User Experience and Design

Project Director Michaela Hackner often, blogs, speaks, and presents on content strategy. The Nonprofit Technology Network originally published this post, co-authored by project manager Leah Stern, online at NTEN.org and it is cross posted below with permission.

During a recent presentation, NPR shared that their number one competitor was Pandora. Huh. NPR is a well-established news organization; Pandora, on the other hand, is a community of music lovers that share their data to shape online "radio stations."

At this year’s UxCamp DC, a open conference for user experience experts and innovators, Forum One’s lead Ux designers and engineers unveiled Proty, our prototyping tool and strategy for creating responsive websites. As a quick introduction to Proty, we’ll explain the need for the tool and how it works for easy interactive prototyping.

As smartphones and tablets fly off the shelves, more influential organizations are realizing that they need a multi-screen strategy. Many are concluding that responsive design is the best approach for adapting their websites for mobile-sized screens. 

"Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like. People think it’s this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told, 'Make it look good!" That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."
—Steve Jobs

In my previous post we explored how people respond to information and discussed the need for a good understanding of human psychology and behavior if we want our designs to be more effective. In part two, we’ll take a look at some of those underlying principles and provide a framework that can help guide your design decisions.

Agile and Lean User Experience evolved because many smart people wanted to find a more effective way of working. I attended a workshop recently where the instructor asked the group a direct question: “How many of you have stayed late at work to create detailed specifications that were never realized?” Nearly everyone raised their hand. Despite our best-laid plans, most of our technology projects never match the detailed specifications or requirements we have laid out. This wasted effort is always frustrating.

This is part one of John Schneider's examination of the emotions and behaviors driving user experience. Read part two.

What makes a good experience?

Is a good experience simply about task completion? Okay, that was rhetorical. Tasks are quantifiable and easy to measure via a usability test, but does completing a series of tasks yield a good design? Is that enough feedback? Okay, also rhetorical. Clearly, I don’t think so.

So you have developed the next great mobile app for Android and iOS since Zombies, Run! and are ready to submit to their respective app stores. Now what?

The next step is to create the marketing materials necessary to publish your app in both stores. These materials can be loosely grouped into the following categories:

Forum One's user experience philosophy has long been "test early and often." However, we often find that usability testing is seen as a rather expansive mini-project at a particular point in the development lifecycle. Too often, we’ve found ourselves writing usability testing scripts and recruiting letters that require approval of the client before testing.

Our old email's multi-column layout made the text small when viewed on an iPhone.

Do you check your email before you get dressed in the morning?