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Creating Visual Design Options
One of the ideas that I try to progress when I join a new project is that much of my job will simply be about exploring options. If I do my job right, more than half of the options will end up in the trash bin, so that’s to be expected. Many people have a…
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The Themes of Good Design
Most people who have worked with me up to this point have probably noticed that I have a strong urge to think about solving problems using Design methods and methodologies. This is not accidental. In my heart of hearts, I believe that the work I do each day will help make the world a better…
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With a Good Pair
There’s just something about working with others that makes the job so much more enjoyable. In many agile development frameworks, the idea of “Pairing” prevails as a key concept. When pairing occurs, two developers work together to progress a single user story, working together weave code into coherent, valuable functionality. There are many reasons why…
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What do you do when your business’s ideas don’t align with how employees think?
Just something I was pondering this morning on the train in to work. A long time ago now, user researchers at Intuit realized that small business owners don’t like to think about their money in terms of “debits” and “credits,” which are the terms that bankers and other more heavily trained business people like to…
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What kind of User Experience Professional am I?
Friend and colleague Jeff Patton floated an idea a few weeks ago around the thought that there are 3 types of User Experience Professionals: Before-, During-, and After-People. I think this is a brilliant way to characterize UXers…simple and to the point, with no big-giant-confusing-wordiness. Of course, all the qualities of these different types of…
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In Response to Kevin
In response to me beaming about my job, Kevin wrote: Would you say that you are doing all the things you were trained to do at the School of Informatics? I got to see Matt and Apurva over the weekend, and one of the things that came up was how little their jobs resembled what…
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On Innovation
I’ve been hearing a lot of talk around the office lately about Innovation. This subject is pretty close to my heart…and I’ve got some pretty strong beliefs about what innovation is and is not. For now, though, I’ll just let someone else do the talking: “For a company, innovation is something of a two-edged sword:…
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Agile + User Centered Design
So, Marc says User Centered Design is compatible with Agile. I think I agree, but with a caveat or two. They’ve Got Different Foci The User Centered Design methodology is based on one simple concept: the person who will eventually use the system should be the focus of the design process. There are many processes,…
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Today reminded me why I love my job
I’m exhausted. Beat. Dead tired. I just got home after a long, delayed flight from Phoenix to Chicago, returning here merely 36 hours after I departed. It was a quick, gruelling trip that tested my patience. And I loved every minute of it. Yesterday I saw one of my oldest friends in the world, Tami,…
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Changing Our Slideware Culture
This has been a long time coming. Back in May I completed my Master’s Degree education by presenting my Capstone Project: Prepare. Project. Present. Using Technology to Encourage Effective Presentations. The video of my presentation is now up on YouTube, in three parts. Watch them below by pressing the play button: YouTube Link to part…