There’s a Person in There
My wife works as a speech and language pathologist for a local school district and her caseload is a mix of kids from ages 3 to 21. One of her most difficult cases involves a student with severe cerebral palsy who transferred into the district when he was 12-years-old. This …
Nudge, Nudge
A recent Wired article discussed the dangers of trying to influence users through nudging — the practice of structuring a person’s choices in such a way as to get a desired result. It highlighted one of the key dynamics facing today’s high-tech companies as they shift from relatively independent creators of “whiz-bang” …
Humanizing the Big Numbers
This recent article from Fast Company provides some great examples of how to make the statistics of big numbers more meaningful to the average person. This is a great skill to hone. Relating events or ideas to common human experiences helps make these things more easy to to understand and leads …
Channel Surfing Ain’t What it Used to Be
As I was flipping through the stations on the TV the other day, I became particularly aware of the slight delay between the time I pressed the button on the remote and the actual change of the channel. This is one of those minor annoyances that shouldn’t bother anyone but …
One Man’s Helpful Hint is Another Man’s Interruption
A friend recently sent me this link to a discussion on the merits of obscure airport security notifications about snowglobes. Oddly enough, I experienced the snowglobe issue firsthand on a recent trip to New Mexico. The circumstances: My daughter collects snowglobes Snowglobes are the classic souvenir Terrorists have attempted to smuggle incendiary fluids in small …