Nonsensor.

So I had a bizarre dream last night. I was carrying around a notebook that, while apparently magical or something, was totally useless. I would write tiny little journal entries on its lined paper, and then move 10 pages or so before writing the next entry. Seemed really inefficient, except that when I'd turn back to older entries, there'd be more written in the space between. Not from me, either. They were @replies. Did I really just dream Twitter for paper?

It'll never top AdSense for print.

I arrived in plenty of time to park and get a good seat, but managed to forget my badge at home. Thankfully, the slides for Leah Buley's (of Adaptive Path) presentation "How to be a UX Team of One" are on Slideshare. It really is a lot more than what the name implies, so have a look.

UX Team Of One @ IA Summit 2008

It's been obvious since the dawn of time that small fonts are harder to read. It's also been the tendency of designers to work small. Thankfully the days of those aliased 6-point fonts in Flash-based sites of the 90s are gone, but as this this site proves, indulgence is still there.

Lately, the IM window has started to look too small so I'm reducing my own personal stress by talking to Celly in a massive 24px font. I've started using 14px (80%) myself in some design cases, but here's a great justification for using up to 16px/100%. A picture says a thousand words, right, and the photo of the magazine held next to the screen at comparative reading distances says a lot in this case.

Along with that rule, there are plenty of other great ones, most of which we should remember from design school but tend to forget when working on the web with all those limitations to rebel against.

There are plenty of rules and principles to basic usability of applications or websites. But experience is important, and watching your test subjects is important, because nothing is set in stone. On a case by case basis, you never know what principle you'll be going against, what rule you'll have to break because it doesn't make sense to stick with them.

In those cases, what are you left with? The only thing that matters, which is your judgment. Not your judgment as an experienced designer - sure, that factors into it - but your judgment as a user. Nothing's better for the designer than having to use his own software. And not just using the software, but using the software under the same circumstances as everyone else who has to use it. In a practical sense, that can mean anything from performance goals to screen resolution.

That's empathy. Walk a little while in your users' shoes. A little bit of empathy for the user up front saves the need for sympathy later.