The headline for this post is drawn from my favorite UX book: Don’t Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web and Mobile Usability, by Steve Krug. He writes, “Get rid of half the words on each … Read more
At a recent business lunch, someone was complaining about the Kansas City airport (MCI). I’ve heard this many times before. Fortunately, Kansas City knows that the airport is a problem which is why they are nearly … Read more
I’ve done quite a bit of website usability testing with “ordinary” website users. By design, testing is done with people who are representative of a client’s audience and not the people who design the sites. Of course, that’s … Read more
In real estate, it’s location, location, location. In UX, the location is mobile, mobile, mobile. Mobile devices account for over half of all visits to most websites. Chances are you are reading this post on your … Read more
In the infamous words of Donald Rumsfeld, there are known unknowns and unknown unknowns. When it comes to website or app design, testing with representative users (a.k.a. usability testing) can uncover both. Having conducted many, many user testing sessions over the past … Read more
We all have our go-to tools. Websites, platforms and applications we use to solve problems, perform tasks, acquire assets, streamline workflow and generally make our jobs easier. When I come across a helpful new tool, I’m … Read more
We spend a lot of time on our screens. Because of that, making text as readable as possible is extremely important for optimal user experience. This article gives easy-to-implement fixes for five common typographic problems seen … Read more
While I believe it’s important for everyone in an agency or corporate marketing/communications department to understand user experience fundamentals, there’s a critical place for UX specialists in the equation. Just like in the medical profession, it’s … Read more
User testing (sometimes called usability testing) is simply having real people test drive your website or app for the purpose of identifying problems and opportunities for improvement. It is not difficult, but it does require effort. … Read more
I was recently hired to do a UX audit of a newly redesigned e-commerce website. The business experienced a surprising decline in sales after the redesign. (To be clear, I wasn’t involved in that redesign.) My … Read more
Once upon a time, while strolling through the Japanese Gardens in Portland, Oregon, I made an incredible discovery. And all of a sudden around a bend in the path I discovered a stone tablet containing the … Read more
In 2021, marketers have a mind-boggling array of data-driven tools available to precisely target their audiences with personalized, relevant messages at exactly the right place and time. But what would happen to marketing and advertising as … Read more
In UX, using the right words to label things means the difference between success and failure. The wrong label can create user frustration that can hurt a business. Words matter — and sometimes the simplest words … Read more
I’ve been involved in an agile development process for a new web application for the past several months. The agile process has been “by the book.” A scrum master conducts weekly sprints to review the tasks … Read more
So the other day in a meeting, a client said he wanted things to be simple. That’s music to my UX ears of course, because simple is almost always best. When the client said this, he … Read more
I hope you enjoy this short collection of user experience design quotations. These words of wisdom from sages and experts say more in a few words than I can say in a 500-word post! “Design is … Read more
A few years from now, how many of us will remember Mike Bloomberg’s run for the Democratic presidential nomination? I’m guessing it’s something Mike would like us to forget. But like all failures, we can use … Read more
If you’re building a website from scratch – or revamping an existing site – where do you begin? This post will help with the many questions that will need to be answered to create a great … Read more
When we first started building websites, we used what we called the “4D web design process.” I’ve seen 4D expressed a couple different ways as either Discovery, Definition, Design, Development; or, Discovery, Design, Development, Deployment. Amazingly, … Read more
I have a thesis that agency people have a strong bias that is antithetical to good UX (user experience) design. And, like all biases, it must be overcome to achieve the best outcomes possible. I’ve worked … Read more
