Pre-mobile and pre-Google Plus, Google had a handle on the creation and sharing of photo albums. Picasa took some time to learn, but once you got the hang of it, photos synced correctly from the desktop to the web, and you knew with whom you were sharing—key features of any social site/app/service, and usually difficult to get right. Everything seemed to work. So, with my photos I stuck with Picasa, and dismissed Facebook and whatever Apple was doing, which seemed to lag behind its competitors in features. I also use Gmail so I figured that t...

This is not an interaction design intervention, but an intervention at the heart of the customer experience. It’s about earning customer trust—the foundation of any relationship, never more important than in the face of a crisis. After the terrible accident of the Costa Concordia, in which at least 15 people have now died (rest in peace), news outlets are reporting this morning that Carnival has a plan to compensate surviving victims: a refund and 30% off another cruise. The ship sank and people swam for their lives. Some did not make ...

After obsessing over the SteepAndCheap and Woot business models last year (and let’s not forget the insane and terrifying Swoopo), this year has given us something new to chew on: GroupOn and its group buying clones (this spreadsheet lists a ton of them). These are great businesses. Clear value proposition: deep discounts. Kept simple: one deal a day (basically). And they’re making money hand over fist. Love it. Naturally, my entrepreneurial friends and have been asking: Should we start a clone—doing something that improves on...