Archive for the ‘Design Practice’ Category
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Interaction
I have already covered content, visual design and behaviour as part of the UX design framework but now for the important topic of interaction…
A major element of UX, it has been described as
“the design of behavior, positioned as dialogue between a person and an artifact. A person commonly doesn’t talk to an object; they use it, touch it, manipulate it, and control it. Usage, touching, manipulation and control are all dialogical acts, unspoken but conversational.” – Jon Kolko
and also…
“a design discipline dedicated to defining the behavior of artifacts, environments, and systems (i.e., products)”. – Robert Reimann
Undoubtedly interaction design is a design discipline that has become a defining element of UX. Though the preceding two quotes assert the alignment with a user’s behaviour they do so here in relation to their interaction (the person and the artifact).
Continue reading “UX design framework – Interaction” »
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Posted in Design principles, Interaction Design, Interface Design | 2 Comments »
Monday, June 21st, 2010
The purpose of UXBASIS is not only to be a set of methods for UX practitioners but it is also a way of introducing UX to the wider organisation. The talk I gave last month to a group of Danish web product managers was focused on not only the tools we use in UX but how they themselves can successfully integrate UX into their organisation.
The audience represented those who really are empowered to change the user experience daily – the product and web development managers. In the presentation I highlight several ways to create change and use approaches to help give a different perspective to their task in hand.
So much of what they deal with, the political and organisational challenges as well as resource issues and technological constraints, we only observe as UX people. The real-life of producing and implementing what we draft is something that as UX people we need to be more mindful of. After the implementation of the ideas, these people are the ones who must ensure business runs as usual and goals are met.
The presentation is an introduction and also a practical approach to get UX integrated with 5 tips to help UX become a reality in the team and the business.
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Posted in BASIS, Collaboration, Company Culture, Design Practice, Design Tools, Process | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 30th, 2009
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Before I moved to Denmark I used HSBC for fifteen years. Their online banking system was adequate initially, and has grown better over time with improvements to its functionality and speed. But its amazing what you take for granted when you are forced to use an alternative.
My bank here in Denmark, though not Danish, is courteous and helpful in the physical world but digitally they are atrocious. Their online banking system is a world apart from HSBC and I can only think its because of an overtly paranoid view of security. Continue reading “Changing online banking” » |
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Posted in Interaction Design | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Previously I introduced a UX framework and wrote about the first element – content. This post is about visual design, perhaps the most immediately emotive ingredient to user experience. Seeing is believing, and what our eyes see immediately tells us if we either like or dislike what they are receiving. It has a sway on the other 5 elements of the UX framework as it is something that is very tangible and creates instant feeling in a person. As UX designers we need to be aware of the importance of visual design as a doorway to incorporate the other equally important facets in our work. Visual design, like it or not, is still king when it comes to the first few seconds that a user interacts with a product or service.
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Saul Bass, the legendary graphic designer and film maker, described design as ‘thinking made visual’. In many ways visual design should communicate the more complex considerations of a solution in an immediately accessible way.Aesthetic usability
Think about a website that you like and there will probably be a good deal of visual design that helps you in understanding its content better, what it offers and how easy it is for you to use.
Aesthetic usability is a quality that arguably Apple have made very much part of their product offering. Consider their most successful devices, (iMac,iPod and iPhone) and there is an immediate attraction to getting to know the product, even before you really know what it can do.
As there is an emotive connection (one of delight or intrigue) it affords the product a level of forgiveness within the user when the product or system fails.
Continue reading “UX Design Framework – Visual Design” » |
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Tags: Design principles, ux, visual deign
Posted in Design principles, Visual design | 6 Comments »
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
A title as loaded as Usability is Dead needs some sort of explanation that a presentation can’t really convey.
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KForum – a Danish site serving all those involved in communication, gave me an opportunity and asked for a write up. You can read it here (in English).
Hopefully the article goes some way in describing how as a UX community we need to start collaborating more and moving away from formulaic thinking.
Creativity is back in a big way, fuelled by context and relevance… |
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Tags: Design Practice, Experience Design, UCD, Usability, User Centred Design, User Experience
Posted in Design Practice, Essays, Usability | 1 Comment »
Friday, June 19th, 2009
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On Wednesday (17 June), I attended the SIGCHI Interaction Design Day at Copenhagen’s ITU. It’s an impressive building and apt to host an event about technology and our interaction with it.
I also did a talk about Usability and user centred design and how user experience is always key in what we make.
You can see the presentation on SlideShare here and I will be writing an article about it published next week. I have placed the notes here
Continue reading “Usability is dead…” » |
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Tags: Collaboration, Company Culture, Design Practice, Experience Design, Information Architecture, Information Design, Interaction Design, UCD, Usability, User Centred Design, User Experience
Posted in Design Practice, Design Theory, Experience Design, Presentations, Technology, UCD, Usability, User Centred Design, User behaviour | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
Tags: Bradley Horowitz, Google, Mental Models, Metadata, search technology, Semantic search, Tagging, Taxonomy, Technology
Posted in Mental Models, Metadata, Semantic search, Tagging, Taxonomy, Technology, search technology | 2 Comments »