Think Lean UX

Hi, my name is Maureen. I'm a User Experience Designer and Content Strategist with over 15 years of experience.

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

How Copywriting Can Benefit From User Research — Smashing Magazine

UX research can be enormously helpful to copywriters; this article shows which types of UX research are most valuable, and how copywriters can use them.

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

One of the best ways to learn what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to UI and usability is to look at as many samples as possible, testing out pages and evaluating how certain elements are being treated.

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

Ay mama! It's supposed to be spelled as, Machu Picchu or Machupicchu! But def not the way the have it on the weather app.

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

The shift: UX designers as business consultants Will they then become CX consultants? "UX is a broad field and designers are increasingly playing a strategic role in many companies. Be that designer. Businesses are increasingly adopting user-centered approaches to create experiences, moving UX design to be one of the core activities driving the company strategy and operations. This is an incredibly valuable opportunity that we designers can take to step up and contribute to create the great experiences and services they envision, taking our vision, tools and understanding to a different level. But we need to learn the new skills to play at this table, a table that's often speaking a different language with a lot of politics and different stakeholders. This talk will cover exactly these extra skills that are required to make this strategic jump: understanding the business needs, educating the client, understanding the hidden request, managing the various party involved in a project, defining the right process, understanding the internal impact and more." (Davide Casali a.k.a. @Folletto ~ Interaction14 videos)

http://www.informationdesign.org/archives/2014/02/#007066

[jerrylieveld]

The Business Case for User Experience Investment

User Experience (UX) is the discipline responsible for delivering an optimal experience to the user of a product. bit.ly/1fUFlDF

Curated by User Experience - UX - Mobile - Design - Jerry Lieveld

Related posts:

User Experience v. Customer Experience

More Than Usability: The Four Elements of User Experience, Part II

User Experience & User Interface Designing Skills : Articles : Graphic Design Junction

http://bit.ly/1bOUeYK

[ja-nz]

Error from Google Chrome when downloading from untrustworthy sources.

Not… really sure what I was downloading. I think I blacked out from the pain after it downloaded.

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

As a UX professional I take inspiration from a great many things. Since I’m also a big pop culture geek, that’s the biggest well I draw from. I’ve read a lot of entertainment biographies lately, and the latest was about famed martial artist and actor Bruce Lee...

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

While at the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) International conference last month in Washington, D.C., I spent a lot of time talking with attendees...

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

Want your users to fall in love with your designs? Fall in love with your users. Dana Chisnell

http://www.uxquotes.com/?

[kurvakreativ]

Ex-Ideo Designers Rethink The Calendar For Mobile Devices

With a minimal interface and gestural interactions, Peek is meant to be just enough of a calendar for casual use.

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

Good web design is about the character of the content, not the character of the designer.

Jeffrey Zeldman

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

Top 10 Design Blogs

If you're interested in becoming a User Experience Designer, or if you're interested in getting to know more about it; here are the top ten design blogs that the UX community is going to recommend. 

Brainsparks - http://www.uie.com/brainsparks

Inside the brilliant minds of user research pioneer Jared Spool and his team at User Interface Engineering (UIE).

Bokardo - http://bokardo.com

For everything you need to consider when designing socially-focused stuff, by Joshua Porter.

Design for Service - http://designforservice.wordpress.com

Insights into all the ways companies need to be communicating with their customers, outside of their websites, by Jeff Howard.

Disambiguity - http://www.disambiguity.com

The ins and outs of designing a product with an existing, and passionate, community, by Leisa Reichelt.

Everydayux - http://www.everydayux.com

A fresh look at the world around us through UX-tinted glasses, by Alex Rainert.

Graphpaper - http://www.graphpaper.com

Critical analysis of some of the toughest issues facing UX designers today, by Christopher Fahey.

Inspireux - http://www.inspireux.com

Cubical-wall worthy quotations from a variety of practitioners on how and why to create positive user experiences, by Catriona Cornett.

Logic + Emotion - http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion

Reusable visualizations and valuable synthesis at the intersection of user experience design, marketing and business, by David Armano.

Konogi - http://konigi.com/notebook/latest

Tips, tools and techniques for being a better user experience designer, by Michael Angeles.

Experentia - http://www.experientia.com/blog

A great resource for all things UX from around the globe, by Experientia.

UX Booth - http://www.uxbooth.com

A group blog written by up-and-coming designers and developers with fresh perspectives on user experience design, by Redd Horrocks, Matthew Kammerer, David Leggett, and Andrew Maier.

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

10 Free Wireframing Tools

Whether you’re designing a user interface for a website, iPad or iPhone app, it’s always a good idea to begin your designs with wireframes. Here's a list of 10 free tools that you can take advantage of right away.

http://www.simplediagrams.com/

SimpleDiagrams is a small desktop application that helps you express your ideas quickly and simply. There's just enough functionality to describe a thought or capture a process.

SimpleDiagrams keeps the visual expression of ideas clear through the simple design of library items and backgrounds.

http://dub.washington.edu:2007/denim/

Denim is a free multi-platform desktop app that supports sketching and allows design at various refinement levels. It’s an efficient tool for early stage brainstorming and wireframing.

http://wireframe.talltree.us/default.asp

Website wireframe is a very simple web based tool for building web site wireframes. The tool allows the wireframe to be built in minutes, and if desired, a link to view the wireframe can be sent through email, instant message, or even the phone. With both parties able to view the wireframe even from different locations, the wireframe can then easily be updated based on feedback, discussion, ideas, suggestions, and so on.

https://gomockingbird.com/

Mockingbird is a web-based tool that allows you to create, link together, preview and share wireframes of your website or application.

http://lovelycharts.com/

Lovely Charts is an online diagramming application; it allows you to create flowcharts, sitemaps, organization charts and wireframes.

http://www.gliffy.com/wireframe-software/

Gliffy free wireframe software makes it easy to create website wireframes and to share web mockups with anyone. Creating a website wireframe is easy.  Just drag and drop boxes, buttons, and lines from the web wireframe tool shape library anywhere onto the page. Then add text to your website wireframe to create a clear, website mockup.

http://www.lumzy.com/

Lumzy is a mockup and prototype creation tool for websites and applications. You can add events to controls, place controls inside other containers and emulate your project with easy page navigation triggered by user actions.

http://www.mockflow.com/

With Mockflow you can design, collaborate user interface mockups for your software and websites. MockFlow is hybrid, so you can design seamlessly from anywhere. It's interactive; you can organize pages with sitemaps and define links to present a clickable prototype. It comes with numerous built-in components & icons.

http://cacoo.com/

Cacoo is a user-friendly online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams, such as sitemaps, wireframes and network charts.

http://pencil.evolus.vn/en-US/Home.aspx

The Pencil Project's unique mission is to build a free and opensource tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use. It has built-in stencils for diagraming and prototyping, multi-page document with background page, inter-page linkings, on-screen text editing with rich-text support, exporting to HTML, PNG, Openoffice.org document, Word document and PDF, installing user-defined stencils and templates, and much, much more...

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

If you can't afford the time to do it right, how are you going to find the time to fix it up?

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

What is User-Centered Design (UCD)?

I had a client as me about this the other day, so I thought I'd share the meaning of it here for those who are curious about it as well.

According to the Usability Professionals' Association, user-centered design (UCD) is an approach to design that grounds the process in information about the people who will use the product. UCD processes focus on users through the planning, design and development of a product.

Why is it important?

In order for your web site to be successful, users have to be able to find the information they are searching for as well as being able to accomplish specific tasks while on your site. Although business needs always seem to take precedence over anything else, it is the usability professional's job to help find a balance that not only meets business needs but the users needs as well. Because if your web site isn't meeting their needs, the business will suffer. Also, it is always best to follow a process that can guide you in taking the proper steps to delivering the best experience to users while meeting business needs and saving them money at the same time. 

Develop a process

Creating a user-centerd design means that you must think about the needs of your users throughout each step of the development process. This includes planning your site, collecting as much data from your users and competitors, developing prototypes, gathering content, and conducting usability tests with users. But before any of this even considered the first step is to clearly define what the organizational goals are as well as the users' needs, goals and objectives.

I'll be posting information regarding what key questions you should be asking about your users...more to come!

[thinkleanux-blog-blog]

When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.

R. Buckminster Fuller