A big thanks goes out to Andrew Maier whose article “Designing for Startups: How to Deliver the Message Across” in Smashing Magazine included some thoughts from a blog post I wrote a few months ago titled “A Plan of Action.” In it he features my three approaches to design: Reactive, Preactive, and Proactive — the [Keep Reading…]
Whit Hour – Week 21
Thank you so much to the ~28 people who showed up for the twenty-first week of Whit Hour — my weekly one-hour video chat to answer any and all of your questions about user experience, consulting, and whatever else you throw at me. Tune in every Monday night from 10-11pm Eastern Time at http://www.livestream.com/whithour. Whit [Keep Reading…]
A Plan of Action
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it?” — Luke 14:28 It’s not every day I quote the Bible. All the rarer that I quote from the New Testament, given the fact that I’m Jewish. But I happened [Keep Reading…]
Whit Hour – Week 19
Thank you so much to the ~26 people who showed up for the nineteenth week of Whit Hour — my weekly one-hour video chat to answer any and all of your questions about user experience, consulting, and whatever else you throw at me. Tune in every Monday night from 10-11pm Eastern Time at http://www.livestream.com/whithour. Whit [Keep Reading…]
If the product doesn’t work, its “user experience” doesn’t matter
I recently edited an article for UX Magazine (When You Startup with UX) in which I interviewed four startups on what User Experience means to them. Of all the things that people said, the quote that stood out to me the most was from Mike Singleton, a developer at Foursquare: “…when you only have three [Keep Reading…]
Whit Hour – Week 12
Thank you so much to the 35 people who showed up for the twelfth week of Whit Hour — my weekly one-hour video chat to answer any and all of your questions about user experience, consulting, and whatever else you throw at me. Tune in every Monday night from 10-11pm Eastern Time at http://www.livestream.com/whithour (new [Keep Reading…]
My Best Advice for Conducting User Interviews
In a previous life, I was a Professional Writing major and part-time journalist. I contributed to my school’s student newspaper, as well as the faculty and staff newspaper, and almost every week for two years, I wrote an arts column for the Pittsburgh City Paper — Western PA’s leading alternative newsweekly [read my old clips]. [Keep Reading…]
Whit Hour – Week 10
Thank you so much to the 35 people who showed up for the tenth week of Whit Hour — my weekly one-hour video chat to answer any and all of your questions about user experience, consulting, and whatever else you throw at me. Tune in every Monday night from 10-11pm Eastern Time at http://www.justin.tv/whitneyhess. Whit [Keep Reading…]
My 20 Guiding Principles for UX Design on Monster.com’s InsideTech
Last month I mentioned that UX Magazine would now be syndicating some of the content from Pleasure and Pain. A couple weeks ago they republished my Guiding Principles for UX Designers post, which then in turn got picked up by Monster.com’s InsideTech, a “meeting place for IT professionals.” The article has more than 2,600 views [Keep Reading…]
See For Yourself on Johnny Holland Magazine
Yesterday the wonderful Johnny Holland Magazine published my essay, See For Yourself: About the Power of Observing. The article, or more accurately, rant, is all about how imperative it is for user experience designers to actively observe the world around us on a regular basis. Re-reading it now, it feels quite different than most of [Keep Reading…]
