Also known as Max Choong, director of user experience at Wunderman.
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gregmelander:

Nordstrom Innovation Lab

Check out user experience design in action at the Nordstrom Innovation Lab: Sunglass iPad App Case Study via Nordstromcom

The user experience wheel By Magnus Revang [April 17, 2007]

The user experience wheel

By Magnus Revang [April 17, 2007]

The Disciplines of User Experience by Dan Saffer

The Disciplines of User Experience by Dan Saffer

HFI animation - The ROI of User Experience with Dr. Susan Weinschenk (via HFIvideo)

More Opinions on UX Soft Skills

fixpert:

This is a sequel to my User Experience Soft Skills post. To recap, my take on necessary soft skills for UX is as follows:

  • Observation and Listening
  • Empathy
  • Storytelling
  • Creativity and Ideation
  • Writing
  • Drawing
  • Presenting
  • Passion for learning

I originally developed this list for a User Experience class that I’m teaching this semester. I’m trying to give my students an overview of what skills they can equip themselves with that will be valuable regardless of what technological changes happen, or what platform they’re working on.

Of course, this is only one lady’s opinion. I also shared with them similar thinking by other designers, which I’ll share with you here.

Aza Raskin’s Top 5 Skills for a Designer

I recently read Aza Raskin’s So You Want To Be A Designer article. His list of the top 5 skills that he thinks are, “most important to do and master if you want to get into design,” goes something like this:

  1. Negotiation skills
  2. Cognitive psychology
  3. Coding skills
  4. Love of creation
  5. Graphic design

I think that’s a pretty solid list, and it’s definitely worth checking out his entire post for the thinking that supports it.

Fred Beecher’s Nine Essential Characteristics of Good UX Designers

Then, of course, there’s Fred Beecher’s more exhaustive post Nine Essential Characteristics of Good UX Designers:

  1. A Deep Understanding of Human Psychology & Research Methods
  2. Competence in the Basics of Graphic Design
  3. An Awareness of and Interest in Technology
  4. Verbal & Visual Communication Skills
  5. Moderate Familiarity with Business, Deep Familiarity with Your Business
  6. The Ability to Quickly Learn a Subject Matter Area
  7. Mediation, Facilitation, & Translation Skills
  8. Creativity & Vision
  9. Passion

Mediation! That’s so important. In fact, I think it’s the anchor of what we do, and it’s one of the aspects of the job that I enjoy the most. Again, it’s important to read the entire post for details around his thinking.

An analysis of the Amazon shopping experience | Webdesigner Depot

[October 14, 2009]

The disciplines of user experience by Dan Saffer, Principal at Kicker Dan raises a good question: “what is user experience design by itself, those areas that aren’t filled up with other bubbles?” I basically agree with his answer: “not much, aside from coordination between the various disciplines, or what used to be called creative direction.” The user experience designer is a jack-of-all-trades, able to communicate with all disciplines on their own terms and swap thinking hats without missing a beat. The user experience designer is the guardian of the user experience, the evangelist for the vision and the one that is responsible for moulding the solution when challenges undoubtedly arise so that its integrity is maintained. Oftentimes, this is in addition to their day job, e.g. information architect, visual designer, producer.

The disciplines of user experience by Dan Saffer, Principal at Kicker

Dan raises a good question: “what is user experience design by itself, those areas that aren’t filled up with other bubbles?” I basically agree with his answer: “not much, aside from coordination between the various disciplines, or what used to be called creative direction.”

The user experience designer is a jack-of-all-trades, able to communicate with all disciplines on their own terms and swap thinking hats without missing a beat. The user experience designer is the guardian of the user experience, the evangelist for the vision and the one that is responsible for moulding the solution when challenges undoubtedly arise so that its integrity is maintained. Oftentimes, this is in addition to their day job, e.g. information architect, visual designer, producer.

Terminology: the difference between a gesture and a manipulation by Ron George. [September 6, 2009] Here’s how you can tell. Manipulations Contextual – they only happen at specific location(s) or on specific object(s) React immediately – there is a direct correlation in cause and effect between your interaction and the system (this does not include visual affordance) Can be single state, but are usually 3 or more states (see Bill Buxton’s paper on Chunking and Phrasing) Direct (could possibly be considered indirect by way of augmenting your actual interactions with the reaction of the system) – your actions directly affect the system, object, or experience in some way Gestures Not contextual – they can be anywhere in the system in location and time The system waits for the series of events to complete to decide on how to react (again, this does not include visual affordance) They contain at least 2 states Indirect – they do not affect the system directly according to your action. Your action is symbolic in some way that issues a command, statement, or state.

Terminology: the difference between a gesture and a manipulation

by Ron George. [September 6, 2009]

Here’s how you can tell.

Manipulations

  1. Contextual – they only happen at specific location(s) or on specific object(s)
  2. React immediately – there is a direct correlation in cause and effect between your interaction and the system (this does not include visual affordance)
  3. Can be single state, but are usually 3 or more states (see Bill Buxton’s paper on Chunking and Phrasing)
  4. Direct (could possibly be considered indirect by way of augmenting your actual interactions with the reaction of the system) – your actions directly affect the system, object, or experience in some way

Gestures

  1. Not contextual – they can be anywhere in the system in location and time
  2. The system waits for the series of events to complete to decide on how to react (again, this does not include visual affordance)
  3. They contain at least 2 states
  4. Indirect – they do not affect the system directly according to your action. Your action is symbolic in some way that issues a command, statement, or state.

Values in software design practice | Designing the user experience at Autodesk

by John Schrag. [July 10, 2009]

In a similar vein to the Agile Manifesto, the UX designers at Autodesk have come up with their own list of design practices they value.

Twelve emerging best practice for adding user experience work to agile software development

By Jeff Patton. [June 27, 2008]

  1. Drive: UX practitioners are part of the customer or product owner team
  2. Research, model, and design up front - but only just enough
  3. Chunk your design work
  4. Use parallel track development to work ahead, and follow behind
  5. Buy design time with complex engineering stories
  6. Cultivate a user validation group for use for continuous user validation
  7. Schedule continuous user research in a separate track from development
  8. Leverage user time for multiple activities
  9. Use RITE to iterate UI before development
  10. Prototype in low fidelity
  11. Treat prototype as specification
  12. Become a design facilitator