AJ McClary - Usability and UX in Washington, DC

Four Hour Body: I lost 17 lbs of fat in 30 days

Posted: 358 days ago

It’s no secret that dieting and fitness is one of my favorite obsessions. I’ve experimented with so many lifestyle choices, it’s entertaining for my friends to watch and comment on. I suppose that’s why I’ve been so successful at this. Unlike most people, I can decide to do something and stick with it long term—that is the key to being successful at anything. I’ve gone full-on vegan, experimented with bodybuilding, kickboxing, vocal coaching, guitar, and piano. I’ve dabbled in meditation, journals, time-management, and other aspects of lifestyle design as well. So when Tim Ferriss released his latest book “The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman”, I had to give it a shot. …on the edge of
your seat? Click here to solve the mystery.

Articles

Top 10 Law’s of Web Design

Posted: 460 days ago

Law #1: If you put a big ol’ picture of your client’s mug on it, they’ll automatically fall in love with it.

Law #2: Everybody thinks their logo should have a big ol’ globe right smack in the middle of it.

Law #3: Everyone thinks “there’s not enough whitespace”, but they never know exactly what that means.

Law #4: Most client’s use phrases like “I want it to pop”.

Law #5: 70% of all client’s want their logo to be at least 3 times too big, arguing that somehow the user will have a more memorable experience.

Law #6: Most client’s want to exercise democracy and will take the design to a committee to get approval—always resulting in crappy user interface changes that burden user experience.

Law #7: Everyone thinks they’re a designer and have a creative “eye” for design.

Law #8: I can always expect a client to want me to blow up a 80px by 100px graphic into a 400px by 500px picture. This pixelated mess, usually a picture of the client themselves, will somehow find its way onto the home page.

Law #9: If you demo two design comps, the client will most certainly pick the ugliest one.

Law #10: Everyone wants to “put lipstick on a pig” because on their mind, “updating” must be cheaper than a complete redesign.

Articles

Armedia Blog: Instant Usability Testing

Posted: 466 days ago

I’ve been experimenting with a really clever usability testing technique that uses human intelligence to collect quantitative data about a user’s experience. The way a development project traditionally gathers this data is through conducting a study—gathering participants to sit down in a room and perform a set of tasks. We usually observe these tasks and pay them a gratuity of $75 or so, but it could be quite expensive reserving a lab for hundreds of people. This is a neat alternative to doing an in-depth study.

Click HERE to read the rest of the entry over at Armedia.com

Video Blog

New Video Series

Posted: 467 days ago

I’m announcing my new video series. I don’t have a title for it yet, but it’s on the user experience of everyday things. I’m going to be evaluating different products that we use regularly and performing heuristic and usability analysis on them. It should be really interesting. I can’t wait to share more!

Articles

That’s not f’ing Agile!

Posted: 499 days ago

There has been a lot of talk lately about Agile development and I wanted to write a little Q&A of the misconceptions centered around iterative design. Many people who don’t understand software development think that Agile is a magic potion that will solve all of their problems–but it’s a very structured methodology with a lot of emphasis on responding to change, deploying frequently, and learning from your mistakes. It’s also not for everyone. It involves building a team with realistic expectations in order to be successful.