Empty picture frame (image courtesy of Marco Verch, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
Creating personas is not the goal. Personas are merely a good repository of user research that aids in communicating those insights.
And with this simple explanation, my UX world view was yet again forever changed…
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Stock photo of a team putting their hands in together (courtesy of Hubspot)
Before anyone starts defining the experience vision, it’ll help to have a good idea what the business and brand realistically stands for, where they believe they want to go, and what they’re willing to endure. Without those ingredients, commitment to the cause starts on shaky ground.
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Stock image of a Happy New Years note with champagne glasses (courtesy of Hubspot)
I want to take a moment on this first day of the New Year and publicly recognise a great user experience for a change because we, in general, don't do that enough.
It isn’t that good designs are or should be invisible, as Dan Saffer recently broke down that myth.
More simply, I think it's easier to identify the discrete experiences that annoy us because there's something tangible we can point to and go, "See here? This irritates me! Let's not do this." Inversely, a design that allows us to successfully accomplish our goals without too much friction isn't as easy to explain how we feel with a single screenshot like, "Wow. Everything about this task flow was fantastic. We should try to follow this in our own designs.”
For me today, it all started with buying movie tickets…
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Jargon payment error message of “Nonce is required”
Today, I'd first like to highlight the usability principles of speaking the users' language as well as recognising and recovering from errors. Maybe, just maybe you'll find your team working on one of these exact things and can take these tips as design considerations before going live…
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"Are you ready to pay for these clothes?"
- CANCEL!
How awkward would face-to-face interactions be if you could no longer answer questions with a simple "Yes" or "No", but instead had to speak using the same button terminology commonly seen on your phone or computer?
”Are you ready to pay for these clothes?” CANCEL!
Imagine the weird looks you're going to get as they slowly back away from you...
Yet, if a pop-up window appeared on your screen right now with any of those words on a button or two, you probably wouldn't bat an eye. After all, you've seen these labels being used to describe actions day-in and day-out…
A public art sculpture of two intersecting arrows (stock photo courtesy of https://pxhere.com/en/photo/709321)
What is "art" to you?
I asked this question to a few people today after seeing Mr. Alan Cooper's brief thoughts on art's role in design, or the lack thereof. The answers I received aligned with his definition of art being personal expression.
But what of art's relation to design? Is there a place for art in terms of software, web, or end-to-end experience design or, as Mr. Cooper states, does this idea essentially differ and distract from the true needs of design work?
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“Do the UX for this page."
"Make the UX work better for this screen."
We hear things like this all the time.
However, I came across an interesting argument yesterday for seeing “UX” as a human reaction, not something you necessarily design…
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I've always quite liked this UX approach phase diagram by peepaldesign for its simultaneous simplicity and level of detail
Talk is cheap, development is not. Observe, question, learn with these 10 quick and dirty steps.
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Courtesy of gdstream - "User Research Periscope" image taken 9 Sept 2015
I just finished listening to the March 31 podcast of Human Tech with their guest Nick Fine (@doctorfine) who was brought on to introduce an idea that shouldn't be radical. He reiterated for all of us that a user experience (UX) is a thing that we all have, it's definitely not something you "do", and above all, research is your ultimate key to success.
One of the main misconceptions companies, stakeholders, and even some self-proclaimed "UX Designers" have when they consider "designing a user experience" is that designing a UI based on all of the best principles and practices will give them what they think they need. But as we know and try to teach, no amount of superb UI design will ever be a catch-all replacement for the need to perform in-depth user research to validate the core ideas being investigated and developed.
As with any good educational podcast, it leaves me wondering, "So where am I fitting in? Am I on the path I want to be on for the sake of us all?" ...
Read MoreUX design leader and instructor, Jared Spool, recently tweeted a common, seemingly-critical warning that we still see too often on eCommerce and bill-payment sites, "Your purchase is in progress. Please do not leave this page or go back." But this got me wondering, what catastrophic effects would there be if we were given these process-interruption warning in other moments of our lives and those systems failed to consider our needs?
"Your elevator is descending. Please do not press another floor button or the elevator cables will snap." Hmmm...
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