UX Designers: 6 Traps to Recognize and Avoid
I’ve worked with dozens of user experience designers in my role as a design leader for firms like Whirlpool, Microsoft and Roku. When I reflect on what distinguishes the best designers from the also-rans, it’s not just their experience and skills that come to mind. The best designers actively create a design-friendly work environment that […]
Professional “Soft” Skills Matter
I was invited to be the keynote speaker at San Jose State University’s UX Association 2nd annual event (Apr 18, 2015). The title of my presentation was “Roles, Values, and Process”, and it was about the importance of “soft” skills within a corporate environment. Many designers (especially new graduates) focus mostly on technical design skills, not […]
Great Resources
A short list of online resources I find interesting and useful for UX, design, research, and more… Informative Websites UX Matters: UXmatters provides insights and inspiration to both professionals working in all aspects of user experience (UX)—at every stage in their career—and students who are just beginning their journey in user experience. Boxes and Arrows: Boxes […]
Speech Recogntion – Some Basic Q&A
With the commercial release of products like Ford Sync, Xbox Kinect, and iPhone 4s (Siri), speech recognition has received more attention and finally gone mainstream. As consumers of these devices, our expectations are quite high and it may take a few awkward moments initially to realize that there are still technical challenges causing us to […]
Simple Research Loop
If you are relatively new to the field of Design Research, then it may be time to consider other factors that contribute to the success of a research study beyond your expertise with a particular method or tool. Let’s take a step back from any individual method and look at the context within which research […]
Human Interface Guidelines – 3 Key Components
Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) and other similar documents introduce users to a body of information underlying the user interface and interaction design of a particular product or system. This information is shared so others can use and follow it when creating something that should embody the original product design and be consistent (Wikipedia offers a good […]
Avoiding NUIcide
The early 1990s witnessed a major turning point in the evolution of user interfaces. We transitioned from command-line interfaces, like DOS, to graphical user interfaces (GUI), like Microsoft Windows. Now, we are at another major turning point as we evolve from GUI to natural user interactions (NUI). I consider myself lucky to be able to say […]
Design Process
I’m still surprised every now and then when I meet designers and design leaders who dislike or discount design process. Thankfully, there are still many designers out there who do believe in process, but for the non-believers some typical arguments go something like this: Process kills or stifles creativity I don’t need process to tell […]
Consistency Abused
Amongst the many tools available to designers, design principles are key and fundamental. Teams create custom design principles for a specific project or product, authors sell their own comprehensive list with cool terms or phrases, and some companies have modeled their mottos or mission statements around one or more overarching principles. Of all the known design […]
Usability Myths
Here is short article I wrote in the early 2000’s when I had my own design consultancy, Interaction Architects. I thought it would be interesting to post it now, over 10 years later, and see how many of these myths persist even today. These myths were written based on my own experiences and some were borrowed from the […]
