Category: Usability

  • Anderson Cooper, Stephen Colbert, Great Stories & Terrible UX

    When friends from different corners of my life recommend the same thing, I pay attention. Years ago, within days, an arch feminist, lesbian, liberal arts friend and an arch conservative, straight, financier friend independently recommended Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan science fiction series.  This I gotta see. Bujold has been my favorite living SF writer ever…

  • First Thoughts on Amazon’s Echo and Alexa

    Based in large part on my friend Jeff Minsky’s enthusiast endorsement, I bought the Amazon Echo device that comes with its voice-activated, Siri-like, AI digital helper named Alexa.  “This is a no-brainer,” Jeff said.  “If nothing else it’s a terrific wireless speaker for under $200, and it does so much more.” I unboxed Echo on Wednesday,…

  • Two Reasons iCloud Sucks

    I’m an Apple user and ordinarily a happy one, but iCloud is an abject failure. Here are two (of many) reasons why. Reason #1: You can’t get there from anywhere intuitive or convenient. Apple insists that you access your iCloud files either through the application or through a browser.  But I might not want to…