Confidence is good. Arrogance is not. The key is to be confident but also open to other people's ideas and to the possibility that you may be mistaken and/or your design could be improved. Let's use Sherlock Holmes as an…
Category: UX Articles
My Quora answers, UX Articles
How do UX designers track their productivity?
When it comes to tracking productivity in UX design, the focus should always be on the outcomes, quality and hitting key milestones, and not on day-to-day activity. Because there is no one "perfect" UX design process (just as there is…
My Quora answers, UX 101, UX Articles
What are the foundations that need to be laid out before designing an interface?
I have used multiple techniques to do this, depending upon the amount of time available on the design project. At the very least, you need to have focus as to what you are designing, and know the target audience for…
UX Articles
Lessons in Service Design: How to Avoid “Showrooming”
Retailers have noticed a disturbing trend of the past few months. Many of the people visiting their stores are browsing but not spending any money… At least, not at your store. They’re still spending their money… just online. These customers…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
Why do creators of some online booking systems think it is a good idea to check the availability of seats only at the very end of the booking process?
Two reasons I can think of: First, the focus of the reservation process is booking the trip, and so the location of your seat is secondary to that. It may be important to you and many others, but it is…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What are the best ways to provide instant gratification to users in a webapp?
A good question, and I've written about this quite a bit. First, provide points or virtual currency that actually let you DO something with them – a good example is XBOX points that users can use to get content or…
UX Articles
Some thoughts on “Gamification” and UX design
There’s been a lot of discussion and articles in the user experience space over the past few months on Gamification – that is, using techniques and attributes from video games and applying them to other domains, such as web or…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
How do you or others get informed about the UX activities being performed at your company today?
My company has a “UX community” that has regular meetings to share and communicate progress. It’s useful, but a little “echo chamber-y” for my tastes. The key way to keep in touch is to be involved and engaged with the…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
UX for Mobile: What are the best methods for doing contextual user research for mobile?
Here’s what I did when I did a contextual research project around mobile usage and habits two years ago: First, I interviewed people. A lot of people. 30 people in three different states. I asked them about how they used…
Apple, My Quora answers, UX Articles
What would be a more elegant way to handle updates to apps on iPhone and iPad?
Make them push, not pull. Right now you have to go "get" the updates, by clicking on the App Store icon, then going to updates. That's "pull." Change to "push" by using the new Notification Center that was just added…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
How can you encourage conversations about UX leadership in your organisation?
You can pontificate about your organization focusing on user experience, or you can lead by example. I have found that the best way to encourage a geniune conversation is the successful implementation of a user-centered design in a project or…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What is the reason for multi-column layout in magazines and newspapers?
Before I became a semi-well-known user experience guy, I did magazine layouts and typography. I also studied/majored in journalism, so I read of the early days of newspapers and how they began. So, I think I’m semi-qualified to provide an…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
Is NPS is a good measure of a users experience? Also, are there any other calculations that could measure how a product is perceived by its users?
Yes, I think NPS is a fairly good indicator, but it’s a “one-dimensional” indicator. No matter how many customers you survey it is still just a survey, without much context. Some other ways you can get a sense of how…
Apple, My Quora answers, Technology, UX Articles
Why are our "smart devices" so dumb?
There are some practical reasons, and some pragmatic ones. A "thinking" device is a device that is consuming power to think (to run the processor), and hardware and software designers have to keep a core user need in mind: battery…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
When should you disable a feature rather than hide it?
Disabling a feature is best applied when it shows the user that they can do something, just not right now. Two examples are menu options that aren't available, or a data entry field that they can't edit. This could confuse…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
Should designers have their own style, or be flexible?
The answer to me lies in changing the question. Replace the word "designer" with "artist" or "writer" and the ask the question again. Would you ask a writer or an artist to confirm their style? Should they? I say no,…