Brooklyn Alpha Slides
Oct 30, ’11
11:59 AM
I gave an opening talk for Brooklyn Alpha, a conference in Brooklyn that was a companion to Brooklyn Beta.
Bk alpha3.ppt
View more presentations from Neil Wehrle.
Surfaces
Oct 6, ’11
10:55 AM
A couple quick quotes on the meaning of design:
“In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive [...]
Whole-team User Research
Apr 15, ’11
5:17 PM
In the 15 or so years I’ve been designing interactive products, I have always tried to involve the intended audience (users) in the course of product development. A recent article by Jared Spool on UIE.com articulates something different that I’ve felt but rarely had the data to support: involve the rest of the team in [...]
Data Overload in the Military
Jan 17, ’11
2:55 PM
…the screens in jets can be so packed with data that some pilots call them “drool buckets” because, they say, they can get lost staring into them.
It appears the military is bumping up against the limits of peoples ability to absorb and make sense of the streams of data they encounter in their rapidly digitizing [...]
Interface Design Concepts
Jan 3, ’11
12:49 PM
A nice roundup of some interface design concepts over at the Fast Company design blog: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662959/12-of-the-years-best-ideas-in-interface-design-slideshow
I’m particularly taken with both the DJ turntable concept because it doesn’t shy away from expecting users to develop a knowledge of how the system works, and isn’t a slavish replication of both the appearance and interactions of a real-world [...]