Audience Experience

Why is it that there are more boys/men in the growing fields of Science/Technology/Engineering/Math fields than women?  I know lots of cool (feminine) women who grow into self-confident, self-realized uber-nerds that most of us (men or women) only aspire to be in our wildest dreams.  It's a cool life, and frankly should be featured on more reality-shows and celebrity award statuettes. My personal experience is that of commonly being the only woman in a room full of developers.  Sometimes there are issues with it, sometimes not.  I'm sure there's a lot I miss and a lot I imagine.  Some of it has to do with the social ties that encourage team-building in the software development environment.  If you are good enough to bring value to the team, you are a welcome addition. As an additional caveat, a UX person sometimes comes in as an unwelcome interloper.  Someone who is asking for an extra step, and creating more work for the group.  If it's in ...

NPR Headlines "All Things Considered" has Tech on their minds lately. Great government doublespeak of the day: This plan is "predecisional". The government is estimating that the need is about 30k to 40k people. And as a country, there are maybe 1000, total.  I don't know what qualifications they are talking about, or training or job duties.  They just need to hire a bunch of people that don't exist for threats they are not sure about to keep America "safe" in a future that nobody can predict. Immediately after, NPR turns to Apple falling behind in the world market.  Cellphones are the actual wave of the future.  Of the entire world.  (Not just nerdy Americans in Brooklyn.  And wannabes.) The Chinese market is growing.  India. Africa.  The numbers will be going after innovation.  The quickest, easiest smartphones that can deliver quick bits and bites (and bytes) of info.  The device has got to be inexpensive, smooth and work...

Today is the bicentennial of the publication of "Pride & Prejudice" ("It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife." Keep reading it here ) A somewhat anti-feminist, yet seemingly all too true, maxim, written by a woman who would die 4 years later at the age of 41. Unmarried. Her writing is funny and ironic and packed with sarcasm. She's popular today (with everyone including Zombies ) because of this tone. Her community has rallies around her for 200 years, despite (or because of) her voice being silenced so young. Today is also "Community Manager Appreciation Day", so what are we to make of this precedent? Create good work at the beginning, then back off and let the fans take over? iMedia has 4 Ways to evaluate your CM Strategy My quick & dirty summary A) "Engagement, not followers". The goal is what you are doing, not the numbers. B) Conversat...

This landed in my email box the other day, from a company I am always rooting for. They put on  excellent conferences and help me to keep my ideals high. Quoting from Mark Hurst's (1/15/13) blog post at Creative Good : "For years I've been fascinated by the work of Natasha Dow Schüll, an MIT professor who has studied Las Vegas gambling for many years. She gave a great talk at Gel a few years back . . . The question is unavoidable: if UX methods are effective in projects with a wide range of outcomes, which do you want to spend out your career on? Those that benefit the customer in the long term, or those that are in the long run harmful? And don't think the slot machine example is foreign to online business. Social-gaming company Zynga has been trying to enter the online gambling market. The company has always paid close attention to user behavior, and now they seek to maximize the profits from such a skill." However, the job market does not seem to ag...

Sometimes, ideas from Graphic Art of the 1950's resurface as modern science, without considering the time difference between then and now.  The idea is to get the brand into the mind of the consumer.  The more they recognize it, the likelier they are to pick it up off the grocery shelves. Fast Company has some ideas about the field of Neuromarketing . And why professionals need to jump on it. It starts by discussing how SEO is about "Search Engine Optimization", but it should be about "Social Engagement Optimization".  Which becomes problematic when you read more of the argument as it devolves from "quality content" to the conclusion about simplifying everything and appealing to emotion.  Rather than something frivolous, like reason.  There is some "fuzzy science" about definitions: " neuromarketing is a science that’s based on the fact that 95% of all thoughts, emotions, and learning occur before we are ever aware of it" ...

There are LOTS of definitions of "User Experience" as a field. And then also, LOTS of definitions in terms of expectations of what the job should entail.  Most companies don't have a "mature vision" of what to expect, or how to integrate the UX person into their larger product cycle. I was trained to look at the overall picture, always get input from the end-user and to keep in mind the business requirements.  Also, from the business POV, to keep in mind the ENTIRE Customer Experience within the overall process.  The customer clicks a buy button online, but every interaction with the brand prior to that is a huge influence.  The abandonment rate does not exist only online. When you hear about "growing job opportunities" within the UX field, most are for short term contracts described below. Note to the beginning UX'er: BEWARE!! Quoting from an email on a (closed) UX professionals listserv: "Sadly, the majority of companies here stil...

There is a professional User Experience email group, and every so often, someone posts a cautionary tale.  It is usually a story of the significance of usability, as reported in a failure to act on recommendations.  I am quoting it, but leaving out the author's name, unless I have her permission.  Company names are always best left out as well, non-disclosure being what it is.   The story itself is common enough that most UX people I know have at least one experience like this in their past.   This is included here for those of you who might be working on a product OF ANY KIND and who ignore the UX people and/or initial warning signs that things are "clunky".   I have seen this over and over again in the Usability Field.  A MAJOR disconnect between the companies who create product and their actual market.  There's a push to add "UX" to everyone's job title, UX Developer, UX Designer, UX Architect.  The actual UX piece of it-talking to ...

How many UX people does it take to screw in a lightbulb? If you really want to understand the subtle humor (and accurately quoted approaches) of the User Experience field . . . go to Quora. (Full link below, just in case it isn't obvious enough) http://www.quora.com/How-many-UX-experts-does-it-take-to-screw-in-a-light-bulb Best answer: It depends.   Or, "None.  That's a development/engineering problem."  by Jared Spool, who is one of the most entertaining (and quality) presenter I've ever seen in this field. Usability expands to include larger patterns of psychology and human behavior, which is then (ideally) incorporated into an actual thing.  Process, hardware, software-whatever thing thing that can produce more productivity.  A higher-level analysis of stuff.  Some companies and brands (and people) just don't get it. And sometimes, it's hard to argue for it.  It turns into absurdist theater.  Like this thread.

Some people really get off on the finite details of grammar and design. The people at Slate thought that declaring war on 2 spaces after a period was exciting enough to post an article about.  And then re-posted it 2 years later.  To mark the anniversary.  Old typesetter rule which carries over into modern technology, but doesn't matter enough to merit debate.  Always err on the side of ease of readability. I read it . You don't have to.  (Dullsville!!!)  And nowhere is there an actual coherent argument for why you should never ever do it.  As a User Experience professional, you should always choose what is easiest to read and what is easiest to implement.  If it's ingrained in your brain by now, don't stress over it.  Even if it were to become a war between the One Spacers and the Two Spacers, we can all think of more important things to fight over. Like the use of the word "ain't".  It is not used formally, but is considered "ac...

As a User Experience Strategist, I am amazed at how some websites don't invest in their greatest assets.  If you are an ebook marketer, why not expose your repeat customers to your wide selection of titles?  Kobo, please give me a reason to give you my money!! Full Customer Profile & Experience: I love being surrounded by the books I have purchased.  Not that I have read all of those I own, not by any stretch.  And frankly I create a whole new pile of books TO READ everytime I tidy up and rearrange them.  That is what it means to have a physical artifact. When I am on my computer, I vary my time between work, surfing reading and allow my mind to go wherever it wants (as long as I'm not under deadline).   If I purchase an ebook, I can only read it on my laptop or my iPhone.  I refuse to purchase yet another device, when I should just read one of these paper artifacts. While doing research, there was a book that was only available on kobobook...

So I have a friend who is constantly posting very cynical things to Facebook.  I've decided that of all the crazies, his stuff is usually the most outlandish, so I haven't deleted him from my feed. When I saw this picture he posted, (weeks after the incident!) my eyes teared up slightly.   His comment: "Incredible that a school sign uses spellings like 'luv' and 'u'--kids will never know the true spellings of these words if this is the constant." He is of the Baby Boomer generation and I am closer to the Gen Y/Millennials.  What he doesn't get is the subtlety, and the reason the picture touched me.  I am trained in Linguistics, and he greatly underestimates the younger generations.  The very words he is complaining about are examples of casual spelling, which suggest a more personal connection to the children than the words spelled out fully. Children have been exposed to plenty examples of both kinds and it is a matter ...