Blog

05.19.15

Operations Strategy? What Operations Strategy?

Have you ever asked a simple question in professional conversation with someone and experienced that unmistakably embarrassing look on their face like they just realized they forgot to pick their kids up from the mall? I seem to get that whenever I ask someone to point me to their Operations Strategy. Why aren’t more people […]

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03.05.15

Building a Customer Experience Framework

At last week’s High Five Conference, Kate Williamson, John Lane, Steven Keith and I led a customer experience (CX) workshop that sparked fantastic conversation with marketing and creative professionals from across the country. The purpose of our workshop was to share the CX tools and methodologies that we use with our clients to help them […]

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09.11.14

Defying the Production Triangle: There is No Spoon

Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead… only try to realize the truth.Neo: What truth?Spoon boy: There is no spoon.Neo: There is no spoon?Spoon boy: Then you’ll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.(From The Matrix) The production triangle is a concept related to […]

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08.28.14

User Experience Design Process [INFOGRAPHIC]

At its core, User Experience Design is about people. It’s about truly getting to know them, whether they’re stakeholders or end-users. The more you know about someone’s digital preferences and behaviors, the better you’ll be able to design for them. That’s why we do so much research, and that’s why we do so much testing. […]

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11.14.13

Conducting User Interviews: Lessons Learned

Happy World Usability Day! In honor of this holiday, I’m paying homage to the most important part of usability and user experience — user research! — by sharing some things I’ve learned about conducting user interviews (and stakeholder interviews). Assemble Your User Interview ToolboxFirst things first. Before a user interview, think about what kinds of […]

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11.12.13

UX Workshop Activity: Missions, Mindframes and Methods (M3)

User goals should be the backbone of your design strategy. That’s the thought that led to the creation of this UX technique I dubbed “Missions, Mindframes and Methods,” or “M3” for short. It’s a UX workshop activity designed to help stakeholders consider the goals and potential mindsets of the target audience at hand. The template […]

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09.26.13

The Value of Stakeholder Interviews

Kate Williamson (Creative Strategist/UX Designer) and Erin Craft (Executive Account Manager) of Centerline Digital discuss the importance of stakeholder interviews. Stakeholder interviews are a powerful way to build consensus around business goals as well as identify solutions to communication challenges. And they were an essential part of our work with National Instruments. We partnered with […]

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02.20.13

Doubt is Better Than Certainty

One of my heroes in life and art is Milton Glaser. He has one of those minds I’d like transferred onto a cassette tape so I could revive my Walkman, clip it to my belt and play, rewind and listen to his words whenever I need inspiration or wisdom or a punch of motivation to […]

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02.13.13

The Power of Music in Storytelling

“[Music] can propel narrative swiftly forward, or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry. It is the communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience.”— Film Composer, Bernard Herrmann(Famous for his many musical contributions in films, including: Psycho, Citizen Kane, […]

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11.27.12

Why “Overthinking” is a Commodity for Designers

Maybe you, too, have been told to “stop overthinking it” for as long as you can remember. The words follow you like an unwanted echo. And when you hear it, maybe it feels akin to asking your stomach to stop growling, or pleading with your armpits to stop sweating. It’s your hardwiring. I suppose the […]

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