Category: User Experience

“Don’t impose joy, deliver service”

Not my words, but those of Jacob Nielsen. One of the interesting features of Nielsen’s work is that he has consistently irritated designers over the last twenty years or so, and been entirely right to do so. I first came across him when working on the early days of BBC Online, around the turn of… Continue reading “Don’t impose joy, deliver service”

Changing what already works (is a good idea)

Doing familiar things differently is deeply challenging. When those activities are highly successful, or seem to be, even the idea of taking on that challenge seems foolish. Yet, this is what successful teams and organisations do. They challenge themselves through a curiosity as to what will work better. Apple is a good example (I type… Continue reading Changing what already works (is a good idea)

Get the basics right first

This article about the US free COVID test website not falling over stirred memories of my time as a product owner of an LMS. It tells of a simple need shared by a large proportion of potential users. It tells of very low expectations amongst that population. History has told them it is highly likely… Continue reading Get the basics right first

Sharing the best experiences

Back in 1998, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore wrote an influential article in the Harvard Business Review: “Welcome To The Experience Economy“. Amongst many useful observations from their research, they stated that “We expect that experience design will become as much a businessart as product design and process design are today.” Twenty three years later,… Continue reading Sharing the best experiences

Design needs to work and sometimes boring is OK

That is not an entirely representative title of a post to summarise our conversation this week. Although some attendees may claim that we took this advice too seriously and caused a quieter conversation. (If you were there, do tell). We were gathered to discuss “Learning, design and Products”, the call for boring was a thread… Continue reading Design needs to work and sometimes boring is OK

The old school (digital) hub

“Digital Hub”. The name struck me on a recent webinar. Again. Reference in the chat was made to webinar resources available on “our Digital Hub”. A real name, in upper case. I’m not sure that metaphors make good product names. I have made and helped make a number of digital hubs in my time. I… Continue reading The old school (digital) hub