A lot of folks don’t know this, but we start planning for each UIE conference about eighteen months in advance. This year’s new event, UX Immersion was no different. With this new program, we’re trying to fill a huge unmet need: How do we bring today’s UX Professionals to a new level of producing great [...]

[This is part 2 of a two-part post. For this article to make sense, you probably want to read part 1. This article was originally published on JohnnyHolland.org.] In the last installment, we talked about the distinction between Hands contractors and Brains consultants. Hands are brought in by the team as an extra resource to [...]

[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 [...]

Over at the User Interface Conference LinkedIn Group (which you should join, as we’re having lots of interesting conversations over there), a discussion popped up about Lean UX. In the discussion, one group member, Lorena, posted what she’d been doing, which sounded a lot like what I’ve heard folks are doing in Lean UX. She [...]

In the 30+ years I’ve been working in designing online experiences, I’ve met a lot of folks. Good folks, interested in creating really great products, services, and designs. I’ve seen my share of really great designs. However, I’ve also seen many bad designs. Yet, interestingly enough, I’ve never met anyone who wanted to make a [...]

Hang around me long enough and you’ll hear me say this: Outsourcing your user research work is like outsourcing your vacation. It gets the job done, but probably won’t have the effects you were seeking. I usually say this when someone is asking me to do their user research for them. This is something we [...]

[In essence, the User Interface 16 Conference is all about the full-day in-depth workshops. This is my third entry in our series to introduce you to the amazing workshop faculty we've assembled.] More and more, we’re finding ourselves in situations where the design just “has to be right.” No longer, can we just have incremental [...]

[We've built this year's User Interface 16 Conference around eight important challenges facing today's UX Professionals. This is the first in a series of posts where I discuss my thoughts on those challenges and how I came to pick the expert who will be your guide at UI16. Enjoy! – Jared] What happens over time [...]