What Does It Look Like When UX Takes the Lead?
We got a kick out of a recent Harvard Business Review blog post written by Robert Fabricant. His post entitled The Rise of UX Leadership begins by characterizing UX as “the new black” in business, borrowing from a fashion phrase to demonstrate the prevalence of UX in product strategy and development. This characterization certainly rings true [...]
UX and ROTI: What’s Your Return on Testing Investment Success Story?
What’s the value of a website or application with a great user experience? This compelling question should be driving all product launch strategies. The answer could be worth a half-million dollars. When TecEd presented at the 2011 Internet User Experience Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, we explored this very question which is still relevant today. [...]
31 Awesomely Practical UX Tips Demystified!
I attended last week’s Rosenfeld One-Day Virtual Conference of “31 Awesomely Practical UX Tips “ hosted by the UX Toledo Region User Experience Community with TecEd’s Senior UX Consultant Larry Rusinsky. It was a terrific event, thanks to Keith Instone and other volunteers - over 50 people attended at the Bowling Green State University Levi [...]
Focus Groups and Usability Testing: Yes There is a Difference
Focus Groups vs. Usability Testing In our work with clients from a range of industries, we’ve often picked up on an understandable confusion between the definition of the terms “Focus Groups” and “Usability Testing.” In some cases, we hear people using the two terms interchangeably, as if they have the same meaning. This confusion is [...]
Why Wear the User’s Hat? 3 Reasons to Perform Heuristic Evaluation
Heuristic Evaluation is Worth It Performing a heuristic evaluation is a low-cost, time-efficient technique for discovering usability problems in a product user interface. Evaluators examine the interface, comparing its design to a list of heuristics, or usability guidelines. Technology developers want their products to be successful. The goal is to deliver an application that increases [...]
When “UX” Really Means “User Expectations”
Real User Expectations I recently attended the 2013 Digital Day event sponsored by Adcraft Club of Detroit. Held last week, the keynote speaker was John Battelle, Federated Media’s Chairman and CEO and multiple digital entrepreneur who helped launch Wired magazine. Battelle’s remarks covered a lot of ground: from the origins of the banner ad (first [...]
In Business Matters, it’s the User that Matters
We enjoyed this recent UX Matters post by Baruch Sachs. The article was posted earlier this month on the UX community website, and is the second in a series about what makes a great UX consultant. The article makes the case that effective UX consultants should know how to collaborate, communicate well, and not so [...]
Multiple Facilitators, One Test: What’s a UX Team To Do?
Most UX teams would agree that in user experience research, it’s not optimal to run a single study with multiple facilitators. Yet oftentimes, situations dictate that this is in fact the case. Timing is usually a major factor. As an example, a large-scale study might require dozens of sessions, with stakeholders who need the results [...]