UX Design
INTERACTION DESIGN
My inspiration for UX design comes from the real world.
Sometimes I see a solution that is so well designed that most people do not recognize the work behind it.
​I often see a real world problem and observe people repeat the same unsuccessful behavior multiple times. People blame themselves for making a mistake when the real problem is the UX.
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You are building the UX of your product even if you don't realize it. Many things can happen to make the final product difficult to use. These reasons don't matter to the person who uses the product and the perceived quality is affected a lot by the quality of the UX.
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UX design involves teamwork. I work with cross functional teams to make sure the final product fulfills product needs and provides the best experience.
A "Push" door that looks like it should be pulled.
Paper towel dispenser that works well with dry hands but not with wet hands.
A "Push" door that looks like it should be pulled.
UX Design is an iterative process that starts with initial business needs and improves as we learn from everyone involved.
The details of the final product will be different from what we initially design but the product improves as we dig deeper and learn more.
I keep the user in mind while balancing the needs of the product and development teams. The product must meet business needs and should work with engineering's concerns but I won't end up with a door that looks like it should be pulled when it needs to be pushed.
Grouping ideas
General notes
Understanding user needs
Grouping ideas
A new design begins with understanding the product requirements and needs. This can involve a lot of work brainstorming and organizing notes before drawing a single detail.
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Keeping an open workspace helps me collaborate with team members. With distributed teams this can be done electronically. The methods vary but the idea is the same. Work with your team and build your product together.
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My notes are used to create personas, journey maps, any mechanism that best helps me understand the needs of the end user and figure out the details of what the product needs to do.
Early design work is rough and very quickly produced. These can be hand drawn sketches or electronic documents. They don't need to be pretty nor complete but they do need to convey ideas and concepts. The feedback from these is quickly incorporated into updated sketches until the best direction begins to present itself.
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I use any method that works best to communicate ideas and allow others to communicate their ideas back to me. This allows me to involve the team at an early stage and start to solidify the core concepts of the design. Both of these results are important to the success of the project and strengthening of the team.
Prototypes at a trade show
Prototype used at trade shows and customer meetings.
Prototypes used at trade shows and customer meetings.
Prototypes at a trade show
A prototype is a great tool to convey the live action of your design in progress. This allows people to feel how something would work instead of trying to imagine based on screen flows.
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I've used prototyping tools like JustinMind and Axure to create click (or swipe) prototypes to demonstrate how functions would work. Some were used internally and some were shown at trade shows to prospective clients and partners.
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Prototyping requires a significant investment of time and it is important to carefully consider the best situation to use a prototyping tool. Despite the effort involved a prototype is one of the best ways to communicate design.
