Category Archives: Usability
Understanding Biases
Bias is a common human trait and cognitive bias affects all of us. Wikipedia defines ‘cognitive bias’ as “the human tendency to draw incorrect conclusions in certain circumstances based on cognitive factors rather than evidence”. Bias is an outcome of … Continue reading
In defence of Ferrari
These past few days, a video of a Ferrari engineer explaining the complexity of the Ferrari F10 Formula 1 racing car has been making the rounds. Every blog post or discussion forum I have come across so far seem to … Continue reading
Is technical communication a part of user experience?
Is technical communication a part of user experience? Absolutely. Without Doubt. One major interaction that a user has with a system is the documentation accompanying the product, either as printed manuals or their electronic cousins. In fact, any text that … Continue reading
to err is human
One recent afternoon, I got drafted into reviewing and editing a bunch of error messages for a product. It was supposed to be a quick one hour work. But these assignments never really turn out be an hour’s job. All … Continue reading
Device Switching
Some time back, I was involved in a project that involved porting an AS/400 application to a web application. I volunteered to be the usability analyst for the web application as I was involved in documenting the AS/400 application and … Continue reading
usability: an FAQ
I get this question asked whenever I mention usability. So this post will be my attempt to explain usability to them. What is usability? I would define ‘usability’ as ‘the art and science of making things usable’. Isn’t every product usable? … Continue reading