When I started my career in user experience, my purpose was to make digital products easier and more pleasurable to use. Interfaces were poorly organized, poorly labeled, and took forever to learn—and I wanted to fix them all. I applied my knowledge of best practices and emerging trends. I used design patterns and standard elements [Keep Reading…]
Would You Treat Them Differently?
All of our minds are filled with things that no one else will ever know. “If you could stand in someone else’s shoes, hear what they hear, see what they see, feel what they feel, would you treat them differently?” This is the question asked by the Cleveland Clinic, one of the top hospitals in [Keep Reading…]
The Thief and The Healer
I was on Skype conducting a stakeholder interview with a client in London when my boyfriend returned to the apartment. He had just left for an appointment 5 minutes earlier. “So sorry to bother you, honey,” he whispered, “but your car was broken into.” I went deaf for a moment as my client continued answering [Keep Reading…]
On Empathy and Apathy: Two Case Studies
The suffix -pathy means “feeling” or “suffering” The prefix em- means “within” or “inside” The prefix a- means “not” or “without” By definition, empathy is the opposite of apathy. Empathy is defined as “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another” — within + feeling or inside + suffering. Apathy is defined as [Keep Reading…]
Alan Alda falls victim to McAfee’s dreadful customer experience
A month ago, my mom forwarded me an article from the New York Times that I only got around to reading now (as is known to happen with forwards from Mom). Turns out she picked a good one: a forehead-slapper about acclaimed actor Alan Alda’s helluva time canceling his McAfee email monitoring: Theater of the [Keep Reading…]
The Purpose of a Business is to Create a Customer
A customer is defined as a person who pays a business for goods and services. If a person does not pay, they are not a customer. The nebulous term of “user” is assigned when a person is accessing goods and services without directly paying for them. Call them a visitor, a prospect, a constituent, whatever you want. Until they pay you, they’re no customer of yours — and you have not fulfilled upon your purpose as a business.
What I learned in 2011 and my predictions for 2012
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. [Keep Reading…]
The Neighborhood Business Experience
It was 7:19pm. There I was, standing outside of Tarzian Hardware, its gate down and locked, the lights turned off. The store hours sign read Monday – Friday 8:30am – 7pm. I knocked on the window. I rattled the gate. I called the store from my cell phone with 8% battery remaining and could hear [Keep Reading…]
A Proactive Apology from Plancast
I’m not a huge user of Plancast — the event-based social network (a sort of next generation Upcoming.org) — mostly because I’m too lazy to update my plans in multiple places, with RSVP functionality on Facebook, Meetup, Eventbrite and more. But an email that arrived in my inbox yesterday just might make me change my [Keep Reading…]
Nationwide Insurance demonstrates user research with NationPam
As an independent consultant, I pitch my services a lot. I consider myself fortunate that I get the opportunity to chat with so many great companies (okay, and some not-so-great ones) about what user experience is and what value it could provide to their businesses. Without a doubt, the most difficult service for me to [Keep Reading…]
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