-
UX STRAT conference, day 2
I just wrapped up the day by having dinner with Simon of Bristol (okay, Simon Norris of Nomensa) and Bob Royce and Dan Klyn of The Understanding Group. A relaxed conversation with three brilliant gentlemen—an excellent end to the day. So, the conference. First, I was glad to have met Josh Seiden in person so…
-
UX STRAT conference, day 1
The first day of the UX STRAT firehose of talks is over. At the Barrelhouse, a nearby bar, there no doubt are still a few gathered after happy hour. I think Paul Bryan, the organizer, can count this first UX STRAT a success already. I’m not a huge fan of crowds, so instead of happy…
-
UX STRAT conference, workshops
I’m at the UX STRAT conference in Atlanta, Georgia, having just finished a couple of half-day workshops. Here are a few observations. From what I overheard, attendees mostly have job titles including “manager,” “director,” “lead,” and “senior.” Oh, and owners of agencies/consulting firms. In spite of that (cough), like most UX people, they are interesting…
-
LinkedIn UX groups, data and questions
Doesn’t it seem like there are a lot of user experience groups on LinkedIn? I’ve joined a few of them in hopes of staying up-to-date on topics, but after joining a couple groups, I quickly realized there were many more possible groups, and they all started looking pretty similar to me. Why would I join…
-
UX and Project Mangement cross-over article from Interactions magazine
A Taxonomy of Models Used in the Design Process by Joanne Mendel in the Jan + Feb 2012 edition of Interactions magazine is pretty interesting. At Covenant Eyes we’re continually in the churn of Agile development, and integrating user experience work can be challenging. We’re figuring it out, and have definitely made some breakthroughs, but…
-
IxDA Lansing kickoff featured speaker Dan Klyn
Last night was the inaugural event for IxDA (Interaction Design Association) Lansing, and information architect Dan Klyn presented “The Nature of Information Architecture.” Presentation overview Dan’s presentation was both informative and controversial. He provided some nice background on the naming of the field of information architecture, citing Richard Saul Wurman phrasings at the 1976 AIA…
-
Stop the stopwatch, UXers!
Recently, I watched a series of people observe informal usability tests. Two of the observers have recently graduated with Masters degrees in HCI or an adjacent field. Both recent graduates used a watch to record time-on-task and completion of the task. One actually broke out a stopwatch while the other referred to his wristwatch. While…
-
My 2.5 days in San Francisco: MX 2010
Saturday PM: Sunshine! I actually began to sweat under my blazer from the warm sun shining brightly through the window. I had arrived in San Francisco a little early on Saturday, dropped my suitcase off at the Intercontinental Hotel, and walked around the corner to a sandwich shop for a bite to eat and to…
-
How WordPress falters as a CMS: Multiple content fields
WordPress is amazing and keeps getting better, but I want to be clear about an inherent limitation that WordPress has as a content management system (CMS). That limitation is that WordPress doesn’t handle multiple content regions on web pages. Too strong? With WordPress, you can try to use custom fields or innovative hacks like Bill…
-
Experience theme for Covenant Eyes
Cindy Chastain’s article, “Experience Themes,” at Boxes and Arrows outlines a neat way to package the concepts that help user experience designers put creative work into context. When I was leading many design/development projects at a time, I’d write a creative brief for each—it helped me and the team stay clearheaded about each project. An…