Mental Models
-
Misconceptions about User Experience
Recently I read a few job descriptions for positions for User Experience positions, and the reaction that I had was that there is still some confusion about what a User Experience designer does. There is no magic wand that allows a UX designer to make something more ‘user friendly’. There’s no eye-for-design that reveals usability flaws. Certainly there
-
Thanksgiving 2009
What a ride 2009 has been. I am so fortunate to have so many blessings during this year that has been so hard for so many people due to the economy. Here are some of the things that I’m thankful for: I am always the most grateful for William Otto. He is spectacular and only gets
-
Happy World Usability Day!
What is World Usability Day? It’s about making our world work better. It’s about “Making Life Easy” and user friendly. Technology today is too hard to use. A cell phone should be as easy to access as a doorknob. In order to humanize a world that uses technology as an infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation,
-
In UX it is essential to be synergistic between groups
I just read over Jared Spool’s article titled Deriving Design Strategy from Market Maturity, and something he mentions is something that I have to deal with every day as a UX designer. In my position as a Human Factors Engineer for a company that produces web enabled applications, I have to choose my battles on
-
From Java to Rich Internet Applications
UXDiva posts have become sparce lately. This is because I’ve been heads-down working on transforming a java based web app into a Flex-based Rich Internet Application. This is been such a great experience being able to leverage new technology to create different design patterns, and ease of use. There have been plenty of challenges during
-
How Branding Sends Messages to Users
There are several ways that a web site or a web-enabled application communicates to users. In a previous post I wrote about how important it is to write a Creative Brief to bring focus to user communication through your design. Another important aspect of communication is through Branding. Branding is not just a color, logo