Usability Testing

Avoiding Demographics When Recruiting Participants: An Interview with Dana Chisnell
Jared Spool talks with usability expert, Dana Chisnell, about what happens when teams try to use market research demographics as the basis for recruiting their participants and what the alternatives are.

Five Techniques for Getting Buy-In for Usability Testing
Christine Perfetti discusses the 5 best techniques for convincing management and key stakeholders of the benefits of incorporating usability testing into the formal design process.

Preventing Usability Problems from the Get-go
Jared M. Spool identifies where usability problems are first put into the design and explores ways to prevent the problems from the outset through field studies, personas, and usability testing.

Usability Testing: Oh, The Things You Can Learn
Jared M. Spool sheds light on the aspects of usability testing nobody ever talks about, and catalogues some of the things a team learns when they put together their own usability tests.

Streamlining Usability Testing by Avoiding the Lab
The usability lab is often considered a can't-do'without necessity for conducting serious usability tests. However, UIE's researchers have found that usability testing can often be more effective when the team eliminates the lab from the process.

Paper Prototypes: Still Our Favorite
UIE's researchers have been creating paper prototypes and teaching others to use them for almost two decades.

Interaction Design

Perfecting Your Personas
Kim Goodwin reveals her greatest tips for avoiding the most common pitfalls of persona creation.

Personas and Goal-Directed Design: An Interview with Kim Goodwin
Kim Goodwin discusses Cooper's design methodology, Goal-Directed Design, which emphisizes identifying goals of users before doing any formal design.

Three Important Benefits of Personas
Jared M. Spool points out 3 key benefits of personas that guide the belief that personas will be a trusted method that directs design for years to come.

Getting from Research to Personas: Harnessing the Power of Data
Kim Goodwin explains the process of creating personas from research, and details what information actually comprises a persona.

Designing for Innovation

How To Innovate Right Now
Scott Berkun, the author of the popular book, "The Myths of Innovation," talks about practical secrets to help you build new and innovative products.

Can I Trust You? How Anticipating Problems Can Help Your Brand
Jared M. Spool explores how simple problems can have a hugely negative impact on a customer's brand engagement.

Innovation is the New Black
Apple and Netflix gained insight by investing in understanding the current experience of their potentional customers. Those insights led to industry-changing innovations that have made an indelible impression on businesses everywhere.

Debunking the Myths of Innovation: An Interview with Scott Berkun
UIE's Christine Perfetti recently sat down with Scott Berkun to talk about his new book and his research in the area of innovation.

Identifying the Business Value of What We Do
Resources in our organization are usually tightly constrained -- not enough time, money, or people to accomplish everything we want to improve. Knowing how to identify and communicate the business value of a project will substantially help it get approved and supported by the organization. Jared talks about the key five business value areas and how to relate design improvements into the overall success of the organization.

Design Strategies

Four Essential Skills for Information Architects: An Interview with Donna (Maurer) Spencer
Jared M. Spool speaks with Donna about the specific skills that separate the best information architects from the rest.

Hijax: Progressive Enhancement with Ajax
Jeremy Keith shares his strategy for creating applications with Ajax that do the right thing when JavaScript isn't available.

Where Visual Design Meets Usability: An Interview with Luke Wroblewski, Part I
UIE's Joshua Porter catches up with Luke Wroblewski about the intersection between visual design and web site usability.

Where Visual Design Meets Usability: An Interview with Luke Wroblewski, Part II
UIE's Joshua Porter catches up with Luke Wroblewski about a strong page hierarchy, what effect technology has on design, and the role of visual designers.

12 Best Practices for UX in an Agile Environment - Part 1
In part 1 of a 2 part series, Jeff Patton from AgileProductDesign.com shares 6 of his 12 best practices that result in the development of great experiences.

12 Best Practices for UX in an Agile Environment - Part 2
In part 2 of a 2 part series, Jeff Patton from AgileProductDesign.com shares the remaining 6 of his 12 best practices that result in the development of great experiences.

Agile Development Processes: An Interview with Jeff Patton
Jared M. Spool and Joshua Porter discuss with Jeff Patton how agile development processes can work with and ehance user experience design through shorter development lifecycles and greater collaboration.