
A poster-sized calendar with a bubble to pop every day! Available at Amazon.com
Magic is powerful, but as we all know, it also has a dark side. Could today's trend toward magical user experiences like gestures and voice spell doom for users?
3 Dec 2018Designers unique skill set can go beyond designing the UI of an existing product idea. Their tools and techniques can be adapted to define the product itself though early testing.
14 Apr 2017Remote controls are a great way to engage non-designers. These three examples show the difference between Engineering simplicity, Conceptual simplicity, and Aesthetic simplicity.
10 Mar 2017Submission to solvingsol.com, the Sol LeWitt tribute in code.
10 Mar 2017Submission to solvingsol.com, the Sol LeWitt tribute in code.
10 Mar 2017How enterprise designers can use their special abilities to shape product strategy
17 Nov 2015How can design help real people use data in their lives?
16 Dec 2014Experiment to generate amoeba like creatures using bezier curves in javascript / HTML canvas
27 Dec 2014
A fun little puzzle video game, designed for mobile phones, built using web technologies. Steer Mr Wiggles through a maze with deadly invisible walls.
Formerly in the Apple App Store, it now works in Safari / Chrome. On computers, use the arrow keys to steer.
Notes about the development of the Invisible Maze game
Getting the best of both worlds
19 Dec 2013UX team organization can make or break a company's design strategy
26 Nov 2013In a world of limited resources, code beats pictures. (published at BoxesAndArrows.com)
16 Jan 2012How good are you at reading charts? Which chart is the best? I created a small game to test chart skills and get some hard numbers on how well each chart works, including styles. Everyone says that pie charts are bad. But how bad? Let's find out.
18 January 2012When Bad Usability is Good User Experience
04 January 2012Having run a couple of marathons, I designed and coded some interactive charts to analyze the New York Marathon overall runner population and look up an individual runner.
21 November 2011How good design can make users effective
20 April 2011A little formal fun fiction.
2009Selecting the wrong chart, like bad chart design, can obscure the data. Here is a simple model pick the right chart for your needs.
9 June 2009To an expert user, it is easy to forget the obstacle that registration and login pose to many users. Here are a few tips that can make the process easier.
August 2009Personas are a popular user experience deliverable, whose purpose and use are often misunderstood. This article suggests ways to make personas useful, and not just a pretty face.
1 March 2008Advanced search is the ugly child of interface design -always included, but never loved. Websites have come to depend on their search engines as the volume of content has increased. A progressive disclosure approach can enable users to use precision advanced search techniques to refine their searches and pinpoint the desired results.
16 January 2008From April till December 2006, I conceived, designed, and coded survee.com in the evenings. Though I dropped the project, it was very satisfying and taught me some harsh, but useful lessons.
15 April 2007As updating Tables of Contents in Visio is very dull, I wrote a macro (a small program) that automatically generates a Table of Contents list for a Visio document.
4 April 2007Realistic wireframes are easier for users to understand and respond-to in wireframe tests. Published at BoxesAndArrows.com
19 September 2006A whitepaper on a way to improve usability in website navigation.
20 May 2006A whitepaper on financial services business challenges and solutions.
30 March 2006A presentation at the 2006 Boston Usability Professionals Association Mini-Conference
30 March 2006This presentation summarizes research and workflow techniques for designing complex applications, and was presented to the Intranet Benchmarking Forum. As always with presentations, much more was said than appears on the slides.
21 March 2006Use these lazy techniques and spend your time on more interesting problems than lining up little boxes! Published on BoxesAndArrows.com
29 Jan 2006Project management techniques can determine the success or failure of an outsourced project. The discussion of IT outsourcing has been dominated by the advertisements of the companies selling it and the concerns of US workers. Less discussed is whether it makes sense for a US company to actually outsource major software projects.
13 April 2005Some tips on arguing, and how to avoid common logical errors.
17 January 2004Our products solve physical problems, not intellectual problems. Intelligent devices won't be useful until they can take action to achieve their tasks. This may be more difficult than making the device intelligent.
2003What food additives say about us as consumers.
23 March 2002A short paper on login best practices.
1 March 2001
by Gavin Shepherd, with Stephen Turbek
This report is a discussion of the issues regarding using audio elements and sound tracks in modern interactive environments.
by David Neier, with Stephen Turbek
The Open System Interconnection (OSI) model describes the way in which information travels across a network. This report illuminates some of the inner workings of your computer as it browses the Web.
XML, the eXtensible Markup Language is a simple, flexible, open system for sharing data between organizations. Though generally invisible to the user, it is rapidly changing the way information is exchanged and is used in thousands of applications.
22 January 2001Secure Internet transactions have been as important as the Web browser in making the Internet useful. This report gives an overview of Public Key encryption and a brief history of cryptography.
12 January 2001Collaboration with distant colleagues is one of the biggest challenges in the new workplace. Here are some ways to make it easier.
11 December 2000What does it mean to be "digital"? Why has the word "analog" become synonymous with natural, old, or human? Why exactly is the future digital?
4 December 2000Plug and Play technology is poised to make computers much simpler, if only we can agree on a standard.
6 November 2000Cookies have been fingered as agents against personal privacy, but in reality, they work for you.
23 October 2000Digital media can be easily duplicated, making it difficult to control the supply. A new model for commerce must emerge.
2 October 2000Games illustrate what a good interactive experience can be.
28 July 2000The French culinary technique, the 'Gallantine'.
9 June 2000Notes from the work of the master of information graphics.
6 June 2000
by Ben Kleinman, Mary Quandt, Stephen Turbek, Neil Werhle
Tacit knowledge is used in all communities to keep people informed and engaged.
by Ben Kleinman, Stephen Turbek
Timezone dataviz to highlight the best times to call global offices
© Stephen Turbek