Monday, April 22, 2013

UX Pitch: What is it?

To pitch UX, you have to define it.

Here's the short version:

UX/IA: How it works, what it does, for who, and why
  • What are the business goals?
  • What do users need?
  • How do I work this?
User research + Personas + Narratives = Requirements

Requirements + Interactions + Look and feel = UI
Facilitation: Asking the questions whose answers are the roadmap.
Evaluation: Testing concepts and prototypes with the target audience. 
Ideation and Creation: User flows, sketches and wireframes to document the customer journey with iterative steps that define, test and improve solutions against requirements so that it's more likely to be built right.

Example of how *not* to do UX:

Friday, April 5, 2013

Spring always takes you by surprise

Dear internet: Here's today's reason why I <3 u.

Years ago, I heard a song in a cafe. Every year, when the world slowly -- then suddenly -- starts turning green again, the title phrase comes back into my head, and gets stuck there for a few days.

"Spring always takes you by surprise." Such a lovely line; such a pretty melody around it.

Every year, I google the title phrase; every year I can't find what I'm looking for.

But today, when I saw the iris buds that weren't there last time I looked, and the earworm returned, right on time, I googled the phrase and boom -- the MP3 on Amazon came up as the first result.

So I bought the song, after years of thinking I'd never hear it except in my head again.

Thank you, internet.

<3