lofton.net contains stories and info posted by jim lofton. Since I do user experience research & digital design/development, most stuff will probably relate to that, but I have a few other areas of interests and will write about those from time to time as well. This site also gives me a chance to try things out that I might not do for my regular job.

Check out the site I started for UX knowledge sharing at: metausable.com

I have been doing digital design, architecture, and research for a long time now. This includes sketching, wireframing, prototyping, heuristic reviews, field studies, contextual inquiries, card sorts, and of course usability evaluations. I am interested in creating and using html/css/js prototypes for usability tests rather than paper prototypes or using prototyping tools like Axure, Figma, InVision. Combined with screen recording software like Camtasia or Screenflow, it really makes turning around findings and creating reports a lot easier especially for remote research.

I started my career as a graphic print designer, doing a lot of work in Illustrator and Quark. I was pretty much an expert user of Illustrator (lots of technical schematics and an occasional illustration), although I haven’t used it much since switching to the web. As a print designer, I worked exclusively on Macs (well before that I used T-square, technical pens, and wax gun).

However, when I first started on the web, I was forced to use Windows. Which was a nuisance, but I really wanted to do web stuff. So I Iearned a lot about Windows over time and can pretty easily switch between the two platforms now. I have both Windows and Macs systems that I work with now on a daily basis. In the end, an OS is only a platform and apps will come and go (except for Photoshop). It’s how you think that allows you to solve problems.

Other interests I have are global travel, reading, and gaming. My first international trip was to Japan in 1998. Since then I have been there a couple dozen times, going there on average once or twice a year. I have also now traveled to the UK multiple times, China a few times, and then Singapore and Germany once. I love to wander around wherever I go into the neighborhoods and smaller areas not visited by tourists. It is endlessly interesting to me to be able to experience different people and places.