A great book for people starting in the field of UX is “A Project Guide to UX Design by Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler.
The book gives a broad view of what user experience designers do in their field and the roles they have on projects and teams.
It also provides valuable information on the disciplines required of a UX designer such as wireframing, prototyping, and creating task flows.
It does not provide massive amounts of details on each topic, but gives you enough information to know how it all fits in the broad field of UX Design.
“Our target for this book was beginner to intermediate and folks who are in small teams who… may not know where to start,” said Unger.
“I was just mad because it seem like we had gotten really far away from giving people practical things to move themselves ahead in their careers,” said Unger on why he wrote the book.
“We have to do a better job of furthering the field so the people who have been around for a while can figure what’s next to help shape us better.”
“We need to get a lot of people to the point where they are being more strategic and less tactical,” he said on the challenges facing the UX industry.
Unger has been involved with information architecture for large websites such as Oprah.com and United Airlines. He is also a regular contributor to Boxes and Arrows, a site focused on graphic and interaction design and information architecture.
Co-author, Chandler, is the experience design director for an interactive agency, Manifest Digital. She has experience leading UX teams and teaches workshops at DePaul University and various conferences.
With the popularity of social media such as Twitter, one of the most important aspects that can be forgotten by users is being genuine.
Because it is so easy to automate things online, one can forget that being human is critical to creating real relationships. As an active user on social networks I felt these types of marketing messages (pictured above) are odd in that they pretend to be genuine and personable but give off the feeling that a machine instead of a human being is sending it.
So when thinking about users it’s important to keep in mind that people have feelings and emotions and are not machines.
There probably isn’t many people who are fans of automated messages, especially ones that pretend to be genuine and coming from another person.
Pankaj Kedia, director of Intel’s Global Ecosystems Program for Mobile Internet Devices and Smart Phones, responded to an email question: “Consumers want to do multiple things at the same time: listen to music while browsing the Web, look for directions while looking at your calendar and talking with your friends, and so on,” -CNET, News
As the tablet race heats up with the announcement of Apple’s iPad, an important feature that could be a difference for users is multitasking. But can users really multitask?
An example of multitasking using technology is using mobile phones while driving. There’s a lot of controversy around this because the use of a mobile phone while driving increases the risk of an accident.
Shelley Evenson, principal in user-experience design at Microsoft Start-Up Labs, is one of several speakers in Alberta College of Art & Design’s Women Innovators in Design.
Evenson will be speaking at the John Dutton Theatre at the Calgary Public Library on February 11, 2010.
Her work covered a wide range which included design languages and strategies, design prototyping, organizational interfaces, and service design. Her clients have included Apple, BMO, CIBC, Kodak, and Xerox.
Video of Evenson discussing Designing for Service at the IIT Design Research Conference in Chicago.
When building a WordPress theme users can initially choose from two default ones that come with the installation:
WordPress Classic 1.5 by Dave Shea
WordPress Default 1.6 by Michael Heilemann (based on the famous Kubrick)
These basic themes are great for testing and checking to see if your installation is up and running, but there are so many wonderful themes out there to try.
Themeforest is another website with many inexpensive wordpress themes to purchase and download. Their themes are divided into different categories depending on the type of focus you want for your blog. The types of themes range from magazine to entertainment.
A great theme can add a lot of character to your blog but the key thing is to focus on content. After all content will the reason anybody would choose to visit your blog in the first place.
Ask yourself why would you bother to visit certain websites more often than others and why do you leave others right away when visiting?
WordPress iPhone app allows bloggers to create/edit posts, manage comments. It provides a handy solution to contribute content to their blogs while away from the computer.
This post was created using the app directly on the iPhone. The UI allows you to manage posts when the iPhone is held vertically. Tapping or touching onto the text area brings up the keyboard and then allows you to turn the phone on it’s side to switch to landscape mode. The horizontal keyboard is a must for users who need to do large amounts of typing on a small screen.
It’s been a while, but Horse1Asia is backup again with a new theme. I went back to the old basic black theme color since it seems to be a favorite of mine.
Some things will be broken I’m sure and I also decided to get rid of all the old content and start fresh for 2010. When I traveled overseas to Taiwan starting fresh helped me move forward towards new goals and challenges.
I sold pretty much everything I owned and only took a duffel bag, my cameras, and laptop. It can be liberating to start fresh and drop the past.
Thus, all the old content is gone. It’s now time to look forward.
Peter Mah is an User Experience Designer at iStockphoto.
Horse1Asia is part of his efforts to learn and share information about UX and Web Standards. The website name is a translation of his Chinese name and was started while he was overseas in Taiwan. It has evolved from a portfolio showcase of his photographic work to its current focus on making the web easier for users.
