http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog an experience design blog Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:02:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en We’re excited to share that our redesign of the Intuit Trends application has just launched!   Intuit Trends is a free online application that lets small businesses compare how they are doing financially (such as income, expenses, profits, etc.) with other businesses that are similar to them. We talked with small business owners ... http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog/index.php/2010/02/intuit-trends-redesign-launched/ While consumer smart grid energy portals are an important area for user centered design, there is an often overlooked design challenge in helping utilities craft a demand response (DR) program that really works. For readers unfamiliar with the term, demand response is a program utilities are exploring which asks customers ... http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog/index.php/2010/02/ten-ways-to-improve-your-demand-response-program/ AT&T just announced in an investor’s conference that smart phone users are using too much of its network for data and that something is going to have to be done to curb their usage since their network isn’t able to handle it. All I can say is WAH-WAH-WAH. Let me get ... http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/att-youre-on-notice/ A recent SmartGridNews.com article praised Greenbox Technology for “deliver[ing] understanding to utility customers.” While Greenbox does provide useful functionality that differentiates it from its competitors, key improvements to its interaction design would go a long way to provide a better overall user experience. The Good To be fair, Greenbox does deserve ... http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/tips-for-improving-greenboxs-consumer-energy-portal/ One of the greatest tools available to me as an interaction designer is the ability to see real metrics. I’m guessing that’s surprising to some people. After all, many people still think that design all happens before a product ever gets into the hands of users, so how could I ... http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog/index.php/2009/12/which-metrics-equal-happy-users/ You spend months on a new feature for your existing product: researching it, designing and building it, launching it. Finally, it’s out in the world, and you sit back and wait for all those glowing comments to come in about how happy your users are that ... http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog/index.php/2009/11/6-reasons-users-hate-your-new-feature/ We recently worked on a new energy tracking site to help consumers monitor their energy use and find ways to save money. With President Obama’s recent announcement awarding a few billion dollars in smart grid grants, we expect to see an even larger effort devoted to creating new energy tracking ... http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog/index.php/2009/11/watts-all-the-buzz-about-smart-grid-energy/ The recent release of Windows 7 got me thinking about development cycles. For those of us who suffered through the last 2+ years of Vista, Windows 7 has been a welcome relief from the lagging, bugs, and constant hassle of a failed operating system. Overall, as ... http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog/index.php/2009/11/is-continuous-deployment-good-for-users/ We’re excited to share the infographic we designed for the Intuit Health Benefits Center project to answer this question. In July 2009, Intuit conducted a survey with over one thousand small business owners in California asking about the health insurance options they offered their employees and how much they were paying ... http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/infographic-how-much-do-employers-pay-for-healthcare/ Henry Ford once said that, if he’d asked his customers what they wanted, they’d have asked for a faster horse. In the high tech industry, this quote is often used to justify not talking to users. After all, if customers don’t know what they want, why bother ... http://www.slicedbreaddesign.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/a-faster-horse-when-not-to-listen-to-users/