Tools for measuring UX: * The quality of user experience (the HEART framework) * The goals of your product or project (the Goals-Signals-Metrics process)

If you missed it, Monday's post explored 6 ways to reduce friction in the prove-you-are-human process. Thanks to our wonderful readers, we have 3 more CAPTCHA alternatives to cover: animated NuCaptcha, gamified Vouchsafe and a tip from "Anton" that we could describe as a "honeypot button."

CAPTCHA is more than a catchy name, it's an acronym - Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. But in practical terms, CAPTCHAs are often Consistently Annoying, and Prevent The Conversion from Happening A-Lot. One study by Stanford University (link opens as PDF) found 3 human users agreed on the "translation" of the CAPTCHA only 71% of the time. Overall success rates were ~85% on average.

What are you left with when the color is taken out of your design? Do the areas of focus still hold up, or does contrast between elements? Make sure your original hierarchical decisions still hold up when you take out the color.

Ruby Lane alerts shoppers when an item they are viewing is sitting in someone else's cart or wishlist - suggesting they may miss out if they don't act soon.

The concept of social commerce can be taken literally, as in making a purchase directly through a social media property. This can be done, such as renting "The Big Lebowski" and watching it on Facebook. That's happening now, but as a revenue stream, it's insignificant.

UIE article on traits of successful and failed persona projects

In a previous life, I was a Professional Writing major and part-time journalist. I contributed to my school's student newspaper, as well as the faculty and staff newspaper, and almost every week for two years, I wrote an arts column for the Pittsburgh City Paper - Western PA's leading alternative newsweekly [read my old clips].

In part one of this series, we examined some of the more problematic personality traits user researchers are likely to encounter in their work. Now that we've seen how individual personalities can put a damper on your day; let's explore some ways to overcome the problems inherent to each.

UX researchers are exposed to a broad cross-section of people and personalities, especially when it comes to conducting user tests. Frequently, the people we encounter are willing, helpful participants to the research process - but what happens when respondents aren't so willing or helpful?

Originally published: Aug 18, 2010 The participant was struggling. While he was a high-volume customer who had bought tons from this site in the past, today he wasn't getting along with the checkout process. Confusion happened in both directions: the shopper didn't understand what the site was trying to tell him and the site definitely didn't understand what he wanted.

Steve Krug's video demonstrates how simple usability testing can and should be. The test conducted on this demo is an abbreviated version of the one Krug recommends you perform on your own site. You need to upgrade your Flash Player. You need version 9 or above to view this video.

Two roads diverge on a tablet screen. One is the path to the native app, the other leads to the open web. Luckily, you can take both. The latest mobile devices ship with a thoroughly modern browser capable of handling emerging web standards.