[This article originally appeared at Johnny Holland.] What’s the difference between contracting and consulting? One major difference comes down to whether the job is handwork or brainwork. Whether you’re an “innie” or an “outie,” this is applicable. Innies are UX professionals who work inside an organization. Even though they are part of the company, they [...]

We’re looking for an amazing Business Intern for a paid, 4-month internship. Fast Forward Four Months… We’d like to thank you for doing a fantastic job as our 2012 Winter Business Intern. You started with a thorough analysis of the purchasing patterns in our UIE Virtual Seminar series. This led to some amazing insights on [...]

We’re looking for an amazing Web Developer Intern for a paid, 4-month internship. Fast Forward Four Months… We’d like to thank you for doing a fantastic job as our 2012 Winter Web Developer Intern. You’ve driven the launch of a new web site for our latest conference. You worked your magical HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript/JQuery [...]

During 2011, we published 33 articles and 174 blog posts and podcasts. We featured guest writers, published interviews, and wrote numerous articles about research we’ve done. There’s value in listening and reading everything we produced in 2011. But we know time is a factor. So in the last UIEtips for 2011, we decided to share [...]

On the Quora, Alexia Tsotsis asked an interesting question: What are the key differences between “Normals” (normal mainstream users) and tech early adopters? Here’s the answer I posted: I’ve been thinking about this question for a while now. Something was bothering me and I think I’ve figure it out. Instead of thinking about ‘early adopters’ [...]

I remember my first usability test like it was yesterday, even though it was actually more than 30 years ago. I sat in the newly built lab (first of its kind) and watched the participant through the silvered glass as they struggled with the design we were working on. What I didn’t know then was [...]

Want to achieve a dramatic innovation in your design’s user experience? That’s easy. Just increase the hours of exposure to real users that your design team has. In our research, we found successful design teams have each team member spend a minimum of two hours every six weeks watch real users interacting with either their [...]

Personas are a powerful tool in the UX toolbox. When done well, they rally the team around a small, specific set of archetypal users. Each team member becomes closely familiar with each of the personas, then can create designs that closely match those persona’s needs. In our research on personas, we’ve found this works best [...]

How is a search result like a thoughtful gift? The outcome exceeds the expectation. Ok, that’s kind of a lame riddle, but it’s accurate nonetheless. When we get a wrapped present, we hope the unwrapping will produce something that delights us. The same is true when clicking on a search result. We anticipate it will [...]

How likely am I to recommend United Airlines to someone else? If asked this question, I’d answer that it’s pretty likely, especially if that person lives here in the greater Boston area. Of all the major airlines, United has the best service out of Boston. The only other options if you need to travel all [...]