Hot answers tagged learning
32
I hired a new UX person last year, right out of school. Some highlights of my inspirational (imho) UX talk with him:
Always be observing and analyzing. Why is the ceiling this tall? Who is that? Why do they do it that way? When do they decide this? How do they figure it out? Which? What?
Never, ever, ever nod your head and say you got it when you ...
29
Start working on your 10,000 hours any way you can. That means reading up on material concerning the field, diving in and applying for a job, hacking away at something as a hobby, keeping up with industry developments, paying attention to the thought leaders (eg. Jakob Nielsen, Jared Spool, Steve Krug, etc) and asking lots of questions. So I'd expect to see ...
22
You're here!
This is the right place!
You can answer real people's real questions about real situations and needing real answers, - maybe with just real ideas, or with real mock-ups and real designs!
All manner of problems and challenges are raised here - take a look at previous questions (especially the unaccepted/unanswered ones) or watch the new ones ...
16
UX Magazine
UX Booth
UX Matters
Usability Post
Boxes and Arrows
8
I got my PhD in cognitive psychology, then researched and taught it (lecturer/assistant prof) for the last nine years before deciding to move into UX. You don't have to go my route ;o) but I'd say that it's a really useful subject in which to get a little experience, mainly for the following three reasons:
Being able to explain to your UX team the science ...
7
Mostly agree with what Rahul said - but I'd like to especially emphasise one thing.
Practice doing user experience work. Practice it a lot.
Reading blogs, books, papers, and courses are all great. But knowing how to apply that knowledge is a different thing. The real learning comes when you try and apply your knowledge, make mistakes, and fix 'em.
You ...
6
I agree with Rahul, some very good points there.
Having a solid background as a developer helps me a lot during my work as a user experience designer (I used to develop websites, but quickly moved to UXD). You know the techniques (and their limitations) you work with. In my opinion this helps you design (technically) realistic products that are possible ...
6
Compared to horizontal top-of-page menus, vertical left-side navigation has been found to yield faster navigation and greater user satisfaction. This may be simply due to vertical navigation bars being so common that users are used to them, but it may also be due to it being easier to scan down a menu than across. Interestingly, it appears you can combine a ...
6
Introduction
Read
The Design of Everyday Things for usability
Don't Make Me Think for empathy.
Then read Sketching User Experiences for sketching, learn what a persona is (google it or read the entire book The Inmates Are Running the Asylumn), and Emotional Design for desirabity.
Good solutions are usable, useful, and desirable.
To start ...
5
It's because we're still building web sites like we were building Model Ts on an assembly line floor.
Software/web development is not an assembly line process. Concepts such as waterfall and SixSigma need to be tossed out the window.
Of course, most established companies of size simply can't do that. They are old dogs and refuse to learn any new tricks.
...
5
Not an easy situation, and there is a lot that you could cover. Therein lies the biggest problem. If you try cover everything that they should know, you're going to lose them in the volume.
Decide what 3 concepts are the most important for them to get fully, and then stick to those three. Then let them experience the concepts rather than you just telling ...
5
Basic qualifications required from my own research :
Have experience in user centered design approach.
Have a degree in the field of HCI, Software engi, web/graphic or related design and a strong online portfolio.
You having some focus on requirements can show your user research skill
Liaising with product managers and other stakeholders to gain an ...
5
User testing.
Even if an initial design is poor, its worst aspects can be ameliorated so long as the designer understands the value of usability testing. If they can write good tasks that don't lead the user, and understand the kinds of issues they should be looking for, they will be equipped to create a solid application. Maybe nothing amazing, but ...
4
I work with a LOT of developers. They are highly intelligent and have a certain logical mindset that makes them very good at being developers. It's easy to believe that everyone thinks like you do, which I can assure you they do not.
In addition to what the others have said, I would suggest that you spend time watching users. Get inside their heads to see ...
4
Interestingly, I have had a related problem, that UX is seen as the area of the designers, who did do it reasonably well, whereas it should be across the board, and involve the developers too. We can make a difference to usability.
There is no simple answer, but I think providing in some cases the evidence that doing things in x way has been shown to be ...
4
Hand Sketching Is King
If you're trying to learn wireframing from scratch, start by hand sketching. The computer might be faster at some point, but the skills learned from sketching are irreplaceable. You don't have to be good at drawing (just use graph paper).
Leah Buley teaches UX drawing for everyone through UX Weeks worldwide, and you can learn a lot ...
4
Underlying all the principles of design and UX tools and techniques is understanding users - the psychology of how people think and see - how they make decisions, what motivates them, what engages them, how memories are strengthened, how fallible we are and how mistakes are made.
Beginners like to know how something matters to them, so introducing topics ...
4
Personally I really hate when a program updates and I can't get information about the update. You could insert a link to all improvements somewhere in about this program or something like that.
It sound like a huge improvement, so you could make a small message appear, when the user opens the program for the first time since the update. Here you could tell ...
4
Design a dashboard of data. Allow users to drill down and edit the content.
That sounds like a very specific task, but it's actually one that would expose students to many facets of UX:
The visual display of quantitative information
Discoverability of content and information scenting
Relationships between views and drilldowns; when to use modal windows
...
3
I'm currently taking a degree in 'Cognitive Systems' which includes ComputerProgramming/Informatics, Cognitive Psychology, Linguistics, and a bit of Philosophy.
From the courses I've taken (mostly CompSci classes with a couple Psych and Ling), I've found the Linguistics courses to be just as relevant to UX design than the Psychology, if not more so. ...
3
Perhaps designing user interfaces for other user types (audience) might be interesting for you.
Like for example children with Autism Spectrum Conditions. Not only would you have to rethink how to make an application easy to understand but also how to keep the user interested in what is going on on the screen (short attention span). Yet the design needs to ...
3
Well of course hanging around on UX Stack Exchange and actively participating in discussion is a great way to learn.
Can I also recommend a free online course that is coming to the web this october. Alan Dix is co-author of one of the best Human Computer Interaction text books. In October he is going to be running a free online HCI course - Alan is an ...
3
"Don't Make Me Think" is a great place to start. For further reading I suggest you take a look at Must-read User Interface Book?
I would also recommend you think beyond books and blogs, and find inspiration in everyday design to drive your motivation: Sources of UX inspiration
3
Just throwing my two-penneth in from a front-end developer's point-of-view. Please learn (or at least have a decent understanding of) front-end technologies/practice (HTML, CSS, Javascript, accessibility, browser quirks etc). You don't necessarily have to become a whizz with the code side of things, but I've worked with Experience Architects in the past who ...
3
Whenever I release a new update, I give my users a choice to switch to the new version. Give a link on the existing one and asking them if they want to try it, gives user a lot of confidence and a sense of control. Giving user a sense of control is one of the primary element I try to introduce in all my designs.
Once they select, thank them and tell them ...
3
I am not a UI expert by any means, learning some UX tricks by hanging out here, here is what I found:
Recommended: In website navigation, what are the pros and cons of horizontal menus vs vertical menus, and is one better than the other?
The Case Against Vertical Navigation
Vertical vs Horizontal Global Navigation (any usability studies?)
But I would ...
3
Design an android/iphone/windows class schedule phone app for a specific user group as students . The user research part would involve studying about the best design practices for such an app and interviewing students to find out how they would want such an app to be. Other research aspects could be an contextual enquiry into situations where users might ...
3
I can't speak for the sites that you mentioned, but anything that you do which gets you to understand how people use products and services will help you learn more about UX.
The closer you get to users, the better - and doing testing is about as close as you will get.
However, to get the most out of it follow these steps:
Analyse what you will be testing ...
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