Instead of treating people as either taking some important action (the one we want them to) or not taking it, there is a spectrum in between.

Continue Reading: Designing for Active Lurkers

In general, a very good question to ask when building a reputation system…

Continue Reading: Are you rewarding good behavior, or just any behavior?

The economy is affecting web designers…let’s talk about what to do about it.

Continue Reading: Speaking at Refresh Boston tonight about designing in a recession

Slides from my talk Designing with Psychology in Mind from An Event Apart Boston 2009.

Continue Reading: Designing with Psychology in Mind (AEA slide deck)

Video & slides from my 2009 Webstock talk: Designing for Sign Up

Continue Reading: Designing for Sign Up (video & slides)

Exit points are the critical points at which you lose valued users. Are you keeping track of yours?

Continue Reading: Usage Lifecycle: What are your user’s exit points?

As designers we must remember that behavior comes first. Always.

Continue Reading: Behavior First, Design Second

After Rypple added avatars to emails, response rate improved between 15 and 20%.

Continue Reading: Avatars in Emails Increase Response Rate up to 20% for Rypple

Interface evaluation is a fast, economical way to get concrete design recommendations for improving your web application.

Continue Reading: New Service: Interface Evaluation (Usability Audit)

We’re all familiar with them, but just how powerful are avatars, those digital representations of self? Several recent blog posts reminded me they’re probably more powerful than we realize.

Continue Reading: How Important are Avatars?