#jared m. spool

[userexperiencegoodness]

Experience Rot

Jared M. Spool explains the dangerous effects of experience rot on user experience.

[ux-thought]

Cultivate A Love Of Learning

The tools, techniques, and knowledge that we apply to our work as designers is constantly changing and evolving. It can be hard for seasoned professionals to keep up. Most of the skills that designers need can’t be learned in school. So, what do entry-level professionals do if they want to achieve?

New professionals and students need to adapt their knowledge to an ever-changing field and develop a disciplined approach to staying on top of the industry. Skills are learned on the job, and some fields, like financial systems, government agencies, and medicine, demand industry-specific approaches and solutions.

Center Centre is a new UX Design school that tries to meet these challenges by providing workshops with industry experts, and hands-on work in real-world projects with companies and non-profits. It also offers a collection of the latest resources and tools that will be used on the job. It’s a school that focuses on practical, immediate applications in the design field while emphasizing the importance of developing a lifelong practice of being curious, asking questions, and learning along the way.

adapted from “Teaching UX Designers To Always Be Learning” by Jared M. Spool

[ux-thought]

Responsive Design: A Technique Towards Better Content

When organizations decide to make their website responsive, they often run into a lot of problems. They find that current designs and content don't work well on smaller screens. Things that used to be easy now become difficult.

What they realize is that their website wasn't working to begin with. Images are too small. Designs no longer look the same. Content becomes truncated or disappears altogether.

A smart organization sees this as an opportunity to improve things, especially content. Find new and better ways to work with your teams. Ensure that you're meeting both user needs and business needs. Stop producing content that doesn't add value or bring in profit.

adapted from “Mobile Strategies for Your Content” a podcast interview with Karen McGrane and Jared M. Spool

[frankdraws]

5 Indispensable Skills For UX Mastery

Reading a great article by Jared M. Spool about the 5 Indispensable Skills For UX Mastery.

Here's an excerpt:

It's rare to find a UX master who works completely by themselves. Instead, they are part of a team, collaborating on the designs they create.

Part of the collaboration is delivering and receiving feedback. Great design succeeds through iteration. Each round of changes is best when it's informed by the experience and knowledge of the others around us.

And Jared on critiquing:

It's a discussion, where nobody is right or wrong, instead we fully explore the landscape of the problem.