Erica Joy Decker

Toni Collette may be the world’s most convincing actress

admin — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 02:54:25 +0000

At the age of 11, Toni Collette showed her phenomenal acting skills when she faked appendicitis out of boredom and longing for attention; her act was so convincing that doctors had to remove her appendix, even though the test showed … Continue reading →

Toni Collette may be the world’s most convincing actress

Plastic takes about 12,820 lifetimes to decompose

admin — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:42:24 +0000

A plastic jug takes 1 million years to decompose. The average life expectancy is 78 years. 1,000,000/78 = ~12,820 lifetimes. Remember to use reusable bottles.

Plastic takes about 12,820 lifetimes to decompose

Users tend to browse rather than search

admin — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 04:21:38 +0000

On sites with clear labels and prominent navigation options, users tend to browse rather than search. Searching is no faster than browsing in this context.

Source: Katz & Byrne, 2003

Users tend to browse rather than search

São Paulo hates advertising

admin — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:46:54 +0000

In 2007, the world’s fourth-largest metropolis and Brazil’s most important city, São Paulo, became the first city outside of the communist world to put into effect a radical, near-complete ban on outdoor advertising.

Source: Adbusters.org

São Paulo hates advertising

The Pareto Principle (the 80 / 20 Rule) can help usability

admin — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:06:32 +0000

The Pareto Principle stipulates that a high percentage of users will perform a low percentage of actions. In other words, most users visit a small percentage of pages or perform a small percentage of tasks. By identifying what small percentage of actions most users are performing (by using analytics, research, interviews, etc.), a higher emphasis can be put on those tasks and actions to make the site easier to use. Knowledge of the Pareto Principle can also help to illustrate content and features that users are not accessed or used (aka: content and features that could be removed to create a more streamlined and usable site). Source: 10 Laws to Design By, by 3.7 Designs

The Pareto Principle (the 80 / 20 Rule) can help usability

Lemurs value stinkiness

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:49:38 +0000

During mating season, male lemurs battle for dominance by trying to outstink each other. They cover their long tails with smelly secretions and wave them in the air to determine which animal is more powerful. Source: National Geographic

Lemurs value stinkiness

Clownfish have the ability to switch their sex

admin — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:34:29 +0000

All clownfish are born male, and the most dominant male in a community changes its sex to female and mates with the next-most-dominant male. Source: National Geographic

Clownfish have the ability to switch their sex

3-4 is the new magic number

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:55:55 +0000

According to more recent research, people can remember about 3-4 things (for about 20 seconds) and then they disappear from memory unless repeated over and over. In addition, people tend to chunk information into groups that have 3-4 items in them. On top of that, researchers tell us that people can’t effectively choose between more than 3 to 4 items at a time. Source: What Makes Them Click

3-4 is the new magic number

A quick definition of the Serial Position Effect

admin — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 05:54:15 +0000

I’ve been studying up on the Serial Position Effect, which includes the Primacy Effect, and the Recency Effect. Basically stated, items first in a list are put into long-term memory, and so therefore have a competitive edge when it comes to remembrance, and items last in a list are stored in the working memory, which also allows people to remember them more quickly. The list items in the middle are more easily forgotten.

A quick definition of the Serial Position Effect

Hansel & Gretyl are ‘useless’ on the web

admin — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:56:52 +0000

I’m currently delving into the world of breadcrumb design and purpose, which led me to this gem of an insight by Jakob Nielsen:

In user interface design, it’s often dangerous to take metaphors too far, and breadcrumbs are again the perfect example. Offering users a Hansel-and-Gretel-style history trail is basically useless, because it simply duplicates functionality offered by the Back button, which is the Web’s second-most-used feature.

Hansel & Gretyl are ‘useless’ on the web