Working from home has meant a lot more working from phones. Cell phones are a powerful tool if we can manage them.
Sometimes when I lie in bed on a weekday morning and am invited to a way too early meeting, I don’t bother to get up and move to my desk just yet. Instead, I reach for my phone, connect my headphones, take a deep breath, and bring my pillow to work.
If the meeting lasts, I can take it with me while I make my bed, get dressed, and begin to go about my day. Then at noon, I dash to the grocery store, finding the fresh air helps me digest the early meeting. All the while, my communication with…
Tips for better user research interviews. Tips for better conversations.
There is close to nothing in this world with as many possible outcomes as a conversation with a stranger. Sometimes a single word, a pause, or a nod of the head can lead to a completely different exchange. Demonstrating this point, when Michael Barbaro, host of the Daily podcast, responded to the most polarizing feature of his interviews, the feature in question was an inconspicuous sound. He often interjected Hmmms to affirm he was listening.
I have found that it is perfectly okay to sweat the tiny details when it comes to pulling off a great generative research interview. …
When degraded and interrupted audio affects the workplace, here is what we can do about it.
It was a few minutes past the hour when the rest of my team joined. Their faces appearing in a burst on the carousel at the bottom of my screen. A previous meeting had kept them too long, they claimed, and after trading a few Happy Mondays, our cheerful project manager called the meeting to order.
From the crackle and distortion of her voice, I assumed she was sitting in an echo friendly area, possibly in her car, or more likely, my own internet connection was as unstable as it had been all week. “Sorry for the background noise,” she…
Significant mobile app updates during the pandemic and what they mean.
They say we grow the most at night during our sleep. Our phones do as well. With the correct settings in place, the app store begins its nightly routine of updating our phones’ apps.
Come morning, and a brand new feature was added or vanished. Open Uber, a ride-sharing app, happily stumble upon Wait and Save, a new feature that saves money on a morning commute. A change can be a special treat, a much-needed respite, or irksome. More commonly, we never notice the change occurred. We rarely think about our apps as living things that change. However, this characteristic…
John Haglund
New York City-based digital product designer, currently at Accenture Interactive. I write on Medium about behaviors, trends, and digital. Views are my own.
