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…
Tag: UX
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
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
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,…
UX 101, UX Articles
Lessons in UX: Peer designing
There’s a practice in software development called peer programming, where two developers partner with each other to code a particular project. It allows for each developer to play to his or her strengths and to “cross-train” with a colleague. In…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
How do you sell the value of qualitative user research to business stakeholders?
First, tie the research to business goals. If the business goal is to increase adoption of the company’s product in a certain demographic, then emphasize the need to understand these users in order to properly message the value proposition of…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What courses of study and/or degrees are recommended for a career in UI design?
First off, UX and UI is not the same thing, so what degree you pursue is directly related to which one you want to focus on. User interfaces are the predominant canvases that user experience designers use, but if you…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What are best ways to combine personas with user stories?
The best way to integrate personas with user stories are to understand that personas are characters in a story, and they have emotions, drivers and motivations just like any characters in any good stories do. I’ve often seen the parallels…