Aaron Lerch

Recently I wanted to use a WinForms TextBox with some “watermark text”, but had some trouble finding anything existing on the web. Which was surprising because of how ubiquitous they are. Turns out the terminology varies: cue, prompt, or watermark. And “watermark” is the least used.
Once I got my ducks in a row (by perusing […]

I was reflecting recently on what I thought made up a healthy decision making process. I’m not a psychologist or anything, I just sometimes like to sit and think about weird stuff. Here are 3 components that I think should be equally employed when making a decision–none of this is new, it’s all […]

Okay, I just ragged on an electronic Sudoku user interface, so now I equally want to commend an application for a user interface job well done in a small (but in my opinion significant) way. The application? Skype.
Let me start by saying that I really agree with Jeff Atwood’s assessment of icons, toolbars, etc. […]

I was looking at an electronic Sudoku game my wife got for Christmas this year, and it struck me just how awful the user interface is. And if you think the interface is bad, you should try actually using it! I think there’s some not-subtle lessons I can learn from this as a software […]

Software developers at my company are, naturally, grouped into teams that tackle (or “own”) respective portions of the platform we produce. I’m on the client team which means we are responsible for most of the applications that users use to interface with the system. I say most because some specific server-focused teams still […]

I ran across this article (and most specifically this excerpt) in my RSS reader this afternoon:
“Now an entire generation has grown up with a different set of games than any before it. The last thing they do is read the manual. Instead, they pick up the controller and start mashing buttons to see what happens. […]

This is something I think you’d want to avoid like the plague, but it might have it’s benefits (as in the article–cheap charting).
Here’s the article

A nice clean diagram illustrating the flow and importance of user experience.

The Importance of User Experience
Originally uploaded by soldierant.