I will caveat my guidance in this area by stating that there are “soft skills” that all good user experience designers have: problem solving, empathy, communication skills, and collaboration. If a person starts out with a deficiency in one or…
This week a new app, Next Issue, debuted for the iPad. Called “Netflix for magazines,” the app allows users to read as many electronic magazines as they would like for only $10 a month. It was an instant success, with…
Originally published on Fiserv’s “The Point” Blog, July 10th, 2012. It isn’t much of an exaggeration to say that mobile apps have changed everything. The ways people work, shop and live have been enhanced by dedicated applications that support their…
I think you should always include and consider general best practices in user experience design when designing for mobile, as they are foundational. Know your user, test your designs, refine based on user testing… all these should be applied when…
I’ve launched two new news sites that I think people will like. The first, This Week In UX, features the latest news and articles in the User Experience domain. It is my semi-automated “sequel” to my This Week in UX…
Are you paying attention right now? Complete attention to the words that you are reading on this screen? Or are there two or three windows open on the computing device you are using? Is there also music playing in the…
I’m a huge fan of the Walt Disney Park experience, and my family has traveled several times to Walt Disney World and Disneyland. The service we receive is unparalleled to any other vacation spot, and I always return from every…
One of my first jobs in user experience was designing an interactive voice response system for my company’s customer support line. it was more challenging that you might think… we had to understand the mental model of users who would…
Personalization is when the system you are using tailors itself to you and your behavior. A good example of this is Amazon "noticing" what you are buying and changing their front page to feature similar items. Customization is when the…
I was able to attend and speak at Usability Professionals Association 2012 last week in Las Vegas, and it was quite a learning experience. I got a lot out of it, and was also grateful for the opportunity to share…
Based on the presentation given at UPA 2012 this June. I have spent a lot of time over the past month looking at alternate methods of interaction, different ways people can engage with technology other than the traditional mouse/keyboard paradigm.…
As a UX professional who travels a lot, I love this question. It's like playing a video game in God Mode: you are in complete control, for better or worse. Let's try for the better, shall we? A key principle…
One of the first things I would do is get a better understanding of is usage. What is the information that is being entered going to be used for? A good sense of what is important and what is not…
Here's three tips on usability from my interview on the subject with TechJournal: http://www.techjournal.org: First, create the simplest version of user interface required to accomplish the task you are designing. Take out everything that isn’t necessary to accomplish the task.…
I travel quite a bit for work, and as I recently sat in a hotel room I started thinking about all the steps that brought me to that room. I booked the flight and the room online, I flew from…
There are several benefits to user experience design, and I'll list some of them. Before I begin, a quick note: user experience design to me encompasses EVERYTHING, from UI design to customer support processes to retail store design and packaging.…