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everyone's blog posts
Movie Review: Synecdoche, New York
For the first time since the birth of our son, Jules, last night Stacy and I went out on a date to see a movie, handing the kid into the very capable hands of a babysitter friend. Given the rarity of this occasion, I scanned Metacritic to make the...
VanUE Event
Wow, we had a packed house for Tuesday's VanUE event! Gentry Underwood did an awesome job of showcasing some of the knowledge sharing initiatives underway at IDEO. One concept that really resonated with me is having an always-on video conference...
quiet time is over: new carnival
The latest Carnival of the Mobilists is up on the Mippin blog. And now that I’m back from a big trip, We’ll be posting a bit more often. [...]
Flattery Will Get You Everywhere
Earlier this month, Google announced a revamp of their help forums. The good folks at ReadWriteWeb quickly noticed that the new service behaves an awful lot like Get Satisfaction. Aww shucks! We’re really flattered … but more important...
Sketchboards at CanUX
I’m lucky to have the pleasure of spending several days at CanUX in Banff, Alberta, plus getting the chance to present the skethboards method with the great folks at the conference. Here’s a sample of what I’m sharing: the slide...
Sketchboards at CanUX
I’m lucky to have the pleasure of spending several days at CanUX in Banff, Alberta, plus getting the chance to present the skethboards method with the great folks at the conference. Here’s a sample of what I’m sharing: the slide...
Sketchboards at CanUX
I’m lucky to have the pleasure of spending several days at CanUX in Banff, Alberta, plus getting the chance to present the skethboards method with the great folks at the conference. Here’s a sample of what I’m sharing: the slides...
Sketchboards at CanUX
I’m lucky to have the pleasure of spending several days at CanUX in Banff, Alberta, plus getting the chance to present the skethboards method with the great folks at the conference. Here’s a sample of what I’m sharing: the slide...
Blame Twitter!
It has been approximately five months since my last post :( You can blame Twitter for the lack of activity on my blog... Lately I have been finding that I can disseminate the majority of my thoughts in 140 character...
Survey Says…
How many people successfully get technical help online? Only 2%?! That is a slightly depressing number that comes out of a recently released Pew Internet survey. The survey is a little weighted in a few ways, so take it with a grain of salt. But ...
Great Expectations
This weekend, we emailed this around to each other (and to our friends) because it’s hilarious. And, it’s actually about customer service.
Twitter for Business
I’ve been using Twitter for over two years to keep in touch with people personally, but lately it’s become an essential business tool. About half of CrowdVine’s support requests originate on Twitter. When someone is blocked by a...
Thinking about Theory (Warning: Interaction Design Nerdery Ahead)
In conversations and on mailing lists addressing the design of interactive media, I’ve found myself growing uneasy with just how little understanding most people practicing in the field have of how they are influenced by the various theories...
recommend us to a friend!
You’ve probably noticed that not everybody reads RSS feeds, even one as (potentially) relevant as ours. The use rate may be as low as 11%, though that data is somewhat questionable. I’ve especially noticed that mobile designers, produc...
The Secret to Predictable Results
O’Reilly Radar has an interview with Francois Gossieaux about online communities in business. He’s led some interesting research, and highlights something that’s been on my mind: Most businesses begin planning a community with tr...
getting the details right
I keep fussing about details, because no matter how much wow factor your service has, missed details can erode your brand over time. Yesterday at the Mobile Device and User Experience, Scott Weiss (now of Human Factors International) talked about ...
Here we go again… already?
Last night’s The Daily Show featured an interview with eternal optimist Thomas Friedman. In it, Friedman argues that the way forward is through investment and innovation in the energy industry. He even promotes an “energy bubble,”...
Our New Get Satisfaction Starter Package: $49
One of our goals at Get Satisfaction is to always have an option for the smaller companies who enjoy using our service. We’ve got a free version, and we always will. We recently introduced our Basic and Pro packages, which have already prove...
Today is the Last Day for $99 Pricing
It would be an understatement to say that I am not a born salesman. Heck, I tried three times to sell a used guitar on Craigslist, but there were no takers. Actually, there was one potential mark: a mom who wanted to buy it for her 8-year-old son....
An Inside Look at Eco-Conscious Fashion
Highlights from last week's CFDA - Earth Pledge FutureFashion Designer Education Series.
DMD sits down with Behnaz Sarafpour to talk eco fashion
We caught up with the designer who shared her POV on the ugly side of fashion, consumer lifestyles and plans to green her line.
We Now Have Ads (Although You May Never See Them)
We just added ads to some pages on Get Satisfaction. And though we’ve all gotten used to the clean as snow ad-free version, a few advertisements are not so bad. At their best, ads are actually an opportunity to find just what we were lookin...
you and your UX department
One of the discussions I hear occasionally from user experience types is how to get good user-centered design into actual products. Most products come from companies whose core competency is something other than design; they are product or softwar...
latest Carnival
Go check out the latest Carnival of the Mobilists over at MOPocket. ©2008 Little Springs Design is a user experience design consultancy focused exclusively [...]
Print Media Blues
It has been a tough week for print media. Today, the Washington Post reported that US News & World Report, the nation's third newsweekly after Time and Newsweek, will reduce frequency for the second time this year....
WOOOHOOO!
Last night, at the War Room in Seattle, I watched as Barack Obama was elected president. I am so excited! Change has come to America and wooohooo i am ready to do my part! Here's a pic from last night -- what's missing is the champagne and the che...
The first in my memory
Barack’s election is a big deal. Something I had meant to post before tonight, but hadn’t gotten around to, was a realization I had about the 4 candidates for the two highest offices. For the first time in memory, all four candidates w...
Announcing: Premium Services Now Available to Get Satisfaction Companies
As a company dedicated to improving the world of customer service (no small task!), we’ve worked hard over the past year to provide a service at no cost that companies can use to enhance their communication with their customer base. Since we...
Parenthood - the biggest difference so far
Some folks ask me what’s been the biggest difference in my life now that I have a child. For a while, it was hard to say what was because of the child, as I was on leave from work for 6 weeks, and bought a house. Now that I’ve been bac...
exploring device data
The good folks over at dotMobi and DeviceAtlas, most notably James Pearce and Andrea Trassati, have provided us more goodies. This time, they’ve given us Data Explorer so we an see how device characteristics are distributed across the device...
help systems for mobile
I was recently asked about designing help systems for mobile. I put a draft version of our help system design recommendations up on the mobile design resources wiki. Obviously this is not a full design, but it should get you started. Please edit a...
CrowdVine for Bankers
I like when we can show the breadth of people who enjoy CrowdVine. So it was nice to read this review from an attendee of BarCampBank (i.e. a conference for the financial sector). Say you are in a new industry and you are attending a conference i...
touch screen usability: election edition!
Ah, election season. Here in the U.S., early voting has already started. In one state, nearly 20% of registered voters had already voted by Monday. But all is not well in the land of democracy. Or the Republic. Or whatever. Terrified by the hangi...
don’t just build for yourself
I like process and procedure. I didn’t used to, and working with new designers it’s often hard to persuade them it’s worth it, but a project or two is usually enough to show them it works. We work with the client, gather informat...
New Topic Type: The Company Update
Hey you, company employee who uses Get Satisfaction to communicate with your customers. This one’s for you. We’ve created a new topic type: Company Update. For all those times when you need to get a message out to your customers…...
Carnivals
I’m late pointing to the latest Carnival of the Mobilists, so much so that I’ve two now. Find last week’s Carnival at London Calling, and this week’s Carnival at VoIP Survivor. As always, this is one of the best ways to ge...
Real-time GPS Address Tracking
I commute about 40 minutes each morning and afternoon via the local BART train service. While twittering about my fellow passengers is fun and all, I have found a new way to pass the time. Launching the new Brightkite iPhone app, I can watch the p...
communities and mobility
Today Michael Mace posted a nice little overview of Everything you always wanted to know about web community, and then some over on his blog. There are links to a couple versions of this long report (which I mostly haven't read yet, cause it's lon...
Sustainability is in fashion
Did you know that 2/3 of a garment’s carbon footprint occurs post-purchase? Laundering to be exact.
screen sizes and analytics
I pulled down AdMob Mobile Metrics, as I always do when they have new data. The results were fascinating, including the fact that the Motorola RAZR and KRZR remain the top two devices accessing the web in the US for the second year running. Of cou...
Spread the Love with Our Praise
Got a complaint? We’ve got you covered. Got something nice to say about a company? Let’s get that covered, too. In our attempt to elicit ever-more-productive outcomes, we’ve come to a conclusion: Our “Discussion” top...
Prototype This!
Last week a new show debuted on the Discovery Channel. Prototype This! describes itself as “a team of engineers and PhD’s are inventing the future one prototype at a time”. I watched the premier with high hopes. As a fan of simil...
Our Feedback Widget: Everywhere You Need It
Who’s open to a little feedback? Just about every company says they are. “We value your feedback” is a phrase you often see at the top of a Web page that’s designed to be the place where customers are encouraged to talk b...
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©2008 Little Springs Design is a user experience design consultancy focused exclusively on mobile.
An American Prayer
I've gotten to where I can't watch YouTube. It's full of clips of people saying horrific things of an American Presidential candidate. The fear. The mongering. So I give you this.
Quarter of a million
Back in February, it had 90000 views, but as of today, my slidecast (combination of slideshow with audio track) “Experience is the Product” has just passed 250000 views, making it the most popular slidecast on Slideshare (and the 7th m...
Featured on Slideshare
In August of this year, Leah Buley and I presented at the Agile 2008 conference. We made a case for sketching and prototyping as a means to bridge the gap between traditional agile and UX processes. Today that presentation was featured on the home...
My Favorite Podcast Episodes
I started listening to podcasts again and have found some amazing episodes that I want to share with people. I’ve also rediscovered why being a podcast listener is so frustrating. Let me share the good episodes first before I start complaini...
My Favorite Podcast Episodes
I started listening to podcasts again and have found some amazing episodes that I want to share with people. I’ve also rediscovered why being a podcast listener is so frustrating. Let me share the good episodes first before I start complaini...
That Mobile Version
That mobile version we talked about a few weeks ago—it’s live. We originally released it as a beta feature because we wanted to get some feedback on how people used it at the conference. People mostly used it as expected, to get quick ...