Category archives: user research

Pink is for ladies, red is for men.

These “pink taxis” are for Muslim women who do not want to get into taxis with men. They are driven by women, for women passengers only. “Our society is conservative and our women do not want to ride with men alone at night or when they arrive at the airport at two or three in […]

Should content be hardcoded or externalised?

(I published this blogpost originally on the Home Office Digital blog. It is archived here.) Content design is informed by user research findings. With all government services this is critical, as it’s the user that needs to carry out certain tasks to reach a successful outcome – for example provide their date of birth or […]

Launching a service in Kuwait – adjusting your user research

[My blog post was originally published on the Home Office Digital blog on the 27th of November. This is an archive, with some added information such as links and specific dates.] On the 23rd of November, Monday morning, we successfully launched the Electronic Visa Waiver (EVW) service private beta in Kuwait to very little fanfare. […]

FOSDEM 2015: Call For Papers on Open Source Design

For the first time ever, FOSDEM 1)What is FOSDEM has accepted an Open Source Design devroom proposal! It is a full day of talks about design work on free, libre and open source projects taking place Sunday, February 1st, 2015, in Brussels 2)Where is FOSDEM taking place?. The devroom is open to all who are […]

Facebook’s emotional contagion experiment

In my personal opinion Facebook’s experiment on emotional contagion was unethical. That is a bad thing. The results they found are very interesting, and seem to go against recent findings in studies carried out in the U.S. 1)Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking and Germany 2)Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users’ Life Satisfaction?. That […]

Wiio’s laws of human communication

Professor Osmo Antero Wiio 1)Osmo Antero Wiio article on Wikipedia was a professor of economics at the University of Helsinki, and also a member of the Finnish parliament. He is best remembered for “Wiio’s law” 2)Wiio’s Law article on Wikipedia which states that “Communication usually fails, except by accident”. The full set of laws is […]