Accessible Presentation of Measurements from a Web Accessibility Observatory  

How shall we design accessible GUIs? Which are the main problems, which are the right paths and techniques for doing this? The article is a story about an experience, about the development of an accessible GUI and an analyses of the procedures.

Bertini, Patrizia and T. Gjosater. DFA International Conference (2006). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Accessibility>User Experience

Analysing Everyday Interaction

Inspired by Don Norman's classic book, 'The Design of Everyday Things', I started to collect my own examples of bad designs to analyse according to interaction design principles. Here are just a few.

Poole, Alex. Alex Poole (2004). Articles>Usability>Interaction Design>User Experience

The Atmosphere at Interaction Frontiers 2006

Interaction Frontiers 2006 was a great experience, with some margin for improvement. I'm sure next year's Interaction Frontiers will be even bigger and better.

Bellocchio, Giovanni. UXmatters (2006). Articles>User Interface>User Experience>

Ben Shneiderman

Dr. Shneiderman muses on mulidisciplinarianism and reminds us that no computer is smarter than a wooden pencil.

Adlin, Tamara and Ben Shneiderman. UX Pioneers (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Experience

Beyond User-Centered Design and User Experience: Designing for User Performance  

The shortcomings and limitations of user-centered and user experience design are considered and contrasted with usage-centered design. The iterative, trial-and-error approach of traditional user-centered approaches is argued to lead to excessive dependence on user testing and user approval, leading to overly conservative designs. By contrast, model-driven approaches based on fine-grained task models have a proven record of leading to dramatic improvements in user performance through innovative designs.

Constantine, Larry L. Constantine and Lockwood (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>User Experience>EPSS

The Big Cocktail: Cognitive and Humanistic Traits of an Information Designer  

This paper describes how our experience in striving to hire Information Designers led us to identify the very basic cognitive and humanistic traits that make up a successful technical communicator. It also shows how, once identified, such traits can be used to unveil hidden potentialities which can help turn a non expert candidate into a successful and gratified Information Designer and communicator. This paper focuses mainly on psychological traits, not on technical skills, that have been extensively discussed in a series of other papers.

Zace, Sokol. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Information Design>User Experience>Cognitive Psychology

Brenda Laurel

Want to see what passionate thinking looks like? Peek inside a brain filled with theatre, invention, games for girls, and design-as-activism.

Adlin, Tamara and Brenda Laurel. UX Pioneers (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Experience

Budgeting for Advertising and Customer Experience

The most effective companies realize that they can't succeed on advertising alone; the customer matters.

Hurst, Mark. uiGarden (2007). Articles>Web Design>Usability>User Experience

Cliff Nass

Cliff Nass revels in being weird, thinking 'wildly,' and taking 'big fliers.' But he's also fascinated by what makes everything the same. If we were all as open to oddness as he is, the world would be a much more interesting place.

Adlin, Tamara and Cliff Nass. UX Pioneers (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Experience

The Composite Intelligence of Virtual Assistants

Five levels of software intelligence can, in my opinion, make the dream of virtual assistants a reality. Collectively, they make up the concept of composite intelligence, which comprises various software components--each gifted with some moderate degree of intelligence.

Ostinelli, Roberto. UXmatters (2007). Articles>User Interface>User Experience>EPSS

Connecting Cultures, Changing Organizations: The User Experience Practitioner As Change Agent

Every time we reach across discipline boundaries to keep a product team focused on users, drive changes to products or services based on user data we've collected, or design interactions with a clear focus on the target user, we are functioning as agents of change within our organizations.

Sherman, Paul J. UXmatters (2007). Articles>User Experience>Collaboration

Crafting a User Experience Curriculum

It isn’t often that one has the opportunity to create a course about user experience, let alone an entire sequence of user experience courses. Jason Withrow's opportunity forced him to examine his perceptions of the user experience industry.

Withrow, Jason. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Education>User Experience>User Centered Design

Creating the Out-of-the-Box Experience: A Case Study  

While producing a new deliverable to improve the out-of-the-box experience for a major software product, the team of writers, graphic designers, human factors engineers, and marketers responsible for the deliverable faced many challenges and overcame many obstacles. Anyone involved in the production of such a deliverable will learn from a discussion of the problems we faced and the approaches we took to solving them. This discussion will be particularly relevant for anyone creating such a deliverable for the first time.

Hogan, Tim. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>TC>User Experience>Collaboration

Customer Satisfaction Lessons Learned from Building Furniture with Wordless Documentation  

Documentation and package design play a major role in customer satisfaction. The author tested three sets of wordless documentation by building pieces of furniture from three different manufacturers. While the construction methods, packaging, and wordless documentation methods were on the surface very similar, small differences had a significant impact on the usability of the instructions and the overall customer satisfaction with the documentation and the product. Decisions that were handled differently included visual verification of parts, whether or not extra hardware was provided and how it was provided, the appropriateness of the hardware, the quality of the hardware, the need for additional tools, and the care evidenced in packaging and labeling of parts. From these experiences, she makes recommendations for enhancing customer satisfaction that apply not just to wordless documentation, but to other consumer products.

Norris Bradford, Annette. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>Technical Illustration>User Experience

Data: The Essence of a Digital Lifestyle

I've been thinking a lot about metadata recently, but not from the standpoint of XML or programming or helping to organize and index data. My interest is in the future of content ownership, delivery, and value. I see a future for media that looks very different from the media of today. The germ of this idea actually came from my experiences with online movie rentals.

Knemeyer, Dirk. UXmatters (2005). Articles>User Experience>XML>Metadata

Design and Emotion

Emotion is one of the strongest differentiators in user experience namely because it triggers unconscious responses to a product, website, environment or interface. Our feelings strongly influence our perceptions and often frame how we think about or refer to our experiences at a later date.

Spillers, Frank. Demystifying Usability (2004). Articles>Usability>User Experience>Emotions

Designing Ethical Experiences: Social Media and the Conflicted Future

Questions of ethics and conflict can seem far removed from the daily work of user experience (UX) designers who are trying to develop insights into people's needs, understand their outlooks, and design with empathy for their concerns [2]. In fact, the converse is true: When conflicts between businesses and customers--or any groups of stakeholders--remain unresolved, UX practitioners frequently find themselves facing ethical dilemmas, searching for design compromises that satisfy competing camps. This dynamic is the essential pattern by which conflicts in goals and perspectives become ethical concerns for UX designers. Unchecked, it can lead to the creation of unethical experiences that are hostile to users--the very people most designers work hard to benefit--and damaging to the reputations and brand identities of the businesses responsible.

Lamantia, Joe. UXmatters (2008). Articles>User Experience>Community Building>Ethics

Designing for Bridge Experiences

The practice of user experience lacks the historical pedigree of many of its constituent elements, including human/computer interaction, library science, social-science research methods, product-development methodology, and, most of all, design. What it does enjoy, however, is a pragmatic, multidisciplinary approach that encompasses the intertwined social, economic, and technological forces it engages. It's a contingent amalgamation--an assembly of what works--and a set of perspectives and problem-solving techniques that define how we, as practitioners, think about creating products and services.

Grossman, Joel. UXmatters (2006). Articles>User Experience

Designing for Nonprofits: User Experience Professionals Can Make a Difference in Society

As information architects, interaction designers, usability consultants, and developers, we don't have to change our careers to do something good for society. All we have to do is connect with the right nonprofit: One that shares our goals and whose mission we support.

Sanchez-Howard, Olga. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>Web Design>User Experience

The Elements of User Experience  

The Web was originally conceived as a hypertextual information space; but the development of increasingly sophisticated front- and back-end technologies has fostered its use as a remote software interface.

Garrett, Jesse James. JJG.net (2002). Articles>Information Design>User Experience>Web Design

Engagement: Should We Care?

These days, the idea of customer engagement is almost as hot as Web 2.0--and almost as controversial. As busy UX professionals, should we invest our time and energy in caring about engagement, or is it just another buzzword? I think we do need to understand customer engagement, so that, at a minimum, we can respond intelligently to questions about it from marketers or executives. We might even glean some useful insights from thinking about engagement. This column aims to cut through the hype and reveal the potential value of engagement.

Jones, Colleen. UXmatters (2008). Articles>User Experience>User Centered Design>Audience Analysis

Engagement: Should We Care?

These days, the idea of customer engagement is almost as hot as Web 2.0--and almost as controversial. As busy UX professionals, should we invest our time and energy in caring about engagement, or is it just another buzzword? I think we do need to understand customer engagement, so that, at a minimum, we can respond intelligently to questions about it from marketers or executives. We might even glean some useful insights from thinking about engagement. This column aims to cut through the hype and reveal the potential value of engagement.

Jones, Colleen. UXmatters (2008). Articles>User Experience

Engaging User Creativity: The Playful Experience

With so many choices as to how we can spend our time in the digital age, attention is becoming the most important currency. In today's splintered media environment, new digital products and services must compete with everything under the sun, making differentiation key to developing an audience that cares, invests, and ultimately drives value.

Follett, Jonathan. UXmatters (2007). Articles>User Experience>User Centered Design

The Enterprise User Experience: Bridging the IT/Marketing Divide

Within the corporate world, the clash between marketing and IT teams is a well known, but little discussed subject. Often, the marketing or corporate communications team owns the vision for online efforts, while the tech team owns their execution.

Goodman, Bob. UXmatters (2005). Articles>User Experience

Envisioning the Future of User Experience

Perspectives on the role UX professionals will play in the future and a few forward-looking predictions about the field of user experience.

Sherman, Paul J. UXmatters (2007). Articles>User Experience>Planning>