User Experience Career Advice From 1,015 UX Professionals We recently published the 2nd edition of our User Experience Careers report, 7 years after the 1st edition was published. Our report is free and a gift to the UX community. The 2nd edition is based on several research studies carried out in 2019 and is based on responses from over 700 UX professionals. They included an online survey completed by 693 people, 2 focus groups, and 17 remote, semi-structured interviews, all carried out with UX professionals around the world. What Hasn’t Changed? UX practitioners are just as satisfied with their careers as they were in 2013; career satisfaction got an identical rating of 5.4 on a 1–7 scale (where 1 was completely dissatisfied, and 7 was completely satisfied). Enjoying the process and the work Seeing the impact of their work Receiving recognition for their work Having opportunities to grow and excel Industries hiring UX practitioners and the kinds of things UX practitioners work on are also much the same. What’s New? Changing Careers
Lean ways to test your new business idea I’ll be honest, I’m a bit late to the party. I’ve only just completed Eric Ries book, ‘The Lean Startup’, that was published to much acclaim last year. I put off reading it, believing it would be another generic how-to-start-a-high-tech-business book. I already have a bookshelf full of these kinds of book, most of them unread beyond the initial chapter. But now I’ve read it I think that it should be obligatory reading for any UX person. What I like about the book is that it puts UX at the very heart of new product design — and does so in language that will make managers sit up and take notice. Here’s my version of the digested read. Designing new products or services is risky because there are so many uncertainties. Sound familiar? UX practitioners have a lot to contribute to this way of working but I wanted particularly to focus on the item I’ve numbered 4 in the list above: iterative design and testing. These techniques have three things in common. The three methods I want to discuss are:
Samples It took a while, but here are some results from what people submitted for the Feedback Note call for samples: Dedicated Note Spaces Craig’s preferred method of capturing feedback is on the wireframes themselves within a dedicated notes section. After printing out the full set of wires on a large piece of paper he then takes notes and sketches on top of what is already there. Looking more closely, a lot of the feedback in this particular wireframe is written in a question or task format – as in: “How would the user do this or that”. I think it’s an interesting way of testing the interface with additional sub cases which should be eventually accounted for. Credits: Craig Kistler Saving Whiteboards with Evernote For Anirban, what works is jotting down everything on a whiteboard, and taking it as a snap using the Evernote app. Credits: Anirban Majumdar Capturing Sign Off with Checkmarks Credits: Jakub Linowski Thoughts?
UX deliverables are dead, long live code - fantasticlife's posterous This post is a possibly ranty reaction to the recent Wireframes are dead, long live rapid prototyping post on UX for the masses. If you’ve not read it, it’s definitely worth a click. And also worth working your way through the comments it generated. But I disagree with the post on two counts. the alternative is to bypass wireframes altogether and either go straight from sketch / outline designs to developing working code (in an Agile fashion), or as is more use common use [sic] a rapid prototyping tool to create a prototype which loses me at the comma. If wireframes aren’t dead I’d be more than happy to take them outside and put a bullet through their head It’s probably best to consider this list a personal addendum to the six reasons to ditch wireframes list in the original post. ‘UX professionals’ seem to be obsessed with defining optimum user experience. If wireframes are dead, rapid prototyping tools should die in their arms So I don’t really like wireframes.
Just What is a UX Manager? | Adaptive Path Earlier this week, I wrote quick blog post, calling out seven lessons for UX managers from this year’s MX conference. Then on Twitter, Livia Labate, who leads the experience design practice for Marriott International asked, “Dear @AdaptivePath, what is a UX Manager?” Here’s my not-so-twitter-length response: UX managers come with all sorts of fancy-pants titles. This isn’t about titles. This is about responsibilities. Someone who manages user experience has stuck their neck out and said they’ll deliver business outcomes through improving the experience that customers have with a product or service. That means you believe UX is a force that can not only improve people’s experiences but that it can also drive business. Why I <3 UX Managers Okay, let it be said that I’m biased. I’ve spent the past six years trying to get to know as many of you as I can, either speaking at or chairing Adaptive Path’s Managing Experience conference. What I’ve learned is that this is an emerging discipline.
Why most UX is shite I was invited to speak at the event this week where getting a little sweary and ranty is kind of encouraged (it goes well with the craft beer consumption that is an integral part of the conference mix). This was my contribution. Slides: When I checked the agenda to see what I was supposed to be talking about at Monkigras, I saw that I was down to talk for 15 mins about ‘Crafting Good UX’. An elegant UIBeing AddictiveA Fast Startbeing Seamless, andIt Changes You I hate these kinds of lists. If only that were true, we’d be overwhelmed by UX amazingness. It’s not that simple right. Now, there are plenty of ways you can make a user’s experience of your product rubbish, but in my experience, there are a handful of serial offenders. 1. So, this one I see ALL the time. From a start up who doesn’t want to rule anything out of its value proposition so doesn’t really know what it is so, as a consequence, no one knows what problems it’s solving so they don’t engage. This starts at the top. 2. 3. 4.
So you wanna be a user experience designer — Step 2: Guiding Principles [This is part of a series titled So You Wanna Be a User Experience Designer. Check out the previous post, Step 1: Resources] Five months ago I wrote a post titled, “So you wanna be a user experience designer,” in which I gathered all of the resources in my UX arsenal: publications and blogs, books, local events, organizations, mailing lists, webinars, workshops, conferences, and schooling. My intent was to give aspiring user experience designers, or even those on the hunt for additional inspiration, a launching pad for getting started. The response has been pretty remarkable — the link continues to be sent around the Twitterverse and referenced in the blogosphere. I’m really pleased that so many people have found it to be a useful aid in their exploration of User Experience. In the post I promised that it would be the beginning of a series, and I’m happy to report that Step 2 is finally here: Guiding Principles. DISCLAIMER: These lists are meant to be both cogent and concise. Have empathy
Dieter Rams: Apple has achieved something I never did When Ive talks about Rams designing “surfaces that were without apology, bold, pure, perfectly-proportioned, coherent and effortless”, he could equally be talking about the iPod. “No part appeared to be either hidden or celebrated, just perfectly considered and completely appropriate in the hierarchy of the product’s details and features. At a glance, you knew exactly what it was and exactly how to use it.” Today Rams is best known for his range of minimalist shelves, made by Vitsoe, and for his influence on Ive. For his part, writing on Apple for the first time, Rams is muted. He argues that Apple are one of the very few brands, almost unique in the modern world, who are not devaluing the word “designer”. Dieter Rams on Apple I have always regarded Apple products – and the kind words Jony Ive has said about me and my work – as a compliment. I have always observed that good design can normally only emerge if there is a strong relationship between an entrepreneur and the head of design.
Product Manager and UX Designer - What's the Difference? Photo Credit: pelican via Compfight cc Product Manager vs. UX Designer I always advocate in favor of broad definition of User Experience Design practice. Here’s the definition from my recent ebook UX Design for Startups: “User experience design (abbreviation UX, UXD) – A discipline focused on designing the end-to-end experience of a certain product. A UX designer’s work should always be derived from people’s problems and aim at finding a pleasurable, seductive, inspiring solution. When you’re designing an experience, you are in fact planning a change in the behaviour of your target group. User experience lies at the crossroads of art and science and requires both extremely acute analytical thinking and creativity.” Planning, measuring, building, validating – that’s pretty broad set of actions, but this is what, I believe, have to be done to create stunning UX Design. Is there anything left for Product Managers? PM = UX Designer PM ≠ UX Designer Reimagining the way you design.
6 Steps for Measuring Success on UX Projects | disciullodesign – By MARK DISCIULLO The tepid economy is putting pressure on everyone from executives to User Experience (UX) teams to show direct, measurable results. So, I’m often surprised to hear of the many projects that include a UX component to them, yet there isn’t any true, quantifiable success criteria defined for UX. UX is still being treated as though it’s a very subjective topic to measure. “This is not acceptable. Without credible UX success measurements, we all risk not being able to quantify our success. Why are we not measuring our UX efforts? Often times stakeholders or clients don’t realize that UX can be quantified and measured. We need to be backing our UX efforts with quantifiable stories such as, “We decreased shopping cart abandonment by 30% which lead to 10% higher sales”, “We increased intranet adoption by 55% .”, “We increased overall user satisfaction by 30%.” So how do we do this? Imagine if you could clearly define measureable goals for your UX efforts? Start measuring now!