Tag / user experience
Taking Risks, Earning Trust and Including Co-Workers: User-Centred Design at Deutsche Bahn Operations
In 2016, Andreas Bürgler heard the term “design thinking” being tossed around left and right. “There was a lot of discussion about design thinking, everybody used it as a buzzword, and I felt that few people really knew what it actually meant. I saw some charts, but that was too little for me. I wanted to really learn it myself.” During a three-day Open Course in design thinking at the HPI Academy with Katrin Lütkemöller-Shaw, he realised that this way of user-centred working inspired his “mind and heart”: “This was my thing: to work on topics that are interesting for the users and help them. To build a prototype quickly, and to learn what fits and doesn’t fit immediately.” At the same time, interviewing real users came as an unusual experience: “Having this direct, immediate contact with the user was a challenge”, Bürgler says, and adds with a smile: “You are suddenly talking to the customer – alert!”
The Need to Innovate Topics of disruptive innovation have already become central un..
Median UX Salary $95k and More from the UXPA Salary Survey
The median salary for UX professionals is $95,000, according to the just-released UXPA Salary Survey. The survey is conducted every few years and shows both the progress and evolution of UX industry careers.
Results of the 2018 survey indicate:
A greater number of professionals entering the field. More representation outside of the U.S. An increase in jobs in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest. More UX professionals holding senior-level, supervisory roles. A closing of gender-based salary gaps. UX salaries by role A variety of different UX professions were represented, and respondents were able to select multiple titles. “User researcher” was the most popular job title: it was selected by more than half of respondents (56%).
Overall, job titles that include “manager” (department or team) appear to have the highest median salary ($130,500).
This is followed closely by instructional designers. Product managers, technical writers, and technical analysts follow, after a significant de..
Beth Comstock: The Future is for Creatives
Beth Comstock wrote Imagine It Forward for one pressing reason. “We need more people in our organizations who are leading with imagination,” she says.
It’s a call to action any creative can agree with. As the machine mind squeezes imagination out of our organizations, we’ve all got to partake in a creative revolution. “The future depends on it,” says Comstock.
Imagine It Forward is about more than navigating organizational change. Comstock shares her personal career story, as she rises from leading NBC’s corporate communications department to becoming GE’s Chief Marketing Officer, then, ultimately, GE’s Vice Chair. One theme throughout is Comstock’s “job crafting”—taking on new responsibilities in current roles that paved the way for her to take on the next role. “I’ve done it in almost every job I’ve had because I am curious,” she says. “My best example is when I went into marketing at GE.”
At GE then, marketing was seen as what you do at the end of a product cycle. “A group of us ..
Why the discovery phase is the most important web design step
The discovery phase in web design can help you create products and services that your users really need. Here’s why you need to take it seriouslyCreating websites that people want to use requires an intense amount of research. To truly understand the people who will be using your products and services is the main current of user experience design.
Oriol Beda quipped in UX Collective that “research is still seen as a magic wand that is only waved when problems arise”.
If you don’t know who your audience is, how can you ever expect to design something suited to their wants and needs? The answer is you won’t. You’ll end up with a half-baked product that nobody will want to use. For a better design process, research should be a primary tool for answering problems and not a fall back for when things go awry.
So, what steps can UX/UI designers take to ensure that they’re creating successful work? When it comes to web design, one of the most important steps is the discovery phase.
In this pos..
Who uses Service Design?
“A “service” sign in a room lit up at night” by Mike Wilson on UnsplashNetflix, Google, Spotify & iPhone are all highly aware of the importance of good Service Design. We can see this through their business models. Did you ever wonder why Netflix charges customers on a monthly basis instead of per movie or why Spotify also only offers monthly subscriptions? And why did Apple switch from iTunes to Apple Music? The reason is simple. All of these providers wanted to move away from selling products and into selling services. Through well-designed services, providers hope to build and maintain a relationship with you, the customer. This relationship means that they can predict their revenue better, re-invest in improving customer experiences, up-sell and introduce new products and services more effectively to their existing customer base.
The benefits of brand loyalty, which companies such as Nike developed and cherished in the eighties and nineties, are reaped with more certainty through s..
Website Personalization Planning
Users’ expectations are high, and attention spans are short. There’s a multitude of alternative destinations if a website doesn’t present messaging, content, or functionality that immediately connects with what a visitor wants and needs. If a company is lucky enough to get users to its website, it should do everything in its power to keep them there and content. Website personalization is a proven way to engage audiences more effectively. Not only does it create better experiences for users, it can increase conversion rates, generate more revenue, and build brand affinity. Organizations who fail to personalize experiences are missing out on opportunities to better connect with prospects, retain existing customers, and generate greater brand loyalty.
What is personalization and why does it matter? Website personalization is about creating a highly relevant, targeted, and individualized experience to suit a user’s needs. It is dynamically presenting something that might be helpful or mo..
Lessons Learned from An Event Apart Denver
Editor’s Note: An Event Apart (AEA) just finished its first event of 2018 in Seattle. For the first time, the 2018 conference series has three Special Edition events, which feature 18 speakers over three-day.
Today we look back at the 2017 AEA Special Edition. UX Booth columnist Jess Vice highlights some of the biggest takeaways.
Use the discount code AEAUXBooth to save $100 on any AEA multi-day event.
From Research to Redesign Jeffrey Zeldman, founder and creative director at studio.zeldman and co-founder of An Event Apart, kicked the conference off with a reminder of why we design in the first place. We can only identify and solve problems when we know who our customers are, who our users are, and which markets we’re reaching. Research is an often overlooked (yet vital) stage of the design process. Research sets us up to not only know who we’re designing for now but helps us discover what we should be solving for next.
Research saves time and money and allows us to build the righ..
Full-stack UXers: Who They Are and How to Find Them
Within the user experience community, there’s been an increasing push toward finding individuals whose skill sets extend beyond those of a typical UX designer. Specifically, businesses are looking for leaders who can carry a project from initial design to front-end development.
These leaders are called full-stack UXers.
But when it comes to filling this in-demand position, there’s not a lot of clarity about what qualifications a full-stack UXer should bring to the table – or how to find them.
What is a full-stack UXer? Perhaps the best entrypoint into understanding a full-stack UXer is to explain what they are not. Contrary to what the title might suggest – and what certain job postings may unrealistically demand – the role doesn’t call for someone with a deep mastery of every part of the design trajectory. In practice, there are very few UXers who are as skilled in programming languages as they are in pixel-perfect design.
While full-stack UXers don’t need to have in-depth experie..
The UX Designer’s Ultimate Compendium of Free Typography Resources
Be the type expert your users deserve with our ultimate list of free typography resources for UX designersIt was infamous typeface designer Eric Gill who opined in 1931 that “we are concerned with typography in England.” Fast forward 80 years and everybody is concerned with typography, everywhere.
That’s why the Justinmind UXers came up with this list of top font and typography resources.
Typography in design: A quick run-downTypography is entwined in our everyday lives and there is no avoiding its omnipresent power. Whether you’re in a bustling metropolis like New York City or secluded in the plains of Rwanda, you’re going to interact with type. It’s on street signs, buildings, movie posters and books to name but a few of its homes.
That’s why typography plays such a vital role within user experience design. It’s found all over the globe and can be used to define a brand, convey emotion, deliver information and even ignite fiery hatred among zealots.
Use typography to prototype awesom..
The Ultimate Guide to Launching a Mobile App Redesign
Each time you are launching a mobile app redesign, you are risking to make some users unhappy. But there may be so many reasons for an app redesign that it actually can be your number one priority. And it’s, of course, vital to identify your particular reason or reasons for redesigning an app. You need to be 100% sure about what you are getting into.
Redesigning has got many advantages. So, undoubtedly, a well-done redesign can move your business in a new direction and help increase ROI.
First off, you need to ask yourself why your app needs a redesign. So, you might want to launch a mobile app redesign because:
User experience trends have changedYou are about to launch a new featureYour competitor is providing a better app experienceYour current design is a mess and is not user-friendlyAs soon as you are sure about launching an app redesign, you need to start acting. Let’s discuss your moves one by one in more detail.
Talk to your usersEverything you do, you do for your users. So, it’..