October 20th, 2011
The other night, I was up till quite late reading up on a popular portal solution. In the beginning, I thought everything made sense, and I was pretty happy that I “got it”. But after a while, probably about two hrs in, found myself googling or going to wikipedia to find the definitions of every other technical word, even the terms I thought I understood at the start. I found myself getting more and more confused about the thing I was reading. I was unsure of myself. This was because some generic terms you and I would use were taken to be part of the systems “default” term and concept and had given them their own definitions.
I don’t know about you, but I think terminology and jargon sessions need to be part of the process of any web project, particularly large ones. With new and different roles in the development lifecycle of software/online products, and different companies playing those different roles for one client, it becomes crucial to spend some time on being on the same page with everyone. If you don’t take time to flesh out the terminology to be used for that project it can create a sense of distrust and second-guessing amongst project members from different teams especially between the tech and the design team.
Since we all come from IT and read similar books and blogs, we tend to use the same words but interpret and use them slightly differently. This often leads to a debate on semantics. But in the end, we are all probably talking about the same thing.
Communicating design is one of the key skills a designer needs to have and part of the design process. I believe this must include a communication or explanation of the terms you use and the naming convention you will be using for your documentation for that project.
The benefits? If you have everyone understanding what you mean, people (like your clients and stakeholders) can give you better feedback and input without getting stuck on what something means. In fact, people want to understand more of these things, which means they are more curious, more involved and more aware of the process and are therefore less in the dark about what they are paying for. This can only lead to a successful project and more importantly the design.
November 17th, 2009
Ux stands for ‘user experience’. It can be applied to a wide range of disciplines and we, at Lushai, work it in the online or web space (so far) and work it good.
It is about the experience that you create for your users (these are your customers and other interested visitors or people who stumble across your site from Google). It permeates every facet of web design from your idea to content to code.
To me a great user experience is one you don’t notice, (it’s only us webby folk that would rave about it) but to your average user they are just satisfied the tool (website) has successfully enabled them to complete their task. Be it book tickets, find the content or article they were looking for or navigate through a photo album.
As the web becomes richer with multiple channels and levels of visual and physical emphasis it is sometimes best to step back and keep it simple. We like to solve problems. We like to know what your users face as a challenge online and we want to solve it, preferably with you. We enjoy solving complex problems (and sometimes the not so complex problems) with simple solutions.
For us good UX equals smart business. How could it not be? You are discovering what your user needs to solve their issues and problems.
How do we find out what their problems are?
We use a range of techniques. One could be trailing them in their work place or their natural user environment. Asking them probing, to-the-point questions, leading questions and vague searching questions (you name it we ask them!) Then once we know your users and their problems we use this to inform our design and create the solution.
Example:
With good UX you can get your product or service connecting with your user and answering their needs.
What Ux means to me: An overall experience that is as smooth as a baby’s bottom. Gracefully taking me from one useful piece of information to the other. Anticipating my needs, meeting then and every now and then surprising and delighting me.
October 19th, 2008
because of the economic downturn, it must make lots of people worried about where to spend their money for projects and build new things, where there is still an endless supply of ideas. i think it would be a smart to spend a bit, maybe a fifth, fourth or third of that investment, on a plan – an explicit one that outlines what the idea looks like, how it could work, how it helps people, what the experience of using it would be and most importantly why it is different from other ideas.
i think this would help – just a few that comes off the top of my head: