Valerie Potter's Most Recent Posts

The lessons I learned at the Device Design Day conference are good ones for anyone who designs just about any kind of interactive hardware or software.

What's more fun than a barrel of monkeys? A robot petting zoo, of course!

If you're like me, you're pretty good about exercising and eating right at home, but all your good habits go out the window when you travel. But on a recent 10-day trip, I found three free iPhone apps (two of which are also available for other smartphone platforms) invaluable for keeping me healthy.

This week's Mobilize 2010 conference in San Francisco was a jam-packed day of discussion, analysis and, yes, argument about the vast market that mobile and wireless technology is opening up worldwide. Here are a few ideas that I found especially intriguing at the event.

The DEMO conference, a launchpad for new products, features a rapid-fire parade of 6-minute live demos by startup companies hoping to attract some buzz. Here's a sampling of products and services that caught my eye during the show.

The first day of the UX Week 2010 conference was a whirlwind of user experience topics, from getting users to do what you want to "pizzability."

How many e-mails are sitting in your inbox right now -- 30? 100? More than 1,000? Think maybe it's time to reduce the clutter?

Allen Ginsberg may have seen the best minds of his generation destroyed by madness, but today I saw 60 of the best minds of *my* generation doing something more constructive: Putting their heads together to figure out the digital future of National Public Radio (NPR).

Online tax filing is quick and convenient and much greener than printing out paper. But I just don't think the security risks are worth it -- what about you?

Animated GIFs were immensely popular in the Web's early years, but they were eventually pushed aside by more sophisticated tools for showing movement, such as JavaScript and Flash -- and that's a shame.

Which is a better design for optical-scan ballots -- broken arrows that are easy to complete or more familiar ovals or circles that you have to color in completely?

My colleague Mike Elgan points out in his blog that California's new cell phone law fails the logic test. As Mike notes, the new rule outlaws holding a phone to your ear while driving -- but it's still legal to use a hands-free headset or even send a text message.

My solution for gaming-induced nausea -- wearing accupressure wristbands -- doesn't work for everybody. Here are many more helpful suggestions from readers.

If you're like me, certain video games make you green about the gills. Here's what helped my game-induced nausea.

Get help filing your 2007 taxes with this useful list of online tax tools, forms and info pages.