Most users on the web are “click happy”: they tend to rapidly click on the most eye-catching action item without paying much attention to the rest of the site.

I see this happen during the usability tests I conduct at Pearson. More often than not, participants end up clicking the first link or “next” button they see whilst missing information that is relevant to the goal they are trying to accomplish.

Here is what I find interesting about this “phenomenon”: despite the fact that part of my work as an interaction designer involves observing this type of behaviour and making sure that participants don’t miss important information on screen, it has now been proven that I am just as vulnerable as anyone else.

Thank you, James Cunningham.

Earlier this week, Twifficiency —a web site that offers to calculate your “efficiency” on Twitter based on your interactions on it— spread across the Twitterverse posting the scores of those who wanted to know their… “twifficiency”.

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(I wonder if Gary Hustwit approves of this app)

HelTweetica is a free Twitter app for the iPad that caught my attention a while back —mainly due to it’s simplicity.

Initially, I didn’t think much of it. Then, one day whilst watching a World Cup match, I decided to use my iPad to see my Twitter stream as I worked from home with the laptop -and the match- both in front of me. If you are one of the many who experienced the biggest sporting event in the world with Twitter by your side, you know how important it was to keep up with the Twitterverse during matches.

I started by opening my iPad client of choice: Twitterific. It crashed after a while. Then I moved to Twittelator for iPad: not the best client as far as readability goes. Then I moved to TweetDeck: somehow it crashed as well. 

Then I remembered: “…oh yeah, there’s that other app…”

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