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Episode One June 2009

Having written this, I admit I’ll be the first to hold on stubbornly to the Magic Mouse.  I love the limited gesturing I can do to scroll and click.  I was never a huge fan of the seemingly limited battery life, but that seemed like a minor shortcoming compared to how comfortable it felt.

I’ll miss you, Magic Mouse!

Those questions made me think. What is it that I bring to the table that’s unique?

• I’m a deep generalist.  Although I’ve authored wireframes in Omnigraffle, Visio, Axure and even paper towels, I’m much happier if I’m not enclosed in a dark room implementing the thinking.  Wireframing, at its best, is a collaborative process.  Wires are the result of group problem-solving, and that group should involve writers, developers, branding stakeholders and information architects.  In the end, the best user experience contains the perfect balance of all of those disciplines.  And the blueprint for that experience is reflected in the wires.
• I’m not a developer.  If you sit me down to code out a wireframe, I will get it done.  I will use tools like Axure and Fireworks to make that happen.  I will not, however, code that SAAS application or web application from scratch.  My focus will be on meeting your needs, and I’ll find the best and quickest way to get your prototype (not the final product) done.
• I am a visual problem solver.  Your challenge could be taxonomy, it could be a 7 million page website or it could be a fragmented marketing campaign.  Where I excel is in applying a combination of two decades of experience with critical thinking and a deep curiosity for how people behave.  I take these three elements, and I apply it to my own ability to understand the technical realm, and how best to apply business solutions to technical mediums.  In other words, I mix an innate creative problem solving need with 20 years of hackery, experience and a get-it-done-already work ethic.
• My work is often the result of other brilliant people.   As a matter of fact, a good user experience talent has to know how to collaborate, facilitate and bring out the best in others.  My work is often a conglomeration of amazing deliverables.  Most recently, I worked on a project for a Fortune 100 company, and I was perpetually humbled by the work of the Senior Designer and the Art Director.  Tom and Erin not only designed exquisitely, but they made my job easier because they themselves were acutely aware of the user experience vision.  The same is true for most of my past projects.  Jay Worman at Perot Systems (a true master of design), Jason Bell & Jon Poteet at Broadlane, Lisa Carr and Belinda at IMC2 – a host of talents and specialists along the way have been the true masterminds to the work.  The User Experience specialty requires the ability to seamlessly integrate data – taking the core message and integrating it into the media that most effectively deliver it to the target market(s).

As the User Experience discipline evolves, so will sub-specialties.  Some will be looking for information strategists, while others will want more tactical UI-centric minds.  In the end, what I hope happens is that we all become User Experience experts.  Every person in the project plan, from the developer to the designer, from the project manager to the brand champion – should be a User Experience expert.  My field is meant to be something that we all aspire to understand and prioritize.  Why?  It’s all really about the user and their experience.  That’s the end game for the client – it should be for all of us too.

The joining of unity and diversity in the discipline of proportional limitations is an expression of nature in the nautilus shell, and also in human endeavors such as new media design, where the essence of good web design packages the mathematical vastness of code. It also involves the essential importance of content, and finding ways to present it as simply, yet as aesthetically as possible. In both instances of nature and new media design, we see polar opposites that seem to fight against each other, but in the end, nature seems to find a way to make chaos meaningful and mathematics almost spiritual. With Web Design, those that craft the front end should do so using the timeless principles of color theory, brand awareness and gaze motion theory, but should always keep in mind that way they are building is a means, not an end. It is a package, and what is being packaged is a distribution tool, which may be HTML or Cold Fusion, or a combination of both – and both of these elements exist to distribute the essential element of a web site – content. In the end, design is not the master. Design is married to Code to serve as one complete delivery mechanism. The unity of diversity, and the appropriate proportions are deemed by the content.

So often, that which governs our reality seems to do so with such quiet and understated delicacy and balance that it takes a second look to see through what seems to be a chaotic world. So it is with web design, where so many opposites reside they seem to constantly rip at one another – one must be a master at understanding the limitations, and understand the source of the conflicts to conquer them – an artist has to be intimately familiar with how the code and content will be driven to match its temper and pace with a front end, while balancing the visual needs of the brand and the content.

Nature seems to seek, and achieves the union of complementary opposites; by the same token, good web design is design that complements good code and the distribution of content therein. The complexity of code must be balanced with the depth of content, and the user interface must bring all polarities into a balanced presentation that is both usable and visually palatable, without submitting to the predictable layout of a database sheet [the infamous rectangle], and without drowning out the content – the real star of the show.

My portfolio extends back to the early 1980′s, and much of it reflects the growth and evolution of my philosophy in design and direction.

So, why conscious shell? Natural growth is planned. It is deliberate almost to the point of conscious. Design, as any other craft or field, has its elements – its influencing factors that motivate it to move and grow. A nautilus shell grows in direct proportion to where it has been. Web Design should be molded proportionally to the back end, and to the content, thereby existing in a manner that defines itself as ‘appropriate’ design.

Often times, the perceived need for a UX talent is reactive.  The project is done, and the post-mortem research and conversations are all about how bad the ‘experience’ is, and how unhappy the client/user is.

These days, I regularly encounter frustrated UX talent that are trying to cope with unrealistic expectations – they were brought in as the ‘silver bullet’ resource that would solve a litany of design, architectural, conceptual and sometimes even cultural issues that may or may not be understood by the project team.

“Micah Boswell presents some of his own tricks and tips to succeeding when a project hasn’t met expectations, and the UX designer is brought in to ‘fix’ the problem(s).”

I’ve been in the same boat, and although the it’s wonderful to be in a place that’s discovering the need for UX, it’s also a perpetual challenge to remember that, as the ambassador of an often misunderstood discipline, it’s the UX person’s job to clearly manage expectations.

Here’s a list of helpful tips to get you through the challenging situation of being the UX ‘Fixer’:

• Be honest with yourself.  Where does your expertise lie?  Assess your own approach to the user experience and communicate it clearly.
• Do your talents compliment the challenges ahead of you?  Assess the project and its challenges.  Ask the tough questions about what happened.
• Don’t assume that your recruiter and hiring manager understand what you do.  Communicate the first two assessments clearly.
• Don’t be afraid to talk yourself out of the job.  The project may not need a UX resource.  It may need a re-alignment of expectations, or it may need more usability testing.  Help the project owners succeed long-term, even if it means risking discomfort.
• Never do a deep-dive without first scoping out the landscape.  Understand context and the project ecosystem.  Who are the stakeholders, and what are their priorities. Do their priorities match the priorities of the project?  Understand the user’s end goal.  Is there a match between what the user wants and what the project intends to accomplish?
• Be patient and realistic.  Adjust your personal goals against the realities of the team, the project and the organization executing.  Not every organization has the multimillion dollar budget of a Fortune 500, and not every organization can move and adapt as quickly as the 8-person startup.

These questions are framed around the idea that above all else, understand the context and environment of the project.  Often times, this understanding is going to give you the information you’ll need to circumnavigate the more difficult decisions in the project.

Download Firefox

Rockmelt has managed to create a less than aesthetic experience that’s a joy to manage and tweak.  Download both while you still can, and you’ll understand almost immediately – Flock ‘feels’ modern and approachable right out of the gate, whereas Rockmelt almost challenges you not to get into the guts to tweak.  However, once beyond the initial UX, Rockmelt wins.  Cheers to the Rockmelt UX team.  There’s some improvement needed on entry, but social-feed management is spot-on.

With the explosion of mobile devices, a premium is being placed on ease of use.  The UX phenomena is here to stay as more strategists and business owners realize that it’s no longer enough to just ‘productize’.  As the tablet market begins to emerge, it’s only a matter of time before we see dedicated mobile UX talent in the field – but for now, demand is high, and supply is very, very short.

” When man thinks he has to correct nature, it is an irreparable mistake every time. A community should not consider it an honour how much spontaneous vegetation it destroys; it should rather be a point of honour for every community to protect as much of its natural landscape as possible.”

“Painting and sculpture are now free, inasmuch as anyone may produce any sort of creation and subsequently display it. In architecture, however, this fundamental freedom, which must be regarded as a precondition for any art, does not exist, for a person must first have a diploma in order to build. Why?”