Time and time again we tell ourselves that the best designs are the simple ones. That the best services are the ones that are clear concise, simple and direct to the point.
Often in our goals to make things simple and easy to use we will remove all the clutter. However sometimes we also remove all the little things that can make a design shine. That special attention to details that tells you the designer cares about the product or service in question.
Well on Christmas eve 2010 I was reminded of this in two surprising ways. Both of these reminders came in the form of parcels.
There seems to be a bit of a trend at the moment, within developmental circles to just add a few wireframes and develop a prototype or two, and then you can declare you are across the user experience design process.
The thing is User Experience is a lot more than just a few simple techniques, it’s an entire collaborative design process, in a way it’s not just a single methodology at all.
This lack of being a single methodology may be part of the issue.
Look around the web, you’ll find them all over the place. MS-Word and PDF forms that you have to download and complete. I would be forgiven for thinking that we have not progressed on the web since 1995.
I know I’m not perfect I have been party to this crime against UX as well.
We know they are bad, so why are we still using them.
Let’s Consider
You’re feel inspired to join a professional association. The website seems pretty good, it lists all the benefits. There is a professional air about it. You can see that some of your respected peers are already members.
Tagged: cms, forms, frameworks, MS-Word, p-52, p52, PDF, project-52, usability, user experience, ux
I was talking to the local UPA Perth chapter (in formation) about aspects of UX visualisation. It was an interesting topic that brought up a good number of discussion points.
One point was on the design process. The way we design. The way that we just don’t allow ourselves time to fail at the design. Or if we do, it is hidden in the back room so we can appear to be “magical design wizards” that produce the perfect product, interface design, IA or the like.
Tagged: clients, design, process, project-52, protosketching, prototyping, sketching, user experience, user interface, ux, ux-design
