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Posts Tagged ‘UX’

User Experience Debt: Why, What and How? (Part 1)

As a user experience designer, I used to think that the worst designed websites were the best candidates for improvement. Symptoms of user experience debt may sound familiar to you – confusing navigation, excess clicks, accessibility violations, and painful load times. I applied to jobs thinking the larger the UX debt, the greater the opportunity. […]

You’re smart if you can ‘dummy’ it down.

It may seem odd that I would discuss an article from academia (A new movement strives for simplicity), but hear me out. Most of us are moderately or highly literate on our respective areas of expertise. But guess what? Our colleagues and clients may not be at the same level of know-how. I could make the […]

The dangers of listening to customers too closely

Part 1 of 2 How do you excite the imagination of your team to devise new ways of solving design problems, to create new ideas and better user experiences? Where do you start? Design firms, and those invested in design thinking and innovation, start by asking customers what they want. I’ll be the first to […]

Part 2 – What to do about “the too familiar persona?”

Read part 1: The too familiar persona I imagine we’ve all used Cooper’s personas to routinely “engage the empathy of the design and development toward the human target of the design.” Nothing wrong in using goal directed personas, however one user profile model isn’t the best fit for every brand or its users’ motivations and […]

The too familiar persona

Design personas are user research models employed in various fields of design. Software design teams have been embracing personas in their work since roughly 1999, following Alan Cooper’s published work on goal-directed personas in his “Asylum” and “About Face” texts. They’ve become a user research staple, and the must-do-method for most of the products and services […]

The Benefits of a Sound Taxomony

Grace Lau, lead business consultant, Perficient XD, recently wrote an article for Boxes and Arrows on building the case for taxonomy. In the piece, she explores concerns surrounding ill-defined site redesign projects and the ROI of taxonomy. She also breaks down taxonomy  and compares it to her personal task of organizing spices in her kitchen to make […]

Take Your Community UX to the Next Level

Make Your Salesforce Community Usable and Useful A quality user experience is best achieved when the design is based on user-research that documents user pain points and goals, and maps out user journeys. With better understanding of your users, you can create designs that not only remove barriers but optimize the entire experience. Surface what […]

“We shape our tools and afterwards our tools shape us.”

I just read Changing change management shared by David Stallsmith. No doubt digital (interactive media) and the software powering it can be incredibly useful for delivering and managing change within organizations. The descriptive and prescriptive digital examples discussed in the article seem to verify that digital is both positive and transformative when done right. And […]

CX and software – consumers lead the experience (part 2)

Part 1 see: “Is software eating the world? Or, is it really customers?” In the earlier post I mentioned that more companies are focusing on the opportunities software offers to create customer value through the customer experience (CX). This rising development is a result of the rise in popularity of software, and it is spawning […]

Is software eating the world? Or, is it really customers?

Part 1 of 2  Are software companies poised to “take over large swathes of the economy?” Apparently Marc Andreessen thought so in an article from 2011. I think he is right. Let’s take a quick mental inventory of a few of the major firms running on software and delivered as online services – eBay, Amazon, […]

Mobile Responsive is the New “Mobile Friendly” for Communities

Confused about the difference between mobile friendly and mobile responsive? You’re not alone. Although these terms seem similar in meaning, they’re actually quite the opposite. For instance mobile ‘friendly’, by industry definition, is a bit of a misnomer. Mobile responsive is actually more mobile friendly than mobile friendly and here’s why. A mobile friendly webpage, […]

Top 3 Reasons Your User Research is Boring

Kara Swisher of Re/code gave a keynote address for Interaction 15 in which she described trends in content. One thing she talked about was the way Buzzfeed rapidly generates listicles and memes from shared media experiences. She joked about trying to apply this lighthearted approach to subjects she has covered–“15 Things Bill Gates was thinking […]

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