Tag: product | inspireUX

UX designers improve people’s lives by making experiences better

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 1 Comment

“What I get to do is take that insight into how people think and how people behave and turn it into something, a product or a service, that is going to make their lives better. It’s going to improve their lives in some way that they may not even be able to articulate. To be able to make some small part of their experience better, and all of those little experiences add up to the sum of somebody’s life… the ability to touch people in that way is really profound.” – Jesse James Garrett

Note: Last portion of the quote has been slightly paraphrased for clarity.

Listen to a podcast with Jesse entitled “What the Heck is User Experience Design??!! (And Why Should I Care?)” from Teresa Brazen’s blog Tea with Teresa.

Filed Under: Jesse James Garrett

Focus on the experience that the products you design engender

Posted on February 16, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 0 Comments

“Ultimately, we are deluding ourselves if we think that the products that we design are the ‘things’ that we sell, rather than the individual, social and cultural experience that they engender, and the value and impact that they have. Design that ignores this is not worthy of the name.” – Bill Buxton’s “personal mantra”

Bill Buxton’s personal mantra is cited on his website. Visit his site to learn more about his recent work or his upcoming talks and events. Read more from Bill in his book Sketching User Experiences.

Filed Under: Bill Buxton

UX must be an ongoing effort of continually learning about users

Posted on January 12, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 0 Comments

“Most [clients] expect experience design to be a discrete activity, solving all their problems with a single functional specification or a single research study. It must be an ongoing effort, a process of continually learning about users, responding to their behaviors, and evolving the product or service.” – Dan Brown

Dan’s quote is one of many cited by Whitney Hess in her excellent article “10 Most Common Misconceptions About User Experience Design.”

Filed Under: Dan Brown

Focus on what you should be doing, not just what you can

Posted on January 5, 2009 by Catriona Cornett • 2 Comments

“Technological advances have always been driven more by a mind-set of ‘I can’ than ‘I should’… Technologists love to cram maximum functionality into their products. That’s ‘I can’ thinking, which is driven by peer competition and market forces… But this approach ignores the far more important question of how the consumer will actually use the device… focus on what we should be doing, not just what we can.” – John Maeda

Read John’s “mini manifesto” in this article from Esquire. Thanks to Experientia for sharing this story.

Filed Under: John Maeda

UX is a conversation between people separated over the distance of time

Posted on December 26, 2008 by Catriona Cornett • 1 Comment

“I view a user experience as a conversation between people separated over the distance of time. At one end of that conversation are those who create the product; at the other, the people who use it. In between is the product itself—with a design that either helps or hinders; creates a barrier-free interaction or shouts in an unfamiliar language. Because this conversation does not happen in real time, we are not there to smooth over the rough spots and make sure that we have spoken clearly. Instead, we have to build our understanding of those users into every aspect of the design, by putting people—users—at the center of the design process.” – Whitney Quesenbery

This quote is from Whitney’s great article “Why People Matter” from UX Matters.

Tip: Remember, you can always click on the thumbnail image of the quote card to get a full-sized image that can be used for saving or printing.

Filed Under: Whitney Quesenbery