User Experience.UX Design

No one person or source can define a term. Vocabulary, like all symbolic systems, is only useful to the degree we share meaning and experience relating to it, and agree (ideally, with no social coercion) on what a term refers to. Dictionaries, at best, merely document our collective sense of meanings and associations. As there is much misuse of "user experience," with and without "design" affixed, and there is no dictionary entry for it (yet), here are the top seven definitions of ux design. I sought ten and came up wanting, so this entry comes with an invitation to you to contribute those definitions of user experience design (full three terms) that you find most precise or useful. Or add your own... inclusion is conditional, however, on a credibility standard that can only be defined as "secret sauce."

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How "Googley" is Google? Could Yahoo! be even Googleyer? In this article I take Google's UX design principals and measure its, and Yahoo!'s, top services—search and advertising—against it. Of course I can only provide one user's view, and that is no sufficient sample. So your participation is required. Read my UX score card, and add yours to it. Three months from publication, provided a fair sample of qualitative views, scores will be totaled. Could Yahoo! be more Googley than Google?

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Some prefer broad and inclusive definitions of User Experience (UX) design. Others (a few) claim The One True Meaning of it, usually in support of self interest. Both extremes muddy the semantic waters. Language best serves us when terms are both alive (evolving), and generally agreed. Here are a few collected definitions, for consensus, one more point of view, and the important career management perspective.

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Don Norman's book was copy-written in 1988, and this one proves once again that great books can remain relevant long after they first land in people's hands. Though its point of reference for computing and user interface design will seem charmingly innocent to 21st century readers, the books real topics, have not changed: people, how they do things, and what designers must do to reduce human confusion and anguish, and liberate humanity to enjoy doing what they want or must. The need for knowledge, insight and wisdom in user interface design, as Mr. Norman gently guides us through, is as urgent as ever. No UI, UX / UE, human factors engineer, user scientist, or professional designers of any kind should practice their trade without first reading with care Mr. Norman's now famous book.

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Book review of Information Dashboard Design, by Stephen Few. Published by O’Reilly, © 2006. I recommend Few's book highly, provided you aren't looking to expand much existing dashboard design experience. All the ideas, and examples of them, are presented fairly concisely....

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Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices, Dan Saffer's first and so far only foray in to print publishing, is a tight little knit of a book. Some passages, which could have tackled the beefier topics, play tag instead. Yet the page count makes it a good weekend read. What it may lack in depth, Dan more than compensates for with a great variety of ideas, images, interviews, and examples of ways we can, and should, design for interaction in smart and clever ways.

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Jeffrey Veen and Co. have whipped up The Start Conference to help those who'd like to start their own companies. When it comes to conferences, I too think less is more. This one should be great. A few VC types actually advertising their attendance is also a good sign that there may even be some preexisting confidence in those who'd attend, as the network itself represents good company. So... 'ya wanna start som'thin?'

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Some of us have held secret hopes for the web, that it will help extend the reach of democratic principals beyond the political sphere, as it is no longer the prime mover of social transformation. As discourse, popular and academic, on life science and information science have begun to connect at their respective frontiers, and turn more and more to systems theory for models of understanding, here I attempt to weave gossamer threads from related readings together, on a theme of patterns. And by this hope to catch the imagination of interaction designers, for how patterns in the natural universe may influence our work, so we may, going forward, utilize them for greater personal, economic, and social freedom and happiness, as the 4th of July 2008 approaches.

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Whether we know it or not, we all have psychological blind spots, and struggle with realism versus idealism. It is a natural part of the human condition. As UX professionals we must be aware of this and not let our assumptions limit us, or hinder the users we design for. Read how one psychology professor, and highly readable author, defines the problem, and how we can learn from him to better our work.

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Managers managing designers without trade craft training and experience are usually at a disadvantage when trying to communicate design needs in terms that define professional design. Here I offer some ideas to help solve that, so that designers are happy and motivated, and managers, and their managers, get what they really need to succeed. And yes, there is a catch; playing de facto Art Director may be lost in the bargain.

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User experience design and strategy are inseparable. Some say strategy is at the center of UX design. Which I wholly agree with. In this article we simply recognize the difference between business strategy and interaction design strategy, what they may, and may not, have in common, and what the purpose of interaction design strategy is. I don't pretend to have hold the strongest hand in this game, so your comments are strongly encouraged.

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