Dan Roam has an excellent presentation on SlideShare about the questions around Healthcare reform in the U.S. The post on his blog that lead to the presentation on slideshare is here.

My current role at work involves providing functional input for an online tool we’re designing. This has involved preparing screen mockups for the application interfaces, designing workflows etc. So I am always on the look out for good examples of user experience design particularly form and workflow designs.

The other day when I had a particularly satisfying burger at the Jack in the box I was compelled to seek out its nutrition facts. (Because anything that tastes that good cannot be good for you.)I loved what the web designers at Apollo Interactive had put together.

I even did a little narrated screen capture video.Check it out!

Recently I reported a lost DVD to Netflix . They asked me a few questions on the website and they sent the next one in my queue right away. That’s good customer service. What’s a DVD between friends (particularly when one pays 15 dollars a month to the other!)

So a few weeks go by, I find the DVD and mail it back.  I get an automated notification. Someone had thought this scenario through and designed the right feedback mechanism.

Thinking through things is good design.

(I am particularly impressed with this one, since I am working on automated notifications at work!)

I have been interested in usability all my adult life.

In architecture school, I was very focused on function (sometimes at great peril to academic success, times when I just couldnt get things right and knew they were wrong or could be so much better.) In the very recent past, I was very frustrated with the usability of an app I am working on, so much so that I sent out impassioned e-mails to a few classmates who work in consumer software engineering or web based businesses to help me write a paper on how to start a usability and interface design group in a company that is not in the business of software, but builds a lot of software anyway. (None of them sent me a credible reply: Yes, I have read Norman and Neilsen, thank you!)

I was talking about “satisficing” today and was trying to remember where I heard it first. It’s Steve Krug. I love his book “Don’t make me think”. Hear him talk about “the least you can do about usability” here. (Note: wordpress doesn’t allow blip.tv embeds, please clickthrough.)