In almost every organization, design is a team activity. Yet how often do we sit down and discuss how the best teams work? To understand what it takes to create great designs, we’ve spent time with dozens of teams, some of whom are great at getting creative engaging designs out the door. And some that, [...]

If you’re in a room filled with designers, bring up the topic of whether it’s valuable for a designer to also code. Immediately, the room will divide faster than Moses split the Red Sea. One side will tell you coding is an essential skill, while the other will vehemently argue how it dilutes the designer’s [...]

At this year’s IA Summit in Denver, I’m giving a presentation on measuring the value a UX person delivers, which I’ve called, The Most Valuable UX Person In The World. Borrowing liberally from the Dos Equis ads, I used this as the program description: The Most Valuable UX Person In The World She builds her [...]

Meetings, especially kickoff meetings, can be tricky to organize. You bring together a group of folks, often from all over the organization, who frequently don’t work together. If you’re an outsider to the group, like I often am, there may be a lot of dynamics that you’re not aware of. The goal is to get [...]

They say you don’t get a second chance to make a great first impression. That holds true for your kickoff of that new project. How can you ensure your team members and stakeholders leave that kickoff meeting excited and inspired? On Monday, we published part 1 of an article by Kevin Hoffman, Kick Ass Kickoff [...]

Recently Johnny Holland published two of my essays on a distinction I call Hands vs. Brains. (You can read part 1 & part 2.) My thinking about Hands and Brains have come from a distinction between, in my mind, contracting and consulting work. We get a ton of calls at UIE to help people with [...]

What are the ingredients that drive teams to deliver consistently good experiences? Does the company size, business processes, organizational management, or executive management have anything to do with it? For the past 10 years, Jared Spool and our research team at User Interface Engineering studied the secrets behind successful teams and the factors driving their [...]

The topic of our next UIE Virtual Seminar is so important, and no one talks about it. On Thursday, January 28, Steve Portigal will deliver his talk: Deep Dive Interviewing Secrets: Making Sure You Don’t Leave Key Information Behind. (Oh, and by the way, our last event sold out, so you’ll want to Register your [...]

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How can you bring real innovation into your projects? That’s what I asked Scott Berkun when we spoke earlier this month. Scott has a lot of great ideas for your team from his years of research into the habits of highly innovative teams. In addition to this interview, Scott will be presenting at our User Interface Conference in November.