Audience Experience

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...

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 ...