Karen Bachmann

On Tuesday, 7 May at 4:00 EDT, I will be presenting at the 2013 Summit conference of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). I will be talking about how to effectively communicate user interface and interaction design to project team members and stakeholders to ensure the delivered product captures the user goals set out at the […]

I’m not alone in my admiration of the UX of LEGO®. Shortly after my post about the contribution of user research for LEGO designers, I came across this UX Magazine article by Josh Tyson: POP UX! Lego Teaches us About the Power of Near-Perfect User Experience. Tyson asks a couple of intriguing questions at the […]

I am a lifelong fan of LEGO© toys and games and of J.R.R. Tolkien. So when LEGO began to release The Lord of the Rings sets, I was delighted. I then came across this video about designing Shelob™ Attacks while reviewing the new sets: As a user experience researcher and designer, I enjoy learning about […]

Since my last post about making emotional response part of the design process and a defined focus of research, I’ve been wondering how you help make user responses, not just success, matter to a design and development team and get them to focus on it. One idea I came up with is user response bingo.

Adam Connor shared this brief insightful blog post that really caught my attention: On emotion and experience (Thought for the Day) If you aren’t at least considering people’s emotions, you probably aren’t designing for an experience. I have written about the need to have empathy with our users before, but Adam has very eloquently and succinctly pointed out why […]

When discussing great data presentation, Edward Tufte is often cited, with good reason. Good data presentation has always been important. It is especially necessary to achieve the potential with Big Data, uniting Information Management and Experience Design. I’m indebted to Perficient colleague Brian Dudley for introducing me to Hans Rosling and his inspiring way of presenting data. Rosling […]

Jared Spool presented “The Secret Lives of Links” as the closing keynote at Big Design 2012. Links do not get enough of our attention and too often are viewed as “just a way to connect stuff.” The fact that websites still have links with “click here” and “learn more” (first and second place for worst links, […]

In my last post, I wrote about the importance of changing the thinking about accessible design and how design itself is a powerful tool for change. Designing for change was a second strong theme at Big Design 2012, continuing from Big Design and UPA last year. Several sessions explored using design to bring about change, […]

I had the pleasure of attending the Big Design conference again this year. The theme that emerged for me was accessibility, both for several insightful sessions on the topic and for the effort that the conference organizers put into making this excellent regional conference as accessible as possible.

Google is sponsoring its second annual global science fair for students aged 13-18. This competition calls for the “brightest young scientists from around the world to submit interesting, creative projects that are relevant to the world today.” I have always found science fair and similar intellectual challenges to be incredibly inspiring. Falling into a rut […]

Valentine’s Day is about celebrating people we care about. It seems like a good holiday to focus on increasing our empathy and compassion for our customers and our users. Here are a few perspectives on why empathy is good for innovation and success as well as thoughts on cultivating compassion.

In “The top mistakes UX designers make: the writeup,” Scott Berkun shares common errors about culture and attitude that designers and user researchers make. Sadly, most of the mistakes seemed to result when we fail to have empathy for our colleagues. The following summarizes just a few of Berkun’s points that I found particularly interesting […]