In Search of Strategic Relevance for UX Teams

Although our UX management peers have shared many tactics with us that have made their groups more strategically relevant, we’re presenting just a few here. We’ll highlight what we feel are the most salient factors in getting you to the strategy table.

Nieters, Jim and Laurie Pattison. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Management>User Experience>Collaboration

The Under-Appreciated Art of Proofreading

Although I hate to sound like a Luddite, the automatic tools are no guarantee that your document will be error free. Here are a few proofreading tips that may help you eliminate some common errors.

Rosenberg, Nad. TechWRITE (2006). Articles>Editing>Collaboration

How to Get Someone to Answer Your Questions

Send the mail to the person or group of people, but rather than asking the question, state what you know is the wrong answer. “I think the way it works is Foo, right Bob?” You'll be amazed at how quickly someone will take the time to correct you, particularly if the question was aimed at more than one person, since it's an opportunity for that person to prove their knowledge in front of others (which is just human nature).

Lemson, K.C. KC on Exchange and Outlook (2008). Articles>Collaboration>SMEs

Feature Presentation

A spiral of complexity, often called “feature creep,” costs consumers time, but it also costs businesses money. Product returns in the U.S. cost a hundred billion dollars a year, and a recent study by Elke den Ouden, of Philips Electronics, found that at least half of returned products have nothing wrong with them. Consumers just couldn’t figure out how to use them. Companies now know a great deal about problems of usability and consumer behavior, so why is it that feature creep proves unstoppable?

Surowiecki, James. New Yorker, The (2007). Articles>Project Management>Technology>Collaboration

Converting Your Team

I’d like to share some of the things I’ve done (and still do) to get the team I work with to start using web standards. Maybe it will help someone who is in the position I was a while back.

456 Berea Street (2004). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Collaboration

Why Standards Harmonization is Essential for Web Accessibility

This document introduces the concept of harmonization and causes of fragmentation in the area of Web accessibility standards, and examines the impact of harmonization and fragmentation on Web developers, tool developers, and organizations. It also suggests action steps for promoting Web accessibility standards harmonization.

W3C (2006). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Collaboration

The Greatest Skill of the 21st Century

In an age when technology is everywhere, those who understand how technology works are easy to find. Those who understand how people work are much harder to find.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2006). Articles>Management>Collaboration

Don't Fight Over Your Home Page

Most organisations spend most of their design time focusing on the homepage, often in tense negotiations with different departments, each jockeying for prominent positions in the global navigation. There’s more politics here than the appointment of a Fianna Fail junior minister.

Veale, Laurence. IQcontent (2006). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration>Workplace

Web Content Management Depends on Trust

You must be able to stand over everything that is published on your website and say that it is all accurate and up-to-date. Trust is a fundamental building block of professional web content management.

McGovern, Gerry. New Thinking (2004). Articles>Content Management>Collaboration

Another Usability Tool: Marketing  

Discusses how working closely with marketing can improve usability.

Swartz, Andrew. Serco (2005). Articles>Usability>Collaboration>Marketing

Five Ways to Get the Most from In-House Designers

Increasing numbers of executives want to bring interaction design in-house because they've realised how critical it is to product success. There are plenty of challenges involved in doing this, including hiring and training the right people. One of the challenges companies may not expect, though, is in deciding how to use those resources once they've been found.

Goodwin, Kim. Cooper Journal (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Design

Ten Ways to Kill Good Design

When design pilot projects fail, it endangers everyone's willingness to adopt design methods. Over the course of doing hundreds of design projects and teaching our methods to more than a thousand people, we've seen that several reasons for failure keep showing up. A discussion of these reasons follows, along with some solutions to consider.

Goodwin, Kim. Cooper Journal (2004). Articles>Collaboration>Design

Apples and Oranges

Usability and design are two fields that collide more often than not. But why is that? Why can’t we all just get along and center our efforts around delivering a better product, a top-notch Web site or a user-friendly interface. Everybody would benefit from an open-minded, reciprocal understanding. Right?

Hilhorst, Didier P. Digital Web Magazine (2004). Articles>Usability>Design>Collaboration

Design Behind the Design

I would like to encourage the community to talk about the need for professional networks within the information architecture field, especially as it relates to creating successful software and information systems. And, I would like to compare our needs in the field of IA with the systems that have been used in other areas to determine if we can develop an appropriate support system in moving towards specialization in our profession.

Evans, Clifton. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Information Design>Design>Collaboration

Business and Design

As the number of designers interested in owning a seat at the corporate decision-making “table” grows, the number of business strategies advocating design solutions expands as well. Designers keep asking: “how can we convince business owners that investments in design processes are money well spent?” Simultaneously, a number of business publications (most notably Fast Company) are telling corporate decision makers that “design matters.” It’s useful for both sides to view the discussion from each other’s perspective.

Wroblewski, Luke. Functioning Form (2005). Articles>Management>Design>Collaboration

Can Collaboration Help Redefine Usability?    

There are countless usability blogs, message boards and listservers. But to my knowledge, no one has attempted to integrate all this information into a single, collaborative knowledge space. I believe that creating such a knowledge space would be of immense benefit to the usability profession and would be a wonderful platform on which to refine our understanding of social computing and knowledge management.

Kreitzberg, Charles B. Journal of Usability Studies (2006). Articles>Collaboration>Usability>Help

CEOs and Usability

Talking to a CEO about usability can be wonderful or terrifying. The difference between raging success and total failure comes down to understanding exactly what the CEO needs to know and then adjusting your usability message to fit. This article explains how to understand various contexts, and in turn, how to position your usability message.

Rhodes, John S. and Daniel Szuc. Apogee (2006). Articles>Management>Usability>Collaboration

Communicating Design Concepts Without Getting Skewered

We need to exercise the ideas we generate by articulating them coherently; chances are high that if we can't describe our "great idea" with clarity, it's not such a great idea, after all. It's amazing how many design ideas seem just dandy on the whiteboard, then deflate like a punctured balloon when poked at with the sharp pencil of design communication.

Calde, Steve. Cooper Journal (2006). Articles>Communication>Design>Collaboration

Effective Websites: The Responsibility of the Whole Organisation

Building an effective website is often seen exclusively as the job of the web team, and viewed as a design or technical issue. However, having worked with many different organisations, we would argue that often what stops them improving their website is the organisation itself. Developing an effective website often requires organisational change: it requires a culture where people at all levels in the organisation adopt behaviours that make a ‘good user experience’ an important goal. If the organisation is not focused on providing a good user experience, then the web team will be unable to build an effective website.

Burton-Taylor, Sarah. Usability News (2006). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration>Workplace

Fifteen Tips for Remote Collaboration

It will always be easier to rally a group of people who work in the same building, but you can accomplish just as much (or more) with a motivated remote team. Getting team members motivated in the first place and holding their interest are your goals. Here are fifteen quick and useful tips to get you started.

Young, Indi. Adaptive Path (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Telecommuting

Influencing Strategy by Design: Design Skills

Many design organizations seek to impact strategic decision-making by learning how to speak the language of business. But until they master these new skills, they are likely to be the least qualified people to discuss business strategy at the corporate decision-making table. Yet no one else at the table besides the design team has a complete set of design skills.

Wroblewski, Luke. Functioning Form (2008). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration>Persuasive Design

Eclipse: Don't Get Left in the Dark    

Offers a detailed look at Eclipse—an open-source integrated development environment—and also discusses why it is becoming increasingly important to technical communicators in the software industry.

Lorente, Fei Min. Intercom (2008). Articles>Collaboration>Online>Open Source

Information Management and Hazard Analysis    

As a technical communicator, how can you “stay in the loop” throughout the life of a project? Frampton discusses the ways in which TCs can contribute their expertise from the very beginning.

Frampton, Beth. Intercom (2008). Articles>Collaboration>Online

Important Players in the Content Review Game

One of the things that makes quality documentation on a product is a review process. I think many technical communicators would agree with me, however, that sometimes the process becomes more cumbersome than beneficial. The more people involved, the harder it is to meet deadlines.

Gryphon Mountain (2008). Articles>Documentation>Collaboration

Communicating Customer and Business Value with a Value Matrix

What happens to the personas and scenarios once you’re ready to start requirements definition and design. Are you sure you’ve adequately communicated the type of system your users need to the Business Analyst and Interaction Designer on your team?

Cecil, Richard F. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Collaboration>User Experience>Assessment