Usability Testing

Quick and Dirty Usability Testing: Step Away from the Book
Dana Chisnell explains why you don't have to do usability testing by the book to get useful data. There are trade-offs to be made. You do have to understand where the data came from and what it means. You can conduct usability tests that are quick, cheap, and generate all the insights about your users and your design that you can handle.

Avoiding Demographics When Recruiting Participants: An Interview with Dana Chisnell
Jared M. 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.

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

Failure Is Not an Option - It's a Requirement
It's easy to conclude that teams should avoid failure at all cost. However, if you look at all the great innovation that's occurred over the centuries, one pattern quickly emerges: failure played an integral role. We need to fail to learn.

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 M. Spool talks about the key five business value areas and how to relate design improvements into the overall success of the organization.

Design Strategies

Hunkering: Putting Disorientation into the Design Process
Jared M. Spool discusses why designers should practice visual disorientation.

The 3 Qs for Great Experience Design
Jared M. Spool discusses the three key variables in great experience design: vision, feedback and culture.

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

Anatomy of an Iteration
Jared M. Spool dives deep into what it takes to conduct successful iterations. He explains the four iteration steps and shares some best practices.