Product

UX Principle: Responsiveness

posted May 18, 2012 by Michael Ferguson

Last week, user experience director Michael Ferguson explained the importance of forgiveness as an integral element of user experience. In this week’s post, he tackles another tenet of UX thinking: responsiveness. Read more »

Editorial

Cupcakes, Number-Crunching, and Start-Up Culture: My Time as a Labs Intern

posted May 17, 2012 by Lauren Weber

Looking back on a semester of interning with the WaPo Labs editorial team, Lauren Weber reflects on the Cupcake Incident, deciphering tech talk, and what it really means to “move fast and break things.” Read more »

Data Analysis

Internet Romance Scams: How Much Is a Broken Heart Worth?

posted May 15, 2012 by Hannah Rubenstein

Of all of the various types of Internet fraud perpetrated against the public, the most tragic are those that prey on the lovelorn: romance scams. Read more »

Six Questions

Six Questions: Moshe Cohen

posted May 9, 2012 by Editor

In this week’s Six Questions, we would like you to meet Labs’ Israel-based engineer, Moshe Cohen, who has his hypothetical desert island escape plan all figured out. Read more »

Cinderella_Castle_at_Magic_Kingdom_-_Walt_Disney_World_Resort_in_Florida

Technology

Dancing Candlesticks and Flying Carpets: Not Just Disney Fantasies Anymore

posted May 7, 2012 by Hannah Rubenstein

Singing teacups and literate desk lamps are as much a part of the Disney universe as boisterous genies and redheaded mermaids – with one exception: They are breaking free of the imaginary realm and could be coming to a home goods store near you. Read more »

Product

UX Principle: Forgiveness

posted May 4, 2012 by Michael Ferguson

In the first post of a recurring series, Labs’ resident user experience guru, Michael Ferguson, explains how UX practitioners take the idea of forgiveness into account when designing and analyzing the user experience. Read more »

Technology

Google Translation’s Silent Voices

posted May 3, 2012 by Hannah Rubenstein

For Google Translate to be truly universal, there is more work to be done – and it begins with two geographic regions historically underrepresented by mainstream media: Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Read more »

Technology

LOL! OMG! Is Texting Changing Language?

posted May 2, 2012 by T.J. DeGroat

An overuse of exclamation marks is something it seems most of us can tolerate!! What some folks seem to despise, however, is another technology-motivated language change: the explosion of textese. LOL! Read more »