I have a weird obsession with elevator buttons. Some are just really fun to press! I’ve started making a mental catalog of why I find such giddy delight in such a mundane task—the weight of the button, the texture, the material, the temperature, how it fits the curve of my finger, the distance it presses […]
Natalie Kurz
For the last 10 years Natalie Kurz has helped clients navigate the rapidly changing digital landscape by guiding them through the process of creating a cohesive user-centered online presence. Her work has included branding and voice definition, digital and social media strategies, integrated marketing campaigns, mobile application design, copywriting, user interface design and Intranet development for clients in the financial, health, consumer product, education and advocacy sectors. She’s had the pleasure of working with industry leaders including Express Scripts, Answers.com, Stifel Nicolaus, Protective Insurance, Northwestern University, Washington University, State Farm, Jiffy Steamer and Purina. She holds a masters degree in journalism from NYU.
Blogs from this Author
A Mobile-First Approach (aka, Death to the Separate Mobile Site)
Over the course of the last four years, I’ve worked on many “mini-mobile” websites—that is to say, a client tasks us with picking a half-dozen “important” pages from the full website and building them out in mobile-friendly ways with an m.website.com URL. The crucial point here is, who is to say what is “important” to […]
The User Experience IS Your Brand
I was going to take the leap today and cancel my landline (insert your “old-fashioned” joke here). But when I went to [insert communication provider’s] website, I was led down a rabbit hole of bad user interface decisions, one after another—it was the web equivalent to the annoying “press 1 for option A” recorded customer […]
Driving Enterprise User Adoption – the Band-Aid Approach
“If you build it, he will come.” This mantra may have worked for “Field of Dreams,” but it doesn’t cut if for new or redesigned enterprise-level applications. User adoption, like all change really, is never easy. It requires breaking habits and changing mindsets and doing so on a large, enterprise-level scale. But at the end […]
Good UX Design is Not a Buffet of Choices
A recent frustration I’ve been feeling can be summed up very nicely by a quote from UX designer Leisa Reichelt—“Don’t design for everyone. It’s impossible. All you end up doing is designing something that makes everyone unhappy.” It’s been a recurring request on the last few projects I’ve been involved with. Somewhere along the way […]
What Exactly IS User Experience Design?
It’s something many folks in my profession struggle with—explaining to other people exactly what we do. When people I don’t really know (like my father’s poker buddy, my tailor, the lady making polite chit-chat while she bags my groceries…) ask me what I do, I respond, “I help build websites.” It’s simple. People understand it. […]
Tone versus Voice
When developing a brand’s identity (which should take into account both written and visual communication), it’s important to establish the brand’s voice and tone. What’s the difference between voice and tone? Glad you asked. The voice is like the “personality.” It helps define who the brand is. It is distinct and helps set you apart […]
User Experience For Content Management Systems (CMS)
I’ve seen a lot of bad CMSs. Systems that take multiple steps and six different screens to publish and categorize a page. In-page editing that looks completely different once it’s published. And my favorite was a previous client (I led a project redesigning the intranet for a state’s judiciary department) who had an employee that […]