BlobFisk.com

The Internet’s Battle For Our Digital Souls (user experience and neuroscience)
http://bigthink.com/ideas/the-internets-battle-for-our-digital-souls

Mobile technology is literally changing the way we think
http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/05/10/top-scientist-susan-greenfield-says-mobile-technology-is-literally-changing-the-way-we-think/

Content Quality Over Content Quantity
http://experiencematters.criticalmass.com/2012/05/09/content-quality-over-content-quantity/

User experience is strategy, not design
http://www.peterme.com/2012/05/04/user-experience-is-strategy-not-design/

Quote of the Week:

When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.
- Steve Jobs

When you know your content is bad
http://blog.braintraffic.com/2012/05/when-you-know-your-content-is-bad/

6 Persuasive Product Design Steps to Get Conversions
http://www.zurb.com/article/960/6-persuasive-product-design-steps-to-get-

Responsive web design: a project-management perspective
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/responsive-web-design-a-project-management-perspective/

A/B Testing: It’s not about the results, and it’s definitely not about the why
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3169-ab-testing-its-not-about-the-results-and-its-definitely-not-about-the-why

Quote of the week:

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.

- Steve Jobs

Video of the week:

http://mashable.com/2012/05/04/texting-behind-the-wheel/

It’s very rare, these days, that I go though my RSS feeds without coming across an article relating to content. It’s a sign of how much further to the forefront content has become in the digital landscape.

So, how intertwined is content with the user experience? It is completely wrapped up in it, In my opinion. However, in many organisations the content team is a different team to the UX and Design teams, oftentimes with different priorities.

Before I go any further, I had better explain what I mean by the user experience trinity! I believe that the user’s experience is made up of 3 primary elements: UX, Design and UI (or front-end/client-side) Development.

UX

What we would see as the role undertaken by a user experience (UX/IA/UEA.. whatever) professional. The flow and features of a site. How the pages hang together and the architecture of each individual page. Drawing on usability and ethnographic research to craft a site/application/product that meets the needs to the user and the needs of the business.

Design

The visual and aesthetics of a site. Does the visual style reflect the brand? Does is match the user’s, and the market’s, perception of the brand and its values? Is the visual tone of voice meeting the needs of the site? Does each page have a proper design balance? Are the appropriate visual treatments being given to the important areas on a page?

UI Development

This is physical manifestation of the experience. How does the site feel? What happens when a button is clicked? How quickly do overlays render? This is all about interaction design and the mechanics of the experience – the tactical nature of the interface (even more important in this world of touch based technology).

It’s at the intersection of all three of these ( ‘UX ∩ Design ∩ UI Dev’ if I remember my set theory correctly!) that I believe we find the sweet spot of the user experience.

It’s only when all three disciplines work together, each bringing their distinct point of view to the table, that the best experiences are crafted.

So, that’s my UX trinity. But of late I’m wondering if we need a 4th set?

More

Alex Horstmann’s user experience, usability, design, eCommerce and design bookmarks for November 23rd.

• James-Lange theory – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  The James-Lange theory refers to a hypothesis on the origin and nature of emotions and is one of the earliest theories of emotion, developed independently by two 19th-century scholars, William James and Carl Lange.
• Web Content That Persuades and Motivates :: UXmatters
  There are several key elements that are missing from a large number of Web sites, and these missing elements often lead to bad user experiences and the total ineffectiveness of those sites.
• » Design Jam London 1 Johnny Holland – It’s all about interaction » Blog Archive
  Design Jams are one or two day design sessions, during which people team up to solve engaging UX challenges. While conferences and talks are very popular in the UX community, we don’t have many events for actual collaboration, like the ‘hackdays’ enjoyed by the development community. Only a few UX designers participate in hackdays or open-source design initiatives –  how can we change this and get UX designers more involved? How can we introduce them to open collaboration formats? The idea of an event to get designers together to learn from each other while working on actual problems was born. Design Jams champion open-source thinking & sharing and are non-profit, run by local volunteers. The London team are Desigan Chinniah, Johanna Kolllmann, Joe Lanman and Franco Papeschi.
• E-commerce (A-Z of user experience design resources)
• Bounce Rate Demystified
• Agile UX in Practice | Agile UX
  Agile development and user experience can work brillantly together… well, but how?<br />
  <br />
  Even if the effort related to Agile User Experience (Agile UX) continues throughout the project (with “just in time” designing and user testing) the User Experience foundations must be initiated at the very beginning of the project, during the first sprints.
• Stressed Out About Holiday Shopping? Your Customers Are! | experience matters
  Regardless of their budget though, consumers told us that holiday shopping is stressful. Of course there are obvious reasons like crowded malls, outrageously chaotic traffic conditions and increased family obligations, but consumers face other speed bumps that companies can help with.

Please do feel free to suggest other related (and unrelated ones)!

I bookmark a lot of pages and sites which I find interesting, inspirational and informative every day! I’d like to share some of them with you here. In general they are about user experience, usability, UCD, accessbility and design. In general, but not always!!

• Communicating errors
  Ideally, you'll design your system to prevent errors from occurring in the first place. But no matter how simple your system, someone, somewhere, will make an error when using it. The difference between a great user experience and an awful one is what your system does next.
• Content strategy for dummies
  Information architects need to understand content. Content strategists need to understand context. In terms of traditional sitemaps, the boxes have no value without the interconnecting arrows. And the arrows have no meaning if there are no boxes to which to point. And that’s why there is so much gray area in the definition – and why the pedants will spend years fighting over definitions in the years to come
• Management 3.0: Being an Agile Manager | Agile UX
  During an agile transition program, do not let your managers by the roadside! Rather help them to become Agile managers and to control the evolution of their profession.
• 500 Internal Server Error
  500 Internal Server Error
• Next generation of consumers – smart but not predictable | Tnooz
  I am fascinated by the buying behavior of different sections of society and different nationalities/tribes and what makes the consumer tick.<br />
  <br />
  Recently I have been thinking about the Millenials – those who are the next generation after the Gen-Y.<br />
  eMarketer has done two pieces on Millenials and its buying behavior. In the first, Millennials Show Off Brand Relationships, looked at how Millenials interact with and view brands.

Please do feel free to suggest other related (and unrelated ones)!