Thursday 26 July 2012

Edinburgh UX group session slides

I ran a pilot session at the University of Edinburgh yesterday with the aim of pulling together colleagues with an interest in user experience. My intro slides are available on Slideshare.

Design concept communication case study

A presentation by the founder of foodspotting.com in which she goes through how she turned her concept into reality by communicating her vision of the user experience.

Advertising & user experience

A couple of articles in which the authors discuss the relationship between and distinctions between user experience management and advertising.

Journey modelling example & how-to

The idea of taking a persona and illustrating a story of their experiences is covered in this article, this process being called journey modelling.

Friday 20 July 2012

Edinburgh UPA July event - Persuasion, Emotion and Trust in Customer Journeys

This month's Scottish Usability Professionals Association event is titled: "The Role of Persuasion, Emotion and Trust in Customer Journeys" and is happening on 26 July 2012 at 6.30.

Tuesday 17 July 2012

University CMS workshop session

I ran a workshop at last month's IWMW 2012 conference on how we manage the University of Edinburgh's corporate CMS, our challenges and where we're looking to in the future. The initial presentation led into a couple of activities and some great discussion among the 30+ higher education web managers who came along.

Saturday 14 July 2012

User testing useful lies

Sometimes a white lie or two can help a user test along. I've long advocated a couple of these when running user testing training. I now have a few more candidates to add to the list.

University website complexity

Too much choice confuses. It can paralyse. Matt Klawitter shares his experience working on US university website redesigns, the research that informed and backed up decisions, and the culture that continues to resist a drive for greater simplicity.

User testing techniques in plain English

This article was written for user experience professionals to encourage them to cut out the jargon. But actually, it's also a great outline of the most common techniques for everyone in plain English.

Remote testing tool choice

A great article that not only outlines some of the best remote testing tools available, but categorises them and outlines what they're best for.

Thursday 12 July 2012

User experience & content strategy - how they relate

Content strategy is something everyone involved with information-driven websites should care about. And content is an intrinsic part of the user experience on university websites. Kristina Halvorson's article explains and connects the two disciplines - content strategy and user experience.

UK Government ICT strategy report - what can universities learn?

An interesting summary of a report on UK Government ICT strategy and where they need to up their game. Seemed to me to be the same story I've encountered in 10+ years of public sector web management.

Social media posting tips

An excellent print-out-and-keep set of tips for non-specialists who look after Facebook profiles and Twitter accounts as part of their role.