User experience design is a subset of the field of experience design which pertains to the creation of the architecture and interaction models which impact a user's perception of a device or system. The scope of the field is directed at affecting 'all aspects of the user’s interaction with the product: how it is perceived, learned, and used.'
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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
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Many technology companies, consultants, and academics are hyping the future of Web services. But how will this background transfer of data between applications affect the user experience?
Lombardi, Victor. New Architect (2002). Design>Web Design>Content Management>User Experience
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Designing the Out-of-the-Box Experience: A Case Study 
To improve your product’s out-of-the-box experience, you must first define the experience that you want your users to have. The next challenge is to design the specific elements that will achieve that experience. These elements must be designed harmoniously with each other and with the functional improvements planned for the product. By enhancing those improvements, the overall experience will draw the customer into the product. If designed appropriately, these elements can improve not only the out-of-the-box experience but also the marketability of the product.
Kowalski, Lee Anne. STC Proceedings (2001). Design>User Centered Design>User Experience
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Designing User Experiences for Applications Versus Information Resources on the Web
The relatively recent adoption of user-focused design practices by the Web design and development community--including personas, participatory design, paper prototyping, and the like--highlights important distinctions between the user experiences of desktop applications and those of information spaces. With the growing desire for usable Web applications, these distinctions become more topical and important to understand. Though the process of designing and creating application and information space user experiences for the Web is virtually the same--even if the deliverable design documents may differ--their user experiences are fundamentally and profoundly different. For designers, business analysts, marketing consultants, and others who are sincerely interested in delivering the best user experiences online, understanding these distinctions can reduce the cost of design and improve the likelihood of user acceptance.
Frishberg, Leo. UXmatters (2006). Design>User Experience>Programming>Participatory Design
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Document Engineering in User Experience Design
Document engineering is a methodology for specifying, designing, and deploying the information models and repositories that enable document-centric applications, and a synthesis of information and systems analysis, business process modeling, electronic publishing, and service-oriented architecture.
Glushko, Robert J. University of California Berkeley (2008). Articles>Document Design>User Experience
#29471
As user experience designers in an enterprise, we find ourselves knee deep in pixels. Should we use a dropdown element or a set of radio buttons? 10pt or 12pt size font? A broad-and-shallow or narrow-and-deep information architecture? While such design considerations are necessary and important, we miss huge user experience opportunities outside the webpage, outside the website, outside the browser. By tackling inter-application usability opportunities, user experience (UX) professionals can make things easier in a big way.
Padilla, Mike. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Design>Web Design>User Experience
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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
#30682
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
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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
#32030
The number one enemy of any strategy is poor execution. All across the business landscape, the ability of an organization to execute its strategy is one of the most critical elements of success. And for an effective UX strategy, the broad range of elements requiring alignment and implementation make its successful execution all the more difficult.
Baty, Steve. UXmatters (2008). Design>User Experience>Information Design
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Expanding the Approaches to User Experience
Jesse James Garrett’s 'The Elements of User Experience' diagram has become rightly famous as a clear and simple model for the sorts of things that user experience professionals do. But as a model of user experience it presents an incomplete picture with some serious omissions—omissions I’ll try address with a more holistic model.
Olsen, George. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Information Design>User Experience>User Centered Design
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It’s time for web designers to peek over the cubicle and start sharing ideas with their peers in related design disciplines. Jacobson suggests one way to do that in this overview of the emerging Experience Design paradigm.
Jacobson, Bob. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Theory>User Experience
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Exploring Types and Characteristics of Product Forms 
Incorporating emotional value into products has become an essential strategy for increasing a product's competitive edge in the consumer market. It is therefore important for product manufacturers to understand how products affect consumers' emotions. This study was undertaken to investigate the types and characteristics of household products that elicit pleasurable responses, in particular among young, college-age consumers. The results of the study could suggest the types and characteristics to consider when developing pleasurable products aimed at young consumers.
Chang, Wen-chih and Tyan-Yu Wu. International Journal of Design (2007). Design>User Interface>User Experience>Emotions
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The Five Competencies of User Experience Design
This framework comprises the competencies a UX professional or team requires. The following sections describe these five competencies, outline some questions each competency must answer, and show the groundwork and deliverables for which each competency is responsible.
Psomas, Steve. UXmatters (2007). Design>User Experience
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Flywheels, Kinetic Energy, and Friction
Whatever the purpose of the sites you work on, their success depends on visitors doing something. We want our visitors to sign up, or buy, or donate, or download, or apply, or post opinions, or pick up the phone and call us. One way or another if we are to judge our sites as being successful, they have to result in some kind of action on the reader's part.
Usborne, Nick. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>User Experience
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Four Factors of Agile User Experience
One of the most important aspects of the work of designers do on a project is their ability to explain their choices and the reasoning that led to given design solutions--both to their clients and to other member of a product team. Clear communication is vital to the smooth progress of a project, as even a single misunderstanding or communication glitch can lead to mistakes during implementation.
Mascaro, Luca. UXmatters (2007). Design>Web Design>Agile>User Experience
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At this point in experience design's evolution, satisfaction ought to be the norm, and delight ought to be the goal. As design professionals, how do we create opportunities for customer delight?
Hanna, Parrish. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>User Experience
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Getting Started with Graphics for an Enriching User Experience
Good web design does not necessarily mean good use of colors and layouts, but it does transcend beyond it. Design elements like color, font, size, frame, etc. play an important role nonetheless, but what is more important is that how it affects the aesthetic sensibilities of the users. The warmth and the feel of the web site, or in another words, the texture of the web site is a crucial area to turn our attention to. By texture of the web site what it means is the subtleties of the surface of the web site. Varied aspects as discussed in this article, when sensibly used -- and in combination with good deign skills aimed at creating intuitive appeal -- are of definite help of when it comes to developing engaging graphics on your web site.
Rahbre Azam. Amateur Writerz (2008). Articles>User Experience>Technical Writing>Graphic Design
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Global Market, Global Emotion, Global Design?
In the current discussion of where design is going and what matters, there is an emphasis on the user and his or her (emotional) experience. It is a hot topic in books, blogs and the minds of industrial designers and interaction designers, worldwide. The importance of a focus on (emotional) experiences in addition to a merely technological or functional focus is being stressed by professionals with many different cultural backgrounds.
van Hout, Marco. uiGarden. Articles>User Centered Design>User Experience>Emotions
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Good Products Don’t Make Up for Bad Service … But They Help
Jeffrey Kalmikoff is partner at skinnyCorp and chief creative officer at Threadless. In this article he relates what a trip to a sandwich shop can teach you about customer service.
Kalmikoff, Jeffrey. Vitamin (2008). Articles>User Experience>User Centered Design
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Recent redesigns at Yahoo!, Microsoft Live Search, and Ask.com are providing graphically rich alternatives to the minimalist search giant.
Vella, Matt. BusinessWeek (2007). Design>Web Design>User Experience>Search
#27981
Hand-Crafting Prototypes in Visio
If you are the happy owner of a tablet computer or a pen tablet you can hand-draw prototypes on your computer. In this article we'll look at what hand-sketching is good for and how to built hand-drawn prototypes in Visio.
Olsen, Henrik. GUUUI (2006). Design>Information Design>User Experience>Visio
#30030
The High Price of Not Listening
Ever visited the website of a company with a glaring error either on the site or in their product, only to discover that they have successfully sealed themselves off from the world, so you can't report it? Sure you have, and it's not only causing you frustration, it's costing that company real money.
Tognazzini, Bruce. Nielsen Norman Group (2004). Design>Web Design>User Centered Design>User Experience
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How Do Users Really Feel About Your Design?
The user experience field has been trying to move beyond mere usability and utility for years. So far, no one seems to have developed easy-to-implement, non-retrospective, valid, and reliable measures for gauging users' emotional reactions to a system, application, or Web site. In this column, I'll introduce you to a promising method that just might solve this problem.
Sherman, Paul J. UXmatters (2007). Design>User Experience>User Centered Design>Emotions
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How To Quantify the User Experience
How can you quantify a concept as nebulous as user experience? Rob's tutorial shows how you can statistically assess the experience a site provides - a great way to review a prospect's existing site and springboard redevelopment discussions.
Rubinoff, Robert. SitePoint (2004). Design>Web Design>User Experience>Log Analysis
