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The start of the 2009 award season is upon us, and Visual Activity LLC is proud to announce that their Web UX Design for CSOonline.com was named as a Finalist for the Jesse Neal award sponsored by American Business Media.
The site design, which was completed last year, was one of only three finalists.
Congratulations to Vermonster, LLC for their work on the back-end and Carl Lindberg for his stealthy UX coding skills.
I have never worked on a project where the outcome is exactly what the user community needs without some sort of deviation or compromise. Now, this is not to say that all projects on which I’ve worked have been failures. In fact, quite the opposite. Every project is a collection of compromises and feedback that help direct the entire team from one decision to another that hopefully gets us to the goal of creating a better user experience.
But what has occurred to me on many occasions is that there are other ways to creatively design solutions that have more to do with reality.
PERSONAL LIFE EXPERIENCES
Each project is a melting pot of talent, personalities and personal life experiences. Think about that. Personal life experiences.
Let’s imagine a team that is charged with designing a Web application for iWidgets (original, I know).
Then let’s imagine an engineer team lead has had a bad experience with a similar tool set from a competitor, even though the competitor’s widget is extremely usable and should be used as a benchmark.
If the engineering lead deems that he really doesn’t want to build a similar piece of functionality, would his personal life experience actually impact the direction of the entity and subsequently impact the level of quality?
How about the designer? In a direct competitive landscape with a similar product, will they go out of their way to create something that is so different that they ignore the successful design cues?
COMPREHEND, DON’T COMPROMISE
Each project you work on takes a hell of a lot of dedication on each team member with the ultimate goal of meeting the users’ needs.
During important decisions on a project, take the time to comprehend each senior member’s personal life experiences. Ask questions such as:
Some would state that it’s just not their business to know someone’s personal life. To that I say, too late. The person next to you in the meeting may have a very important role on the team and if they feel a certain way heading into a decision, it might be good for you to know why.
REAL UX
Real user experience, from usability to engineering, should include every factor the user may use to decide whether or not they like your product. Additionally, real UX is about getting to the core of the problem and solving it based on what you know.
Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. In those cases, use your own experiences to drive a discussion on how to attack the problem and create a solution.
And, above all else, create a positive personal life experience.
The litany of popular lists being disseminated around at the end of each year makes for fun and, usually, light reading. To find yourself on a “best of” list is still a personal triumph and one should feel a certain amount of pride.
The end of the year is also when we should take a step back and uncover what we’ve learned over the immediate past and work to learn from and subsequently factor into future work.
Our year-end thoughts bring us back to projects that helped hone our skills and prepare us for the constant growth in our field. The individual accomplishments that were woven into team success stories is what creates the common bond that will live past any temporary hiccup along the way.
Personally, I would like to thank Jennifer, Byron, Steve, Heather, Carl, and Francsico for their support throughout the year. It’s been a wonderful relationship so far and I’m excited to be surrounded by smart, engaging people.
And, last but certainly not least, we’d like to send out an absolutely huge debt of thanks for our clients (in no particular order):
Thank you! We look forward to a great 2009 and extend warm wishes to you and your family or employees.
I am pleased and honored to once again have an article published on A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites.
This time around, I talk about traditional Information Architecture and deliverables. Have a peek and join the conversation!
This month, the UX Professionals site brings you Part 2 of 2 in Mark McCay’s tips and tricks on developing sound, accessible UX.
Also, this month, we welcome a new contributor, Tonia Bartz, who gives us a look at why Usability is so important for 2.0 Content Management.
Please join the site and start your discussion with these two dedicated UX Professionals!