Have a look at this article by Luke Wroblewski: on Factors Limiting the Organizational Influence of Design. themes emerged: organizational imbalance, lack of shared understanding, resource constraints, and market dynamics. I was saddened and heartened by how consistent other designers’ experiences are with my own. Saddened because I had hoped that some one out […]
With this post, I am exorcising the ghosts of mistakes past and present frustrations. The future will be perfect; it always is. I’ve been at this for 20 years, as part of the first wave of Web UX professionals in Canada. Statistically, I’ve earned the right to make a lot of mistakes. I know that […]
Most of us work in an organization where measurable outcomes matter in allocating headcount and operating and capital budgets. Don’t sideline your UX practice as a nice-to-have by not measuring your outcomes. The main challenge, as I see it, is that many UX practitioners don’t know how to quantify the benefits of their work, or don’t […]
Addiction recovery programs are based on admitting the illusion of control over the addictive behaviour, the harmful things done as a result, and releasing yourself from the need to control. We, as User Experience practitioners, demonstrate a lot of issues with control. We often want to control everything about the product because we feel we […]
Recently, I was talking with someone who told me, “I won’t take on a UX contract if I have all the accountability without the authority.” That’s an awesome position to take. Too many people don’t ask, then take what’s offered and complain forever more. I’ve also talked with people who secretly – well not so […]
Just watched Des Traynor from Intercom’s talk on Product Design. This is one of the best summaries of the current state of digital product design I’ve seen, primarily because it is helping my synthesize my thoughts why I am frustrated with the current state of user experience design. Peter Merholz’ post There is No Such […]
Go. Go now: http://vimeo.com/channels/mxconf on Vimeo for the 2014 MX conference videos. Yes, I’m 8 months late to the party but I’m so excited I don’t care. I attended the MX conference in 2013. It is an amazing event hosted by Adaptive Path. I hope that this conference is not lost when Adaptive Path becomes an integral part […]
It’s exciting to see an article discussing the need for UX leadership, especially as part of a series on UX Management. The article attempts to cover a lot: there are probably 3 or more articles in here. And as much as I adore Jim Collins, some references to other books on leadership would be welcome. […]
In-person meetings are my best window into how the client organization works. I am always looking for the risks in the room. I could assume the best, but that hasn’t tended to help in the past. Sometimes paranoia pays. Phone meetings still frustrate me. I don’t know which is worse: sitting at your desk alone trying […]
This one is quick and fun. I heard this from my first boss, and a variant follows from one of my university profs. How to read a table: Find the person who is running the meeting. People more worried about establishing control over the meeting will sit at the head. (My observation: the most powerful people […]
Understanding Clients 