News Flashes - Hand-Picked Since 1997

May 10, 2012

5 Valuable Skills For UX Professionals

I can think of another 25 valuable skills. It takes at least 10.000 hours of work to become a real pro.

"The background, education and skills of professionals in User Experience are diverse. Regardless of whether you're more on the research side or more on the design side of the User Experience, here are five skills that will make you more valuable and effective in your job."

(Jeff Sauro a.k.a. @MsrUsability ~ Measuring Usability)

PJB @ 3:02 PM | Classification: User experience | Permalink

May 9, 2012

How to transform vision into value

Service design connects here to customer experience.

Presentation - "This presentation shines the light on what's missing in turning A customer experience vision into tangible business value. How do you use all that is good and useful from typical customer experience approaches? How do you add commercial rigour and the hard core analytics in a way that one competency doesn't dominate the other? What is the secret in bringing together the skills and perspectives that result in a great customer experience and an equally great commercial outcome?"

(Damian Kernahan a.k.a. @protopartners ~ Proto Partners)

PJB @ 1:08 PM | Classification: Customer experience - Service design | Permalink

Principles of User Interface Design

Scope is clear: the design of user interfaces.

"It contains a list of 20 or so design principles that I refer to all the time. This was a good way to get them down into one spot.. so I can point people there in the future."

(Joshua Porter a.k.a. @bokardo)

PJB @ 10:39 AM | Classification: HCI | Permalink

May 8, 2012

Enhancing user involvement with digital cultural heritage: The usage of social tagging and storytelling

Dutch museums enter the universe of metadata.

"This paper focuses on the use of online social tagging and storytelling to enrich digital collections of cultural heritage. Together with several Dutch museums, we examined the question of whether and how social tagging could benefit these museums in disclosing specific digital collections. This led to the development of a social tagging tool as a means of researching behaviour when tagging cultural objects. The results show that tagging and storytelling can help museums enrich their collections and involve their audiences."

(Harry van Vliet and Erik Hekman ~ First Monday, Volume 17, Number 5)

PJB @ 10:23 AM | Classification: Metadata | Permalink

May 7, 2012

Expressing UX Concepts Visually

One image, a thousand words. One word, a piece of the jigsaw puzzle.

"It is all too easy to create UX deliverables that are not visually pleasing. But UX expertise encompasses Web design, graphic design, and branding, so why should we be satisfied with mediocre design in our deliverables? When we present our personas, sitemaps, user flows, wireframes, and other design deliverables to our clients and stakeholders, it is our duty and responsibility to create well-designed deliverables."

(Barnabas Nagy ~ UXmatters)

PJB @ 1:32 PM | Classification: InfoViz - Information graphics - User experience | Permalink

Understanding Information Architecture Differently

Conventional might be a better adjective than classical.

"(...) the practice of information architecture has confronted the need to solve the effects of information overload from its very beginning. It did not begin as a struggle for better user experiences, site planning, usability, or budgets. Information architecture arrived as a practice specifically to address the challenges that information abundance brought on within the context of the Internet. This is the seemingly narrow scope of information architecture through which the classic IA perspective survives."

(Nathaniel Davis a.k.a. @iatheory ~ UXmatters)

PJB @ 1:26 PM | Classification: Information architecture | Permalink

May 5, 2012

Computer Screens Getting Bigger

In the end, high quality screens will have more social impact than faster CPU cycles, improved bandwidth or cheaper storage. Think Retina Displays and beyond.

"Reasonably big monitors have finally become the most common class of desktop computer screen, dethroning the 1024×768 resolution that was long the target for web design."

(Jakob Nielsen ~ Alertbox)

PJB @ 9:29 PM | Classification: Technology | Permalink

May 4, 2012

Responsive web design: A project-management perspective

The silver bullet is not as silver as you think it is.

"Reading blogs out there, you will notice that every attempt to fix a responsive design process is still very experimental: there are as many offered ways as there are blog articles about it! Progress is being made, but nothing is really set in stone at the moment. Knowing that, the most important thing right now is to make sure you ask the right questions at the start of each project, make the right choices, and jump into experimentation yourself with a maximum amount of pragmatism. If you find a good idea to make all of these challenges smoother, please write about it and share your discoveries on the web!"

(Rudy Rigot ~ Dev.Opera) ~ courtesy of luctiemessen

PJB @ 1:54 PM | Classification: Technology | Permalink

A(nother) call to action regarding healthcare

Again a broken 20th century institution to refocus on experience: the PX

"In my view, UX designers can do more. Learn about the problematic healthcare cultural characteristics that dominate and that need to change. Alter how you do design research. Don't limit yourself to incremental innovation and work that is narrowly focused on UIs. Question the advisability of doing projects that, in essence, only amount to putting lipstick on the very large healthcare pig. Escape your comfort zones in order to have the kind of impact on the world that you desire."

(Richard Anderson a.k.a. @riander)

PJB @ 11:45 AM | Classification: Customer experience - User experience | Permalink

Seven Deadly Mobile Myths: Josh Clark Debunks the Desktop Paradigm and More

Are we all in a state of (design) confusion?

"It's a thrilling but overwhelming moment in the history of technology, and most of us are running hard just to keep up. I strongly believe this is a time to be generous... to share ideas, offer critique, and do everything we can to help one another develop the techniques and philosophies necessary to push our digital efforts forward."

(Anthony Wing Kosner ~ Forbes) courtesy of birgitgeiberger

PJB @ 11:28 AM | Classification: Mobile design | Permalink

May 2, 2012

Customer experience: The natural ally for UX in business

One of my rare original blogposts.

Disclosure: I work at Informaat (The Netherlands) ~ "In this post, I would like to talk about what has been on my mind for the last year or two: the relationship between user experience and customer experience and how user experience designers can extend their influence in businesses."

(Peter Bogaards a.k.a. @BogieZero ~ βiRDS on a W!RE)

PJB @ 4:51 PM | Classification: Customer experience - User experience | Permalink

What The 3 Stages Of Love Teach You About Crafting Great Services

And what happens when love goes stale?

"Service design is about creating living entities that evolve and change over time. This is fundamentally different from other forms of design, which generally aim for permanency."

(Olof Schybergson a.k.a. @olof_s ~ Fast Co.Design)

PJB @ 9:59 AM | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Content strategy is not always ux

The DTDT thing disguised as an opinion.

"The complex interplay between UX and content strategy allows for many different scenarios, but one thing is clear to us: Most of the time, content strategy efforts should not fall under UX. UX professionals are expert in creating intuitive, clear paths within websites for visitors to consume all your audience-targeted content. Content strategists are expert at creating content that meets audience needs."

(Linda Leung ~ Tendo Communications)

PJB @ 9:45 AM | Classification: Content strategy - User experience | Permalink

May 1, 2012

How to Win the UX War Within Your Organization

War might not be the proper analogy.

"When companies don't care about user experience, it is clearly reflected in the products they create. Although everyone can agree that software should be intuitive, user-friendly, and aesthetically pleasing, many managers aren't willing to invest the time and resources it takes to build something compelling. A large part of our job as UX advocates, then, is explaining design's impact on the company as a whole. Determining which battles to win and which battles to lose - even intentionally - can help you win the UX war."

(Girish Gangadharan a.k.a. @appoosa ~ UX Booth)

PJB @ 5:00 PM | Classification: User experience | Permalink

April 25, 2012

True Death of UX? Being Jaded

UX moves up the ladder and more into business contexts to make a difference.

"Being a services consultant in the field of user experience insulates you somewhat from the daily grind. But seeing the same problems, products, companies, and types of people can easily wear you down. However, despite the variety in UX work, a certain amount of routine and repetition can cause the exciting rituals of user experience to become habitual. When that happens, you can lose the excitement of the work, and jadedness can set it. It is vital that, as UX professionals, we re-examine not only what we are doing, but how we are doing it. Keeping our activities fresh is not only good for our professional aspirations, but in the end, serves the best interests of our customers."

(Baruch Sachs a.k.a. @basachs ~ UXmatters)

PJB @ 10:21 AM | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Great User Experiences Require Great Front-End Development

Knowing to code makes a better designer.

"In this column, we'll discuss innovative approaches to application design that are based on our personal experience in the trenches."

(Jim Nieters, Amit Pande, and Uday M. Shankar ~ UXmatters)

PJB @ 10:09 AM | Classification: Technology - User experience | Permalink

April 24, 2012

Content Modelling: A Master Skill

Data, information, or content modelling: entities, properties and relations. Stuff and structure.

"A content model is a powerful tool for fostering communication and aligning efforts between UX design, editorial, and technical resources on a project. By clearly defining the assembly model, the content types, and the content attributes, we can help make sure that the envisioned content strategy becomes a reality for the content creators. In my recent projects, I find that content modeling is more and more in demand. It's a valuable skill for any content strategist, especially those that strive for mastery."

(Rachel Lovinger a.k.a. @rlovinger ~ A List Apart)

PJB @ 5:19 PM | Classification: Content strategy - TechCom | Permalink

Agile UX versus Lean UX

It's one of those DTDT's again.

"Bottom line: in everyday conversation, whether one uses the term Lean or Agile or What-not is probably not that important. What's more important, is an understanding of how Agile and Lean help make traditional UX a more whole practice."

(Anders Ramsay a.k.a. @andersramsay)

PJB @ 5:08 PM | Classification: User experience | Permalink

Shift Happens

Always been a great admirer of Thomas Kuhn.

"The problems that dominated Kuhn's life after his great moment of insight arose not because Kuhn wasn't brilliant enough. Rather, they arose and persist because while we increasingly understand that the old metaphysical paradigm has failed, for several generations now we have not found our new paradigm. Our culture has inappropriately latched on to Kuhn's message as an exaltation of the rootless disconnection of our ideas from the world because we were ready to hear that knowledge is not apart from our knowing of it. But he and we have not yet come to a new shared understanding about what it means to live truthfully as humans."

(David Weinberger a.k.a. @dweinberger)

PJB @ 2:29 PM | Classification: Classics - Information design | Permalink

April 23, 2012

Augmented Paper

There's some real magic in all these apps.

"Design an experience. Make it as beautiful - and as emotionally resonant - as it can possibly be. Then adorn the core experience and content with only as much functionality as is absolutely necessary. Functionality - and software-based thinking in general - is like seasoning. A little is an enhancement; any more destroys the flavour, subsumes the artistry of the chef, and may well be bad for you. These new classes of devices, so immediately personal and portable and tactile, aren't desktop-era shrines demanding incantation and prostration. They're empowering extensions to our real, actual lives - and that's a profound thing. They take what was once prosaic or mundane, and give us just a taste of superpowers. They're augmentations, and they should be beautiful."

(Matt Gemmell a.k.a. @mattgemmell)

PJB @ 4:15 PM | Classification: HCI - Mobile design - Tablet design - User experience | Permalink

Critical Dialogue: Interaction, Experience and Cultural Theory

Some real gems in this one.

"Over the last decade there has been a significant growth in interest in aspects of people's experience with technologies under headings such as user experience, aesthetics, affect, fun, reflection, and enjoyment. In more recent years critical theory has begun to make a small but important impact at CHI conferences and other HCI publications. It is arguable that a relationship between critical theory and experience would benefit HCI research and practice as it has benefited other areas of research in the humanities and social sciences. However, in the history of ideas experience and critical theory have not always made good bedfellows, sometimes complementing each other, sometimes resisting each other. This workshop will explore the ways in which HCI might benefit from a constructive dialogue between critical theory and experience in questions of design and evaluation."

(Workshop on April 10 2010, in association with ACM CHI 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia USA)

PJB @ 10:28 AM | Classification: Events - HCI | Permalink

April 21, 2012

Best Application Designs

Apps are returning from the era of desktop application designs.

"The winning app UIs include domain-specific solutions that allow humans to focus on deeper issues while the software takes care of the mechanics."

(Jakob Nielsen ~ Alertbox)

PJB @ 9:48 PM | Classification: Usability | Permalink

April 17, 2012

Innovating User Value: The Interrelations of Business Model Innovation, (Service) Design Thinking and the Production of Meaning

Always great to have academic research on meaning and services.

"(...) the discussion on strategic innovation in the business sphere is cluttered into a variety of discourses in which the latter seldomly plays a major role. Therefore service designers are all too often confronted with a very narrow understanding of designs value contributions to high-level strategy making, neither are they able to explain and relate their own work to the parallel developing discourses in the business realm. The attached thesis tries to bring together some seemingly isolated research streams and provides an overview of their topical similarities and overlaps. It connects the dots by putting its focus on "value creation" (a term that most discourses culminate in) and "design's" value contributions to strategic innovation."

(Jan Schmiedgen a.k.a. @brandsystemUXD ~ Service Design Network)

PJB @ 10:47 AM | Classification: Service design | Permalink

Interactive eBook Apps: The Reinvention of Reading and Interactivity

Pinging my CD-ROM memories full of interactive storytelling.

"The invention of the tablet PC has created a new medium for book publishing. Interactive books are everywhere, and have revolutionized the way people consume the printed word. With the recent software available to allow easy creation of interactive books and with the race to bring these products to market, there seems to be a more and more dilution of quality and a loss for the meaning of interactivity. When publishers create new eBook titles or convert a traditional printed book to a digital interactive eBook, they often miss the added value this new medium can provide."

(Avi Itzkovitch a.k.a. @xgmedia ~ UX Magazine) ~ courtesy of vanderbeeken

PJB @ 9:44 AM | Classification: Tablet design | Permalink

April 16, 2012

User Experience Is The Heart Of Any Company. How Do You Make It Top Priority?

Calling it 'Customer Experience' might help.

"The closer you are to your customers, the more relevant your product will be and the more likely you make it for people to choose you. It may seem obvious, but the gap between those that do and those that talk is widening, despite the immediate bottom-line benefits. But more than this, companies that put usefulness at the heart of what they do become part of their customers' lives. Engaging with customers then becomes an ongoing conversation, rather than the stop-start involvement that characterized the 20th century. This makes it much easier for customers to come back, and keep coming back."

(Mary Ellen Muckerman ~ FastCo)

PJB @ 4:39 PM | Classification: Customer experience - User experience | Permalink

April 13, 2012

Design Principles for Complex, Unpredictable, People Oriented Systems

A well-thought through post on experience and systems. By IBM, who else.

"But, socio-technical systems are oriented toward people and services. While product excellence and competitive costs are also important to services, they are not enough. The service sector is oriented toward consumption, that is, toward people, who are the consumers of services. Therefore, an overriding design objective for good socio-technical, service oriented systems has to be a positive user experience. Ease of use, intuitive interfaces and good overall customer service must be key objectives for a well designed system."

(Irving Wladawsky-Berger)

PJB @ 1:41 PM | Classification: Information design - Technology | Permalink

April 12, 2012

Nielsen responds to mobile criticism

Mobile is here to stay. Also for Jakob.

"The usability pro answers critics who have described his recent mobile recommendations as "backward."

(Tanya Combrinck ~ .net magazine)

PJB @ 9:29 PM | Classification: Mobile design | Permalink

Designers respond to Nielsen on mobile

Jakob still stirs the pot.

"Nielsen's recommendation that publishers build separate mobile sites has been met with astonishment from the industry."

(Tanya Combrinck ~ .net magazine) courtesy of karenmcgrane

PJB @ 9:20 PM | Classification: Mobile design - Usability | Permalink

Nielsen is wrong on mobile

Jakob is wrong on everything, except usability.

"For all of Jakob Nielsen's many great contributions to web usability over the years, his advice for mobile is just 180-degrees backward. His latest guidelines perpetuate several stubborn mobile myths that have led too many to create 'lite' mobile experiences that patronise users, undermine business goals, and soak up design and tech resources."

(Josh Clark a.k.a. @globalmoxie ~ .net magazine) courtesy of lammertpostma

PJB @ 9:10 PM | Classification: Mobile design - Usability | Permalink

Designing for touch

Mobile Touch, the new design space with many new constraints, materials and possibilities.

"Great mobile designs do more than shoehorn themselves into tiny screens: they make way for fingers and thumbs, accommodating the wayward taps of our clumsy digits. The physicality of handheld interfaces take designers beyond the conventions of visual and information design‚ and into the territory of industrial design. With touchscreens there are real ergonomics at stake. It's not just how your pixels look, but how they feel in the hand."

(Josh Clark a.k.a. @globalmoxie ~ .net magazine) courtesy of puttingpeoplefirst

PJB @ 10:05 AM | Classification: HCI - Mobile design | Permalink