James Melzer
James Melzer

James Melzer

User experience designer and project lead for EightShapes

UX Toolkit

InDesign + Unify

InDesign remains the king of design documentation. I love the ability to place live art from a range of sources, like Illustrator or Photoshop. Add Unify for powerful templates, objects and styles.

The Breakpoint Matrix

I made this diagram to communicate responsive web design to stakeholders and developers. I presented a poster on the breakpoint matrix at the IA Summit.

TextMate + Chrome

Last year, I consciously made the switch from InDesign wireframes to HTML prototypes. It's been a difficult but rewarding transition. My tools of choice are: TextMate, Tower, Compass and Chrome.

EightShapes Blocks

I've been a willing guinea pig for the development of Blocks, an browser-based prototyping tool we built in-house. If you're serious about HTML prototyping, give it a go.

Travel

2012

Iceland

An adventure that started with the words, "you know, for the same price as a B&B on the Eastern Shore, we could go to Iceland". Northern lights. Glaciers. Volcanos. An amazing country and a perfect vacation.

2011

St. Thomas

Of course we'll go to a wedding on a tropical island! Why don't more people do this? Sandy beaches, stellar sunsets, and impeccable hotels? Yes, please.

2003, 2010

Cinque Terre, Italy

After a brief taste of heaven in '03, we returned to the Cinque Terre for the conclusion of our 10th anniversary trip across Europe.

2010

Czech Republic

For our 10th anniversary we traveled through three European countries. Two of the high points were in the Czech Republic: the historical streets of Prague, and the castle town of Czesky Krumlov.

2010

Vienna, Austria

The culture and history are all well and good, but go to Vienna for the desserts. They are the absolute masters of the coffee shop. Go! Go straight to the Gloriette, order coffee and apple strudel. Then, go to the Sacher Hotel.

2007

American Southwest

Becky and I both have fond memories of traveling across the southwest as kids. This trip proved it is just as grand and mysterious as we remembered.

Games

EvE Online

A wretched hive of scum and villany. The largest single-shard game universe. The largest virtual economy. After a decade, it remains the ultimate sci-fi sandbox game. © CCP

Ravenmark - Scourge of Estellion

The best turn-based tactical game I've seen for iPad. The gameplay is balanced and continuously challenging and the art is cool. The writing is sometimes painful, in classic JRPG style. © Witching Hour Studios

Borderlands 2

An RPG-shooter mashup with gorgeous art direction, fast-paced action, and inappropriate humor. They've got a ton of DLC out right now. © 2K

Halo 4

343's reboot of the Halo franchise. I'm hooked on the connection between weekly episodic "Spartan Ops" narrative, maps, and challenges. © 343

Dragon's Dogma

So many innovative, crazy ideas in this RPG from Capcom. But it's tragically flawed. At once glorious and frustrating. It's also brutally hard and unforgiving. © Capcom

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

A vast sandbox RPG from Bethesda, set in the land of nords and dragons, Skyrim. A deeply replayable classic. Sadly, it's also one of the buggiest triple-A titles in recent memory. © Bethesda

Blog Post Archive

Morville's Facets of User Experience Refined?

Back in 2005, I had the hubris to try to improve on Peter Morville's iconic Facets of UX diagram, also known as "the honeycomb diagram". Read on...

Adaptive Path MX East 2007

In 2007, I attended my favorite conference ever. Before live-tweeting, we live-blogged. This post was my notes from two days of talks and activities. Read on...

Pattern Library Resources

In 2008, I started working extensively with UX pattern libraries, first for SRA and then for EightShapes. In this blog post I gathered together the best resources on the subject. Read on...

Applying Mental Models Outside UX

In 2010, I presented a poster on a mental modeling project. Read on...