Web writing quick tips videos

Five short videos on improving your web writing, with a focus on higher education.

Lean UX case study

An interesting read - one consultant's experience of integrating user experience design techniques into a development process for a start up business.

Measuring marketing impact & customer experience

Understanding your customers' experience and the impact of your marketing activity (on and offline) should be a priority for 2013. If you're committed to improving the user experience and getting value for money out of your marketing expenditure then plan to measure.

In-house UX advice

A couple of articles for those trying to establish a culture of UX within their organisation. 'UX for the masses' blog is written by an in-house UX lead, focusing on the challenges he faces.

Digital strategy development

An excellent series of articles by Paul Boag in which he basically outlines what his design agency does (and what most don't) through a sort-of tutorial and fake case study. A great primer on digital strategy development.

UX advent calendar

Lovely idea and just right for the season. An inspiring and insightful article every day by some of the most prominent and best thinkers in the field. Well worth popping back to day after day.

Organisational relationships are essential for good website management

Paul Boag explores the real reasons why projects don't deliver and websites turn bad - people and politics. Thankfully he also provides great suggestions to help overcome these problems.

CMS users' UX matters

No matter how great your website design, no matter how usable the interface, no matter how well organised the IA - if your content management system is a beast your editors will suffer and with it, ultimately your website. Karen McGrane provides advice on how to address this.

User testing & analytics ROI case studies

Econsultancy present 8 examples of when testing an really interface paid off.

Prototyping infographic

A great comparative resource for prototyping tools. Very nicely presented by usertesting.com

Mobile needs content strategy

Just received my copy of Karen McGrane's new book: Content Strategy for Mobile. Only it's not really about mobile as such. But as she says - "holistic enterprise content strategy" doesn't have quite the same ring.

Reading & writing ux tips

The importance of good copywriting and appreciating user reading behaviour can be overlooked in the process of interface design. These articles from Baymard Institute make some good (and well referenced) points on headline writing, line length and help text.

10 ux mistakes to avoid

Taking the "don't do what I did" approach, this article lists 10 things to avoid as you work to improve the user experience of your website or product.

Content writing checklist

A neat little reminder for when you're writing new content. How many of these points can you check off with your last article?

CMS design needs content strategy

I've pulled together some excellent materials that identify the challenges around thinking back from the user interacting with the organisation online, through the content, and back to the root - the content management system and the people who use it.

IA heuristics

I've been working on a set of IA (information architecture) principles for the University, and in the process digging around for rules-of-thumb against which a site can be measured. Inevitably, Lou Rosenfeld has good advice, but I've also turned up a really well-considered, well-researched guide.

Applying the 80/20 rule to ux management

Gerry McGovern has been talking about the long neck for long time - the small number of top tasks that dominate website usage. Here, Jeff Sauro talks about how common the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule) really is.

World usability day event Edinburgh

It's world usability day on Thursday 8 November, and once again Edinburgh usability company User Vision are hosting an open house with lots of free sessions and activities.

University applicant experience enhancement - Nomensa white paper

Nomensa (a digital experience design and strategy agency) have produced a white paper titled “Enhancing the university submission experience”. While their survey and user research reveals trends I’ve also seen in my own research at Edinburgh, I found their recommendations perhaps a bit simplistic and overlooked the complex nature of higher education institutions.

Distracting user experiences

Giles Colborne of cxpartners gave a great presentation to the UXPA Scotland this week. He talked about the implications of being distracted, and how designers need to be responsible and concious of context of use.