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#UX101: What is UX, anyway?

I am writing my new book UX 101 the same way that two of my literary idols, Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens, did: in serial, one chapter at a time. I hope to post a new segment every week until...

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#UX101: A (brief) history of user experience

What we now call “user experience design” began a lot longer ago than many people realize. In fact, you can trace UX design WAY, WAY back… all the way to when humans created the first tools. A tool in...

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What are the “open problems” in UX design?

An "open problem" is a question without a known solution, and the interesting thing about user experience design is that we don't have a lot of open problems or questions, it's that we often have TOO...

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#UX101: The User Centered Design Process

One of the things I get asked a lot by people interested in user experience design is “How do you do what you do?” The sometimes want specifics, but often the question is broad… what is your process?...

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#UX101: A few words on Content Strategy and Service Design

User experience design is a pretty broad discipline, with many different areas of focus you can align your career to. There’s information architecture, user research, usability testing, requirements...

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#UX101: On working with developers and project managers

No man is an island – to be an effective UX professional you need to work and partner with people with different backgrounds, skills, and priorities. If you don’t build solid relationships with the...

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#UX101: Stakeholders and you!

In any design project, you are going to have one or more stakeholders. These are the people who sponsored the project, and/or are the product managers responsible for the product being design, and/or...

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#UX101: Typical UX jobs and roles

While UX is still a fairly “young” discipline compared to other occupations, there are some fairly consistent standards as to roles and responsibilities. Here are some typical (and not so typical) jobs...

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#UX101: On Information Architecture

When you read about user experience and the UX design process, you will inevitably see a lot of discussion about Information Architecture. What is Information Architecture? Simply put, Information...

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#UX101: Creating and using personas

When I discuss the word persona with people, I get a lot of blank stares and tilted heads. The film buffs I know respond with, “The Bergman film?” and the rest of them just shake their head when I ask...

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When the exceptional becomes commonplace, Apple is in deep trouble

I, like many other tech fanboys, was glued to my computer screen early this month during Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference keynote. What new products or software would be revealed? Would the...

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#UX101: On usability testing

Once you have created an interface, you need to test it, and this is known as usability testing. How do you do that? Well, it’s easier than you may think. First, let’s define what we mean by the term...

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What is a “great experience” in design?

A great experience comes when what is designed aligns with the needs and desires of the users. This means that the offering “fits” the user, if not like a glove then… like a nice warm bathrobe. A great...

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What is a “big problem” a product designer can work on?

What are some design problems a young designer can work on to build he design “chops”? Here’s a couple of ideas: Learning how to read and write. Adult literacy around the world is at an all-time high,...

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Will big data be used increasingly in the UX field to answer user experience...

Yes and no. Big Data provides… well, big data. Lots of data. This data needs to be parsed, analyzed and understood. It is (potentially) a source for user insights and understanding that is...

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UX, the Bruce Lee Way

As a UX professional I take inspiration from a great many things. Since I’m also a big pop culture geek, that’s been the biggest well I draw from. I’ve read a lot of entertainment biographies lately,...

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Seven things your boss needs to know about UX

As someone who has been in the user experience domain for a LOOONG time, I have had lots of conversations with many different executives. And, most of the time, these execs knew how to spell “UX”, but...

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What is the best way to create a UX roadmap?

First off, let’s discuss the term “UX Roadmap.” I’ve heard it used in a couple of different ways. Here’s one definition, from UX Game Changers: The UX roadmap defines the stages of the user delivery....

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User scenarios, user stories, use cases – what’s the difference?

The three are different, but not as much as you may think. Let’s talk about stories. No, not user stories… stories. We are wired to engage with and tell stories – it is a seminal part of the human...

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Embrace user stories to simply align agile and #UX

One of the big topics of conversation in UX circles the past few years has been “Lean UX”, an approach focused on minimizing and reducing design documentation in order to focus more on what is being...

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#UX Trends in 2015: My predictions

I was unable to make the deadline to contribute to the “UX Trends” article UX Magazine recently published due to other commitments (curse you, international business travel!), but I am never one to let...

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Lessons in #UX: How to design the best wearable experience

There are two big topics in technology right now: The Internet of Things and Wearables. While I have some very distinct opinions on the former, I’ll leave that for another day. Today I’d like to...

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Ten great resources to make you better at #UX

I’ve been doing user experience design for more than a dozen years now, and I’m still learning. Part of why I’m still learning is the technology that users interact and engage with is evolving at a...

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Lessons in #UX: Users don’t care about “UI design”

We live in a bubble. When I say “We”, I refer to my fellow travelers in user experience design. We read tech articles on new software releases, we look at design sites and study style guides from...

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Simplify your projects by using a #UX Checklist

One of the more interesting things I’ve been able to do in my career is establishing a user experience team’s design process. Obviously, there are standard phases and steps all UX processes share –...

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Lessons in #UX: Don’t design features, enable users

“You’re just an enabler!” Yes. Yes, I am. I am not an enabler that a Doctor Phil would shame on his show, an encourager of destructive behavior. I’m an enabler because I’m a user experience designer: I...

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ROI and Usability: a case study

One of the many things that occurs in the life of a User Experience designer is the need to justify our advocacy, and ask the obvious questions that come our way: Why is design important? Why should...

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Resistance: What stops users from doing things new or different?

In my career as a user experience designer and researcher, I’ve interviewed or tested scores of end users through the years, and I see a trend show up over and over. Users have often told me that they...

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What are some important UX best practices for creating interactive kiosks?

Keep context in mind Will it be at “normal” kiosk height or a table-based unit? Will it be in a store or another place, like a lobby or a mall? Understand the environment that the Ui will be in. Make...

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What is a good example of a feature people think is critical but never used?

It depends on the platform and the application. When it comes to computer hardware, an ethernet port or an optical drive were “must-have” features for the longest time… until they weren’t (users...

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Why micro-interactions like 3D Touch is a #UX trend worth paying attention to

During the announcement of the new iPhone this week, Apple unveiled their new “3D Touch” interaction model, which involves new ways of accessing functions and features. The big demo of this new model...

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How to do quality #UX on a shoestring budget

Say you have a project that requires user experience design, but you don’t have a lot of money to spend. The idea of recruiting test participants, buying the latest UI design tools, or renting a...

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Sell #UX by defining what success looks like

One of the many conversations I had early in my career as a UX professional was, basically, “Why UX?” That is, why are UX designers and processes needed on a project? The initial way I and others...

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Boot-strap usability testing: How to test your designs with little or no money

This article is a short version of my presentation on the topic, which I can present to anyone interested. I do Bar Mitzvahs and weddings, but kids birthday parties are off the table. Sorry. I’ve...

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UX and “Minimal Viable Design”

One of the interesting trends I am seeing in tech is the idea around “Minimal Viable Product.” This concept is all about Return on Investment: What the product that can be offered to consumers that...

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My Interview with the UX Practitioner Series

Had the great opportunity to talk to Lauren Ventura for her UX Practitioner series – you can see the interview here – but I also wanted to crosspost the interview here – “for the record”, as it were....

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Lessons in UI Design: Where does “doing” happen?

I recently tested some designs for my company and thought that a screen design I came up with (a UI module that gives users better visibility into their finances – in a sense, “how are things going?”)...

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Lessons in UI Design: What is the “bearing weight” of your screen?

In construction, there are “weight bearing” support structures – if this support is knocked down or otherwise compromised, the whole building can come down on your head. Also, if you “overload” these...

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UX Trends to watch for in 2016

Late last year, I was asked to write on UX Trends for Content Science Review – I happily agreed, and they posted my article in early January. With their permission, I’m reposting it here: One of the...

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Where is UX design headed?

I think UX design is headed in three different directions: The first direction is more about process and experience design and less about screens. There are design standards and frameworks established,...

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UX and Agile – Aligning the Processes

This is a guest post I did for UserZoom.com, and I am reposting it here. Several years ago I attended a presentation on Agile and UX at the Agile Australia conference, and about ten minutes into the...

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How do I use usage data to build a better user experience?

The key is to understand the difference between data and information. Data is just that: data, which can tell you absolutely nothing without applying some sort of focus or filter. Once that focus or...

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Lessons in UX: How to engage with angry customers on social media

“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” I think that phrase sums up how many marketing and brand managers feel about social media. If you are a company of any size, you HAVE to have a presence in...

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On User Experience Design… and Screenwriting.

I love movies. Obviously, that’s not a distinguishing characteristic – lots of people love movies, and many are far more rabid and knowledgeable about cinema than I am. But it’s part of my personal DNA...

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Lessons in UI Design – Keep the “eyeline” in mind

Had an interesting observation in a recent series of usability tests. We were testing a design concept that had a lot of information – one section detailed data in a pie chart, another section next to...

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On creating a User Experience Knowledge Base

In my job I have had the opportunity to work on many different products, though most are in the same “product family” – the basic functionality and processes are similar, though sold for different...

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“Sell me this pen”: Explaining the value of #UX

UX people LOVE to talk about what they do. Which is understandable – we love our job, and we think that by understanding the user’s perspective and tailoring designs around how they think, work and do...

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Creating a User Experience “SWAT Team”

If you are a member of a user experience design team, you are probably very busy right now. UX design is in high demand many companies have finally realized that a focus on design and the user...

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Usability for Evil: Six Flags Online Meal Deals

REPOSTING an old post, one of my most popular: One of my new favorite sites is Usability for Evil, which shows examples of web sites that benefits the companies behind the sites far more than the users...

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“Experience Downtime”: How trust is as important as usability

“The site’s down.” How many times have you said or heard these words? If you are in the tech industry like me, you’ve probably lost count. If you are the typical consumer, odds are you have heard this...

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