Author Archives: Josh Kinal
About Josh Kinal
Josh makes things on the web easy to use and understand. Sounds simple, but it’s not. His understanding of developing engaging content comes from many years of writing for print and radio. You might have heard him on Boxcutters, his popular weekly podcast about TV or years of appearing on Triple J, Radio National and 3RRR. He also holds a science degree and in 2012 was one of Australia’s few panelists at SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas
Design: Poka yoke UX design
November 15, 2010
There’s a theory of Japanese car construction called poka yoke. It was described to me as meaning a form of idiot-proofing but it really means “mistake proofing”. Pieces of the car are manufactured in such a way that they can only be used on one particular part of the car. We need to apply this theory to website design.
Business: Networking is the New Networking
September 9, 2010
Networking is not about shoving your business cards in people’s faces.
Tags: exposure, marketing, networking, selling
Behind the Websites: HTML5 for Web Designers
September 3, 2010
The first release from publisher A Book Apart does exactly what I would hope for from the people who brought us the excellent A List Apart online magazine. It simplifies a topic and gets me excited about using new web technologies.
Business: An Answer to the Twitter Question
August 19, 2010
One of the questions we’re often asked by clients when doing an initial consultation is “what about twitter?” After a couple of years of thinking about an answer, Josh might finally have one.
Tags: advertising, buzz, promotion, publicity, social networks, Twitter, zeitgeist
Design: Use Experience to build Experience
August 12, 2010
Real world experience counts for a lot when developing for an online world. Sure, it sounds trite but it’s frighteningly true. Working on redesigning the user interface for an online store, I found myself digging deep into my own experiences to be able to anticipate the needs of the customer.
Tags: experience, online stores, process flow, retail
Design: Designing a User Interface with Caveat Emptor
July 6, 2010
There are lots of elements that go into making a good online store. One of the most important is that customers have access to all the information they need to make an informed decision.
Tags: amazon, communication, ecommerce, expectations, kindle, shopping, usability
Business: Business is not like Sport
June 24, 2010
It’s easy to make sports analogies when discussing business. Watching World Cup soccer and playing baseball, as I do, the similarities between doing well in sports and business seem obvious. In fact, since Robert DeNiro, playing Al Capone in The Untouchables bashed in an associate’s head while making a baseball analogy, drawing lines of comparison between the two has become cliché.
Tags: 37 Signals, Analogies, Jason Calacanis, Jeffrey Zeldman, Leo Laporte, Molly Holzschlag, Risk