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The User Experience of Online Payments: UX in the News

As we head into the holiday shopping season, this month’s news roundup post looks at the user experience of online payments and ecommerce platforms. How easy is it to shop online? What are the pros and cons of digital currencies, “mobile wallets,” along with the security implications that come with these disruptive modes of payment? [...]

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UX in the News: Encouraging Web Accessibility Design

Importance of Web Accessibility Collected here are the highlights from TecEd’s monthly post of can’t-miss UX news from the business press. This month our articles showcase the importance of web accessibility design. In the work we do, the goal of designing a website or software for web accessibility is to enable all users, regardless of impairment [...]

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UX Self-Service Design Basics

Self-Service Design Matters “You may not have heard of service design yet, but I’d argue that it’s the most important design sub-specialty in the business world today.   Service designers create intangible experiences: the series of interactions that you have as you book a flight, pay a bill, get a driver’s license, or go to the [...]

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Part 2: The Marriage of UCD and Agile Development - Tips for Success

Picking up where we left off last week, we continue our exploration of how to successfully marry UCD and Agile processes within the same development environment.   The previous post covered the first 3 of 7 Tips for Success which focused on the important role collaboration plays, from building the right team through every phase of [...]

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Is the marriage of UCD with an Agile development process possible?

UCD with Agile Development Process is Possible! The Agile methodology has taken the software development world by storm over the last two decades, and with good reason.  The focus on iterative and incremental development, cross-functional teams, and working software over laborious documentation fits well with our need to respond rapidly to an ever-changing technological landscape.  [...]

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June UX News Roundup: The Importance of Customer Experience

Highlight Customer Experience An optimized customer experience can be the difference between a product or application’s success or failure in the marketplace.  These news articles from the business press reinforce what we know to be true: listening to the “voice of the customer” is a powerful effort.  It helps customers accomplish their goals quickly and [...]

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Margaret Atwood talks robots!

This is the first in a series of blog entries about CHI 2014 that recently took place in Toronto.   The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction. On science fiction, comic books, fantasy, and their ability to drive innovation “Margaret Atwood is a giant of [...]

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When to prototype, when to wireframe?

Prototype vs. Wireframe There is a lingering meme that design projects should skip the wireframe step and go right to prototyping. A good example of this position is Wireframing is out, prototyping is in: here’s why, by Joseph Lawrence. From my experience... I have come to the realization that interactive prototyping is not always the [...]

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Institutionalizing User Centered Design at Your Organization

Embrace User-Centered Design Do you remember the first time you looked at your website through the eyes of a customer?  It can be haunting to watch someone struggle to accomplish a critical task, and finally declare they’d give up in frustration.  This is the defining moment when some organizations decide it’s time to embrace user-centered [...]

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USGS.GOV Seeks User Feedback: Our One Hour Expert Evaluation

USGS.GOV Seeks Feedback A story about a launch of a federal website recently caught our eye. Published by FCW: The Business of Federal Technology, the article is entitled “USGS Unveils New Web Presence, Seeks Feedback.” The post highlights how the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently launched a beta version of its new website. USGS is actively [...]

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