Last Thursday I gave my talk Design Principles: The Philosophy of UX, at WebVisions at the Hudson Hotel in NYC. Christina Beard, a graphic designer and writer for Core77, was in the audience and wrote about my presentation in an article published yesterday.
Christina later asked me if I believed my principles would change as technologies change and users adapt. I told her:
I feel confident that my principles for designing experiences will stand the test of time because they are technology agnostic. People deserve to be treated with humanity and empathy regardless of the communication medium. As the web evolves, as technology becomes even more pervasive and robust, we have both an increasing opportunity and responsibility to treat each other with compassion. I hope that my principles can continue to guide our behavior as technologists and ultimately change the way we do business at the most fundamental level.
Core77 is possibly the oldest-ever online magazine, started by two Pratt Students (my dad’s alma mater) for industrial designers, and has expanded to all facets of design over the years. It’s a very highly respected publication and I am honored to have my name in it.
I hope this helps designers of all stripes to think about the philosophy behind their work and approach their designs with principle and purpose.
[Read the full article]
Can you tell just how sick I was from the photo? Eesh!
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Tags:Articles·Speaking·User Experience
It’s a funny thing — the more you share your opinions openly, the more people ask you for them. As the year is coming to a close, if you’re thinking about starting a blog next year or writing more frequently on the one you already have, don’t just make an empty resolution. STICK TO IT. I’ve been writing here for almost four years, and I am evidence of the fact that amazing things happen when you’re devoted to putting yourself out there.
Recently I was asked to contribute my thoughts to a few year-end articles, and have been quoted alongside many web practitioners who inspire me every day. You can read my excerpts here, but I encourage you to go to the full articles for a lot more wisdom:
A List Apart: What I Learned About the Web in 2011
CONTEXT IS KING
The most important thing that 2011 taught me about web design is that physical context of use can no longer be assumed by platform, only intentional context can. For the past couple of years, we have gotten into the habit of presuming that mobile means on-the-go, desktop denotes a desk, and tablet is on the toilet. But increasingly the lines are blurring on where devices are being used and how they’re being used in unison. This year I have learned to see devices as location agnostic and instead associate them with purpose—I want to check (mobile), I want to manage (desktop), I want to immerse (tablet). This shift away from objective context toward subjective context will reshape the way we design experiences across and between devices, to better support user goals and ultimately mimic analog tools woven into our physical spaces.
Webdesigner Depot: Web Design Predictions for 2012
The rallying cry of the web community in 2011 has seemed to be “make stuff.” My prediction for 2012 is that we’ll soon realize that that was rather shortsighted, and instead will encourage one another to “make stuff that matters.”
I have seen so much incredible talent squandered on designing products that only meet the needs of a small, homogenous, insular group of friends. While this can be fun and challenging for a side project, it is a fleeting satisfaction.
In 2012, mastery of the tools and a cool idea will no longer be enough to get attention. I predict that there will be a widespread movement to uncover and understand deep-seeded, life-damaging problems for sizable communities across the globe, and our efforts instead will be put towards improving their lives and work in ways that empower humanity. Productivity and entertainment tools have their place, but I suspect that we won’t continue to pat each other on the back so vigorously for continuing to crowd the market.
Design is the problem. The social, economic and political environments we will find ourselves in in 2012 will push us towards asking questions before devising solutions, equip us with a longer-term vision, and ultimately deepen our greater purpose.
The Next Web: The Future of Web Design
I hope we come to have a greater understanding of the various target audiences that our products have and that we deliver them content more intelligently. Right now, different content is appropriate on different platforms. But users tell us so much about themselves through their repeated use of our product and we haven’t done enough work to create customized content experiences for them as a result of all of that intel. Instead, we’ve only created custom, functional experiences but not custom, content experiences.
What did you learn about the web in 2011 and what do you predict we’ll see next year (or are just wishing will happen)? Please share your thoughts in the comments!
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Tags:Articles·Customer Experience·User Experience
Stuff is cheap, in the long run. At the end of our days, we’re not likely to remember the things we acquired as much as the moments we experienced.
This holiday season, reconsider the packaged goods you’re intending to buy for the people you love. Instead, design an experience for them they’ll never forget.
Here’s my take on a holiday gift guide for that special someone on your list:
- Push the couches together and make a love nest that you both climb into. Put food on a tray between you, find a romantic movie on Netflix, and fall asleep in each other’s arms.
- Cook a meal together using only ingredients you bought that day from the farmers’ market. Make something you’ve never made before. Do the work together, then enjoy the fruits of your labor together. Leave the dishes for tomorrow.
- Take a drive in the rain. Bring sandwiches. Park in an empty parking lot and turn off the windshield wipers. Turn the radio off and then your cell phones. Share your lunch and your secrets.
- Build furniture. Lay out the materials, gather the appropriate tools, and take turns reading the instructions. Divide and conquer. Question each other’s accuracy. Laugh when you get it wrong. Enjoy starting over because it means you’ll have more time working on something together.
- Play startup entrepreneur and design an app together. Bring paper, pencils and sticky notes. Start with a problem you both always face, then sketch your way out of it. Encourage each other’s crazy ideas and explore new territory. Bonus points if you build a prototype. Figure out a business model and mock-pitch it to your friends.
- Be their career coach for the day. Act professionally, greeting each other with a handshake. Find out what they really want to be doing and what they feel is missing. Listen closely. Ask the tough questions and offer thoughtful solutions. Brainstorm new directions and ways to get there. Write down next steps. Plan to meet again.
- Go to a dimly lit local jazz club with people you’ve never heard of playing soothing melodies. Wear blazers. Drink whiskey. Put on your introspective faces and sway with the music. Snap your fingers at the end of each song. Make fun of the people sitting next to you who are clearly on an uncomfortable date in the quietest voice you can muster. Buy the musicians a drink when their set ends.
- Find an underground supper club. Be the last to arrive so everyone is already mingling. Make conversation with the host. Sit across from strangers. Talk about things you’d never talk about with people you know. Pay attention to the description of each dish and savor every bite, trying to taste each ingredient. Compliment the chef. Ask a ton of questions. Stick around until they kick you out.
- Go someplace you can really see the stars. Stare up at the sky together and marvel at all its wonder. Guess the constellations. Make up names for ones you don’t know. Talk about life on other planets. Wander through the galaxy in your minds and promise to experience space travel in your lifetime.
- Get up from the dinner table and dance in the living room. Pause the passing of time and hold each other close. Half listen to the lyrics and half feel the music and wholly move in unison. Smile wide. Imagine what the other is thinking. Don’t talk. Lean back and let the other hold you up. Pretend the song will never end.
Eliminate the baggage and make your future. Save your money and save each other. From me to you, happy holidays.
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Tags:Design·Digressions·Pleasure·Realizations
The NY Tech Meetup, founded by Meetup.com founder Scott Heiferman and co-founded by Dawn Barber, has more than 19,000 members and draws 800 attendees every month. Last year, NYTM became a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization incorporated in New York State and as a result now has a Board of Directors that steers the priorities of the organization. There is currently one open board seat and I am campaigning to be elected.
My mission as a member of the NYTM Board of Directors will be to relentlessly advocate for the needs and desires of our membership, and to ensure that their priorities mirror the priorities of the organization.
Voting is now open for all members of NYTM who have RSVPed to at least one event, and continues through December 20. If you qualify to vote, I hope you’ll consider me to be your candidate.
At a Meet the Candidates event at New Work City tonight, each candidate was given two minutes to share their platform. I have shared the full-text of my speech below.
If you have any questions or comments about my platform, please don’t hesitate to ask here in the comments or via email at whitney@whitneyhess.com.
Thank you for your support.
I’m a user experience designer. That means I help organizations create easy and pleasurable experiences for their customers. And as a 4-year member of the NYTM, I can tell you that the experience of being an attendee has significant room for improvement. From the ticketing process, to entering the venue, to event format, Q&A, exiting and after party. We’ve become a really big crowd and as we’ve scaled, we have lost a tremendous amount of the camaraderie that existed in earlier years without equally increasing the value that the event itself provides.
I’m a native New Yorker, run a UX consultancy here and have worked with dozens of Startups who have had the heart to set up shop in NY. Whether in their infancy or adolescence, 5 users or 500,000, I have taught them how to understand and empathize with their customers, deepen engagement and create long-lasting fans. I show companies how to make people’s lives better.
When people pay $10 to attend a meetup, and have to hover over their browsers waiting for tickets to become available like it’s a Justin Bieber concert, we need to make them feel like it was the best $10 they’ll ever spend. Tickets need to be easier to procure, both for first-timers and for members who have supported the meetup for years. There needs to be total visibility into the demo selection process, with some degree of input from the NYTM membership. The demos — and the moderation — should be professional and rehearsed, with no duds; we should be training presenters on how to communicate their vision and wow the audience. And for a tech meetup, there absolutely needs to be reliable and powerful wifi, no excuses.
That’s what I want to do for the NYTM and that’s what I hope you’ll help me do by electing me to the Board of Directors.
Thank you.
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Tags:Community·New York·Technology
It’s quite overdue, but this blog is now optimized to be viewed in a mobile browser. Many thanks to Ben Seven for giving me the kick in the ass I needed to get it done:
Commented on You’re not a user experience designer if… by Ben Seven:
Are you allowed to call yourself a User Experience designer if you don’t care about the user experience of your own blog on handheld devices? I tried reading this article on the bus home having seen it retweeted, and enjoyed the delicious irony of it not being particularly web friendly. Just saying – UX suffers from the same thing my profession does – people calling themselves designers with no real expertise, qualification or questioning from clients – but it’s strange to be concerned about the experience of computer interaction and not catch up with the boom in mobile web browsing on your own platform!
I confess to having a case of “the cobbler’s children have no shoes.” I think some of the busiest practitioners have the crappiest websites because we’re so busy fixing other people’s problems. But it’s no excuse. I need to do a major website redesign pronto.
But hey, now you can at least read this on mobile! Please leave a comment if you are right now.
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Tags:Accessibility·Blogging·Design·Mobile
