Category Archives: Usability

Usability fail

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I’m going to the theater next weekend. It’s kind of a miracle that I was able to buy tickets.

There’s no ticket scarcity that I know of. It’s not “Hamilton” I’m seeing but a very small show presenting a series of 5-minute plays focusing on themes related to digital privacy; it’s part of a series of local productions sponsored worldwide by the nonprofit Goethe Institut.

What makes it amazing that I’m able to attend is the website usability fail I had to get past in order to buy tickets. It was one of the worst digital user experiences I’ve had in a long time — and it turned out to be caused by one simple error. Continue reading →

Google: Pushing to make the web more mobile-friendly

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MobileCarIn case you missed it, Google recently announced plans to make mobile-friendliness an even more important part of its ranking algorithm. What that means is that it’s even more important than before for your website to display well on mobile devices.

The reason for this is sound. It isn’t just Google trying to dictate changes that it wants you to make to your website. Google is reflecting the reality of how people use the Internet. Continue reading →

Map My Fail

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I’m a fitness tracker. Exercise, weight, the foods I eat, how much water I drink… I track it all. It helps motivate me to get healthier.

The other day, I walked my dog to the library so I could return a book. It’s a moderate-length walk for us, a couple of miles, and was uneventful save for the fact that my phone crashed while I was using it to track my exercise. So when I got home, I had to log the walk manually. My phone still didn’t want to behave, so I fired up my laptop to use the tracking app’s web interface. What greeted me was an object lesson in usability:

Usability fail Continue reading →