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Oct

25

Before Steve Jobs, there was Dieter Rams: 10 Principles for Good Design

Design / Design Principles / Dieter Rams / Innovation / Inspiration / Steve Jobs / User Experience / Visual Design

Before there was Steve Jobs, there was Dieter Rams. Today during my Advanced User Interface Design class my classmate Deb Edinger reminded us of Mr. Rams’ always important ten principles for design:

Good design:[1]

  1. Is innovative- The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
  2. Makes a product useful – A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
  3. Is aesthetic – The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
  4. Makes a product understandable – It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user’s intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.
  5. Is unobtrusive – Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
  6. Is honest – It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
  7. Is long-lasting – It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.
  8. Is thorough down to the last detail – Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
  9. Is environmentally friendly – Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
  10. Is as little design as possible – Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

Mr. Rams laid out principles that are followed to date by thousands of industrial, visual and user experience designers. Here is a video about one of my favorite designs by Mr. Ram: The 606 Universal Shelving System, 1960, by Dieter Rams. Enjoy it!

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Oct

21

Finding Your Dream Job in User Experience

Bentley University / Career / Design / Information Architecture / Interactive Design / IxD / Jobs / UPA / Usability / User Experience / UX / UX Research / Visual Design

I have done quite a bit of research this past year on how different UX roles, different UX teams and their cultures. Overall I have done about 30 interviews with UXers from different industries and companies, including big, small, consulting, in-house and independent folks. All of these conversations happened thanks to the wonderful alumni of Bentley’s Human Factors in Information Design Program, my fantastic professors and my generous friends from the Usability Professionals Association.

It has been a fascinating journey to learn how vast the field of User Experience is. I learned about similarities and differences too. UX can comprise teams of hundreds of professionals or teams of one. Projects can be in the medical industry, interior design, hard core software or game design. The differences in team structure, company culture and different roles is just as rich. This experience has certainly allowed me to see how UX moves with innovation, hence UX roles always having to be redefined and rebuilt.

Finding your dream job in UX

Tonight I led a panel of hiring managers, industry recruiters, and Bentley’s HFID alumni in a discussion about UX job roles, what they mean, and who does what in our industry. The Human Factors and Information Design Organization hosted the event.

It was a fun lively discussion that included an overview of team structures, roles, job search strategies and open questions to the panel. A fantastic panel by the way, and I would like to publicly say thank you to all of the participants and their companies.

Panel members included:

If you are curious and want to download the presentation, click here. Alternatively  you can view it on Behance.

Hope it is helpful for you!

Cheers, Diego

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Sep

04

Top 10 Lessons about UX Design Research from my week in the San Francisco Bay area

Bentley University / Career / Design / Integrating Design / IxD / Jobs / R&D / San Francisco / UPA / User Centered Design / User Experience / UX / UX Research

I recently went to San Francisco to do some research on the job market for UX. I was lucky enough to acquire many contacts from Bentley University’s HFID alumni, contacts from Bentley professors and contacts from UPA members, hence my gratitude to these folks for their willingness to help me.

I met with UX managers, Directors of Design Research and VPs of User Experience in some of the top companies in the area. I had the opportunity of really learning about how research is done, how teams are built, the challenges they face and what they look for when recruiting team members.

I will not mention which companies I met with due to privacy concerns, but all companies were leaders in the UX and Design fields. Some were very large, with thousands of employees and global in reach. Others were smaller start-ups with few employees and still experiencing growth pains. As you can imagine, it was a great experience. During one of the interviews, a Director of Design Research  asked me for the top lessons from the trip and I promised her I would write about it on my blog and submit the entry to her.

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco, CA

Hence, here are the top 10 lessons I gathered from my time in the bay area. (Please note these are generic lessons, and I am sure all of them have exceptions – feel free to leave your comments below to stir up a healthy discussion).

1. Companies want to hear your educational perspective – As a student, I think I always assumed the folks who were hiring were the ones that knew everything. I was impressed by their curiosity about the classes I was taking, the books I was reading and what my professors were mentioning about the field. They were very impressed with some of the research methods I was employing in my academic and professional research, as well as the classes I was taking and the professors I had.

2. Be creative in designing research – Directors and Managers were very interested in learning ways in which traditional research methods can be adapted to fit current needs. They were also interested in new tools and methods that could enhance their research. They look for folks who are able to be flexible and creative with research methods, adapting them to each situation according to deadlines for product launch.

3. Too much analysis may not be the best – Although folks were interested in methods that would allow for deep analysis and scientific data backing, the need for quick analytical methods was paramount in software companies. If you are too meticulous in having to stick with CHI methods for professional research, you probably won’t be able to meet those deadlines. The need to adapt, be creative, and still get reliable data to support decisions is paramount.

4. UX Research Managers differ in research involvement – Some companies have a more structured and hierarchical approach to employee interaction. Managers do not get involved in research, but rather take care of all the background work (paperwork, contracts, documents, authorizations, finances etc…). These managers make sure their research team does not have any worries while running the projects. In other companies, although managers have the title, their involvement in research is as much as anyone else on the team.  They still design studies, run sessions, do analysis work and write reports and other deliverables.

5. Mentoring – “Researchers managing researchers” is a characteristic that very few companies have. The needs of a UX researcher are better understood by another researcher, rather than by a marketer or an engineer. The same applies for Interaction Designers. This type of mutual understanding builds trust faster amongst the UX team.  In addition, this mutual understanding, trust and support has significant impact on an employee’s career development and job satisfaction.

6. Show me the money! What is the deal with salary? – I will not attempt to get into numbers. The most known research for UX salaries is the UPA salary survey, and given how many years it has been around, it is a better source of hard facts than my personal blog. However, I did learn a few things that the UPA salary survey does not mention:

  1. The closer to the product launch you work in, the higher the yearly salary. Perhaps this is due to research instincts being more needed since recommendations and tweaks need to be made in a shorter research time than at the beginning of the product development.
  2. The farther from product launch, the higher a chance of developing something that will grant you a patent. You may be handsomely paid for a successful patent for a long time.
  3. Some start-ups actually pay pretty well. Obviously it depends on what kind of start up it is. If it is a software development/application creation type of start up, salaries tend to be lower. But if the start up is providing services or selling some type of goods, the salaries are higher than expected, although still below some of the big tech companies.

7. Size matters when it comes to types and methods of research – Smaller companies are nimble and allow for research to be done in a more unstructured manner. Researchers in these companies typically have to innovate in all aspects. Their budgets and teams are smaller, so they have to be creative to not sacrifice the quality and accuracy of the research. Creative thinking and problem solving is a must have for these positions. On larger companies, due to a larger budget and larger teams, folks tend to become more specialized, hence improvising less, and going more in depth in certain types of research methods. They can also employ outside research consultancies to do the type of work they cannot do, giving them experienced researchers working with methods that the in-house team would usually not employ themselves.

8. What is the level of impact you will have in the company? – In smaller companies you can make a bigger difference in a shorter amount of time. Your team is much closer, and conversations and opinions tend to have much bigger impact immediately. The less people you have, usually the less hardship in change of behavior or culture. In a bigger company, your impact may be limited to your team or product division. You may not be able to rally the whole company behind the change/improvement you are trying to implement.

San Francisco, CA

9. Consulting v. In-House  – Consulting allows for more breadth of research, meaning different research projects and research methods with different clients. However, it also may mean you won’t have a chance to see your recommendations being implemented or to see the continuation of your design ideas into future products.

In house research typically means you will be doing similar kind of research for the same product. Although you won’t be seeing different products every week, you will work on one product from beginning to end. In addition, you will become much more familiar with the user of the product. This can translate in deeper understanding of the user’s needs, goals and mental model, fundamentally impacting in your research and improving the design of the product you are working on.

Lastly, there is the difference of flexibility and time commitment. In Consulting you do have to be on call, available at all times and flexible with your schedule to be able to accommodate clients. In House work lightens the burden on “off-line” requests, since you have more of a “set schedule”, say 9 to 5. You can usually plan your day to day life better since you do not depend on a client’s schedule.

10. The job decision is not your life – People change within the UX field in the bay area quite a lot. Most of the folks I talked to had changed companies or moved to different teams with the same company. There were many reasons for these moves – promotion, change of scenery, different type of design and research etc… – but all of them had to do with professional growth. The UX folks that I met with were very driven and were always looking for development, growth and exciting professional opportunities.

These thoughts are a bit of what I processed after about a week in the valley. If you disagree, or want to add, please do leave your comments below (or shoot me a message). I hope reading the blog post brought some value to you.

Cheers, Diego

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Aug

06

User Centered Design, be introduced to your new best friend: Affectiva

Affectiva / Design / Emotional Design / MIT / MIT Media Lab / Rosalind Picard / User Centered Design / User Experience / UX / UX Research

While taking a class in Design and Prototyping, I wrote a paper in Emotional Design, looking at different practices and theories about emotional design. When researching for the paper, I learned about the Affective Computing Group at MIT and consequently about Affectiva and the technology they were using to measure user engagement.

Affectiva’s Q-Sensor was developed at MIT’s Media Lab where Dr. Rosalind Picard and fellow Media Labers created a sensor that measures emotional engagement through a galvanic response system. It is simply a bracelet that the user wears while interacting with the product and therefore not interfering in the user experience. This is a fantastic tool in assisting User Experience Researchers and Designers to look into different emotional engagement periods of the user and the product. This special attention to user engagement allows for the creation of a much more user centric product. Dr. Picard gives a great presentation of the Q sensor on the video at the bottom of this post.

Affectiva's Q-Sensor Bracelet

Affectiva's Q-Sensor Bracelet

Later in the year I had the pleasure of working with Affectiva’s folks on a User Experience project at the Design and Usability Center. This was an eye-opening and inspiring experience. Seeing the Q-Sensor in action just gets your ideas flowing as you foresee the many ways in which it can be used to measure the User Experience.

I am very excited about a piece of research we will be doing, using the Q-Sensor to measure the User Experience of certain products later in the fall. Affectiva graciously paired up with us for the research and I can’t wait to publish the results once we are finished.

A toast to Affectiva and User-Centered Design!

 

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Jul

22

UX, Universal Design and Usability, loving it :)

Design / Inspiration / Universal Design / User Experience

I am lucky and blessed to have fantastic discussions with some brilliant people every week. This morning I chatted with my colleagues at the Design and Usability Center about the application of universal design and how it can be applied in our everyday lives.

So what is Universal Design?

The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without adaptation or specialized design. A user-friendly approach to design in the living environment where people of any culture, age, size, weight, race, gender and ability can experience an environment that promotes their health, safety and welfare today and in the future”  – by Universal Design Alliance

My colleague Mandi Davis – @MandiDavisUX made the great point of how what it comes down to really is human rights and equality. Same opportunities for everybody breathing the same air around the globe!

The opposite of useful, the opposite of something that is well designed is… useless” – by @JHockenberry

Here is a great interview about this issue with Elizabeth Rosenzweig – @ElizRosenzweig and John Hockenberry – @JHockenberry about universal design! UX, Universal Design and Usability, loving it!

 

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Jul

21

Designing for Persuasion via Human Factors International

Design / Design Principles / Emotional Design / User Experience / UX

Dr. Susan Weinshenck (Human Factors International) explains designing for persuasion.

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Jul

14

Still wondering what I do? Fun video describing what UX Designers do Volume 2!

Design / Innovation / User Experience / UX

I had such great reviews on the video by lyle yesterday that I decided to post another version today :) Enjoy it =>

 

ILUVUXDESIGN part I from lyle on Vimeo.

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Jul

13

Still wondering what I do? Fun video describing what UX Designers do!

Design / User Experience / UX

This is a post for folks who are still wondering what it is that takes my time these days: UX Design. Lyle on vimeo does a great job describing what UX Design is! Check it out!

ILUVUXDESIGN part II from lyle on Vimeo.

Hope you enjoy watching!

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Jul

12

Interning at Essential: about being a part of the team

Career / Design / Essential Design / Jobs / User Experience / UX

I took the initiative to write about my experience as a graduate intern at Essential Design because all that is good and true should be shared. One of the tough things about choosing where to intern is that not enough people share their experiences, therefore I believe the information on this post will be helpful to fellow students looking for a place to hone their skills and grow as professionals.

Essential Design Past Projects Via Instagram

LEARN NEW SKILLS – One of my main objectives when looking for an internship was to be able to learn new skills. My manager at Essential knew this from the time I had my first conversation with him. And I was not disappointed. They were very upfront about allowing me to see new ways of designing and performing User Experience Research. They integrated the strengths from different members of the research team, and they expected my contributions as well. They incorporated feedback from different members of the team when designing the research research and when analyzing the results. They used different technology tools creating more compelling ways to show the research results. In sum, my desire to learn something new was achieved easily and quickly.

PICK PEOPLE’S MINDS – COUNSEL AND MENTORSHIP – Since I was a part of the team, other Essential employees offered their time, inviting me for lunch or career chats. They were eager to give counsel and share about their experiences. It was great to be able to get that type of counsel from folks who are leaders in the field of user experience and design. Essential does not have closed door offices, hence everyone is accessible. I could ask questions to the Engineering team, to the Directors, Partners or fellow interns. There is an organizational understanding that questions are welcomed, and that suggestions are necessary to get things moving. Hence, mentorship and counsel happens on a daily basis and in a natural manner. It is also worth noting that Essential does have Mentorship as a part of their core values and participate in two mentorship programs: Youth Design and Step Inspire.

BE A PART OF THE TEAM – On Monday mornings, Essential has an all company meeting where they walk over the schedule, discuss different projects and introduce new people to everyone else. I was introduced in my first day in the office, and from that time on Essential makes you a part of the team. Your opinion counts, your thoughts are valued, your initiatives are heard, and you matter. The nightmare of being an intern whose work is to make coffee and staple papers is far from the truth of what happens at Essential. I was meeting with clients right away, being involved in research design and analysis from the get go. This is always a delicate situation for a company because you are meeting with leading executives from important companies and I know that many companies will shy away from this type of situation. But Essential does the opposite: they invite you into the table and empower you to use your talents and skills to collaborate in helping their clients in the best way possible.

LEAVE DIFFERENT, LEAVE BETTER – Perhaps the biggest fear an intern has is to leave the internship just as he/she entered. Given the paragraphs above, you know by now that is not the case at Essential. I am leaving with better skills as a User Experience researcher, with better understanding of how empowerment and trust impacts team and individual performance, and lastly, how the willingness to make different choices allows a company to improve not only the products they work on, but also the employees under their own roof.

You can view this same blog post and many other interesting posts in Essential’s blog by clicking here.

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Jul

06

Google shouldn’t worry about Facebook via Forbes Tech

Design / Facebook / Forbes / Google / Steve Denning / User Experience / UX

I just read a great article on Forbes Tech by @stevedenning about Google’s strategy and predictions in regards to Google+. However, the best part of the article had to do with how Google should focus on delighting the user.

Google should focus on delighting the user

Google should focus on delighting the user

The article was written primarily in terms of analyzing Google’s strategy and how it relates to its mission, but it has extreme significance to UX. This was probably the most compelling argument I have heard in the past year in favor of User Centered Design  coming from someone who is not a UX professional.

After a thorough review of Google’s mission, its actions and competition,  Denning mentions:

Instead of choosing to swim with the sharks in head-to-head competition with Facebook, Google could be pursuing a “blue ocean” strategy by competing in a new area where there is little competition.

The key to this approach is to identify a segment of customers whose needs are not being met and generate more value for that segment sooner. Health and energy might have been such opportunities, but Google missed them because it was focused on the producing a thing, rather than delighting the people who would use the thing. The key is to shift from a focus on producing things to a focus on understanding and delighting people.

Thus the deeper problem with Google’s mission statement is not that it is unrealistic (which it is) but rather that it is focused on a thing. It is about “organizing information” rather than being about people for whom the information is being organized and how they would use it and why.

The reason why Google has been wildly successful to date in its core business is that its search engine delights us. It helps us do something we really want to do, many times a day. It does it simply, quickly and elegantly. Great! We love it!

Google needs to stop trying to copy Facebook, rethink its mission statement and find new areas where it can delight us.”

What a great way to end a long day of UX testing! This kind of thinking keeps me inspired and motivated to keep working on designs that will delight the users.

To read the full article, click here

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