Micah Boswell makes the switch back to Firefox

It wasn’t very long ago that I switched to Chrome.  At first glance, the experience ‘felt’ faster and more nimble.  It wasn’t long before the Chrome interface began to wear on me.  Beyond the initial experience, Chrome is just unwieldy.  With its very small icons on the right for tweaking, I found myself all too often reaching to a browser zone that felt uncomfortable.  It’s the wrong place to put power-user settings.  Chrome extensions got buried, performance was less than desirable, especially with plug-in dependent sites and I just never fell in love with it like I did with Firefox.  So, yes – I am switching back.  Hello again Firefox.  Hello again, lovely extensions!

Download Firefox

UX Demand Explodes: Bubble or Trend?

In the past 6 months, I’ve noticed a spike in recruitment keyword ‘UX’ and ‘User Experience’, both in my Google Analytics logs, as well as in the calls I’ve been getting for employment opportunities.  Is this a passing fad, much like it was back in the dot com boom days with ‘Interactive Designer’, or is it a sign of the times that more and more people are beginning to realize that the experience really does matter?

With the explosion of mobile devices, a premium is being placed on ease of use.  The UX phenomena is here to stay as more strategists and business owners realize that it’s no longer enough to just ‘productize’.  As the tablet market begins to emerge, it’s only a matter of time before we see dedicated mobile UX talent in the field – but for now, demand is high, and supply is very, very short.

Great Work, Muggie!

I can’t help but look at Muggie Ramadani’s work and be both amazed and a little envious.  Muggie recently spearheaded the ‘Mental Workout’ branding project, and his attention to detail is simply stunning.  He’s posted a series of examples on the excellent ‘Behance‘ network.  Take a look – you’ll be blown away too.

This is the kind of hybrid designer that understands the importance of design context – his print work is clean, readable and takes appropriate advantage of negative space to really enhance information.  By the same token, his interactive work is well organized, concise and everything an effective user-experience should be.

Kudos Muggie!  Great job.  I hope this wins you an award.

Muggie Ramadani