Download the Ninja UX Cheat Sheets I handed out after my CodeFest 2013 keynote. Please feel free to share!
Ninja UX Cheat Sheet
Tag: UCD
10 Things User Experience Design Taught Me About Life
- Empathy goes a long way. What motivators, challenges or pressures are the people around you experiencing? Nothing is done in a vacuum. Stay aware of how your actions might impact others.
- Before anything else, define what success is to you. Otherwise you’ll have no idea if you’re headed towards it or in the opposite direction.
- Don’t sweat getting off course; it’s natural to stray now and then. As long as you regularly check in to correct a path that’s not headed in the right direction, it’s not a big deal.
- Figure out your most important goals and use them to guide daily decisions.
- Life, like design, is full of trade-offs. There will always be difficult decisions. Maybe you can have it all, but probably not all at the same time. Prioritize wisely.
- Iterate constantly. Being too attached to your current way of thinking is a rut in the making. Identify what works and what doesn’t and be prepared to scrap something and start over. Be open to new approaches and possibilities.
- How well something works is important, but never underestimate how much a visually pleasing space can impact mood and emotions. Clear out clutter and let the sun shine in.
- People often express needs as solutions. Taking the time to identify the underlying need first always pays off by providing both a better understanding and a better solution.
- Get comfortable rejecting the status quo. Think things through and ask “why?”
- Perfection is elusive. Find and befriend your “good enough“.
UCD Girl Saved the World with User-Centred Design
I spoke last night at a Girl Geeks Ottawa dinner, had a blast and met all sorts of interesting and fun gals. The organizers did a top-notch job and the venue and food at Grounded Ottawa was great. Thank you so much for inviting me to talk about User-Centred Design (UCD).
Below you can see the presentation I gave. In it, I introduce our superhero, UCD Girl, who works tirelessly to save the world from bad design. Then we met Dave, her archenemy, who, despite good intentions, is known as Bad Design Dude.
Can she save him – and us – from the dark side?
As the epic battle between good and bad design plays out, you’ll learn the benefits of treating early designs as hypotheses that must be tested for usability with end users.
You’ll learn that design is inextricably linked to business value, and you’ll see some compelling examples of how this method saves companies big bucks.
Saving the World With User Centred Design by Hilary Little
View more presentations from Hilary Little
Girl Geek Dinners Ottawa: “Saving the World with User-Centred Design” April 25
I’ll be speaking at Girl Geek Dinners Ottawa on April 25, 2012.
Imagine a world where critical user interfaces like those for emergency room tools, aircraft cockpits and nuclear reactor controls have been designed based on best guesses. These interfaces have never been tested with real doctors, pilots and nuclear control system operators. They are being made from a single and detached perspective that does not focus on how people actually interact with technology.
In this day and age, that world seems hard to imagine, but the truth is that this top-down approach to designing products and services has been leading the way for decades. Designs of all kinds have been built without a deep understanding of the end user: their wants, limitations, needs and experiences. And at what cost? Fortunately, the gap between producer and user is shrinking as businesses embrace a better system of evidence-based design. The leading method for doing this known as user-centred design.
Over good food and drinks, guest speaker Hilary Little will help us geeks better understand user-centred design and will take from her own experiences of using this method to maximize business value. She will explain the benefits of treating early designs as hypotheses that need to be tested for usability with end users. She will discuss design as it is linked to business goals, and will provide an example of how this method saves companies big bucks.
The hashtag for these events is: #ggdottawa