Personas have been part of the UX toolbox for a while. Yet we’ve always wondered why teams don’t use them more often. A few years back, we set off to answer that question. We discovered a variety of ways to create personas — each valuable in their own right. With our clients, we’ve been using [...]

A followup conversation with Fred Beecher answering more questions about prototyping tools and techniques, after his popular, recent Virtual Seminar on the topic.

Todd Zaki Warfel has just finished two years of research into the tools and processes used in prototyping web sites. His findings will be published in a book due out this fall and we’ve asked him to give a full-day workshop on the topic at UI14. Todd sat down with us to talk all about prototyping tools and processes, and previews his upcoming workshop at UI14.

For today’s designers and developers, the biggest challenges involve how we transition, or hand off, a project at each phase.  We know that a conveyor belt system of project management creates issues that can prevent your project from being a successful design. Why get everyone on the same page? Designers will have more control in getting the vision implemented the [...]

We often use a conveyor belt method to manage products. Designers do their work up front, then “hand off” their creation expecting it can be built and won’t change. Then the Developers need to create something they’ve previously had little involvement with. It’s critical that these transition phases be a two-way channel, and not the [...]

Last week in part 1 of our series, I brought you 5 great podcasts covering Ajax and accessibility, patterns and components, web form design, web standards, and interactive prototyping.  In part 2, we have new topics to muse over. Are you building out a web 2.0 strategy? Having trouble communicating and documenting the design process? How do you tie [...]

Today’s projects can be big and they can be fast. It’s easy to push forward, creating design documents, wireframes, prototypes, and screens, just to get through it on schedule. But, at some point, we need to check to see if we’re going in the right direction. Are we creating what we are striving for? Is [...]

Right now, in a conference room somewhere, there’s a team of designers standing in front of a whiteboard, thinking about a cool new design idea. It’s highly unlikely that, as the team is standing there, everyone is silent. I’m betting that at least one member is walking through the proposed design, pointing and gesturing, helping [...]

Planning documents for web app projects are often overlooked, despite their importance in the success of the product. James Box and Richard Rutter of Clearleft share their successful process of creating rough interactive prototypes for clients when creating web applications.

For almost ten years, the research team at UIE has been searching to uncover the secrets behind great designs. As we talk to team after team, a key truth continues to emerge: The best teams communicate internally really well, while those teams that struggle also struggle at their internal communication. When we think of a [...]