UXer Musings
Jay’s blog on all things UX Design
User-Centered Design
User-centered Design (UCD) is a framework which places the user at the center of the design and development process. The focus is on who will use the product or service and the environments they will use it in. UCD is the whole user experience and...
Human Needs and Motivations
The UX Designer needs to borrow from several fields of thought, which is part of what makes it so fascinating. Remember that UX stands for user experience. Therefore, by design (no pun intended), the user experience must be user-centered. If it is...
Thinking About the UX of a Boating Weather App
Massachusetts (the Bay State) is home. I grew up here, and after a number of years living in other places, I am back in the Boston area. I have fond memories of going to the beach as a child, and have always loved boats and lighthouses. As a young...
The Role of a UX Designer
What do you UX designers do? Good question. One of the things I like most about user experience (UX) design is that it is not just one thing. UX design is both creative and analytical. UX design is putting people first to design an experience which...
Presenting Your Work
Presening is about telling the story of the user experience journey from the perspective of the persona. Presenting is the Tell Story and Present steps in The Design Thinking Process. Presentations are made to other members of the design...
Usability Testing
Usability Testing is intended to evaluate a prototype experience. It is the Test phase of The Design Thinking Process. By performing usability testing, UX designers evaluate the ability, or inability, of users to complete specific tasks....
Wireframing and Prototyping
Wireframing and prototyping is where a design begins to take shape. It is the Prototype phase of The Design Thinking Process. At this point, the sketches (either by hand or using software) are basic. These are known as low-fidelity...
Information Architecture
Information Architecture is the organization of information within a system. In a website, for example, this refers to how content is grouped and navigated on a site. Information architecture is part of the Ideate step of The Design Thinking...
User Personas
A user persona is a representation of the goals, challenges, and behaviors of a hypothesized subset of users. Personas are informed by research, typically through the user interview process at the beginning of a project. Personas are then...
User Research
User research is central to the success of any UX design process. It is part of the Observe phase of The Design Thinking Process. There are several qualitative and quantitative methods of user research. For now, I am going to focus on...