All posts about
User experience

User experience is about how a person feels about using a product, system or service. (source: Wikipedia)

AUX3: Making UX research track with Agile

Added on 18 March 2019 Peter Bogaards

Putting a square in a circle?

“Agile and user experience have been partnered successfully since the Agile Manifesto was first authored in 2001 and have had a history of working well together in many situations. However, user experience research (UXR) has been largely unaccounted for in this work. The Agile Manifesto encourages us to revisit our processes and to iterate on ways to better describe how we work together with our teams. That is the goal of this article: to share our progress toward improving how we work by documenting an iteration of a model for you to try.”

Carol J. Smith a.k.a. @carologic, Thyra Rauch, and Hannah Moyers a.k.a. @h_moyers ~ UXPA magazine ★

Forge a Guild: Elevate your UX team to superhero status

Added on 12 March 2019 Peter Bogaards

Design remains team work. Even in guilds, tribes, and other social labels.

“In our busy Agile development environment, our UX team was under-resourced and frequently a bottleneck. We had won the fight for buy-in: People wanted us, but there were not enough of us to go around. So, we were seen as more of an “injustice league” than the band of heroes we wanted to be. Facing the challenge head-on, we successfully leveraged the guild model to scale UX within our mid-sized development organization. We deputized UI developers and QA resources to lighten our design load and to spread good design throughout the land.”

Jennifer Bullard @jbullard and Carol Bergantino @cbergantino20 ~ UXPA magazine ★

UX mentoring at scale: A how-to guide

Added on 2 January 2019 Peter Bogaards

Growing the nextgen digital designers at scale.

“Traditional mentoring programs have a lot of value. But finding the mentors can be difficult, and then pairing them one-by-one with mentees can be time-consuming. Because the recruiting and matching processes are such a heavy lift, the number of mentees who can be paired with mentors is always limited to the maximum number of mentors. Many potential mentees are left without mentors. In this article, you will learn about the following: How we created rapid group mentoring activities, how we organize the mentoring activities so mentees and mentors get the most out of the time they have together, and all the details of logistics and recruiting, so you can organize a similar activity in your UX community.”

Bob Thomas and Jen McGinn ~ UXPA Magazine ★

What is the role of creativity in UX design?

Added on 6 December 2018 Peter Bogaards

What’s the role of thinking in UX design. A big one.

“Did you know that there are three brain networks that are involved in creativity? In this article, Susan Weinschenk explores what creativity is, the recent brain science on what is happening in your brain when you are being creative, and the role of creativity in UX design.”

Susan Weinschenk a.k.a. /susanweinschenk | @thebrainlady ~ Smashing magazine ★

A structural model for unity of experience: Connecting user experience, customer experience, and brand experience

Added on 29 November 2018 Peter Bogaards

“Understanding customer experience from a holistic perspective requires examination of user experience in the context of marketing and branding. This study attempts to underpin the effects of UX on brand equity by developing and verifying a conceptual framework that connects user experience (UX), customer experience (CX), and brand experience (BX). A structural equation modeling test using data from smartphone users verified the effects of UX on brand equity mediated by CX. In the UX dimension, usability had a strong effect on brand equity, and affect and user value had an effect on customer experience. As a mediator, customer experience had an impact on brand equity with a high path weight. By implementing UX strategies that cohere with management strategies, companies can establish a high level of consumer perception of customer experience and brand value. The results and analyses of this research can help businesses establish a strategy for examining which element of UX is related to CX and BX.”

Hye-jin Lee, Katie Kahyun Lee, and Junho Choi ~ Journal of Usability Studies ★

The methods UX professionals use

Added on 22 November 2018 Peter Bogaards

Methods are useless without proper concepts, theories and even visions.

“The wide range of UX methods is one of the things that makes UX such an interesting field. Some methods have been around for decades (like usability testing), others are more recent additions, while some seem to be just slight variations on other existing methods.”

Jeff Sauro a.k.a. /jeffsauro | @MeasuringU ~ MeasuringU ★

Cybernetics and the design of the user experience of AI systems

Added on 7 November 2018 Peter Bogaards

Finally, two years after the workshop. Hopefully there will be another one.

“Cybernetics and artificial intelligence (AI) are often considered the same thing, with cybernetics having something to do with creating intelligent cyborgs and robots. In actuality, cybernetics and AI are different ways of thinking about intelligent systems or systems that can act toward reaching a goal. AI is primarily concerned with making computers mimic intelligent behavior based on stored representations of the world. Cybernetics more broadly encompasses the study of how systems regulate themselves and take action toward goals based on feedback from the environment. These systems are not just computational; they include biological (maintaining body temperature), mechanical (governing the speed of an engine), social (managing a large workforce), and economic (regulating a national economy) systems. In addition to reaching goals, AI and cybernetics both consider how systems can learn; however, while AI considers using stored representations as a means of acting intelligently, cybernetics focuses on grounded and situated behaviors that express intelligence and learning based on feedback and interaction.”

Nikolas Martelaro and Wendy Ju ~ ACM Interactions XXV.6 ★

Developing a Code of Ethics for UX Design: What we can learn from the field of architecture

Added on 30 October 2018 Peter Bogaards

Learning from other disciplines is key.

“(…) the WELL Building Standard is rigorous and well developed compared to the initiatives for ethical standards in the UX field, which makes it a valuable resource that we can learn from. This makes sense as we are a much younger and smaller profession than architecture, although we are growing at lightning speed. When you think about how fast digital technology is being propagated, our profession is in a slow-motion explosion. The reach and influence of our work has the potential to be wholly pervasive. Establishing ethical standards that uphold our commitment to ‘take care of’ our users is urgently needed.”

Dorothy Shamonsky a.k.a. /dorothyshamonsky | @dr_dor ~ UXPA Magazine ★

Blockchain UX: Challenges, principles and heuristics

Added on 11 October 2018 Peter Bogaards

UX still remains relevant for any type of technology.

“If you are a designer looking to pave ways into the Blockchain technology and applications, it is never late to start. From my personal experience I would suggest to kick start your learning by getting acquainted with the three core components the technology is composed of being: distributed ledger technology (DLT), decentralized (or better, distributed) networks, and public-key cryptography.”

Jo Mercieca a.k.a. /jomercieca ~ Medium ★

Things that Beep: A Brief History of Product Sound Design

Added on 20 September 2018 Peter Bogaards

Design for the ears to provide information, to communicate and to experience.

“As we move into an artificially intelligent world whose logics of operation often exceed our own understanding, perhaps we should linger a bit longer on those blips and clicks. Compressed within the beep is a whole symphony of historical resonances, socio-technical rhythms, political timbres, and cultural harmonies. Rather than simply signaling completion, marking a job done right, a beep instead intones the complex nature of our relationships to technology — and the material world more generally.”

Shannon Mattern ~ avant.org ★ courtesy of designobserver

The evolution of UX research: A job posting analysis

Added on 10 August 2018 Peter Bogaards

The job market for UX research follows the field of UX design practice.

“Our conclusion is that these seemingly opposing trends will persist for a while due to the different levels of research maturity in the market. UX teams of one, T-shaped UX, or UX unicorns are still in demand and will continue to be so. However, in our opinion, the demand for specialized UXers will keep growing. The increased understanding of UX by big companies is translated in the definition of job postings for ‘mixed’ UX researchers or specialized quantitative or qualitative researchers. It is likely to be a slow trend in the same way that UX took awhile to reach companies. However, and luckily, the future looks bright for anyone wishing to work in UX research.”

Muriel Garreta-Domingo a.k.a. @mparticulars and Alberto González Mosquera a.k.a. @Agonzalezmosq ~ UXPA Magazine ★

Don’t discount the role of UX in IoT

Added on 7 August 2018 Peter Bogaards

Machines have feelings too.

“The IoT network can range from a smart home thermostat to medical devices that send patient data from an ambulance to the emergency room to a tractor gathering crop yield data from different areas of the field, and so much more. IoT products are in their infancy—well, maybe the toddler stage—and spreading in different industries (for example, UX will play a huge role in smart factories of the new Industry 4.0) And, as mentioned, UX is not limited to the outside of the device; it is in all areas of the device. Let’s make it count.”

Kianosh Pourian a.k.a. /kianoshpourian | @kianoshp ~ The Magazine of the User Experience Professionals Association ★

As machine learning and AI perform magic, how can UX professionals help?

Added on 27 June 2018 Peter Bogaards

Deep understanding through some deep human learning.

“(…) UX designers and researchers need to be the co-creators of intelligent solutions to make sure AI technology works for people and society. More than ever, we must consider the capabilities and roles of human versus machine. When should machines make decisions and take action, and when should they augment or support people making decisions? How will these AI solutions make people feel? Do people feel like the solution is trustable, easy, and fun, or do they feel frustrated or even potentially endangered? UX professionals must act to learn, share, collaborate, and participate in cognitive technology research and development both at a strategic level and as a part of the product development process. We should also get involved in governance. We encourage UX professionals to join us and continue this dialog so that we can help create a better world.”

Cindy Lu a.k.a. and Alice Preston ~ UXPA magazine ★

XR design: Imagination, immersion, and presence

Added on 25 June 2018 Peter Bogaards

New hunting grounds for experience designers with a mixed view on reality.

“XR is an incredibly powerful new tool for bridging the gap between imagination and reality. It achieves this most effectively when full immersion occurs, a solid sense of presence exists, and a multimodal experience looks, feels, and sounds believable. These are foundational concepts to keep top of mind when you’re moving from designing experiences for traditional mediums to designing the magical world of XR.”

Dashiel Neimark a.k.a. /uxdash | @ux_Dash ~ UXmatters ★

What augmented reality can do for the user experience

Added on 25 June 2018 Peter Bogaards

New forms of reality are kicking in and we have no idea how to deal with it.

“It’s too early to dive deep into AR technology. Sure, the UX design for headless interfaces will be an important core competence in the future. However, we’re not really able to gain experience in that area as of right now. What UX designers can and should do now, is to experiment with established technologies, such as 360-degree videos, and virtual reality. Even if these experiences will not really cover the challenges of AR, they broaden your horizon in the right direction. This is important, as your approach will have to change fundamentally.”

Dieter Petereit a.k.a. @dpetereit ~ noupe ★

Embedding product design in a large Agile organization

Added on 19 June 2018 Peter Bogaards

Fitting a square into a circle can be a real challenge.

“The Agile approach can be tough for designers — if misinterpreted it creates the expectation that a solo designer assigned to a scrum team will constantly and magically generate just-in-time designs. That a great cohesive overall product experience will be envisioned and unfolded piece by tiny piece across multiple scrum teams. On the other hand, if strategically focused on both discovery and delivery, Agile represents a great opportunity to center product development around frequent user feedback, and to constantly iterate by treating every release as a prototype that demands learning and improvement.”

Scott Mackie a.k.a. /srmackie ~ Medium ★

UX and service design for connected products report

Added on 18 June 2018 Peter Bogaards

Take it away!

“In this Insight Report, we’ll look at the factors which make UX for IoT particularly challenging. We’ll discuss how technical architecture and business models shape UX, and how IoT blurs the line between product and service experiences. We’ll look at the need to give users transparency around how complex systems work and share data, in particular in relation to GDPR. And we’ll set out the challenges of designing distributed user experiences across multiple UIs, and show how some companies are tackling the challenges of designing for both hardware and software in parallel.”

Claire Rowland a.k.a. /clairerowland | @clurr ~ IoT.uk ★