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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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
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Helping users move from being perpetual novices to experts is a tough task. As this blog post argues, good documentation helps. But you also need to create a product that users can be passionate about.
DMN Communications (2008). Articles>Documentation>User Experience
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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
#29925
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
#22667
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
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How to Succeed As a First-Time UX Manager
In my last column, I suggested that being a manager of UX is no better—and no worse—than being a great designer or user researcher, but the roles are very different. In fact, as the book The First 90 Days [1] points out, the skills that make you successful as an individual contributor are not the same skills you need as a leader.
Nieters, Jim. UXmatters (2008). Articles>User Experience>Management>Collaboration
#28367
Human-Computer Interaction: Guidelines for Web Animation
Human-computer interaction in the large is an interdisciplinary area which attracts researchers, educators, and practioners from many differenf fields. Human-computer interaction studies a human and a machine in communication, it draws from supporting knowledge on both the machine and the human side. This paper is related to the human side of human-computer interaction and focuses on animations.
Galyani, Golnessa Moghaddam and Mostafa Moballeghi. uiGarden (2006). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>User Experience>Flash
#10614
The Iceberg Analogy of Usability
Developers sometimes ask which aspects of look and feel contribute most to the overall usability of an application or Web site. They are typically surprised when I answer that the 'look and feel' aspects aren't the major contributors at all. Look and feel have been popular discussion topics for many years, and some developers have proposed various schemes purporting to allow an easy swap of one look and feel for another. They were perhaps compelled to this thinking to compensate for an inadequate understanding of their users. Around 1990, I became alarmed by the popularity of design architectures advocating paradigms like the User Interface Management Systems (UIMS) that enable a pluggable look and feel. Many of my colleagues and I felt that look and feel represented only the tip of the iceberg. We felt that the set of concepts users must learn and understand to use a product or Web site effectively is actually the most important factor.
Berry, Dick. IBM (2001). Articles>Usability>User Experience>Web Design
#31997
IDEA 2008: An Interview with Bill DeRouchey
Bill DeRouchey is fascinated with buttons and the history of interface design. He talks to us as he prepares for IDEA 2008, October 7-8. In Chicago, Bill hopes to help attendees expand their sources of inspiration to include just about anything in their everyday lives.
Unger, Russ. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Interviews>User Interface>User Experience
#32031
User experience is a term that is widely used these days to refer to all sorts of interactions between people and technologies. But when it comes to videogames, experience is the only sensible word to use. Games are pure experience. And the range of experiences they offer is huge from what it is like to land a 747 at Heathrow Airport to slaying space dragons with a team of like-minded warriors. Thus, when it comes to really understanding user experience in games, it can be hard to say anything that would apply in general. However, one expression that does seem to crop up regularly, and that gamers relate to, is that games are immersive: when people are having a good experience, they get lost or immersed in the game and the world outside the game fades into the background. So what is this notion of immersion? What causes it? And is it the heart of what makes a good game? These are the questions that I have been trying to answer, together with my colleagues and students, over the last few years.
Cairns, Paul. uiGarden (2008). Articles>User Experience>User Centered Design>Games
#30035
Implications for Designing the User Experience of DVD Menus
DVD menus often miss out on usability and are complex and difficult to navigate through. One of the main problems is the lack of design standards. By conducting an expert walkthrough we identified typical usability issues of DVD menus and verified them with usability testing and a user survey. Our research goal is to develop a set of specific solutions for designing usable DVD menus to improve the overall user experience. As a first step towards this goal we present an initial set of usability issues that are specifically relevant for DVD menu design.
Koltringer, Thomas, Martin Tomitsch, Karin Kappel, Daniel Kalbeck and Thomas Grechenig. ACM SIGCHI (2005). Design>User Experience>Multimedia>DVD
#27358
Improving Customer Experience (ICE) started out as a paper newsletter back in 2001. Paper. How quaint.
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Information Architecture, Usability, Customer Experience
A blog on the Usability, HCI, and customer experience industry by an Indian User Experience professional with a decade of providing customer centric solutions and a pragmatic approach to business problems.
Masood, Nasser. Blogspot (2006). Resources>Usability>User Experience>Blogs
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Since HTML first became mainstream, with HTML version 2.0, there has been a struggle between the structure of a document and its presentation. This battle is symptomatic of two competing visions for the web.
King, Emmanuel Taylor. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>User Experience
#29815
Apple and Netflix gained insight by investing in understanding the current experience of their potential customers. Those insights led to industry-changing innovations that have made an indelible impression on businesses everywhere. As innovation is now the new black, experience design is the fabric of new insight. The work designers do is now the hot spot to be.
Spool, Jared M. User Interface Engineering (2006). Design>User Experience
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Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction is an explanation of the design of the current and next generation interactive technologies, such as the web, mobiles, wearables. These exciting new technologies bring additional challenges for designers and developers - challenges that require careful thought and a disciplined approach. Written for both students and practitioners from a broad range of backgrounds, this book addresses these challenges using a practical and refreshing approach. The text covers a wide range of issues, topics and paradigms that go beyond the traditional human-computer interaction (HCI).
Perlman, Gary. Interaction Design (2002). Resources>User Interface>Interaction Design>User Experience
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Interactions 08 in the Garden of Good and Evil
An interview with Dan Saffer, 2008 Conference Chair and IxDA Director. Dan discusses the context of the organization, how the conference emerged and formed, what the conference will be like, and how one might get a flavor even if attendance is not an option.
Baum, Chris. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>Interviews>Interaction Design>User Experience
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Introduction to Apple Human Interface Guidelines
These guidelines are designed to assist you in developing products that provide Mac OS X users with a consistent visual and behavioral experience across applications and the operating system.
Apple Inc. (2006). Design>User Interface>User Experience>Macintosh
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An Introduction to User Journeys
User journeys are a method for conceptualising and structuring a website's content and functionality. These journeys allow us to shift away from thinking about structure in terms of hierarchies or a technical build; instead you create a narrative around your user's needs.
Hobbs, Jason. Boxes and Arrows (2005). Articles>Web Design>User Centered Design>User Experience
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User Centric, a privately held usability consulting firm based in Chicago, evaluated the long-term usability and user experience of the iPhone in 2007.
uiGarden (2008). Articles>User Experience>Usability
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Is Beauty the New Usability Attribute?
The beauty of a product can influence the users' overall impression or general user satisfaction of the product. Think iPod. But how do you measure that?
Hall, Mark D. and Kathleen Straub. Human Factors International (2005). Articles>Usability>Aesthetics>User Experience
#29502
Today Jakob Nielsen is an inspiration and, through his books and seminars, a teacher to many. But what inspired him to get where he is today?
Adlin, Tamara and Jakob Nielsen. UX Pioneers (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Experience
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This website is meant to provide insights into various multi-disciplinary aspects of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It looks at this subject particularly from Indian perspective. HCI Vistas publishes at least two original articles every month. It offers latest research papers as downloads. It also presents Comptoons and survey reports. The website is meant to provoke new thinking in the HCI domain.
Katre, Dinesh S. Journal of HCI Vistas (2005). Resources>Human Computer Interaction>Usability>User Experience
#29504
Did ye know that studying Medieval troubadours can actually help ye understand the communication challenges we face in our 'High Church of Technology?'
Adlin, Tamara and Judith Ramey. UX Pioneers (2007). Articles>Interviews>User Experience
#28498
STC communities have moved from trying to figure out how they will work in the new model to starting to make the kinds of fundamental changes and undertake initiatives that will build value for members. We are starting to understand how to 'play' within and succeed with our new rules. For UUX to undertake new initiatives, we need more members to volunteer.
Bachmann, Karen L. Usability Interface (2006). Articles>Usability>User Experience>Volunteering
