There's not a lot of visible difference between a mind map and a navigation model – they are both "boxes and arrows" that connect objects in a structure. The use of them and the information they contain are very different,…
Category: UX Articles
Featured Articles, My Quora answers, Technology, Trek, UX Articles
What kind of technologies need to be invented to bring us up to speed with Star Trek?
I’m actually quite involved and interested in this question, as my job is to design computer interfaces and support new opportunities in user experiences that I could not have even dreamt of even 5 years ago (I did mobile design…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
Which is a better trait for an interaction designer — perfectionism or the willingness to compromise?
Joseph Dickerson, Been a hands-on interaction designer for many y… I think that it's not a question of should you be a perfectionist but WHEN should you focus on making the details crisp and perfect. If you are exploring ideas…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
How can the user experience community evangelize to a broader audience?
Joseph Dickerson, I'm a practitioner and advocate of User Experie… I think that conferences like SXSW is a good opportunity to spread the UX "gospel" – but you need to make the topic have broad appeal. Also look into conferences…
My Quora answers, UX 101, UX Articles
Does usability really make the world a better place?
Joseph Dickerson, I've been a graphic or software designer for 20… The way I have always looked at it is this: if you make an experience as elegant and as usable as possible then you are making life just a…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
Should a professional UX designer have their own website?
Joseph Dickerson, I'm a UX Design professional. It depends. Do you want the website to be about your passions or a promotional vehicle for your career? If your website is about your love for knitting and you also happen to…
My Quora answers, UX 101, UX Articles
What qualities do the best UX professionals have?
Joseph Dickerson, Not a Top UX Designer though I aspire to be… The same ability that lawyers have – to be very adept at the core discipline of a domain (user experience design) but also the ability to learn the…
My Quora answers, UX 101, UX Articles
How do you properly begin designing a user-friendly interface?
Joseph Dickerson, I've been a graphic or software designer for 20… Know your users. Make what you are doing as useful as you can for them. Make it desirable and as amazing as you can. Be focused on simplicity –…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What are some good ways to incorporate a new User Experience group into the existing development cycle of a software company?
Joseph Dickerson, I'm a practitioner and advocate of User Experie… Empathize two things: the added value that UX design will bring to the process (in that a user centered design process will bring clarity and focus into requirements and make…
UX Articles
On complacency and challenging yourself…
When you are in a creative occupation, like with any other job, you have to deliver. Not just occasionally, but all the time. I have great admiration for people who continue to be prolific for years and years, long past…
UX Articles
Making ‘Touch Banking’ Work for Customers
Originally written for and published by BAI/Banking Strategies, December 22, 2010 Within the last year, tablet computers, led by the Apple iPad, have made a tremendous splash in the market. While only a handful of financial institutions are currently offering…
UX Articles
Lessons in UI design: Highlight the “tip of the iceberg.”
I’m working on a big design project, and a challenge I’m facing is around information architecture: What is important to the users and should be surfaced and highlighted in the UI, versus other content that is not as important. What…
UX Articles
Want to quickly understand users? “Crowd source” your research, use comments
Last month I was browsing Fark.com, a popular news and community site, and came upon a link to a Wall Street Journal story about how hard it was for college graduates to get a job. One if the main subjects…
Geek, Technology, UX Articles
UX, predicted: What will the future bring?
In my role as a User Experience Architect I have design for and support what users do today, and understand their mental models of how things work. That is challenging enough, and if that was all my job was I’d…
Technology, UX 101, UX Articles
Technology, applied: understand how people use tech and then support their usage and needs
Let’s go back in time a bit – back in time to those carefree days of yore, when tech companies piled new feature after new feature into each consecutive release of their flagship products… When each new release promoted a…
Apple, UX Articles
Interaction Design on the iPad: the apps you need
I have read scores of pundits talk about the iPad being a “consumption device,” that it’s for enjoying content and not creating it. To all these talking heads, I say “phooey!” The iPad is a great device to be creative…