Blank Sheet

Nov
29th

Mon

The big difference between someone who is a UX professional and someone who isn’t comes back to that word: responsibility. When your job is to provide a positive user experience, you have to do whatever it takes to get it done, from imagining new designs to measuring current ones to make sure they work. You have to advocate for your users when their voices aren’t heard, and align the business objectives with user objectives at every step.

— What makes a good UX designer?, by Joshua Porter

So, understand what you’re measuring. This means setting your analytics goals to measure traffic behaviours based on what people have said they do or don’t expect to find useful. These goals are your indicators of content success or failure—but they’re only indicators.

— Using numbers to plan content, by Clare OBrien

… usefulness is not usability. Usability tests whether people can complete tasks within a planned or built structure. Usefulness is about understanding a need and targeting it with content that delivers. I’m seeing evidence the two are often confused.

— Using numbers to plan content, by Clare OBrien

Sep
23rd

Thu

A little perspective: when we originally acquired Bloglines in 2005, RSS was in its infancy. The concept of “push” versus “search” around information consumption had become very real, and we were bullish about the opportunity Bloglines presented for our users.    Flash forward to 2010. The Internet has undergone a major evolution. The real-time information RSS was so astute at delivering (primarily, blog feeds) is now gained through conversations, and consuming this information has become a social experience. As Steve Gillmor pointed out in TechCrunch last year , being locked in an RSS reader makes less and less sense to people as Twitter and Facebook dominate real-time information flow. Today RSS is the enabling technology – the infrastructure, the delivery system. RSS is a means to an end, not a consumer experience in and of itself. As a result, RSS aggregator usage has slowed significantly, and Bloglines isn’t the only service to feel the impact.. The writing is on the wall.   

— http://blog.ask.com/2010/09/bloglines-update.html

Jan
11th

Mon

Organization makes a system of many appears fewer.

— The Laws of Simplicity (p. 12), by John Maeda (2006).

When people talk about UX design for the web, they’re referring to everything that fashions user experience: interface design, information architecture, usability and product design that encompasses the presentation, interaction and organisation of online services.

— The web designer’s guide to user experience, by Craig Grannell (2010)

Jul
11th

Sat

Prototyping with PowerPoint: Five productivity tips

1. Have a separate PowerPoint with a palette of all the widgets and shapes you need

2. Use master pages to hold common elements shared by multiple screens

3. Use PowerPoint’s feature for coping and pasting styles to maintain a consistent look

4. Use hyperlinks to simulate interaction

5. Fake mouseover effects with Action Templates

—

Prototyping with PowerPoint: Five productivity tips, by Henrik Olsen (2009)

Apr
5th

Sun

Kollock’s 4 Motivations for Contributing:
1. Reciprocity
2. Reputation
3. Increased sense of efficacy
4. Attachment to and need of a group

— Designing the Social Web (for Web2.0 Expo) (2009), slide #26, by Christina Wodtke

Jan
26th

Mon

To them, technology is like the air.

— Grown Up Digital ( 2009), p. 20, by Don Tapscott

Jan
23rd

Fri

The bottom line is this: if you understand the Net Generation, you will understand the future. You will also understand how our institutions and society need to change today.

— Grown Up Digital ( 2009), p. 11, by Don Tapscott