Don’t expect a masters treatise, much in the way of theory, or anything resembling proof that UX Is Right.
I’m not interested in changing minds right here, or finding out if you’re a design bigot. (I already know.)
I’m also not going to pretend I’m something I’m not. I’m not going to use a lot of flowery language, cryptic metaphor or industry jargon. It is what it is. A rose is a rose.
The important thing for me right here and now is to spell out what I do when I’m applying user experience principles to the stuff I create. If you look closely, you’ll notice the topics are ordered according to where I spent most of my energy and attention.
Interaction Design: identify what tasks a user needs to accomplish, understand why they need to accomplish it one way and not the others, and figure out how to provide an obvious/efficient/effective path through the software to successfully complete the task.
Usability Engineering: identify the trouble spots, understand why that causes problems for people, and figure out how to make it better.
User Research: listen, ask questions, observe, ask more questions, offer unfinished ideas for early feedback, and thank them for their time and input.
Information Architecture: spell words properly, choose words that users are familiar with, don’t use more words than you need to.
Visual Design: choose colours that aren’t too garish, use colours and fonts consistently throughout the application(s), make sure things are aligned, don’t make users hunt for the affordances and cues.
