Users are “rotten with imperfection.” Embrace the rotten-ness.

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 0 Comments

“I believe that all user experience designers are ‘rotten with imperfection’–every time we get something we lust for, we choose something else to want. User experience design is similar; it does NOT end–once you’ve turned over a great finished product… well, it’s not finished. It’s time to evaluate, update and repeat, because users are pretty ‘rotten with imperfection’, themselves. Embrace the rotten-ness. Don’t look forward to the end of a project, look forward to the next opportunity to improve.” - Russ Unger

“I believe that all user experience designers are ‘rotten with imperfection’–every time we get something we lust for, we choose something else to want. User experience design is similar; it does NOT end–once you’ve turned over a great finished product… well, it’s not finished. It’s time to evaluate, update and repeat, because users are pretty ‘rotten with imperfection’, themselves. Embrace the rotten-ness. Don’t look forward to the end of a project, look forward to the next opportunity to improve.” – Russ Unger

Listen to Peachpit’s Author Talk with Russ and Carolyn Chandler, or view Russ’ transcript of his portions of the interview to read more about his thoughts on the importance of user experience design.

Filed Under: Russ Unger

Sites that embrace natural elegance add an element of personal feeling

Posted on June 8, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 0 Comments

“Natural elegance deals with the ‘feel’ a website or application expresses through its behavior over time, and which is rooted in the rules of order that govern nature... It’s possible to create perfectly pleasing websites by focusing only on formal, structural, and logical elegance. But those sites that embrace [natural] elegance feel to users like living beings who speak meaningful words; they are the marriage of form, function, pleasing content, and personal feeling.” - David Sherwin

“Natural elegance deals with the ‘feel’ a website or application expresses through its behavior over time, and which is rooted in the rules of order that govern nature… It’s possible to create perfectly pleasing websites by focusing only on formal, structural, and logical elegance. But those sites that embrace [natural] elegance feel to users like living beings who speak meaningful words; they are the marriage of form, function, pleasing content, and personal feeling.” – David Sherwin

This quote is from David’s A List Apart article “The Elegance of Imperfection”.

Filed Under: David Sherwin

As UX designers, we orchestrate a complex series of interactions

Posted on June 5, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 1 Comment

“A good user experience designer needs to be able to see both the forest and the trees. That means user experience has implications that go far beyond usability, visual design, and physical affordances. As UX designers, we orchestrate a complex series of interactions.” - Eric Reiss

“A good user experience designer needs to be able to see both the forest and the trees. That means user experience has implications that go far beyond usability, visual design, and physical affordances. As UX designers, we orchestrate a complex series of interactions.” – Eric Reiss

Read Eric’s article “A definition of ‘user experience’” for his thoughts on how UX is the sum of a series of interactions.

Filed Under: Eric Reiss

Experience is more based upon memory than reality

Posted on June 3, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 0 Comments

“It’s the total experience that matters. And that starts from when you first hear about a product… experience is more based upon memory than reality. If your memory of the product is wonderful, you will excuse all sorts of incidental things.” - Don Norman

“It’s the total experience that matters. And that starts from when you first hear about a product… experience is more based upon memory than reality. If your memory of the product is wonderful, you will excuse all sorts of incidental things.” – Don Norman

Don’s quote is from an interview conducted at UX Week 2008. Read some other choice quotes from this interview here. This quote was submitted by Michael Cummings.

Please help inspireUX maintain a frequent quote posting frequency by submitting your favorite UX quotes. Thank you!

Filed Under: Don Norman

Designers understand the interrelationships that factor into success or failure

Posted on June 1, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 0 Comments

“Savvy design strategists, design researchers, and designers not only seek to deeply understand the client’s business and the end user’s needs of the product, but they also try to deeply understand the connected (and not so connected) interrelationships that factor into the success or failure of the potential offering.” - Tom Dair

“Savvy design strategists, design researchers, and designers not only seek to deeply understand the client’s business and the end user’s needs of the product, but they also try to deeply understand the connected (and not so connected) interrelationships that factor into the success or failure of the potential offering.” – Tom Dair

Read more about how a hollistic view of design can help solve problems through Tom’s excellent story about designing a toaster in his article “A Design Parable: The Toaster and the Toast.”

Filed Under: Tom Dair

Design thinkers look past a project to the next step in the strategy

Posted on May 29, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 1 Comment

“Design thinkers look past a project to the next project, to the next step in the strategy. They look sideways to the tangents that are affected by the result, and longer term to the investment required as a result of solving the problem currently in front of the team. No problem is solved in isolation—either from the past, or from the future.” - Mark Dziersk

“Design thinkers look past a project to the next project, to the next step in the strategy. They look sideways to the tangents that are affected by the result, and longer term to the investment required as a result of solving the problem currently in front of the team. No problem is solved in isolation—either from the past, or from the future.” – Mark Dziersk

Mark’s quote is from the Fast Company article “Ten Things to Demand from Design Thinkers.”

Filed Under: Mark Dziersk